BONUS TRAVEL

 

What time is it? Bonus Travel Time!! My travel season ended a little while ago, but I forgot about the potential for bonus travel! Between Hurricane Sandy and the snowstorm, travel for me and my coworkers has been kind of screwed up. Plenty of our visits and fairs were canceled so instead of moving on, I'm doing some makeup work and am in NJ for 2 days and NY for 1. I really want to blog about my "Travel Season Commandments" and a few other things from travel, but I'll just be patient until Thursday when travel really will be 100% finished. So for now, it's Bonus Travel Time which coincidentally is also Bonus Bacon Time aka a few more days for me to feast on whatever I want before going back to buying groceries. 

Thanksgiving

I don't think I really need to explain a lot here. We all know what Thanksgiving means, but to me it means something a little bit more. I love the day because I get to see my awesome family, eat massive amounts of delicious food, and watch football, but I also love the day because of an unspoken challenge I have. I don't want to accept the challenge, I try to avoid it, but every year I end up attempting and completing the challenge of "can I make myself so overly uncomfortable that I need to lay down for extended periods of time to try and breathe normal again". It's not a fun game, but I play it every year on Thanksgiving and every year I'm victorious, and here's why:

First up is the antipasto where I go ham - Italian ham that is. Prosciutto, salami, pepperoni, like 3 kinds of cheeses, and a variety of veggies (HEALTHY). Drench everything in dressing and boom! And if that wasn't enough, this is where I throw back a minimum of 3 pieces of pepperoni bread and a ton of potato rolls. Those roles are lethal because they're so tiny! I'll butter one and pop it in my mouth like a Skittle and eat it before I finish buttering the next one.

This round of food is where I CLEAN UP. I actually cooked the sauce this year and did a pretty decent job if I do say so myself. Stuffed shells (or any other cheese filled pasta) are my weakness so I always eat more than the recommended serving of 1 or 2. Throw on a couple of meatballs and cover it all in grated cheese and that's what I'm all about. I made it clear that this round is where I CLEAN UP, so after the food is gone, I use a few of those heavenly potato rolls to clean up the remaining sauce on my plate. Just doing my part with the dishes.

BEER. Lots and beer throughout the day ranging from Magic Hat IPAs to Sam Adams Holiday Porters to Guinness to whatever else.

 

After a full 15 rounds we go to the judge's scorecard and he tells me the fight didn't even start yet. Those were all under card fights and now it's time for the main event: TURKEY. At this point I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open, breathing, and really functioning as a normal human being in any way. I'm having such a tough time with life that sitting down is a 5 minute process. But it's Thanksgiving so it's time to suck it up and get out there. Turkey, corn, stuffing, and ridiculously buttered and creamy homemade mashed potatoes. Every bite was so good but every bite brought me one step closer to falling asleep and not waking up again. I took care of just about everything before passing out on the couch like I was legit dead. Challenge Accepted and Challenge Complete. Oh, and after 45 minutes or so, it was time to go to my aunt and uncle's for dessert. It's a modern day miracle I'm able to write this post and I'm not still on the couch or in a hospital somewhere. Thanksgiving, you've done it again! 



Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

I'm taking a break from my Travel Season recap to pay RESPECT to a holiday that gets overlooked due to Christmas. Most people think I don't care about Thanksgiving because I get geeked up about Christmas, but those people would be idiots. Christmas has a season and Thanksgiving has a day. Today is all about Turkey Day (and Christmas... I may or may not have bought a gift for my Aunt and Uncle this morning). I've been up and after it with mia madre since 5:00am starting the turkey, making sauce, and so on. But this post is about last night's dinner.

Honey Ham for days, rice, broccoli, PEPPERONI BREAD, apple sauce, and more. I eat at a ton of great places, but nothing beats coming home to my mother's cooking. Seriously, if I knew a girl who cooked as well as my mom or had a mom that cooked like this, I'd propose on the spot just to lock up this type of cooking.

And while I'm at it, I just had one of my mom's legendary omelets. I honestly don't get it. I watch her make it, ask her step by step what she's doing and why, yet I can never duplicate the final product. The cheese and bacon in this thing surpass what you see on 2 double quarter pounders. A few of my friends have experienced this and can back me up. Best. Cook. Ever. (Although my friend Frank Rinaldi is a head chef and owns his own restaurant down in NC, I think I might take her cooking over his, but don't tell him)

Top Spots This Travel Season

This year I had the pleasure of traveling all over the world recruiting for Western New England and looking back, there are a few places that stick out that I absolutely loved eating at.  First, let me clarify that "traveling all over the world" actually means "traveling to Long Island and different parts of NY", but it's the same thing.

For this post, I just want to highlight my three favorite places I went to this travel season as well and the three worst.  A lot of them will be mainstream places, but that doesn't mean they're not worthy of visiting.

