Tour de Fleece 2010: Day 4

Today's spinning looks like yesterday's, except that the bag is S-L-O-W-L-Y getting emptier as tiny blue bumps are being replaced by even tinier plastic weaving bobbins that are full of blue singles. I spun a little over 1 oz today, which keeps me delightfully ahead of schedule.

Given that athletes need good nutrition, so I made my favorite Texas Beef Chili. The recipe comes from a Williams Sonoma cookbook that I picked up at the Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, my favorite place to buy used cookbooks. It's delicious, and has taught me a few things in the kitchen.

Today alone I have learned useful things like:

- Cubing frozen meat is easier than trying to thaw it out, then cube it.
- Meat sears better when I'm multitasking; if I'm not multitasking, I'm only making the meat dizzy by pushing it around the pan. (Mom pointed this out.)
- No matter what, I'm going to get spattered. Even if I'm not cooking.
- Mise en place. Do it; it makes your kitchen run like a well-olive-oiled machine.
- Even if you're a tidy chef, if you've mopped the floor today, you are going to drop more on the floor today than you have in the last year. (We'll call this Jasmin's Law.)
- No matter how good your dish is, if your dessert isn't just as good, you may as well have served generic dog kibble.

On that note, I have learned that a beautiful dessert is something we all can enjoy, and that watching Top Chef, Ace of Cakes, and Cupcake Wars results in this type of dessert and presentation:

Mango Split, by me: (Serves 2)

1 fresh mango
4 scoops vanilla ice cream (my favorite is the Low-Fat Treat Vanilla)
1 basket fresh raspberries
Handful of fresh strawberries
Mint for garnish (not photographed)

Halve the mango along the pit. Porcupine it carefully, making sure not to puncture the skin. Shave the porcupine; waste not, want not, give that porcupine the Brazilian treatment! Slice the strawberries thinly. Put 2 scoops of ice cream in each empty half of the mango skin, generously dress the ice cream in mango cubes, raspberries, and garnish with sliced strawberries and a mint leaf.

Enjoy!