They Call Me An-twan: A day early

"Hey DJ keep playing that song all night, On and On and On" This past weekend one was of those which got a bit away from me ride wise but not on the productivity side of things. All week long, I had been looking forward to the weather on Friday and Saturday and then things changed at work which meant I would have Sunday off as well.

Friday came and went with me spending very little time outdoors. I had been looking for to doing a 70ish mile road ride but bagged that when Mother Nature decided to not turn up the temps until later in the day. I had other things to get accomplished and didn't feel like being cold. I am over being cold on rides. Bring on the Spring.

Saturday morning I left the house early to ride over to Laurel Park to meet the TnT Team for our Saturday morning ride. 25 miles over, 30 with them and things felt good. That was when I could forget about the pulsating wobble which was coming from my rear wheel which started at mile 24 and was caused by a broken spoke.

After the ride on Saturday, Jenn and I stopped by the shop and picked up a new spoke so I could repair my wheel. The plan was to go out on Sunday at some point once it warmed up. I awoke with a different plan however. An early rise had me watching a handful of cooking shows which were still on the dvr. I got the idea that since I have to close the store on Valentine's Day I would see if Jenn wanted to cook a nice dinner with me and celebrate the eve of Valentine's Day.

The menu was set. We were going to make homemade ravioli with a homemade marinara sauce. A side of jalepeno cheese bread and for dessert vanilla ice cream topped with fire-roasted strawberries off the grill. Now that we had dinner plans, Jenn and I some how motivated ourselves to do some spring cleaning around the house. We converted the third bedroom into a bedroom and not a room with a bed frame in it. We finished cleaning up the Cubs room (err the office). Outside we got the leaves out of the flowerbeds, filled the holes the pups dug in the backyard and spread out the remaining portion of the dirt hill which has been holding our driveway hostage for the past year and a half.

A quick trip to the grocery store and we began the cooking process. We were given a pasta machine for Christmas and hadn't found the time to use it just yet. We pulled it out made up a ball of dough and started rolling it out. We learned a couple of things, 1)Don't clamp the machine to the table without a cloth underneath it. It will gouge the table. 2)Ravioli dough needs to be thinner than what we made it. We didn't know how thin it should be so we guessed. It was turned out to be a little too thick. 3)We need to find a better stuffing recipe. The one I choose was a simple one which we had all of the ingredients around the house but it lacked a certain punch. 4)A ravioli tray would make things easier not only for speed but for portion control. We made some of the biggest ravioli I have ever eaten.

The marinara sauce was a simple recipe and it made a lot of it. Even after our meal we were left with about 2 quarts of it. Into the freezer it went to be thawed for a later day. The cheesy jalapeno bread was a nice change to the traditional garlic bread.

Then came the dessert. Shortly after we were done with dinner I went outside and fired up the grill. I pulled the strawberries out of the refrigerator, stood them up in a pie pan and put them on the open flame. I went inside filled two bowls up with vanilla ice cream which was sadly store bought. We wanted to make homemade because we were also given an ice cream maker for Xmas but the bowl has to freeze for 15 hours. 15 hours we didn't have. It is now in the freezer awaiting its next call to duty. Off came the strawberries and then they were placed on top of the ice cream. Delicious!