Where would I be without Miller's Ale House?  Outside of Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Target, I have the most receipts from good old Miller's.  There's really nothing crazy special about this place, but it was where I spent a few Sundays watching football with a lot of good people on the road.  They have good beer, better food (love me some Zingers), and just a great atmosphere which is why I kept going back for me.  Plus, how can you beat a place that has New England clam chowder in a bread bowl?  Always a great warmup before diving into some wings.

Up next would be Dave and Buster's aka an adult playground!  I'm so happy there was more than one location on Long Island because this place is seriously a ton of fun.  The food is nothing special, but everything else is.  So what if I'm banned from Chuckie Cheeses because I'm "too old to be in there".  I have Dave and Buster's which is 10 times more fun!  I'm pretty sure I went here 3 times in 2 days because the chicken strips aren't bad at all and I wanted to run around and win tickets.  I did find out a few things about myself...
1- I am not as good as I thought I was at air hockey (although I'm still the champ)
2- Trivia is not my game (it's ridiculous how many times I finished 3rd or 4th out of 5 people)
3- Bartenders can be the coolest people in the world if you have a good one (Joan aka J-Smooth)
4- Said bartender gets even cooler when she calls you by your college nickname "BiG"
5- Not one of my friends is a decent Connect 4 player

 Last, but certainly not least is a place that I drove by for 3 years and kept passing on stopping at.  The Double O Grill might be my new favorite place to eat in the Fishkill/Poughkipsee area.  Perfect blend of a diner/restaurant/bar/lounge.  Really cool on the inside as evidenced by the picture, and the staff is fantastic.  After I ate there I immediately regretted not stopping there the past 3 years.  A more detailed recap of this place will come in the next week or so...

Those were my favorite 3 places (although there were plenty of other places I could have picked), but I also have to mention the worst.  I blogged about it a few months ago, but the Majestic Diner was a big flop.  The main reason is as follows:

 This is garlic bread with cheese.  This is what I ordered and this is what I wanted.  Instead, I was given the following:

 These are waffle fries with cheese.  Although I absolutely 100% LOVE WAFFLE FRIES, I did not order them.  This picture is also a random one I found online.  I feel the need to say that because the fries I had weren't anywhere near that good looking.  In addition to this debacle, no one I ate with FINISHED THEIR MEAL.  And, to top it off, a few of those meals were SALADS... RYAN.  I guess it "serves" us right for not making a reservation anywhere...

I Guess I Gained Some Weight

Travel season for me officially ended this past Friday when I took the ferry back from Long Island and drove to my home in CT.  Definitely a bittersweet moment because I love travel, but I was definitely happy to sleep in my own bed and start to have some sort of routine again with my life.  After it's all said and done, it looks like I brought a little something extra home with me from travel besides hundreds of dollars worth of Christmas gifts that I already bought (link to find the Christmas Tree Shop closest to you!).

I weighed myself before leaving for travel in September and then again this past weekend when travel was over and sweet mother of mercy did I gain weight.  Gaining weight while traveling for work is inevitable because I'm FORCED AGAINST MY WILL to eat out.  It's also very easy to add bacon to everything and order dessert when the money doesn't come out of your own pocket.  Long story short, I packed on 13 pounds.

Yikes... not a good look.  But things could be worse so I'll take that unlucky 13 and knock em off in no time.  The important thing to remember here is that I enjoyed the hell out of the ride.  My next few posts (I'm thinking 3-4) will recap my travel season in its entirety so I can pick out the highlights, my favorite places to eat, and the 10 Commandments of Travel Season.

Why I Haven't Gotten Sick

As soon as I post this I'll probably start getting sick, but I figured I would let everyone in on my lil secret. Instead of ordering a giant, unhealthy meal at a diner or a restaurant, yours truly is ordering some sort of soup to warm himself up and regulate his system.

Today I went with a chicken motzah ball soup, but I usually order all kinds ranging from the classic chicken noodle to clam chowder to french onion. That's how I stay healthy and tissue free, but I would obviously order my meal too. Nothing wrong with a little soup as a warm up to warm you up before diving into a french dip or a Reuben!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AMERICA

Everyone knows I love food. I love eating food, cooking food, and buying food to either eat or cook and then eat, but what you're about to see crosses the line.

Why would you ever want a Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcake? Why? That doesn't make any sense people!! I mean I put bacon and/or ranch on just about anything, but a Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcake? Is this real? I'm kind of sad that America made this happen. And with that being said, I'm off to google this cupcake and hopefully I can but one near me. After all, I do like Mountain Dew and Doritos...

Breakfast, Lunch, AND Dinner

 

I had to work this past weekend at Western New England's Open House, but the beauty of working on the weekend means I can eat in the all-you-can-eat cafe! Instead of just getting brunch or going straight for lunch since it was 1:00pm, I decided to get a little bit of everything.

