New Beginnings | Peaches Prattlings

{January 22, 2021} Meta Burger…What a Treat!!

Philly cheesesteak to be exact. And…VEGAN! And…FAB-U-LOUS!!!

Tonight I was looking for something to eat after I went to the local Indian Motorcycle Dealership of Denver dealership and went to my friendly neighborhood Happy Cow app and found Meta Burger, 100% vegan and only 6 minutes away, sold! I clicked directions from the Happy Cow app and away I went.

What I found was Edgewater Public Market, opened November 2019. I LOVE places like this…open space, exposed beams, open concrete floors, tables, food choices to satisfy almost any pallet, from what I saw, some in a food court type area, and some were along the walkways. There were a few stores, although it looked like they would be adding more, indoor and outdoor seating with strings of Edison bulbs. It was simple, open, inviting, and welcoming. It reminded me of some places I’ve been in the states and throughout Europe, a place I can see going with PSM on a date night, a girls night, group of friends, lunch during the week, or some fun on the weekend.

Quite a few of the restaurants had entrances along the outside and Meta Burger was one of them. Meta Burger doesn’t say they are vegan, their foods are 100% plant based. As they say, “Meta Burger’s Mission is to reshape fast casual dining through a metamorphosis of ingredients, atmosphere and company values in order to construct a better future for all.”

I’ve told you this before, but I absolutely LOVE when I don’t have to ask where they cook the food, is there dairy in the food, and other questions. My questions now are “Is it spicy”? And my favorite question…”what do you recommend?!” Should I choose between their burgers or classics? I get veggie or plant based burgers a lot, I wanted to try something different. “If I were to choose between the Philly cheesesteak or the chicken sandwich, what would you recommend?”

Philly cheesesteak it is and it was fabulous! It was strips of seitan, seasoned like Philly cheesesteak meat, peppers, onions, on a roll, and cheese sauce on the side. I skipped the grilled mushrooms, no thanks! and for a side I got the mac-n-cheese. I have to tell you, the cheese sauce, which was mostly potato based, was amazing and creamy and delicious and stayed that way, O M G!

The guy who took my order and helped me decide walked by while I was eating asked how I was liking it and I told him that normally I don’t finish my food and tonight, oh yeah! sandwich gone! Mac-n-cheese, well, the rest will make a good midnight snack! I will tell you that there wasn’t enough room to try some vegan gelato at Happy Cones next door. Maybe next time! Hoping there is a next time!

If you are in the Denver area, or within the vicinity of the Edgewater Public Market, give it a shot, I bet you could find something that would tickle your taste buds.

{January 20, 2021} Vegan BBQ? I’m in heaven!

Last night we went out for BBQ, at Smokee Mo’s BBQ, a place I found on Happy Cow, the app I use to find vegan, vegetarian, and veg friendly options all over the world. I la la la LOVE this app!

PSM said let’s go out to dinner, I was up for it and started to look on the Happy Cow app. Vegan didn’t work in our area, so I selected options and a few more options came up, this time Smokee Mo’s BBQ, which offered VEGAN BBQ! What?! Let’s check it out! It’s only about 15 minutes from us. PSM said let’s go!

We got there and it’s set back from the road, it looks like a BBQ joint, or a giant barn, words burned into the wood, high ceilings, exposed cross beams, huge chandelier, big menus and best of all…as I rounded the corner, a GIANT VEGAN MENU! I’m over the moon! And it’s not just one or two items, nine full items and eight side items, all vegan!

If you eat meat, you start at the beginning of the line, if you are vegan, you order from the folks at the register, even better…the girl who was helping me was vegan, and when the person helping you is vegan, you can breath a little easier because you don’t have to explain things or ask certain questions, that honestly, I get tired of asking, so I honestly do appreciate it!

If you go to their website, you can view their vegan menu, they even have a vegan holiday menu! The tagline on the page “It’s Like A Vegan Restaurant Inside A Traditional BBQ Restaurant!”

One thing I really liked is that even though, when you first walked in, it was smokey, like a BBQ joint smokey, it wasn’t overpowering smokey, so I could actually sit in the place and not think about what I didn’t want to think about. They were socially distant, first, by the signs, and second, it wasn’t very crowded, which was unfortunate, because of the high ceilings and lack of a crowd, it was a little chilly, but that didn’t deter our enjoyment!

