How to make a philly cheesesteak sandwich

Please note: what follows in not a recipe, or a how to, for making a cheese steak. If you want one of those, you need to go visit the greater Philadelphia metro area (you should go there any ways, it's a pretty cool, and historic, city). What I write here is simply the best approximate I have found using materials available in my area some 1000 miles from Philadelphia.

First, you start with a source of meat. My brother is correct, Steak-umms create the wrong type of greasy reprocessed meat flavor/texture. If you know a butcher who is willing to finely slice some steak for you, that would be perfect. Unfortunately the minimum wager behind the meat counter at Hy-vee that most of use get our meat product from can't help with this, which is why I am glad that I found Farmland's "philly style shaved beef," the meat comes in an easy to use, pre-potioned format and as the name of the product implies, it is made of strips of shaved beef, not beef puree like Steak-umms.

The second, and harder to find, part of the sandwich is the bread. The bread is also the most important part of the sandwich, it needs fluffy and chewy, and it needs to be able to absorb all of the delecious grease that will come out of your steak bits.

Once again, a compromise has to be found. If you really want an authentic sandwich, you need to find the correct recipe for hoggie rolls and then make it fresh. For those of you that simply want a close approximation, the best substitue I have found are Hy-vee Bakery's brat rolls. They're chewy and fluffy and they're made for brats, so you know they can absorb grease. They're nowhere near the size of the real thing, but once again, this is simply a substitue for the real thing.

Now that you have those two parts, all you just have to do is fry up some onions (I refuse to beleive that you can have too many onions). Throw you meat into the pan, mix it around with the onions. Throw some cheese on top, throw on the bread untill the cheese begins to melt, and then pull off the sandwiches and revel in the awesomeness.

I'm not silent about the "Ride of Silence"

The following post is about the "Ride of Silence," if you don't know what I'm talking about, please go here and quickly read the post, then come back here and read this post (I ask so much, don't I).

Before I alienate everyone who organized or participated in today's ride of silence, let me compliment it for a while. I thought the idea of the ride was great, I think that anything that increases the visibility of bicyclists in the community (especially the Cedar Rapids area) is great. And raising awareness of cyclists who have been injured on public roads is a very important cause (I hope someone has a ride for me if I get hit by a car).

That being said, there were many things in the execution of this ride that seemed to me to have missed the mark. The most glaring was the fact that at two points along to rout (north end of Oakland and the north end of Center Point) It was loudly announced that we needed to "get single file and get over, there are cars behind us" (announced by a fellow cyclist, not by a passing car).

Now don't get me wrong, I think that sharing the road is just that, sharing, and sharing goes both ways. However, I believe that the main issue in the bike/car relationship, is that drivers don't realize that the bicycle has the same right to the lane as the car, because bicycles don't act like the lane belongs to them. On my daily commute to work, I have stopped riding on the right side of the lane, and I found cars stopped trying to take the left portion of the lane. By riding in the center of the lane I clearly communicate to the cars around me that this is my lane and they need to act in such a manor. And I don't think there is a better venue to reinforce this behavior than on a large group ride.

There is protection in numbers, so I think that people who might not feel comfortable riding in the middle of their lane while alone, would be more comfortable if riding with a large group who were all behaving similarly. And I think that the more cyclists on the roads who behave like the lane belongs to them, the more drivers will behave in a similar manor (but I might be wrong and we might just end up with more people to commemorate with bicycle rides).

I don't want to rant too much about it, and I will participate on any similar rides in the future. I just hope that the organizers think about what they are communicating to the drivers on the road as carefully as they think about the message they are making to the cycling community.

My story about gas prices

Remember about a year ago when it seemed that every news organization had a (at least) weekly column about the price of gas? Why did not of them report on the price of gas for race cars?

I was filling up my car when I noticed one of the nozzles was for 110 octane, leaded racing fuel (I didn't even know you could sell that at a normal gas station). But what really amazed me was when I noticed the price, $5.399/gal. And this was when the price of regular gas was below $2.

Where were the stories about the poor race car driver that had to take a second mortgage on his house just so he could drive his kids to soccer practice? If I was a race car driver, I would feel that the national media really let me down on this one.

(After I posted this story, I noticed I was getting a few hits from people searching where to buy 110 octane racing fuel in Iowa. The photo was taken at the Hawkeye convenience store in Czech Village on 16th St.)

Canstruction - The conclusion

Saturday was the build date for this year's Corridor Canstruction, and although I could write a long rant about my many dislikes for how the lack of organization this year, I will just keep this short and post of cool pictures.

I was very please how smoothly the build went, and except for the substitution of razor sharp steel wire for the insulated copper wire I had originally used, there were no screw ups.

To the right is a photo of the front of the boat, although my brother seemed to get the front and the back confused. In retrospect I can see the confusion, it seems that the group in charge of the stern decided to make it a little on the pointy side, while the method used to construct the bow resulted in a rounded bow, oops.

For more pictures of the event, go to the Gazette's photo gallery. There is only one photo of our TiCanic, but as Gazette photographer, Liz Martin said, it wasn't very photogenic. I have to agree with her on this, it was a bulky bizarre thing. It will just give me more to think about in planning next years...

Dear Asshole (A letter to the asshole in the truck, from the asshole on the bike)

Dear Asshole,

I understand why you might have been pissed off with me, I was selfishly taking up an entire lane of a four lane road with a stupid bike. I can understand, I am often pissed off at things, more so when I happen to be driving.

However, bikes on the road might be something you should learn to deal with if the City of Cedar Rapids has their way and become a bicycle friendly city. As I said, I can understand being pissed off while driving, which is probably one of the reason I enjoy bicycling, you might want to look into it.

On a serious note, if you're going to honk at a bike in front of you, and then quickly accelerate and pass that bicycle quite closely while saying something (you have to slow down if you want me to actually hear you,) you should punch yourself in the face, because you shouldn't do that to start with. But if you do, you should at least have the courtesy to acknowledge that same cyclist when they catch up to you stopped at a traffic light a block down the road.

ZOMG!! Virus!!!!!

Today at work I received an e-mail from out IT department warning us about the confiker virus. It didn't really give any good solutions, it just warned the staff about how it is slated to be activated tomorrow (April 1).

I have a few problems with that. Mainly that it is their job to make this a non-issue, how would a client respond if I were to tell them "that system I designed for you, it won't work at all" and walk off?

It seems the the number of "warnings" I get about viruses is second only to stupid jokes when it comes to stupid mass e-mails. Most give dire warning about how it will melt my hard drive, steal my credit card number and kidnap my children, so I should send this e-mail to everyone I know. I find them funny, as it highlights the computer illiterate around me.

So make sure you don't have this evil virus, I hear that it will steal your kidneys in your sleep and eat your dog.

IC's drinking problem (part 2)

After writing yesterday's post, I ended up having a long conversation about the scope and the root of the drinking culture in Iowa City. In addition we discussed possible solutions and the possible unintended consequences of those solutions.

I know my audience base isn't very large (in fact I feel the majority of my readers were included in the discussion yesterday) however I am interested in turning this into a larger conversation.

• What are possible ways to reduce the amount of alcohol imbibed in Iowa City (in the next year or two)?
  
• What are possible ways to reduce the issues caused by the drinking culture in Iowa City?
• What should bar owners/operators be responsible for? What shouldn't they be held responsible for?
  
• What state/national regulations would prevent taxing served drinks in Iowa City?

Please leave your comments, I am interested in hearing what you have to say.