Week, so far, in Review

I'll start out with a rather tasty vegetable stew I just made for my evening meal. Perhaps it isn't so noteworthy as it is fresh on my mind. I do thing the wine I put into it, as well as the expired vegetable broth, is the primary source of its flavor. Since I just got a bunch of fresh garlic powder to make the various marinades for chicken jerky for my (youngest) daughter and her husband to taste, I also include some of that. Oh, and fresh ground black pepper. Other than the flavoring, it's just potatoes, carrots, and a leek. I will eat something else but I haven't figured out what just yet. I haven't even calculated the calories per serving for my calorie counting spreadsheet. This will go a long way to figuring out what else I will eat. I do need to eat my legumes yet for the day.

I would have eaten some for lunch but I had lunch on the road today, the Old Pedro Mountain Road. (I think I wrote about it in an earlier posting.) Anyway, it isn't nicknamed the "Planet of the Apes Road" for nothing. With all of its deterioration, it is only suitable for walking. And walk I did. I started out intending only to walk to where I had prior to my receiving "that darn pedometer," to see how far I had walked on that earlier hike, 5.5 miles round trip, but the day was so nice, I decided to walk further and hike on some new to me trail/road. On the Montara side of the mountain, the road is definitely more degraded. At one spot the road itself has completely slipped away and a rather crude trail was hacked out of the hill above where the road would have been. Then there was the section that was a new service road, only because I missed the little trail that didn't look like an old road at all off to the right. (I caught it on my return just to say I walked it.) Since there wasn't a convenient bench or rock or even a semi-dry log, that allowed me to sit, I ate my apple, Clif Bar, and whole wheat English muffin while walking. I was originally going to walk the whole road to its connection with Highway 1, but instead walked a short side trail to the last trail that Marilyn and I hiked and turned around. All in all, I walked 11 miles in just over three hours and 20,175 aerobic steps.

While the scenery was beautiful, including the clearest I've ever seen the Farallon Islands, I didn't take my camera. If I had, I may not have gotten nearly so much aerobic walking in.

Last Sunday night I went to an Academy Awards party, well viewing party. While I could see the TV, I really didn't do that much viewing. It was really just an opportunity to get together with some of my Fremont friends, many of whom I hadn't seen for over a year, some longer. I spent the entire evening talking with the husbands of the real avid viewers, the husband of the hostess of the party in particular. There were other conversations that came and went depending on the level of interest in the award being given out. I was asked for the recipe of the dessert I brought, the Basic Chocolate Cupcake from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. I also took a Peanut Butter Buttercream icing from the same cookbook on the side. I didn't want to cause anyone who might have a peanut allergy grief. (Really it was just because I was running late and didn't want to take the time.) Most people, allergy or not, ate them plain. I was able to leave all that I took there. I needed to get back on my life diet and didn't want the temptation of very rich, even if vegan, food around.

As far as the chicken jerky I'm making, I got three recipes off of the Internet and am making up eight pounds of chicken breasts spread across each of them. My PCT walking daughter and son-in-law are to do a taste test to see which of the three they want to carry with them on the trail. I plan on making turkey jerky for the actual hike but Costco didn't have any boneless, skinless turkey breasts. This is the first time I've used chicken. Of course, it's the first time I've made jerky in a long time, at least ten years. Their tasting might be a little off from more than just the chicken.

I guess, at least from what I've written, not much of significance happened. Oh well, it seemed more significant when I started.