The food comes out on big silver trays, I saw a tray of nachos go by that I think you would need an army to finish! PSM got two meets and two sides, brisket and pulled pork, with corn and carrots, along with a piece of cheese bread, it looked good and I did taste the carrots and corn, the only thing non-vegan about them was that they were cooked with butter and as we know, butter hasn’t killed me yet! The carrots were tasty and the corn had a kick.

For me, I got a BBQ pulled jackfruit sandwich with cheddar cheese and mac-n-cheese, which was made with cashew cheese as a side. I love that I didn’t just have to say vegan this and vegan that. If you haven’t heard of it, jackfruit is an exotic fruit grown in tropical regions of the world and it’s used often as a substitute for meat because of the texture of the fruit, which can be shredded, hence the pulled jackfruit sandwich. I don’t always like jackfruit, just like anything, it all depends on how it’s prepared, and in this case, it was smokey BBQ good, had a little tang, I added lettuce and tomato and really enjoyed it!

I have to tell you, I love my husband for suggesting that we go out for vegan every once in a while, and if it’s 100% vegan, he’s a great sport and can always find something to eat and quite often enjoys what he orders, I don’t always enjoy what I order, so it’s fair! I love Happy Cow for helping me to find somewhere to go that we can both eat, I love that I could find a BBQ joint that could accommodate me and it was good! I am looking forward to going back to try something else and even taking you when you come to visit! Let’s go!

{January 19, 2021} To Yoga or Not to Yoga….Teach that is…

I know I told you that PSM and I have been doing yoga together for about a month and I’m working on it. He is in hog heaven, so to speak. He’s centered, he’s sweating, he’s stretching, he’s moving, and best of all…he’s HAPPY! What more could a wife ask for?! I was out of town for a minute, he continued to go to in-person classes and I did a livestream class, that means from the comfort of my own living room, that’s another post for another day. It wasn’t bad.

Here’s something funny, not sure if it’s funny ha ha or what, but…I got an email from the yoga studio we go to. “Hi JJ, M from the CC Y6 Studio let me know you may be someone who would be interested in Yoga Teacher Training 🙂 I’ve attached some info here. Let me know if you have any questions or want to set up a time to chat about it!” Huh? I forwarded it to PSM ‘interesting’. I responded to A that I didn’t know who M was, but I appreciated her sending the information and if I have any questions, I will be sure to reach out.

The interesting thing about this is that, as you know, PSM is yoga all the way, I’m working on it, but… a few years ago, PSM asked me if I wanted to go to a yoga retreat to learn to become yoga instructors, I was on the fence, but I knew how passionate he was/is, so I was up for it! So…interesting that this opportunity came up, isn’t it? They have had it posted on their site and on the walls at the studio for a while, so it wasn’t a surprise when they started talking about it during classes. They weren’t hyping it up a lot, but at the beginning of class they always make studio announcements, social distancing, taking breaks if you need it, and now, YTT [Yoga Teacher Training], answers if you have questions.

I clicked on the attachment and it has the cost, which is not inexpensive, the total hours [200], different types of modules [In-Person and Virtual], 3-month unlimited membership to the Y6 studios, and a 3-month subscription to Y6 GO, which is their on demand sessions, and lastly, the schedule. The schedule isn’t horrible, there are classes on each day of the week, some classes in the evenings, from 5-9p, the rest are 9a-5:30p, two during the week and the rest on the weekends. There are days off in between here and there and two full weeks off during February, the entire program is three months. And…I just noticed the fine print: *In addition students are required to take, observe, or assist 32 yoga classes throughout the program.

It’s an interesting concept, as you know, or may not know, I’m still on the fence if I love yoga or not. Some of it I like, some of it is alright, still not a fan of hot yoga, but I’m getting better with the moves. I can do almost everything, just not to the full extent, like dancer, I can hold my foot and stretch out, but not all the way up!

There is a part of me that wouldn’t mind taking the Yoga Teacher Training, to get better at the moves and really understand why I’m moving the way I’m moving or the way I’m supposed to be moving and maybe I can get those breaths under control, who knows. Oh yeah, and smile while I’m doing them! HA HA!

