Dining Delights | Peaches Prattlings

{May 4, 2016} Happy Hour and Dinner

It wad a good day, ended very nicely.

After a good day of training, I joined the team for happy hour at a bar near the office. It was great, I met more people, got to know others better and blend in even more.

Our numbers started to dwindle and eventually, there were just a few of us left. MS, the implementation lead and very smart man who brought me on to the project, and I left to get some dinner.

We went to a great place called La Scarola,
http://www.lascarola.com/. It is an Italian restaurant, two rooms, but small almost hole on the wall feeling. The place was packed and the got us at one of the last tables in the corner in front of the window.

It was a little get to know each other, what are my goals, where to you see yourself, that sort of thing. Then it was families, travel, life outside of work, quite enjoyable. It’s nice when you have the opportunity to get to know someone one on one, away from everything else, better working relationship.

We had grilled calamari, I ate some, it was really good, but I think that might be it for me for calamari. It was Italian and I went for it, eggplant parmigiano, fabulous mistake! So good, but so bad. I couldn’t finish any of it, the portions were huge! Looking for someone who might be hungry today!

By the time we finished it was about ten pm, time to catch a cab and head back to our respective domiciles.

I put on my jammies and started talking to you and let’s just say I was so tired I dozed off a few times trying to finish!

But I did it and now…zzzzzzz

PS…Maybe the fourth be with you!

{May 2, 2016} OMG! YUM! Happy Happy!

It’s the little things, right?

I told you about the vegan restaurant I found last week, Native Foods, and then chicken salad and peanut butter pudding, which was fabulous. Well…

Today, I went back for exactly what I wanted…a vegan ruben and oh my goodnesss, it was freaking fantastic! I’m not kidding! It had Seiten “meat”, sourkraut, thousand island dressing and cheese, on rye bread. The “meat” looked real, the cheese was made from cashews. I couldn’t believe it!

I accompanied the sandwich with sweet potato fries and never even got to the oatmeal pie for dessert, I ate the second half of the sandwich. Yes, it was that good!

Tomorrow? Again? Maybe! It’s the little things, right?

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{April 30, 2016} A crazy, wonderful at home day.

Back to life on the road…ahhh…

When you’re a road warrior, as it were, meaning that you are on the road each week, for some it’s one or a few days a week, for me, as you know, it’s 100%, Monday thru Thursday or Friday and depending on the training or go-live schedule, it could be weeks in a row.

That being said, when you’re on the road that much, your home time is precious, you want to get things done and you seem to jam a lot of stuff in a short amount of time, you get good at it.

Today, I thought…I was at least going to get to sleep in, after the first week on the project, I could have used it. Well, what I thought and the fur beasts thought was different. It was barely 6am…really? Sigh

I got up and protested by not getting out of bed until at least 7:30/8am, so there, take that! I got up, gathered all items for laundry, I didn’t think it was going to be that much, but someone..not saying who, Jymy or Peanut…puked on my blankets, ick.

Laundry collected, check. I bought this giant rolling suitcase when I was in Colorado to bring stuff back and let me tell you, keeping it! It’s perfect to get my laundry, including blankets to the laundromat. Yessireeebob!

First order of business…food. I have no eggs in the house, so to the local diner I go,[ after a stop at the drug store to pick up a prescription. [IF I didn’t have insurance it would have been over $1000! Omg!]. Then breakfast. While eating, got some work done, gotta fit it in somewhere!

After breakfast head back to the apartment to pick up the laundry and head to the washers. The place was packed! I missed out on the giant washers, so two medium washers. One giant dryer and one medium. Two hours later I was done, the comforter took forever!

I took a picture of a set of socks GES got me for Chanukah. One of the women on the team had a shirt on that almost matched. Then we showed off our socks, it was goofy, I know! So, I sent the picture to her!

What did you think this post a about with a picture of socks

Back home, drop off laundry, grab grocery bags, head to the store. Eggs: check, litter: check, other stuff I don’t really need: check!

Back to the house, clean, clean, clean: litter box, bathroom, vacuum, bedroom. Clean…ahhh… somewhere in there I made egg salad and veggies chicken salad, fabulous!

All of a sudden it was 7pm and time to meet GES, ACS and some other friends to break Passover. What does that mean? Bread!!! Pasta! Bread!!! It was a lot of fun, always it, friends out, grownup conversation and silliness.

Back to the apartment, thinking about putting the laundry away and what I might need to pack for the week. Washing and folding is easy..putting away is hard! [Same thing for the dishwasher!]

Now, I am writing you and shortly, I will settle in, turn off the lights, watch Netflix until I fade out completely! Tomorrow is another day, heading back out to the client site. Who wants to come with me?

