Birthday Run

Posted on April 1, 2013 by twsobey

To celebrate two May birthdays (32 and 33 years), we’re running a 32.5 mile race (with ~6,300′ of elevation gain). The Birthday Bash Dash is on May 18, 2013. Since the party at the end is the important part, we want to all finish near the same time. The plan is to start whenever you need, just aim to finish around 4:00pm. If people want to leave together, use the comments at the bottom to organize start times. Run it, bike it, walk it, do only part of it, whatever works.

This is mostly a self supported run. We hope to talk friends and family into meeting runners along the way to act as aid stations, but these will be sparse at best. We plan to leave a cooler with peanut butter sandwiches, water and sports drink at the intersection of 8th Street and the Boise Ridge Road (near the half way point). No other aid stations are currently planned. If this changes, we’ll post it here.

Route:

  • Start at Camel’s Back Park
  • Take Red Fox Trail (#36) to Foothills Learning Center
  • At 1.5 miles, take Kestrel Trail (#39A)
  • 2.5 miles gets you to Crestline Trail (#38)
  • At 3.5 miles, turn right on to Sidewinder (#24)
  • Just before 5 miles, briefly take 8th Street Motorcycle Trail to the right (#4)
  • Just after 5 miles, take the fork for Fat Tire Traverse (#42)
  • At 6.25 miles, merge on to Freestone Ridge (#5)
  • At 7.9 miles, go left on Three Bears Trails (#26)
  • At 8.75, take Shane’s Trail (#26A)
  • 10.6 miles brings us back to Three Bears Trails (#26), go right
  • At 12.5 miles, veer left on to Watchmen Trail (#3)
  • 13.3 miles brings you to Femrite’s Patrol (#6)
  • At 14.4 miles, continue on to 8th Street Motorcycle Trail (#4)
  • At 15.25 miles, go right on to Hull’s Ridge (#4A)
  • At 15.7 miles, turn left on to the Boise Ridge Road (NF-374)
  • At 19.3 miles, turn left on to Shingle Creek Trail/Hard Guy (#33)
  • At 24.2, go left on to Corrals Trail (#31)
  • After 28.3 miles, cross 8th Street and drop down 8th Street Motorcycle Trail (#4)
  • 28.9 miles is the top of Lower Hull’s Gulch Trail (#29)
  • Just after 31 miles, cross 8th Street and start down Red Fox Trail (#36)
  • At 31.2 miles, start up Chickadee Ridge Trail (#36A) … just for a little more fun before the end
  • At 31.8, merge back on to Red Fox Trail (#36)
  • Finish by returning to Camel’s Back Park for a total of 32.6 miles
Mapped route for the Birthday Bash

Mapped route for the Birthday Bash

The route is set with more details to follow. See you then.

Jump in/Bail out Points:

If you only want to part of the route, here are some places you can join the route or bail out if things go south.

  • Near the 8 mile mark, there is easy access to Military Reserve Park
  • Shaw Mountain Road has trail heads for Shane’s Trail and Three Bears Trail near the 10.5 and 12.5 mile marks
  • 8th Street connects with the Boise Ridge Road just after the 17 mile mark
  • The Corrals Trail head is on Bogus Basin Road. From there it is ~1 mile in to the route just after the 24 mile mark
  • The Lower Hull’s Gulch parking lot on 8th Street is at 28.5 miles, just 4 miles before the end
Posted in Running | Tagged | 3 Comments

Free beer run

Posted on March 5, 2013 by twsobey

Shu’s is putting on a St. Patty’s Day run on Friday, March 8. Everyone is meeting at the shop at 6:00 to run, then come back for beer and a prize drawing. Not a bad way to start the weekend.

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Update: it was a fun event with nice beer from Sockeye. Here are a couple photos from the event.
image

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First run of 2013

Posted on March 3, 2013 by twsobey

We didn’t run much when the trails were all icy, but as things thaw out, we’re back to it. Our first run will be Sunday, March 10. We’ll meet at Camel’s Back at 8:30. See you there.

Posted in Running | 2 Comments

First batch of Root Beer

Posted on July 9, 2012 by twsobey

Recently I got a new refrigerator to use as a kegerator. Once the kegs of homebrew were in the house, we started to think about what else could be dispensed and decided to make root beer. I had some Bucksnort root beer and thought it would be good to imitate that if I could. So here is attempt 1:

  • 1.5 oz Sassafras root bark
  • 3 Tbsp (~0.6 oz) Licorice root
  • 1/2 tsp Wintergreen extract
  • 10 cups sugar

Put the sugar, sassafras and licorice into the brew kettle with 3 gallons water and boiled for 25 minutes. Drained into sterilized keg and top off with cold tap water. Then added wintergreen extract, cooled keg and force carbonated.

Impressions: Tasted the next day and it was ok. Definitely not Bucksnort, but drinkable. A little on the light side, it was more red than dark brown I would expect for root beer. Also, a little heavy on the wintergreen. A good first batch with room for improvement.

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Gluten-free beer

Posted on June 4, 2012 by twsobey

I’ve been brewing beer for a few years now. I’m usually looking for new twists to try brewing. The last beer I brewed was my first lager. It came out ok, but had a few slight off flavors. This weekend, I started my first gluten-free beer. The fermentables were:

  • 6 lbs Sorghum liquid extract
  • 1 lb Honey (from bees in my yard, so cool)
  • 6 oz Belgium Candi (dark)

I boiled it for 60 minutes with hops thrown in at:

  • 0.5 oz Chinook (11.9%) @ 45 minutes
  • 1 oz Cascade (3.5%) @ 15 minutes

Also, a bit of Irish Moss thrown in near the end. I pitched last night and the yeast are starting to go, but it’s still a little slow. It should be ready by the end of the month. Looking forward to tasting it then.

