running up that hill.

On my way to the bus stop the other day I noticed a dried piece of mud on my shoe and it pretty much drove me into a spiral of OCD and neurotic behavior. As you could imagine I was walking up the hill freaking out that I was going to be late for the bus, and all I could think about was this spot on my dress shoe. So as I was frantically speed walking up the hill, while singing Kate Bush’s running up that hill, I was looking for left over snow to rub my shoe in to cleanse it from the dirt of who knows where. As I was walking up the hill I was dragging my shoe on the sidewalk to free the dried mud from my shoe and I failed the whole way to the stop.

So I am sitting on the bus I am thinking about how I could remove this mud without making myself look any crazier than the people I am sharing the bus with. Why I would even think that they are crazier than me still entertains me.

As we approach the Price Chopper stop, this older man stands up and screams; your shoes are too shiny, you need to scuff them up!

WTF?

Thank you.

There are so many reasons to be thankful this year and here are just a few.

I am thankful for Michelle and Rob for being there for me when I needed a late night ride.

Thank you Emma, Eimear and China for bringing me back to my youth and reminding me it’s never too late to make new friends.

Dina and Sabrina, you made me able to differentiate what was worth living for and who means the most in life.

Thanks Pam, I don’t know any other woman who could have put up with me for as long as you did in bed!

I am thankful for my family for always being there for me when I needed them the most. I love you guys!

Thanks Tara, you know this year would have sucked without you!

Thank you Holden, you are the best pretend boyfriend and a good listener. Love you Fluffer!

Thank you to all my coworkers, we had a hard year losing one of our own.

Thank god there is the Bahamas; otherwise I would turn into an ice cube!

I am thankful I am still alive and have such an amazing support system of friends and family.
Thank You!

A collection of recollections.

There are so many conversations to be heard while riding the CCTA that I wish I had a notebook handy to write down everything i hear during what i like to call CCTA social hour. Today’s ride into work consisted of a group of 3 to 4 people talking about all the different places they have worked, applied, and have been released from. The best was what places they have blacklisted from future employment, due to unhappy and unsafe working conditions. What intrigues me most is that they all got on at different times along the route, have they been riding public transportation all their life’s or is this just a class of people I never crossed before here in BTV? Regardless, I am truly excited to be apart of this exciting new social hour.

A large part of the conversations today were about the interviews they have had and what ones they were going to have. Thank goodness my company was not part of any of the conversation, because i want to remain bias and open minded to my new hires. Oh that sounds wrong...


If you're wondering what Burger King hires pedophiles and criminals and which one does not, you need to ride the bus with me! Everyone knows everyone’s business and they love to talk about it on the CCTA. 

Death by Chili?

The thought of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner in a slow cooker makes my stomach turn and my family ashamed they gave birth to me, but what about Chili Spiced Turkey cooked in a gorgeous poor people slow cooker?

Working in Retail and Hospitality for over the past 10 years has crippled my travel plans to spend any Holidays with the family, so i tend to spend it with close friends or drunk welcoming neighbors. This year i am managing a small 80+  scale room hotel and the budget for staff that is tight and not the tight you think i am thinking about either. Due to a number of failed new hires (Drunk and No-shows) and sicknesses with my staff (bird flu and mildly retarded Vermont grown local hires), i will be forced to work on Thanksgiving, the day of slow cooking and long drinking. This causing me to force myself to cook for one and drink for three. 

I prefer not overspend on groceries just for a one day eating event, so i am mixing cheap, lazy, poor people cooking and Thanksgiving all together in a slow cooker made by Chinese people far ashore. Just think how much more i can spend on a collection of red and white wines that will ring in the New Year and New Boys!

This could be a great alternative to a overwhelming day of cooking or death by chili!
Wish me luck Bitches!

leftovers

As most of you already know I am now a patron of the CCTA, now that my car is no longer in service. Not a day goes by on public transit without some sort of randomness. Today on my way to work I overheard two homeless men talking about how other homeless people have destroyed some of there all time favorite places to crash at. I would normally turn my head and focus on something else, but I have my iPod and my phone was buried to deep in my man sack. They were talking about the places they have been squatting over the past few years and how they have all gone to hell and over populated causing the city to shut all of their favorite areas down. Apparently homelessness is higher than I thought in BTV. This scares me and makes me wonder where they were from and what happened to them that made them who they were today?

I waited almost 15 minutes longer than usual for the bus today. As I was quite perturbed after waiting so long in this almost cold enough to drink from a "TO-GO" cup filed with some Delicious red wine, while waiting for the bus weather. I am always a little nervous waiting for the bus, because it brings back memories of high school and makes me want to walk back home and call out sick. As I get on the bus I noticed two homeless men in the front of the bus and, in the back nothing but street trash, as so many older folks like to call them. So I decide to sit in the front of the bus. In my line of work, I am more likely to become homeless than street trash (druggies) so I know where I belonged. As we approached Price Chopper the homeless man in the Electric Scooter (how did he get one of those?) gets off. This had to take about 6 to 7 minutes, I now understand why the bus took so long earlier and almost made me call out of work.

Is it OK to bring my left over slowcooker meals on the bus to give to homeless people or should I just throw them out? We all know if I bring them to work then people will just judge me on my cooking, but homeless people, i would hope not?

