Category: Doing

My Attempt at Handmade Pasta

Yes­ter­day was pas­ta night in my cook­ing class at the Restau­rant School. For starters, I learned that I need to be more con­fi­dent in my mea­sure­ments when mix­ing wet and dry ingre­di­ents. I’m lucky that the teach­ing staff showed me the error of my ways and sal­vaged my dough.

The over­all lev­el of dif­fi­cul­ty isn’t par­tic­u­lar­ly high, but if you’re try­ing to make any sig­nif­i­cant amount of pas­ta for a big meal, you might think twice. I learned that a lot of effort goes into mak­ing a pound of pasta.

Home­made pas­ta is per­fect if you’re cook­ing for your­self or for date night. There’s a notice­able dif­fer­ence in the fla­vor and tex­ture than store bought mac­a­roni. Whip up a quick pesto and you have a deli­cious meal!

(Red wine, brought by class­mates, is a great companion!)

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

Our Trip to Snipes Farm

Snipes Farm Trip, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by Black­mail Is My Life.

For the past three years, our cir­cle of friends has made pil­grim­ages to Bucks Coun­ty for our annu­al apple and pump­kin pick­ing extrav­a­gan­za. This year we vis­it­ed the ven­er­a­ble Snipes Farm in Mor­risville, Pa, where we picked fruit and enjoyed cider donuts on a beau­ti­ful fall afternoon.

It was fun, but we’re always on the look­out for great spots to pick-your-own fall fruit. If you have a favorite, let me know in the com­ments! It may be a per­son­al bias, but I think it’s time to find out what Berks Coun­ty has to offer!

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

Marathon Training Update: 50 Mile Week Edition

Yep, you read that right. What­ev­er lin­ger­ing doubts I had about my abil­i­ty to do long mileage were put to rest this week. Not only did I run pain-free, I ran faster than I have in my train­ing thus far. That com­fort trans­lat­ed into a dream­like 20 mil­er yes­ter­day, which Rob and I fin­ished in two hours, fifty-three min­utes and change.

I’m real­ly hap­py to have the Garmin Fore­run­ner 405. Despite a weird bat­tery hic­cup yes­ter­day, it proved an invalu­able train­ing tool. We dis­cov­ered that we ran a bit beyond our rec­om­mend­ed mileage last week­end, thanks to my now com­plete­ly con­den­sa­tion-fried Nike Plus Sportband.

At this point in train­ing, it’s best to have an accu­rate mea­sure to avoid over­train­ing and risk­ing injury. My Garmin does just that, while pro­vid­ing great insight into the actu­al run itself. Neg­a­tive splits, FTW!

The mileage steps back this week, with a long run of 12 miles. The real ben­e­fit is that now I can con­cen­trate on speed and not so much on whether I’ll have enough gas in the tank for Sun­day’s long run. More­over, I’m sure next week will feel even eas­i­er now that long and short weeks alter­nate. I’m already eager to see how much our 20 mile time improves two weeks from now.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay