Bike MS training update: The Real Ale Ride

Posted by Laura in Cycling and tagged with austin, Beer, beerbassador, bicycle sport shop, Bike MS, biking, cycling, Fundraising, Real Ale, training May 21, 2013

This past Saturday, at an ungodly early hour, I loaded up my bike and headed out to Blanco for the annual Real Ale Ride that leaves from the Real Ale brewery. The ride motto? “Up the hills, Down the beers.” Definitely fitting. I was hopeful as the ride started that maybe the wind wouldn’t get as bad as promised. And around mile 35, with a tailwind, I climbed a THREE MILE long hill that I hoped was the worst that I would experience. Ha. No such luck. Soon after climbing that hill, we turned again and were greeted with a gusty headwind. There were moments where I questioned my resolve. I even pulled over on the side of the road (not at a rest stop) to have a snack and rest, something I’ve never done on an organized ride. The hills were good training (see the Garmin route here), I suppose, for the Bike MS event Ride the Rim that I will participate in out in Canyon, TX on June 22nd. There is a very very nasty hill on that ride. In support of the fact that I will not SAG up that hill, please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my participation! (SAG = support vehicle that I could choose to ride in)

The good news is that I finished after 65 miles in one piece and got to enjoy lunch, beer, music and italian ice. By that time of day, it was downright hot and the humidity was still ridiculous so the italian ice from Rita’s was a special treat. The other fun part? I won a contest to be a “Beerbassador” sponsored by Real Ale and Bicycle Sport Shop. I got a free Real Ale Phoenix jersey, entry into the Real Ale Ride, a cool bottle opener and a very heavy case of Fireman’s 4.

Warning: this post has many pictures because I got yet another handlebar mount for my GoPro. This one is supposed to swivel but once I tightened the set screw, I couldn’t loosen it, so I couldn’t swivel the camera on my bike. Sigh.

Do you see me in the crowd of beerbassadors?

Classic cars, rolling down the main street in Blanco right after the ride started.

The day started out extremely humid and very hazy.

The haze slowly started to clear.

Lots of wildflowers on the left side of the road.

It’s hard to tell here, but you can see hills off in the distance.

Pretty clouds and a great view.

Small cliffs along the side of the road.

Rolling into a small town, where the first rest stop I stopped at was located.

First rest stop! At a cute little general store type building.

Hills in the distance and the haze was back.

This picture is for my father-in-law. There’s an old thresher on the left side of the road. Can you see it?

Tandem riders. Maybe I’ll have one of those someday. I’ll have to be the front rider through.

Hills…

Wildflowers!

The second rest stop I paused at had a table with a high school boy serving Rita’s italian ice. I think it’s the only reason I got back on my bike to fight the headwind to the finish.

The Blanco river is on the right side of the road. It’s hard to see here.

That blue sign says “Ride your bike hard today” from Clif bar. Don’t worry, I did.

When I first pulled up to the finish the food line was SO long. Luckily it moved pretty quickly.

The finish party had a band, dancers, food and beer. Plenty of tents to sit in the shade too.

After making it home with my prize, Mojo was king of the Fireman’s 4 beer mountain.

Thanks for reading! Please consider a donation to my Bike MS fundraising!

Bike MS Training Update: Riding the Armadillo!

Posted by Laura in Cycling May 15, 2013

Last Saturday morning I headed out to Liberty Hill to ride the Armadillo. This is the third or fourth time I’ve done this ride. It’s a well organized, well marked ride put on by the Austin Cycling Association. Registration fees support their helmets for kids program. I rode 61 miles to train for the Bike MS event Ride the Rim that I will participate in out in Canyon, TX on June 22nd. Please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my participation!

Ride attendance seemed a bit low this year, probably because of the large amount of rain that rolled through the region on Friday. I’m always impressed by the people who ride the 105 mile route. Perhaps one of these years I’ll make a point to do that route because this ride goes through some very pretty parts of Texas. I had a good ride for the most part although it was a bit windy at some points. And the last 10 miles back into town were straight into the headwind and populated with a few annoyed drivers.

