Heading North to the Land of Bend

I am heading to the Cascade Classic tomorrow in Bend, OR. Its a 3-day, 4 stage, stage race. Should be pretty good. I am feeling good and looking for a top placement on GC. I have spent the last two days tuning up the legs after a nice 3 day break off the bike. I can't believe how much better I feel this week compared to last...night and day...

Last night I had my uber-cool boss(Charlie) and her fiance(Jesse) over for some comida. I was stressing a little bit b/c I had so much stuff to get taken care of before I left but dinner was a success. I crossed into some unfamilier territory and made a sun-dried tomato risotto with fresh mozzerella and basil. It was pretty outstanding. Charlie and Jesse were impressed with my culinary whit. I figured out how to cook the risotto from an online recipe but I adapted it to my liking. I will share it with you shortly. For greens, I made a nice summer mixed green salad with fresh peaches, nectarines, red bell peppers, cucumbers, gorganzola cheese, and a balsamic vineagrette. It was super tasty too. Great balance of flavors. Next time i would add some toasted crushed walnuts which would just send it into uber awesome state. For desert I had planned to make crepes with fresh fruit, but ran behind scheduled. So we improvised and created a Make Your Own Crepe stand in my kitchen. Needless to say it was a little competitive. But tasty.

Well, I will leave you on that note. Look forward to my recipe postings in the next few days. I will also be posting stage reports so you can see what is going on.

You can also check out the race website at http://www.cascade-classic.org I am in the Cat 3 race so look for me.

Chow,
Matthew