Day 8

April 17 th

No mileage today. Rest and recuperation is the order of the day.

Up early to fix breakfast of bacon and eggs. Made bacon in microwave, eggs in cast iron skillet I found in the oven. Cast iron is great!

Wes and I visited his gym this morning. Had a great workout, 35 minutes on cycle machine and about 30 minutes doing strength exercises on the fancy machines there. This place, LifteTime Fitness. It is typical Phoenix. A hugh two story building with racket ball, squash court, basked ball, hot tub, sauna, climbing wall you name it its got it. Boy did  I need to have a workout. My ankles were swollen and I was walking stiffly. Riding that bicycle sure takes away many aches and pains. When finished I felt great, tired but great.

Activities today were almost all centered on culinary activities. First as above mentioned was of course breakfast. Then Wes was dying to make a chicken on his Traeger Smoker. In about an  hour and 10 minutes the bird was ready for  the table. It was succulent and delicious. An additional salad and  that was lunch. Later, Wes planned on making Jalapeno Poppers for the Avondale PD department. First you core out the Jalapeno peppers, then make a cheese mixture, stuff the peppers with the cheese mixture and add a beef sausage miniature, wrap in bacon and add a tooth pick. Cook on the Traeger Smoker for about an hour and  a half at smoking temperature. Then turn the heat up to crisp up the bacon.

While this was cooking we went shopping for some items for Wes's kitchen. First a cutting board, rubber spatula, cooking twine, sponges and most importantly a cast iron Dutch Oven. It just happens to  be sold at Walmart and is made in the USA. Yeah! Walmart.

Bake home to season the DO some and prep the Know Knead  bread that was started yesterday. Once the poppers were finished Wes delivered them to Avondale PD and the cast iron DO was preheated in the Traeger Smoker. After 30 minutes preheat the dough was plopped into the hot DO and placed in the smoker at 450 degrees with the lid on to make the dough steam in the DO. Then the lid is removed and the bread baked another 15 minutes or so till the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when hit. Just like when you test a watermelon or cantaloupe for ripeness. Remove bread and  set out to cool completely before cutting and enjoying delicious bread.
Before and after.

After  to follow when bread is baked.

Looks a little lite in color but sounds like it should. First time in a Traeger Smoker. Will taste once it is cooled.

TTFN