I'm a chef now

I've been riding more, way more this weekend. Which hopefully makes me fitter, but aside from that hope I can guarantee it makes me more of a vegetable when I get home. A hungry vegetable.

I don't give much credit to the servings per box/can whatever when I've done a 5.5 hour ride, especially the day after a 5 hour ride, the day after a 3 hour ride. But a guy can only mooch so much food in his life, so it's "cooking" time.

I made a box of pasta (with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper) on Saturday. It definitely tasted more gourmet when prep'd on the gas stove vs. the prior ones I had cooking "experience with". Tasted like more hydrocarbons died.  I use less resources though when I eat tuna from the can and pasta from the pot with the spoon I stirred it with.

My new microwave can do a can of hearty beef and potato stew with more gourmet credentials than before.  I don't think chefs should eschew microwaves or microwavable food unless they write letters and transport themselves by horse drawn buggy.  Having said that, the skill of completing a can of hearty stew with just the right amount of pepper, HP sauce, and tabasco is not to be underestimated. If HP sauce's tamarind-y goodness doesn't fill you with an air of class, recall it is "House of Parliament" sauce after all, with the picture on every bottle (I'm not kidding, pull yours out of the fridge and check). Side note to microwave industry: a truely awesome microwave wouldn't explode food all over, or if it did, would magically clean itself.