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.