Chad Chandler

I ended my last kitchen remodel update by saying, “we still have some little things to do in the room (build an island on wheels to rest beneath the matching pot rack, add shelves to the rear of the washer/dryer cabinet door to hold various sundries, and put a flat screen TV above the fridge), but that’s all cosmetic work.” Well, now the cosmetic work is done:

I gave myself the arbitrary deadline of before football season to finish the work. It seems I barely beat the bell, considering that the college football season kicks off tonight.

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Ever since I bought a used bike and my wife restored her old one, she’s been bugging me to get out and ride the new Swamp Rabbit Trail extension in Traveler’s Rest, SC. The Swamp Rabbit Trail is named for the defunct railroad line that used to pass through the area until 1993. Eventually, it will connect to the larger Rails to Trails network that spans the East Coast. I’ve been reluctant to ride the trail because it’s still a work in progress. All of the rails and ties have been removed, but the path isn’t completely paved. Our bikes are old and without shocks, and I like my teeth the way they are. Still, we headed out to Travelers Rest and started riding toward Greenville. We didn’t know how much of the trail was finished, but we’d heard that portion was in good condition.

This benchmark is full of information.

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Greenville native George Hincapie won the 2009 USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship on Sunday. It was an amazing race and we got really lucky with the weather. It was overcast and in the mid-80s all day, and the only rain was a light drizzle. My wife and I watched the first couple of mountain circuits froma sidewalk in the North Main neighborhood. Next, we saw the leaders in a break-away from the peloton as they maneuvered a curve on South Main Street. Finally, we worked our way to the finish line for the final city-circuits. The race cam down to the wire. Among a screaming crowd of thousands of hometown fans, Hincapie overtook Jeff Louder and outsprinted Andrew Bajadali in the final hundred meters.

This was the fourth year that Greenville has hosted the championship, and it by far the best-attended of the events. I’ve posted a gallery of pictures below the fold:

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This weekend, my wife and I decided to make some German-style food. I was craving some veal and she wanted to make her grandmother’s spaetzle (German dumplings). To make spaetzle, you mix 2 cups all-purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs with 3/4 cup milk. Slowly drizzle the egg/milk mixture into the four and stir until you have a smooth batter:

Next bring a pot of salted water to a boil. This is where it gets a little complicated – and messy.

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Eggplant Parmesan is one of the cheapest meals you can make. Assuming that you already have oil, flour, eggs and bread crumbs in your kitchen, all you need is a jar of marinara sauce and an eggplant. I consider it a cleaner recipe, meaning I make it when I need to clean out the fridge. I also do this with pastas and casseroles sometimes. I usually make Eggplant Parmesan whenever we have several bags with only an ounce or two of cheese left in them, or whenever we have homemade spaghetti sauce left over because *someone picked out all the meatballs.

You start by slicing your eggplant into 1/3″ thick slices. There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not you should peel eggplant. I peel it for the grill, but leave it for the oven.

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Our garden didn’t produce very much this year. The combination of heavy rain in June followed immediately by a heat wave kept most of our plants from maturing. The vegetables we did produce were mostly eaten by the squirrels. For whatever reason, our cayenne plants produced like machines. And as you might expect, the pests left them alone.

We were left scratching our heads, wondering what to do with so many peppers.

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I wanted to make a rolling island to match the pot rack I hung on the kitchen wall last month. Last weekend, I finally got up the courage (and the cash) to give it another try. This was the design:

This might look like an easy build, but the finish work and attention to detail made it quite difficult.

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The folks over at One Project Closer are hosting another product giveaway. This time it’s a router table by Skil. For a chance win, go leave a comment over at their place. I have a Ryobi router and I’m pretty happy with it. Still, I’m in desperate need of a router table, even if it means I have to buy another tool to fit the table. I’m in the middle of another woodworking project right now that requires a lot of routing. It’s hard to keep a router level when you’re working with 1″ x 2″ boards. It would be much easier and more uniform if I could just pass the wood through a stationary machine instead. If given the choice, I think I would would prefer to have two routers anyway. That way I wouldn’t have to disengage the router to use it freehand on objects like table tops.