Does it really taste better baked twice?

During my ride home on the CCTA tonight, all could think about was a topping for my cheesecake Holly picked up for me yesterday and what i could do with that loaf of bread that's been sitting in my fridge for the past 2 weeks. First thing i did when i got home was break open that bottle of Cavit Pinot Grigio to help me conger up a mix of spices that i have collected in my cupboard over the past few years to make croutons that i refuse to buy.

One of my favorite things about cooking for one is, if it taste bad you don't have anyone to tell you it tastes bad, unless you take your left overs to work to share. While i cutting that stale loaf of bread that has been sitting in my fridge for at least 2 weeks, i thought of a couple of things; why don't bread company's make loafs for one and why do we bake bread twice to make Croutons?

Wow it smells great in my house right now!

I like to use homemade croutons in everything from salads to stews mostly because it fills me up and it's my way of avoiding the extra step of making another dish for dinner. Oh by the way i am looking forward to that Vermont Velvet cheese cake for dessert tonight. Who am i kidding? That cheese cake is my main course tonight!

Pass the water please.

I sit here on my sofa with a grin from cheek to cheek, because i finally did what i set out to to do over a week ago. I made a beef stew worthy of sharing with my friends and family. While the slow cooker was doing what it only knows how to do, I did have to sit through one of the worst movies i have seen in ages; The Tourist. Don't bother clogging your queue on Netflix with this sour excuse of a movie. Can we say Raspberry Award together?

It's hard to focus what i am typing at this late hour. Not because it is late, but because the wine i have consumed this evening has put me in a foggy yet Delicious mood. I am struggling to focus on my next bold move towards the kitchen to fetch myself a glass of pure Vermont water, but i know i will as soon as i finish typing this sentence.

How many is too many?

The slow cooker is cooking and Ani is playing, so i wonder now how many bottles of red wine will be consumed tonight. Over the past week i have attempted to cook two dinners which ended in a not so perfect finale. The first dinner was not so bad with the slight resemblance of a wine cellar and the second had chicken bones in it. I have to tell you now, i hate bones. Only bones from a animal and not of a human. I am sure most would read my prior sentence and think i like to get all Jeffery Dahmer for dinner, but i just prefer not to have bones in my food and do prefer bones in other ways.

Tonight i have a strong feeling i will master the making of a beef stew in a slow cooker, not because i have had several glasses of delicious red wine, but because i actually followed a recipe for that god for saken stew! I tend to find myself over analyzing the art of spices and just end up using way to many. I can smell that slow cooker cooking now and i  cant help myself from opening it and stirring it. I have to occupy my time now with attempting to "write a blog" now.

When i attempted to cook my first stew i used Rosemount Shiraz of Australia and it was great going down as a appetizer, but failed when i over used it as a spice in the sauce. Today i went shopping at Fresh Market or as i like to refer shopping at Fresh Market to rape. Because they did indeed rape me of my money today. I had no choice but to overspend on ingredients for the next stew. I had to because i am on foot now and no longer driving. I will fill you in on why i am not driving in my next blog. This time i chose to use Smoking Loon a Pinot Noir of California as a ingredient. So far i am not impressed.

Why? Because i am walking to that overpriced store Kerry's now for another bottle to satisfy my appetite for Delicious red wine. I think i found what i was looking for this whole time! Ravens Wood of California. I remember having it this first time at The Inn On Broadway, my first hotel i ever worked at. Its the perfect blend of blackberry and a lick of baking spice that nearly busts out of its velvet cage with a backbone and structure.

Is organic the way to go?

So I walked my neighborhood today on the search for something to make in my slow cooker tonight. After visiting the local Bodega “One Love Market”, I found affordable frozen local meats in a residential fridge, kind of weird, but the price made it OK. I decided to take it even further and shop my local organic store. They had limited foods, but the service was what sold m...e. Not to mention they had a great selection of local red and white wines and a very slim, but selective pairing of local cheeses. Now I am at the cash wrap and I get my total… Holy Foodstamps!


 Thank god I had my Noonish “Big Carl” buzz, before leaving the house.
All I am going to say now is you can keep your Organic prices! Next time I am bringing a small child with me so I distract the salespeople while I five finger discount. So here I am drinking a nice class of Pinot and making Beef Stew one more time.

Moist.

Not going to lie, the beef stew was just OK. It could have been that I forgot to steam the potatoes or that I used a half bottle of red wine in the stew. So I feel a slow cooker is the way to go regardless whether or not the recipe turns out, because you can drink till you pass out, less mess and the house smells great for a few days.


 I decided to try chicken soup in the slow cooker tonight, mostly because there was no wine involved in the recipe, just wine to fuel myself to make it. Wow I just noticed I hate the word mostly, it’s really close to moistly.


 Anyways I will keep you posted on how it turns out.

Starting a new path.

Assuming that I will have the next several months keeping myself warm and out of the blistery cold air  Vermont has to offer; I have decided to cook something new every Sunday at home. 


This Sunday I am attempting to make Beef Stew in a slow cooker. I will keep you posted if the first try ends in a epic fail and I end up ordering take out.