My second attempt to bake focaccia bread was a success. I got a nice golden brown crust on the outside and fluffy texture on the inside. I bought a thermometer and made sure the water was at 115 F before adding to the dry yeast; the yeast was “activated” successfully and helped the dough to rise. The dough was baked for 25 minutes in 400 F oven.

Good looking dough.

Enough to feed the Barrel office.

Love the golden brown crust. Secret ingredient: Parmesan cheese.

Crunchy on the outside and fluffy inside.

A slice of focaccia for my late night munchy.

The X-factor: thermometer; never bake without it!

I found pleasure baking my own bread because I know that my ingredients are clean and fresh. Rule of thumb, if you can’t pronounce any ingredient (or do not know what it is) from the nutrition label that comes with your bread, something is fishy and get rid of it! Your effort to eat good carbohydrates, bread made with unprocessed flour, will give you energy to workout harder tomorrow!

What bread recipe would you like to guinea-pig?

Newly picked Jersey cherries; they were picked this morning and will be in Guinea Pig’s tummy.

Organic produce is usually more expensive (could be cheaper) than the conventional grown  fruits and vegetables in a supermarket. However, an useful score card on pesticides exposure created by Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research group, can help you choose what kind of organic food to buy if you are shopping with a budget.

Join the 100-mile club!

My buddy, Kelvin, swam with me today. Kelvin is an experienced swimmer; he was on the YMCA swim team when he was in high school. Later on, he had continued his training with Scarlet Masters Swim, a club under the US Masters Swim program.

Kelvin’s technique is flawless; he moves like a fish in the water. We did a quick set of sprints together; 300 meters followed by 200, 100, and 50. We started the set with the intensity of 80% of race pace, then built up gradually to 100% towards the end. Kelvin beat me in every sprint by the length of the pool at least - Guinea Pig got owned.

Warm-up

• 400 meters freestyle
• 300 meters pull buoy
• 300 meters kicks

Pre-sets

• 200 meters hand paddles with pull buoy
• 200 meters hand paddles without pull buoy

Main sets:

• 3 x 50 meters sprints
• 3 x 75 meters sprints
• 300, 200, 100, 50 meters sprint (intensity built from 80%)
• 3 x 50 meters sprints
• 3 x 100 meters sprints, alternating between freestyle and breast stroke every 25 meters

Total distance: 2875 meters

Note to Myself: smaller but more frequent kicks in the water to help me improve aquatic balance.

My friends and I joke about a phrase, Chinese-it, to describe frugality or cheapness.

French cooking has been known to utilize every bit of ingredient, down to the last piece of chicken bone. Recently, I have tried to imitate the great French culinary tradition by using “unwanted parts” of any food (I call it “frenching”), such as the bottom part of asparagus, which is always chewy and hard.

I made a asparagus pesto over the weekend. I ground the bottom part of all the asparagus that I have consumed last week and added toasted pine nuts and extra virgin olive oil. I seasoned the pesto with black pepper, salt, and paprika. The result was astonishing; the pesto tasted very creamy and light for the stomach, and I used it in every meal. I dipped raw asparagus (yes, raw! fresh Jersey asparagus is crunchy and tastes a little sweet) into the pesto in last night’s dinner.

So, please guinea-pig some recipes with unwanted goods. “Frenching” leftover ingredients is a challenge to your creativity and you can truly eat the most out of the dollar spent!

Building a relationship with your local farmers is crucial for finding the best local ingredients. I am very fortunate to have found a local farm market that sells local and seasonal food. I went back to Schieferstein farm market this morning with my friend, Won, and we were able to buy some fresh produce picked yesterday from south Jersey. The owner of Schieferstein farm market was not only enthusiastic at telling me the upcoming seasonal fruits and vegetables, but he also showed me all the locations where he harvests his food on a Jersey map hung in his store (will have a picture of it next time).

Here’s what I purchased today:

Spinach, Jersey asparagus, squash, and zucchini.

Smoked bacon; made by a Schieferstein owner’s butcher friend. Finding a local butcher who makes fresh cuts is just as important for eating locally.

Total: $12.00

In my attempt to use the rosemary I bought a couple weeks ago, I decided to bake focaccia bread. After years of cooking experience, I actually have never baked any kinds of bread. Thus, baking is completely new to me. After reading the recipe over and over, I was enthusiastic and confident about baking the perfect focaccia.

Little did I know, the degree of precision needed in baking is crucial, especially working with yeast; it is the main ingredient that raises the dough and gives a soft texture inside a focaccia bread. Active dry yeast needs to be “activated” with sugar and warm water, 115~120 F; the water temperature has to be absolutely perfect. As an inexperienced baker, I only estimated the temperature. As you might have guessed (”active” dry yeast), too high of the temperature can kill the yeast, and too low of the temperature won’t activate the yeast to raise the dough. Either way, my yeast was not activated correctly and my focaccia bread turned out dry and hard inside.

Better luck next time, Guinea Pig.

Temperature used to activate the yeast is absolutely crucial!

Aromatic rosemary.

Don’t let it fool you, it was as tough and dry as it could be - not good.

Like pizza, it needs some toppings.

Toppings: grated Parmesan, chopped rosemary, coarse salt, and high quality extra virgin olive oil.

Just look, don’t eat. I promise to guinea-pig the recipe again, until perfection.

Still made a pork belly(two slices, everything in moderation, remember?) sandwich out of the foccaccia bread; it still had a crusty top, which is what the outside texture should be.

Any baking tips for the Sweaty Guinea Pig?

Either you are changing your routine or squeezing a short workout into your schedule, here’s the good news: if you increase the intensity of your workout while keeping it short, the workout may still be as effective, in fighting diseases or losing weight, as running for an hour.

Although sprints or intervals of high intensity workout is effective, don’t give up on the traditional endurance training that requires time and…time. For anyone who’d like to improve his or her skills in running, biking, swimming or other sports, the only way is to spend time and practice. Your body will only adapt to the right techniques if you train it to do so.

So, get up and get out, make every minute count!

Lesson: If you have shoe clips on your bike, always…always have one of your feet clipped onto the bike before paddling away.