I set up my new Garmin bike computer on the handlebars of my bike and was able to see what direction I was riding in so I can tell you that the wind was out of the northeast. It remains to be seen how long I leave the display set up so that it shows me a compass heading, since I now can figure out where the wind is coming from quickly and then dread every “wrong” (into the wind) turn The other cool thing about the Garmin is that you can now view a summary of my ride! I also carried along my GoPro, although I still haven’t figured out how to mount it to my handlebars successfully. More on that later.

The morning started out with very few clouds and at a reasonable temperature.

Hey look, you can see my shadow!

Horses! Wildflowers!

A cool, narrow, shady road

A wild game ranch. I saw some big horned sheep in the distance, but they were too far for pictures.

A rest stop on the grounds of an old general store that doesn’t seem to be open currently.

The little town of Bertram, Texas.

The open road!

One of the side of the road rest stops that I stopped at.

There’s a town called Oatmeal. It has a giant Oatmeal can. No idea if this is the center of town, because really it’s just an intersection in the middle of nowhere.

Another interesting rest stop that has sort of a pavilion created out of cedar tree logs. No roof really, just the structure.

One of the rest stops had a giant red blow up arch and a tent staffed by Clif bar employees handing out free samples.

A closer look at the old general store, it’s a place you can stop at on the way out and back on the Armadillo ride.

Bike training update – Red Poppy Ride

Posted by Laura in Cycling and tagged with Bike MS, cycling, Georgetown, Independent Fabrication, training May 9, 2013

While I took last weekend off from training, the previous weekend on April 27th I continued training for Bike MS: Ride the Rim by riding 50 miles in the Red Poppy Ride in Georgetown. If you’re able, please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my participation.

It was my first ride on my brand new bike, a custom built titanium road bike. The frame was built by Independent Fabrication and the bike and components were assembled by Bicycle Sport Shop. It is an amazing ride and I can’t wait to ride it again this weekend.

Unfortunately, none of the mounts that I’ve been trying out with my GoPro Hero have worked out so far, so I have only a few pictures from the ride.

Here she is, my new bike right after picking her up. The colors go from “Tahitian pearl” in the front to a dark gray metallic in the back. The seat and chain stays are raw titanium. The hubs and rings on the head tube are mango, giving it an interesting color contrast.

Awesome head badge

The start of the Red Poppy Ride. It started as a gray day.

The rest stops were full of awesome volunteers. At one stop, the volunteers all had hats with red poppies on them. Sadly, I did not stop and get their picture Although the woman on the left in this picture seems to have red poppies on her shirt!

A kind volunteer held my bike while I was stopped at the rest stop.

The only red poppies I saw on this ride were way up by someone’s house, so here are some others to look at:

Because I didn’t find any red poppies myself, here’s a pretty picture from flickr of some red poppies in Georgetown

Image credit: 50%ChanceofRain

Bike MS training update April 20 – 21, 2013

Posted by Laura in Cycling, Uncategorized and tagged with Bike MS, biking, training April 24, 2013

As I mentioned last week, I’ve started training for Bike MS: Ride the Rim. This is my sixth year participating in a Bike MS, and the first time I’ve done a ride in Texas that’s not the BP MS150. I’m very excited for this ride, it starts in Canyon and loops around the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US. I’ve always wanted to see it. If you’re able, please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my participation.

This past Sunday I rode in the Austin Autism Awareness ride up in Georgetown, Texas. The first half of the ride was quite dreary and colder than I planned for. The wind picked up pretty quickly and the roads were very bumpy in places. After my GoPro camera mount broke the previous weekend, I tried out a new mount so I got plenty of pictures again. Unfortunately the mount wouldn’t stay tight, so I’m again looking for a new option.

While waiting for the start, it sure seemed like the sun was coming out!

On our way out of the park to start the ride.

An old hall, basically in the middle of nowhere.

Two riders in matching outfits.

Lots of flatness on the first part of the ride.

The clouds kept the temperature down through much of the ride.

We rode through lots of farm fields.

Eventually the clouds broke up. There were plenty of wildflowers.

Can you see the bluebonnets in the field?

Riding back into the park.

A nice little party set up at the finish line and plenty of spectators to cheer for us at the end!

It’s that time again… training season!

