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Lake & Irving is one of our favorite restaurants and they re-opened last week with a limited takeout menu. They have a great setup for getting it to your car and is completely contactless. The Cheeseburger is so delicious! 🍔

Brown paper takeout bag with receipt attached sitting on a round table outside Lake and Irving restaurant
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Family was craving for some Pavarotti ice cream tonight so Tyler and I made a stop at Sebastian Joe’s! Cold day but they were doing a steady curbside pickup business.

Sebastian Joes ice cream and coffee shop exterior in Minneapolis with neon Open sign and hours posted in window
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Happy Mother’s Day to my amazing wife Tammy! She is the center of our family. 💕 Our very first pandemic Mother’s Day! 🤠

Woman in a navy quilted jacket smiling with two blonde girls in a backyard on a spring day.
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A very Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom, and to all the Mom’s out there!

Two smiling people outdoors, a man in a red plaid shirt and a woman in a purple puffer jacket with curly gray hair and glasses.
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Just wrapped up my first attempt at doing pulled pork using the Sous Vide. I started the Sous Vide last night. I let it run for 20 hours at 165. When I pulled the bag out the pork had shrunk and there was about 3-4 cups of liquid in the bag. I poured the liquid into a sauce pan to reduce on the stove. I transferred the pork to the Big Green Egg and let it smoke for 3 hours at 280, with some good chunks of hickory for added smoke. 🔥

When I pulled the pork off the grill the bone pulled out clean and the meat shredded just by pushing on it. It had nice flavor. After pulling it I poured the reduced liquid over to taste. It was delicious and really easy.

Next time I will add more dry rub before putting it on the grill. Otherwise it was one of the best pork butts I’ve ever made. 🐖

Smoked pork butt with dark bark resting on a wood cutting board, bone partially exposed, surrounded by rendered juices.Smoked pork butt sliced open on a wooden cutting board, showing tender shredded meat with a dark bark crust.Shredded pulled pork in a large stainless steel mixing bowl with two pairs of tongs resting across it, on a kitchen counter.

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Transferred the pork butt to the Big Green Egg after 20 hours in Sous Vide. Time for the finish smoke at 280 for 2-2.5 hours. Reducing the liquid from Sous Vide bag to add back to pulled pork.

Spice-rubbed pork butt on a Big Green Egg charcoal grill with a temperature probe wire visible on the grate. Hand holding an Angry Trout Cafe pint glass of amber beer in front of a Big Green Egg kamado grill in a backyard.
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A good newsletter is usually:

  1. Consistent in frequency
  2. Consistent in format
  3. Endlessly repeatable with new content.

— Austin Kleon

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First Peloton FTP Test

I did my first Functional Threshold Power test today. This is a good way to measure my fitness progress over time. Peloton doesn’t advertise it much, but they have some great built-in capabilities for power. After you do an FTP test ride for example, the bike automatically prompts you to store your average wattage and then in all rides going forward you get a realtime power meter that is customized to you.

There is no good or bad for this. I did struggle with holding my power over the course of the 20 minute test. I felt pretty spent by the time it got to the last exertion level.

Peloton FTP test results showing 20 min ride with 454 cal, 282 kj output, 235 avg watts, 57 pct resistance, 77 rpm, and power zone breakdown chart.

The heart rate graph is a little off. I’m using mPaceline for this and it has my Max HR a little higher than it should be. The main thing I took away from HR was that I was giving it my full effort. I also think my HR was higher than it should have been for the Zone 4 and 5 sections.

Peloton FTP test ride stats showing 20 minutes, 454 calories, 282 kJ output, 235W avg, 158 bpm avg HR, 83% time in Threshold zone.

I’m going to do one of these tests every 6-12 weeks to check-in on progress.

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First time doing a pork butt using Sous Vide. Pork will cook at 165 in the water bath for 20 hours and will finish with a 2 hour smoke on the Big Green Egg tomorrow. Following Serious Eats directions. 🔥

Pork butt heavily coated in dry rub spices resting on a silicone-lined baking sheet on a white countertopVacuum-sealed pork butt with dry rub submerged in a clear sous vide container with a circulator attached, sitting on a wire rack.

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Unemployment from pandemic.

Line chart of U.S. unemployment rate from 1948 to 2020 showing a historic spike to 14.7% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Line chart showing share of employed US population from 1950 to 2020, dropping sharply to a historic low of 51.3% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bar chart showing monthly U.S. job changes from 2006 to 2020, with a catastrophic drop of negative 20.5 million jobs in April 2020.