{April 29, 2016} A travel day treat!

Today was a travel day, heading back to Boston.

My very dear friend RJS was traveling to Chicago this weekend for a conference and we realized we would be like ships passing in the night, my flight was leaving at 3:30pm and she was getting in at 4pm.

As I go to the airport I got notice that my flight was delayed, guess who I texted first! Perfect, she was just landing!

She came into another terminal and decided to come my way and hang out with me while I waited for my flight. Fabulous!

We found each other, hugged a bunch then went to get something to seat, tea and fruit tarts, yum! Not to worry my Passover following friends, I only ate the fruit and custard. Tee hee hee. Guess who got to eat the crust, lucky girl!

This visit was fantastic and made my wait all the better! Ah…

I hope you have the best time RJS!!

{April 28, 2016} What a day! It started blech…and got better!

When I say it started early, I wasn’t kidding. 3:30AM! Yes, I said 3:30AM!

I am staying at a hotel I really like in Chicago on my new project, The Palmer House, http://www.palmerhousehiltonhotel.com/about-our-hotel/. It’s a grand and historic hotel, I don’t know if you remember me telling you about the weekend I spent in Chicago about two years ago.

I checked in, headed up to my room, changed into my jammies and settled in to eat some dinner and get some work done. I was tired and crashed out early, you know, for me that’s about 11:30pm/12am. There were loud voices coming from one of the rooms, I didn’t see anyone in the hallway and let it go.

At 3:30AM when I woke the voices were still going and getting louder, including the room across the hall. I can’t believe it, but I “narc-ed”, I called down to the front desk to voice my concern. I don’t think they actually sent security up to do anything about it, because the only thing I heard was more voices coming down the hall, calling out room numbers, looking for…yup, the room across the hall.

I opened the door and they just looked at me, no apologies, gee thanks. When I closed the door, I heard them continue to knock and the people inside the room, talking and “shush”ing. Please shut up!

And…as you know, with my trouble with insomnia, I couldn’t fall back asleep, pook. I did fall asleep about 6am for an hour, it was a glorious hour!

Ok, so that was the start. Then…when I went to take a shower…after 15 minutes I gave up and took a sponge bath in the sink, fun, at least there was hot water. I got dressed and headed to the office, it should take about 20 minutes.

I missed my turn, the sign is very small, so, I walked the quarter mile back to my turn and then on to the office. I really didn’t want to be late and…I wasn’t. It was a decent walk and it added to my steps, priorities you know. The flowers are all in bloom.

The training day was good, I learned a lot, got to know people even better, welcomed a new person and I trained them on what I learned yesterday, pretty cool!

After work, I walked back to the hotel, no issues this time! I decided to say something, so I ended up at the front desk talking to a manager, told him what happened last night and this morning. He upgraded me to a king room on the executive level, you know…need a key to get onto the elevator and it’s a special elevator that holds just a few people, with a bench, love it!

Part of the reason for noises is that the NFL Draft is happening in Chicago, this weekend and a bunch of them are staying at this hotel! Go figure! Sorry, I don’t know football players, couldn’t tell you who is here, but there are some massive guys walking around the hotel, blocking the doorways!

I went up to my new room…ahhhh. Then off to find some dinner and found a fabulous vegan restaurant, Native Foods Cafe, https://www.nativefoods.com/. I’m looking forward to going next week to get something in sandwich form! I got a chicken salad and a peanut butter pudding for dessert, just finished it, fabulous! And I feel great! All vegan! Wahoo!

On the way back to the hotel, I gave a homeless guy the rest of my salad, it felt good to be able to share my meal with someone who was in need. I missed that from my days in Michigan.

When I got in, I decided to take a shower, just to be on the safe side, in case I have the same problem in the morning and it was hot and glorious! Fingers crossed I don’t have an issue in the morning.

So…the day started out not so great, improved along the way, Hilton pulled it out and I had a great meal and now I’m sitting here talking to you, what could be better? Please keep your fingers crossed I get to sleep past 3, 4, 5, 6am even!

{April 23, 2016} Chag Semeach…second night of Passover

Another rousing success.

Today we hung out with PSM’s brother’s family, then went to his aunt and uncle’s house for their family seder.

It’s great getting to experience other people’s traditions. PSM’s family was raised more conservative than my family and their seder was a little different, it followed more traditional lines, there was more Hebrew and more singing, and more singing in Hebrew. everyone read from the haggadah, something I like that we do as well, everyone participates, that is very important.

What was not different in any way was the amount of food, the noise level, the kids, both children and adults were rowdy and out of hand here and there, which, it turns out, is very common. Don’t believe me, check out people’s posts on Facebook!