Posted by Laura in Cycling and tagged with Bike MS, biking, multiple sclerosis, Palo Duro Canyon, training April 19, 2013

For the sixth year in a row, I’m kicking off bike training season with the goal of riding in a Bike MS event to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. For my first three years, I rode the BP MS150 from Houston to Austin since it’s so close to home. My next two years were the Escape to the Lake in western Pennsylvania and then the Pedal to the Point in northern Ohio. I really enjoyed the smaller size of these last two rides, so this year I’m doing a smaller ride in Texas called Ride the Rim out in Canyon, TX on June 22nd – 23rd. I’ve chosen this ride because it goes around the Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US, which I’ve always wanted to visit. This year’s ride is a bit different because the mileage is less. The first day is 100 miles and the second day is 25 miles with a bus ride into the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the middle. Typically the second day of a Bike MS ride is anywhere from 50 – 80 miles and definitely does not include a bus ride! Because we have to drive far to get to the Palo Duro Canyon, we may just do some hiking or mountain biking on Sunday.

That’s a long paragraph to say that I officially kicked off training season this past Saturday by riding a charity ride with my husband called the Tour De Vineyard at the Vineyard at Florence. After riding 43.5 miles, we had lunch at the Vineyard and bought a ticket to the Texas Wine Festival so that we could taste many delicious wines.

On Sunday, I ran the Austin 10/20, a 10 mile running race near my house that had 20 live bands along the course. Despite not being able to complete my training plan, I am happy with my race performance.

My training updates this year will have more photos than previous years because I now have a GoPro Hero 3 camera that can be easily mounted to my bike handlebars.

The ride started on a temperate morning with thin clouds high in the sky.

My husband was riding a slightly shorter route, but we started out together.

After I took a wrong turn (along with about half of the other riders) I caught back up with my husband and surprised him.

Off and on the sun came out during the ride.

Yes, Texas is big sky country…

The little town of Florence.

Unfortunately, the handlebar mount broke half way through the ride… so I could just hold the camera and take a picture.

Don’t worry, it was perfectly safe.

Do you see those animals among the trees? They’re elk!

And turkeys!

Finally towards the end of the ride we got to see some bluebonnets along the side of the road.

And some pink winecups

Shortly thereafter, we were back at the winery!

Remembering my grandfather

Posted by Laura in Uncategorized and tagged with Grandparent, Pittsburgh April 16, 2013

I’ve been quiet on my blog for longer than I’d like because three weeks ago, my grandfather Charles J. Zeidler of Pittsburgh, PA passed away unexpectedly and we traveled to Pittsburgh to be with my family. Today he would have been 83 years old. He was a Korean war vet and up until March 23rd, he was healthy and lived on his own. Since my grandmother died he had established his routine of hanging out at home watching TV, going to the Allegheny Country Rifle Club to have beer and a cigar, and heading to my Aunt and Uncle’s house to have dinner every Friday. In recent years, my grandfather has been a touchpoint for the family, serving as a common connection that we could all come back to. During his memorial service I was impressed by the sheer number of the friends my grandfather had established this late in life. I’m thankful for their support and that of all of my immediate and extended family. I’m glad that so many knew and loved him the way that I did.

To celebrate his birthday, I’d like to share the eulogy I gave at his memorial service just after the taps finished playing.

Thanks for joining us today in celebration of my grandfather’s life. My PapPap was a quiet and friendly man, quick to smile, liked by everyone. I’d like to share with you a few of my memories of him.

I remember staying at Grandma and PapPap’s house, often with my cousins, and asking Grandma repeatedly what time PapPap would be home from work at the steel mill.

I remember walking with him to the top of the hill to play at rosecliff park.

I remember riding with PapPap to take Grandma to and from work at Eat’n Park, with his shouted reminder not to slam the car doors no matter how softly I closed them.

I remember how all of my cousins and I liked to sit on his lap, he had a very comfortable lap.

I remember watching Price is Right with him. I never got the prices right, and he always did.

I remember him visiting us in Ohio for important events like kids softball games and our birthdays, always with a few dozen Dunkin Donuts in tow.

I remember how he made the trip to see the actual important events in my life: my high school graduation, my college graduation from Miami University.

I remember how he took his second plane trip ever to see me get married in Austin, Texas in 2007. I will be forever thankful that I had my two grandparents there. His only previous flight had been during the Korean war.

I remember how he started to talk more as my Grandma got sick.

