Nice little video I came across

Thanksgiving or A Giving Thanks Ride

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.  I had to work the night before and night of and was getting little sleep but... as I was driving home Thanksgiving day I realized there was just about nobody on the road.  This made me excited.  I should ride.  And ride I did.  I got approval from my wife and took off on a Giving Thanks Ride.  As I rode I thought about some of the things I was thankful for.  Besides being thankful for my loving and beautiful family at this time as I rode I was especially thankful for a functioning and healthy body.  Being healthy allows me to play and have fun with my family, have a physically active job, and well... ride a bike.  Though riding a bike may seem like small think many people are not able to participate in the joy of cycling.   On this Thanksgiving I was especially thankful for my ability to engoy a ride on my bike.   I told myself I would take it easy and just go for a spin but I could not help myself and pushed up some of the climbs and sped around some decending corners.  I was home in an hour.   Even though I was running on empty I felt great.  We went to the store as a family and bought what we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner and headed home.  We decided to have an Italian Thanksgiving, so no turkey and potatoes this year.  Besides my bro and his family headed to Bakersfield to spend Thanksgiving.  So anyway I wanted to share one dish from our thanksgiving which is actually a fairly regular dish that we love.  It is super easy, super fast, and the first word that comes to mind about its taste is fresh.  It tastes great.  It is caprese salad.  You need tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Slice up the tomates and mozzarella, slice up the basil (or just use whole leaves).  Add olive oil across the top.  Give it the salt and pepper.  And I guess it's optional but for us it makes the dish perfect is to add balsamic vinegar.  You must be careful with the balsamic vinegar because it's strong.  I usually pour it onto a spoon first and then lightly drizzle it onto the dish making sure each piece of tomatoe and mozzarella get a nice line of the vinegar.

We usually add quite a bit more basil than pictured here, but this is a good representation.  When picking out mozzorella make sure you get something nice and moist,NOT pre-cut, and NOT spiced in any way.  You can also make this dish with cherry tomatoes and little mozzarella balls (that have some specific name in Italian).  Using the the cherry tomates etc. cuts down the preparation time practically down to nil, but I personally prefer having sliced tomates and mozzarella.  Italian food equals happiness.  Well, good food equals happiness no matter who claims the dish.  And... here's a bike idea by Konstantin Datz in Germany

It's actually supposed to be a folding bike.  Whether or not this is technically engeneerically sound I do not know, but I liked the idea.  Here's a link for a few more pics.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/azor-bicycle-prototype/764198 .

NO.. it's not over I must add that I think I have one more reason to love holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.  No one is out on the rode in the morning.  No One. ok. that's all.