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English Muffins (part 2)

Posted on February 7, 2012 by twsobey

The first batch of English Muffins were made with a batter that I poured into rings on the griddle. This worked ok but didn’t seem to give the right texture or consistency. I’ve tried a couple of other recipes since then and this one has come the closest to the English Muffins that I’m used to.

Ingredients

* 1 cup soy milk
* 2 tsp active dry yeast
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/4 cup melted shortening
* 6 cups bread flour
* 1 teaspoon salt

I mixed all the ingredients together, then let it slowly rise for a day in the refrigerator. It nearly doubled in size. I pulled it out and rolled it into a sheet between 1/4″ and 3/8″ thick. Using a glass (I don’t have a round cookie cutter) I cut out muffins then placed them on a cornmeal-sprinkled cookie sheet to warm and rise for an hour. They had risen to about double their height. I misted them with water before placing them on a hot griddle. They cooked for about 5-7 minutes per side.

The dough was stiffer than I would like and they didn’t have quite as much flavor as I wanted, but are the closest I’ve made so far. For the next batch, I plan to replace the active dry yeast with sour dough starter and give it longer rise time. I think will help with both problems I had this time.

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Breakfast "Snausage"

Posted on January 14, 2012 by twsobey

My friend Aimee sent me this recipe for vegan sausage. It took me too long to get around to making it, but we had people over for brunch this morning and I decided now was the time to try it out. None of our brunch guests were vegan, but they all enjoyed this. Once you have all the spices out, it’s pretty easy to throw this together.

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp crushed sage
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
2 pinches cayenne
1 Tbsp milled flaxseed
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup oat or wheat bran
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp Bragg’s liquid aminos

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the quinoa and water, let
boil for 10 minutes. Grind nutritional yeast through flaxseed in a spice
grinder. Combine spice mix with flour and oats, add to quinoa and stir.
Combine water and liquid aminos. Add liquid mixture to quinoa mixture
and mix well. Form mixture into 2″ balls and flatten slightly into
patties. Fry with a little oil until brown, about 3 minutes per side.

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Whole Wheat Hearth Bread

Posted on January 8, 2012 by twsobey

After getting the French Country bread recipe working well, I wanted to try something new. Instead of increasing the non-white flours slowly, I just eliminated the white bread flour completely. The dough was wetter than other breads I’ve made recently, but I think the wetness added to the oven spring.

Mix:

503g Whole wheat flour
30g Oat flakes
126g Rye flour
14g Salt
29g Sugar
450g Water

Let stand 20 minutes. Add:

7g Yeast
310g Levain
29g Vegetable oil

I ran out of time to bake this so I put it in the refrigerator while we went to a movie, then let it sit on the counter over night. In the morning, it had risen by about 50%. It had various size bubbles in the dough and was still wetter than I’m used to working. I formed it into a boule and let it rise again in a metal bowl lined with a well floured cloth napkin. About four hours later, I baked it at 450F for 40 minutes with a cup of ice added for steam at the start.

The crumb is a little tighter than usual, but it’s still airy and I think smaller bubbles are to be expected with a whole wheat bread. Overall, I think it turned out well. This bread may become a regular, especially in colder months.

Whole Wheat Hearth Bread
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Pain de Campagne (French Country loaf)

Posted on January 7, 2012 by twsobey

This has become my “go to” bread recipe recently. The first few loaves did not come out well. I let the bread rise for the amount of time the recipes suggested, but didn’t really pay much attention to the temperature in the kitchen. As a results, the bread never rose enough. Once I started letting the dough rise for a longer period, the results were much improved. This improvement came as an accident (we went to a friend’s house and stayed longer than expected), but has now become a regular part of the 36 hour cycle of making this bread. Yes, 36 hours is a long time to make a loaf of bread, but very little of that time are you actually doing anything.

Bring starter out of refrigerator and make levain by adding:
135g Flour
175g Water

Let stand for 8-12 hours. Then mix:

250g water (room temp or slightly warmer)
440g Bread flour
30g Whole wheat flour
30g Rye flour

Let stand 20 minute to hydrate the flour. Then add:

310g Levain (sour dough starter)
2g Yeast (optional; not needed but speeds up the process)
10g salt

Knead for about 10 minutes. Let stand until it double in size (between
3 and 12 hours depending on room temp). Divide and form 2 or 3 loaves.
Let rise until it grows to about 1.5 to 2 times it’s size (1-8 hours).
Dock tops of loaves with a razor or other sharp knife. Bake at 450 F
for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 400 and bake for another 15-ish
minutes. When putting the loaves in the oven, throw 1/2-1 cup of ice
into the bottom of the oven (preferably into cast iron fry pan or
skillet)

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English Muffins

Posted on January 3, 2012 by twsobey

14g Honey
14g Oil
350g Warm Soy milk
335g Bread Flour
6g Salt
10g Starter
5g Apple Cider Vinegar
2g Baking Soda
45g Water

Mix all ingredients except the baking soda and water. Let stand 10 minutes. Combine the water and soda, then mix with batter. Heat griddle to low-medium heat (2 out of 5 on my stove). While batter is rising and griddle is warming, lightly oil the inside of english muffin rings or large canning bands. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into each ring and allow about 10 minutes to cook. Flip over and allow another 10 minutes.

Well, this was my first attempt to make English muffins and the came out somewhat like I had hoped. There is still plenty of room for improvements but they seem like they will work for breakfast tomorrow.

When I sliced into the muffins, they had a tight crumb with small bubbles. I think the recipe needs to be wetter. We’ll try it again soon and let it sit over night to see if that improves the texture. The flavors came out a little sweeter than I expected but tasty enough to have another.

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