I remember how he always made the effort to see me, even on my short trips home from Texas. I remember how he visited me in Edinborough during my overnight stop on a two day BikeMS event in 2011. I didn’t know he was coming and I ran into him at a corner gas station as I was pausing to check directions at the end of my 100 mile ride. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to see him.

My last memory of him is how excited he was when I talked to him after sending him a Yuengling pullover for Christmas just a few months ago.

So in celebration of his life, I ask that you toast him this evening by drinking his favorite beer, Yuengling.

Thank you for the memories PapPap. I can only hope to have such an outpouring of support when my time comes.

Charles J. Zeidler Jr. April 16, 1930 – March 23, 2013

How our garden grows

Posted by Laura in Home Improvement and tagged with container garden, fig tree, figs, garden, gardening, growing, Plant, plants, raised bed garden, raised beds March 24, 2013

We made it a priority this year to get raised garden beds installed in our new back yard. And by “we” I mean that I planted a few plants, raked a bit of dirt around, moved two wheel barrows of dirt and mulched said plants. Someone else did the heavy lifting.

My husband constructed us three 4′ x 8′ raised garden beds out of cedar planks. They are about 12″ tall. Cedar is supposed to resist decay better than other types of wood. He then dug out the existing grass, leveled the ground a bit, placed cardboard in the bottom and filled them with dirt. Well, I helped with the cardboard too. Do you see how much work I did here?

We planted:

Eight tomato varieties
Two basil varieties
Two chards (one red, one yellow)
Five pepper varieties (jalapeño, bell, serrano, etc)
Three mounds of cucumbers
A row of okra seeds
A row of beans from seed
Marigolds from seed, to hopefully help keep the bugs away

Constructed garden beds, lined with cardboard

Do you see the two wheel barrows of dirt I moved? And how I raked some of the dirt around?

The first bed has eight tomato plants in it, all different varieties.

The second bed has two basil plants, two chard plants, and five pepper plants, all of different varieties.

The third bed has some tiny little cucumber plants and we’re hoping to soon see some okra and beans sprouting.

One of the peppers is already blooming!

Molly guards the raised beds. Hopefully she scares away the birds, although it’s more likely that the birds will scare her.

Little tiny figs started to grow as soon as the fig tree got leaves.

Just a few days ago the figs were much larger!

Our birthday dessert spread

Posted by Laura in baking, desserts, Food & Drink and tagged with Banana, banana cream pie, birthday, cake, chocolate, cookies, Cream pie, cupcakes, ginger, recipes, vegan March 13, 2013

Birthday desserts, ready to be eaten!

A few weeks ago, it was that time again. Time for the husband and I to jointly celebrate our birthdays by inviting people over and providing waaaaaayyyyy more desserts than the group could possibly consume. Last year’s selections were a hit and this year was no exception.

The menu:

Banana cream pie (this may have been the all-around favorite, and was definitely my favorite)
Chai cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (also on last year’s menu, with a different frosting)
Blueberry crumble cake (made like the fig crumble cake but with blueberries instead)
Fat free ginger cookies (delicious as always)
Vegan chocolate crazy cake (this was a cake my husband’s grandmother used to make, because it was easy, not because it was vegan)

We had left overs of everything. Luckily I hid some of the extra banana cream pie that wouldn’t fit in the pie pan, because that pie pan was clean by the end of the night!

Blueberry crumble cake (bottom left), banana cream pie (top), chocolate crazy cake (bottom right)

Chai cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Fat free ginger cookies

First time using this nice pie pan. Definitely need to make banana cream pie again.

Crumbled graham crackers, sugar and mashed bananas made up the crust.

Crust ingredients mixed together

Crust pressed into pan and baked. The small white crocks were for the left over crust. The recipe made way too much for my pie pan.

Cooking the cream filling.

First layer of cream filling and first layer of bananas.

Second layer of cream filling and the final layer of banana slices. The pie then just had to set for hours in the fridge, so make this early if you decide to make it!

Baking orange ginger cupcakes

Posted by Laura in baking, desserts, Food & Drink and tagged with birthday, buttercream, cupcakes, frosting, ginger, orange, recipe March 5, 2013

Cupcakes for my birthday!

I recently came across a recipe for these orange ginger cupcakes on Instructables that I just had to try. Conveniently, my birthday gave me a good excuse to bake something I wanted to eat, and then force my co-workers and softball teammates to eat it for me.

