Christmas Roast Leftover Chili

Simple recipe, guaranteed to make 3 day old leftovers delicious

1 container of Pomi brand diced tomatoes.
1 Can of Goya Pinto beans
1 red onion, medium sized
1 red pepper
6 garlic segments(think they're called cloves, but that requires research)
2 jalapeno peppers
1 tblspn ancho chili powder
1 tblspn chili powder
1 tblspn paprika
1 tspn cloves
1 tspn oregano
1 tspn cumin
1/4 cup olive oil(if needed)
1 healthy pour of bourbon, I use Beam or Jack..but to each their own

with the last ingredient being 'leftovers' the minimum is two 1 inch thick cuts of rib roast or 4 of filet, but if you're using filet, I'm gonna reach through my screen and smack you silly for being a douche. I mean seriosly, filet? for Chili...

-Recipe is simple, find a crock pot and combine the Pomi, beans and all the spices, turn it on low.
-Dice up the onion and red pepper, then add them to the crock pot as well, stir everything up nicely
-Slice the jalapeno's in half and add them to the mix in the pot.
-add the bourbon

-Slice the roast leftovers into small pieces, as small as you're able to do easily, and add them to the mix. By now it should be mostly solid. If the mix isn't more solid pieces(ie onion, pepper, meat) then cut up another 1 inch thick cut, or more. It usually takes me 2-4 depending on how well i sliced the roast.

-Once the mixture looks right( yes that's a scientific term) add the olive oil. I use less oil if there are fattier portions present, but more if the meat is leaner.

Leave the crock pot on low for at least 4 hours, i usually set it when i head to work and its done 8-9 later when i get home, but 4 seems to be the minimum. Then server

Top with cheddar, parm/reg or your favorite cheese and use sour cream to make it less hot. Enjoy..

-Note: If it comes out 'soupy' add more meat and/or vegi's next time around.

Where to Next

I need a trip, and I'm open to ideas. Right now I would like snow in order to get some skiing in, but other than Taos and Telluride is there snow anywhere in the continental US? East Coast is toast right now, and until the weather changes I don't see any skiing or boarding here, so what's good? Anyone out there know about Salt Lake? Montana?
Otherwise i guess its to somewhere warm..

Random Fact

The first helicopter flight trainer was constructed before the first Helicopter ever took flight. The reason is he wasn't sure he would be able to fly the contraption when it took off due to potential difficulties working with a collective and stick at the same time. The first helo is shown below the VS300...Goes to show you can make a simulator before ever making the real thing

Clean and Jerk mixed with a front squat

So this is one of my favorite exercises, and probably one any trainer would hate, but i like because it beats the crap outta me. The only other wise is the gym I work out in has the proper rubberized weights so i can get that extra one in without fear of cracking a plate when I drop it at the end.

The exercise itself is a hybrid of the Clean and Jerk, with a front squat in between the clean phase and the jerk motion....at speed, and by speed i mean as fast as i can move until i feel like booting. So great exercise. I think part of why I love this exercise is the muscles it hits, and adding in the front squat hits the hamstrings as well as the quads, for more burn and quick burnout, which is perfect when i have 15-20 minutes to work out. Mix this in with pull-ups and some rows for speed(500m fast as possible) and you'll be burned out quick.
 If not I'm a big wimp and need to hit the gym

Vibram Runs

Every Vibram Run is more painful than a non-vibram run

But not in a musculus-skelatal way, more in a sore muscles way. 8 runs in a row on the KSO's is making me sore, but starting to run better again. Need sprints in a week

Blinking

So the Builder blinked, we had already walked away and were about to sign a rental lease and they blinked. This wasn't unexpected, but the method of the endgame negotiation was definitely unorthodox. Usually in negotiating, the selling party will blink immediately after declination, or within hours. In this case it was multiple hours later, with an immediate we accept. Which is very odd to me.

In this case, the builder gave one counter-offer on price of property, we gave 2 different counters on closing. The final bargain forced them to make a big change in closing and up on property cost...so overall a better deal for us, but a lot more upfront was given. To me this seemed weird, almost like a botched negotiation as it went the way they didn't want it to in the end, as they gave up 3k extra over their best offer. All upfront which saves a lot on our end, and totally changes the curves for payback(ie more into principle up front vs interest)

Interesting dynamic, definitely a strange negotiation, very different than business negotiations where there is a lot of back and forth, movement, offerings and understanding of what the end game is. Here, we came out ahead of what we initially wanted...and gave little. It was very strange.

We tried to buy a house

Unfortunately it's still TBD. But i did learn the entire process is fucked up, and that's putting it simply. You cannot just walk into a builders office and say i will pay you X dollars for this property. Instead, in Maryland, you need a realtor and ours was an idiot.

Ours couldn't do math, he spent half a day trying to convince us that a .5% interest rate increase was worth 4,000 in lender credit...really? Addition failed him later as well...


But more so, it looks like in America we have a system where people with no real understanding of economics, writing, math or even negotiating is responsible for your ability to find a place to live. Now wonder poorly built places, with incomplete and incorrect assembly are going for $350,000, because they can. Our realtor was more concerned with 'making the deal' but wouldn't budge on his commission which was the sticking point, nor was he any real use..but we had to use him.

On top of this are ~70 pages of documents that needed to be signed, before an offer could be made, to find out that the counter-offer sucked and wasn't worth my time at all. So can i get a place where i can walk in..with cash and buy it? I mean the loan and cash upfront aren't an issue, but stop trying to prop up a crappy home-market, it just screws people over and makes it all worse.

In summary, I hate real estate.

Altitude Change is a Biatch

So I'm enjoying the lovely Salt Lake City area this week, and belying and sarcasm i do love the area. Park city is great, Salt Lake has a surprisingly thriving nightlife with amazing food(just drive near S 300 West) and a new light rail going from the airport to downtown. But the problem is that the city is at 4,000ft above sea level. I haven't gone this high up in a while and damn do my runs suck. Struggled through both runs so far..and can't wait to get back to 50 ft above...then again I'll be back for some skiing

ps rankings(for skiing)
ALTA
Canyons
Park City

I'll get to the rest this year