Everyone is always so accommodating to my special dietary needs. PSM’s Auntie L made me special soup and a stuffed acorn squash, oh my! And thank you so very much!

Everyone there is so kind, caring and welcoming, I feel like part of the family, we had only been dating a few months last year when he invited me to be a part of hours families second night seder, I was touched and this year it was even more familiar, thank you!

Some families will celebrate the first two nights and the last two nights. We are done! We will keep kosher and follow the dietary rules, for the most part, for the next 6 nights, but our seder days are over, for this year at least. I look forward to seeing what next year holds!

{April 23, 2016} Chag Sameach…second night of Passover

Another rousing success.

Today we hung out with PSM’s brother’s family, then went to his aunt and uncle’s house for their family seder.

Everyone is always so accommodating to my special dietary needs. PSM’s Auntie L made me special soup and a stuffed acorn squash, oh my! And thank you so very much!

{April 22, 2016} A Happy Passover

Today is the first day of Passover, so mush celebrating has begun!

I know we’ve talked about Passover before, so I hope you don’t mind a little more.

Passover is the telling of the story of the Jews exodus from Egypt. It took them 40 years, only fitting the seder takes a few hours! The seder is the meal and service all rolled into one. There are symbolic foods that go with the seder and have a certain place in the seder, or service, when they are eaten.

There are certain prayers said during the seder representing different things and over different foods. There are four glasses of wine to drink, there is matzoh to represent the bread of affliction, eggs to represent new life, salt water to represent our tears, karpas, or greens represents the flourishing is Jews in Israel, maror is the mortar that held the bricks of the pyramid together, and so much more.

We gather around the table and each person has a haggadah, which is the prayer book that tells the story of the exodus, what everything means, blessings over the different foods and when to eat them, there is symbolism in everything! Maybe you were like me and had the Maxwell House haggadah when you were a kid!

There are very traditional seders and less traditional. When I was younger, they were more traditional, but still do much fun. Our seders lasted for hours because we were laughing, singing and eating. Oh, and observing of course!

After EJS came on the scene, we stated having seders in Boston at GES’ house and they became like my “orphan” thanksgiving in Atlanta. All different families coming together to celebrate and we had more and more wee tots at the table. When EJS was born, I got her Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah and GES took that and marked it to go along with the traditional haggadahs that we had so we could use them together.

This also cut the seder down quite a bit since most of the little kids, all under 8, have the attention span of a gnat, especially when you get them all together! We conver all the bases and basics but not to the level as when GES and I were kids.

When I go to PSM’s family seder tomorrow, it will definitely be more traditional..and take a lot longer! But just as much laughing and singing and food.

There is so much more to tell you, tomorrow!

{April 22, 2016} A Happy Passover

Today is the first day of Passover, so much celebrating has begun!

I know we’ve talked about Passover before, so I hope you don’t mind a little more.

When I go to PSM’s family seder tomorrow, it will definitely be more traditional..and take a lot longer! But just as much laughing and singing and food.

There is so much more to tell you, tomorrow!

{April 21, 2016} We’re home…let’s cook!

We got home from dad’s and it was time to get down to business.

Tonight is erev pesach, that means night before passover, which begins tomorrow at sundown. We’ve tales about passover before and I’ll talk more about it tomorrow, today is for cooking.

There is so much food to prep and cook, there are menus, recipes, shopping. We send out a list to people coming to see what they can make and then GES and I figure out the rest. When we were kids and my mom’s mom still had it at her house, grandma, me, mom and GES would cook up a storm the days before.

Then when it moved to my parents house, me, mom and GES would cook, grandma was still responsible for the homemade applesauce, which I always teased her was not sweet enough, she’d pretend to hit me, it was our thing.

Then, it was GES and I cooking and hosting at dad’s and then after EJS came into our lives, its been in Boston ever since, with GES and I cooking and hosting.

So, this year, as we always do, we make a plan and then away we go. This year, instead of cooking a few chickens, Costco cooked them for us! 10 rotisserie chickens, done!

We started at Costco and got most of what we needed, then the grocery store for the rest. We headed home and after some dinner, decided tonight would be desserts, the rest tomorrow. Some stuff, like the soup was made last weekend and frozen, matzoh balls tomorrow.

Since it was desserts, we made matzoh brittle, yum! Macaroons, yum! And cookie jam drops, omg, yum! I can’t wait to eat tomorrow!

I can’t wait to tell you all about tomorrow!! Better yet, come join us!

See…Y U M!!

And the plan of attack, from the planner herself, my sister!

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