Thursday, November 29, 2007

Gumbo Fest I

Last night was gumbo night at Casa-de-Dave. My friends Amanda, Amanda, David, Jane and Mason came over for a batch of chicken-and-sausage gumbo I brewed up. I used lots of vegetables...



... and a roux.



Turned out OK.

DOUBLE THE PLEASURE!!
Jane brought over her own pot of gumbo, too! One of the beauties of gumbo is no two taste alike, and no one makes them the same. Having two gumbos, turned "gumbo night" into Gumbo Fest I. It was awesome to have a diversity of flavors to sample from. Jane makes an wonderful gumbo, with a very rich and hearty flavor. Yum! The flavor from her roux was really good!

Good food, good friends. The gumbos were good not only for the tastebuds, but for the soul too. That's what Cajun cooking is all about!

JEEZ I LOVE THE SOUTH
After my previous pondering of cold weather training... this forecast is encouraging:

.SATURDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF SHOWERS ANDTHUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE MID 70S. SOUTHEASTWINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.
Someone over at GHORBA.org reported that Huntsville is in good shape as of yesterday. Should be fantastic out there by Saturday!

Ironically, I got a note today from an buddy living in Michigan. He just installed a heater in his garage. He's all happy because it can keep the temperature at almost 50-degrees! HA!

SILLY SEASON
My buddy Tim calls this time of year the "silly season", because of all the craziness surrounding the holiday season. In motorsport, this time of year is the "silly season" because it's when everyone is out pandering for sponsorship money for next year. Let's be honest here - 'tis the season to go begging for money from anyone who will listen.

The last couple of years I was a silly season participant. I think I'm going to sit this one out, and concentrate on bike racing. One certainty of motor racing is the expense.

How do you make a small fortune in racing? Start with a big
one.

Unless you have a lot (multiple millions) your opportunities for success are dependent on others willing to give you large sums of money. I don't like that.

What I do like about bike racing is that I far more control over the outcome. I'm dependent upon myself to do the training, maintain a good diet, and live a healthy lifestyle to acheive success. Self-determination is a wonderful thing. Only a fool would choose a sport (or life) where self-determination isn't available.

It's funny to look back on the last year. I started biking to improve my fitness for motor racing. Now the tables have turned! I didn't think racing a bike would be exciting enough. Turns out, cutting along down a downhill at 25mph trying to pick a good line as the terrain rushes up to greet you, while ping-ponging off of rocks is damn exciting!

I'm not giving up on motor racing. I'm going to build race team some day. Period. But for now, I've got some things to learn from bike racing. Things that will certainly help me later. They have already helped me in life.

2 comments:

Jane said...

Uhm, if it's gumbo, shouldn't it be Chez Dave, and not Casa de? You've been in Texas too long!

Dave said...

HA! Yeah I thought long and hard about that! But in the end I though casa-de-dave had a better ring to it!