I definitely went heavy with breakfast by getting a few servings of homefries, a couple slices of ham, and two eggs over easy with cheese. Then came lunch via a turkey, bacon, ranch wrap which was "ok". Finally came the chicken marsala for dinner. Only got 2 or 3 pieces, but it was definitely worth saving room for! Dare I say that I can't wait for the December Open House?!?!

Hurricanes and Blizzards

Do you think I'm afraid of them?  Well, a little.  I've been camped out at my hotel in Fishkill, NY for both Hurricane Sandy (not to be confused with El Nino) and whatever stupid name this snow storm was dubbed and all I've been able to do is watch the carnage brought to the east coast by Mother Nature.  Flooding, fires, and just crazy amounts of destruction all over the place makes me happy that I've been staying inside a warm (not really so warm because I have the AC on down at 65 degrees) hotel that has power.  In order to combat Mother Nature, I've been ordering massive amounts of food from this place called Antonella's that delivers no matter what it's like outside.  Here's a sample of what's been brought to me:

 

When I get snowed in or hurrianced in, I like to go all out and order a lot of food in case I can't order anything the next day.  Unfortunately that means all the food gets delivered at one time and I end up eating most, if not all of it while laying on my bed watching The Office on my laptop.  For this round, I ordered Chicken Francese, a Caprese Bruschetta, and Garlic Bread w/ Cheese.  Little did I know that my meal came with a side of pasta, a side salad, two things of fresh bread, AND two orders of garlic knots for the price of OTH (on the house).  I almost cried when the guy handed me a pizza box full of food and two additional bags of food on top.

Another order was Chicken Parm where I again got a side of pasta, a side salad, and a small loaf of Italian bread.  It really pays to order the entree from one of these places because you get so much bonus food you won't know what to do with it.  And when I say "you won't know what to do with it", I mean those reading it and not me.  I knew what to do and that was eat it all and then slip into a food coma.

Two things I want to point out that are really funny to me when I order in are the expressions on the delivery guys' faces and the utensils and plates I get.  When I open the door to sign the receipt for the delivery guy he always looks confused.  I'm assuming he expected to see a family of four in my hotel room waiting for food and not just one guy.  Going with that, the restaurant I order from always gives me six of seven sets of utensils, plates, and napkins.  Again, I think these places think that this is too much for one person to order, but what are ya gonna do.  Hungry times call for hungry measures.  LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING.

Randy's Wooster Street Pizza - MVF

It's no secret that Man v. Food on the Travel Channel is one of my favorite shows.  Adam Richman is living my dream by traveling around the country and sampling the best that restaurants have to offer while getting paid to do so.  I hate that man so much because I want his life, but anyways, this was one of his many stops.  Randy's Wooster Street Pizza was actually where he did a 10 pounds stuffed pizza challenge that I was going to try, but instead we ordered the Galaxy 500 which was actually a larger yet lighter pizza.

This pizza was massive and you wouldn't know it just by looking at this picture so I had Drew do his best to give you a point of reference:

This picture doesn't even do it justice, but the moral of the story is the pizza was HUGE.  My first thought was that this pizza was gonna suck because of how big it was.  Most challenges I've tried or seen usually taste "ok" because the restaurant wants you to enjoy it, but also wants you to fail at the challenge so they can make money.  A certain restaurant in Connecticut that has a burger challenge makes their last patty taste awful so by the time you get to it, you are completely turned off from eating it.  Not gonna name names, but the point is this pizza was delicious from start to finish.  Take a look at how they layered the toppings:

That's how you do it!  That's how you put toppings on a pizza!!!  Pepperoni, bacon, and I think we did meatball/hamburger... drooling right now thinking back to how great this was.  Noticed the toppings to open cheese ratio in this picture.  Not a lot of cheese is showing which means they did a great job layering the hell outta this pizza with toppings.  Again, I didn't try the challenge, but the pizza is very good and worth going back to either try the challenge or at least try the unique pizza combinations that they have to offer.

Planet Wings - Population Me

After driving up and down Route 9 in NY for 20 minutes trying to find a diner I haven't been to, I gave up and settled on Planet Wings in Fishkill, NY. If I knew the quality of food they had before going in, I would have picked this place over a diner any day of the week.

I guess Planet Wings is a chain "fast food" place so I'm mad I broke my streak of not going to them, but it is what it is. I actually waited like 10 minutes for my food, which is unacceptable for fast food, but it was worth the wait. I ordered 10 boneless buffalo wings (they gave me 16), a "philly" cheese steak with bacon, and something called smilie fries. The first 2 things were good, but the smilie fries were outta this world. Crispy on the outside and smushy potato goodness on the inside... And I may or may not had them covered in cheese. I was definitely smiling after eating them and wished I ordered another few dozen of em.