I edited the recipe a bit, to cut down on the butter of course. My next updates to this recipe will include using more orange zest and adding some chopped candied ginger to the batter. However, here’s the recipe I used for the pictured cupcakes. They were pretty good after all.

Ingredients – Orange ginger cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 sticks (4oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/8 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients – Buttercream frosting

6 tablespoons unsalted softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar (you may end up adding more)
1 tablespoon milk (you may need more)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Steps – Cupcakes

Cream the butter, sugar and applesauce together in a large bowl until fluffy.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger together in a smaller bowl and set aside.
Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well between each.
Add the orange zest and vanilla.
Add the milk and dry ingredients mixture, alternating and mixing between the two until the batter is smooth.
Since I didn’t have cupcake liners, I greased my cupcake pan well. Definitely grease the pan well if you do this and use a knife to loosen up the cupcakes when you try to remove them!
Fill the cupcake holes 2/3 of the way full. You should get 22 – 24 cupcakes.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 – 22 minutes. The cupcakes are done when golden and they spring back when touched. Use the toothpick test if you’re not sure.
Allow the cupcakes to cool for a few minutes before removing and putting on a cooling rack.

Steps – Frosting

Once the cupcakes are cool, you’re ready to frost them!
Cream the butter until nice and smooth.
Add in half the powdered sugar. Mix until well combined.
Add the rest of the powdered sugar, the milk and vanilla and beat until smooth.
If the frosting is too thick, add more milk. If it’s too thin, add more sugar.
Frost your cupcakes! I like just a thin layer of frosting. If you like more, you may want to double this recipe.

Butter, applesauce and sugar mixed until fluffy.

Orange for the zest. I really like this little zester – it catches the zest and is easy to hold.

Batter after mixing in the eggs, and adding the zest.

Mixing in the dry ingredients.

Finished batter.

Cupcakes, pre-baking.

Cupcakes on the cooling rack.

Frosting in the mixer.

Yum!

A few delicious sandwiches

Posted by Laura in baking, bread, Food & Drink and tagged with Muffuletta, New Orleans, Olive Salad, Salad, sandwich, superbowl February 26, 2013

So I know the Superbowl was like a month ago now, but I have some pictures from our party preparation ready to share. Because the Superbowl was played in New Orleans, we decided to make muffuletta sandwiches for our party guests. If you’re not familiar, a full size muffuletta sandwich will feed multiple people because it’s prepared on a very large round bun. I’ve never actually seen a muffuletta sandwich bun for sale anywhere, and I’ve been on a bread baking kick lately, so I decided to make two muffuletta buns for our sandwiches.

A giant muffuletta bun that takes up a whole plate.

Cut muffuletta bun

I used a recipe from about.com for the muffuletta buns that worked perfectly. We made both a vegetarian and a meat muffuletta for our party, as well as an italian sub and a portobello spinach sandwich. Among the sides, we made this very tasty marinated vegetable salad.

For the muffuletta, we created a very large amount of olive salad (recipe from Nola Cuisine) to top the sandwiches. It was delicious and we ate the left overs on salads for a few days after the party. The vegetarian muffuletta was vaguely based on this recipe, but I used the olive salad that we made. My husband used this recipe to make the meat muffuletta.

Veggie muffuletta

Start of the meat muffuletta. In the end, it had waaaaay more olive salad on top.

While baking beer sugar cookies for the party, I also roasted some garlic that I then used on the portobello and spinach sandwiches. The recipe for those sandwiches was loosely based on this recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I didn’t make the tofu spread. they were my favorite of the night actually.

Portobello, spinach, shallot, roasted garlic and cotija cheese sandwiches.

I’m still experimenting with bread baking, but I’ll have an update soon. Stay tuned!

Laura Makes

Laura enjoys making many things

Bike MS training update: The Real Ale Ride

Bike MS Training Update: Riding the Armadillo!

Bike training update – Red Poppy Ride

Bike MS training update April 20 – 21, 2013

It’s that time again… training season!

Remembering my grandfather

How our garden grows

Our birthday dessert spread

Baking orange ginger cupcakes

A few delicious sandwiches

Follow “Laura Makes”

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