So…To Teach Yoga or Not To Teach Yoga? That is the question…

{January 18, 2021} What wakes you in the morning?

I think we’ve talked about the fact that I don’t sleep, much. I really don’t. I sleep about 4-5 hours a night, I know, I know, it’s not enough, but what can I say? It is what it is…

I used to sleep through the night and then some. I’ve been told, when I was born, I fell asleep, ha ha. My mom said the nurses would pinch my feet to get me up to nurse. Apparently, I used to take long naps and sleep through the night, giving my parents and their friends a false sense of ‘wow, we could totally do this’, nay nay, they found out! Ha ha!

I know, I know, why am I not talking about why we’re here today? Have you met me? I’ll get there, promise! I loved to stay up late when I was a kid, but I would sleep, oh boy would I sleep…8-10 hours a night, sometimes longer and hard, I slept so hard! My dad used to drive me to high school in the morning, well, if he could get me up! He would come from his bedroom to turn off my alarm! And I was lucky if I had enough time to brush my teeth before leaving the house! Totally on me! You’ll love this one…when I was in college, one year, my bed was under the fire alarm…when it would go off and everyone had to vacate the building, they would have to come and drag me out of bed, I would sleep through it, that’s how hard I slept! And for anyone that knows me now, that has shared a space with me, that is not the case!

Now, I wake up at the drop of a pin! So to speak…and we’re back to our regularly scheduled program, see, told ya I would get there! I don’t know how many years ago it started, but I had a cat that would eat those plastic bags you get at the grocery store, they’re toxic, so I would hide them, but if someone, even me, accidentally left one out, she would find it! Not every cat likes them, but mine did and if I hear that sound, even to this day, and she’s been gone about 12 years, I still jump up out of a deep sleep! Oh, speaking of cats, who has a cat that hasn’t jumped 12 feet in the air, right out of bed when you hear the sound of a hairball coming up! O M G!

When my kids first started spending the night, I had new mom syndrome, I would hear them turn over in their sleep and if one of them needed something and called out, I heard them! The lightest touch on my arm from them, awake! There are a few other things that happened when I became a mom, but that’s a story for another day!

Today, who knows, I take so long to fall asleep, you would think I would sleep for hours, not so…I have trouble falling asleep, and then staying asleep, I wish it wasn’t so! There are some days, I have to say, that I can sleep, I make up for it by sleeping 10-12 hours, oh wow! But, that being said, what wakes me up today, no idea! Sometimes, like everyone, nature calls. Is that age or just nature calling? Nature calls in the middle of the night, not a fan of her then! There is no snooze or shut off when that happens!

PSM is so very sweet, he worries that everything is going to wake me up, he tries to be quiet, well, as a church mouse, as the phrase goes, he knows it doesn’t always work, but I do appreciate it! The dogs start whining, the ceiling fan all of a sudden I can hear, a door closes, I turn over, a thought pops in my head, my leg twitches, I breath. Those are things at home that can wake me up, aside from the alarm, of course, well, actually, for some reason, that doesn’t always work! Ha ha! Isn’t that always the case!? Maybe I snooze and then…there is a limit on the snooze button, right?

When I’m in a hotel, love when the cleaning staff knocks on the door at 8am on a Saturday…it could be any number of things when I’m at a hotel! When I’m staying with friends or family, there are so many possible sounds to wake me up, who knows! Today it’s this, tomorrow, it’s that. Could be the crack of sunlight creeping in through a curtain.

Do dreams wake you up? They do me, especially if I don’t want to be there or in it at all! Maybe you tell yourself that you’re dreaming, it’s not real, and you should really get up! Are you being chased? Did something just happen? Mine do that and I want to write them down, I’ve been told you should write them down, they mean something. How many of you can actually remember your dream to write it down that fast? Sometimes I’m still processing the dream as I wake up or I am just trying to wake up and then by the time I’m awake, I can’t remember what woke me! Or I didn’t like it enough to want to forget it, unfortunately, those stick with you, gee thanks!

This morning, I woke up in a panic because someone had stolen my bag, from a train station, I think. I retrieved the bag yesterday, in my dream, left it there, because I was focused on something else and came back to get it today. The woman helping me said she knew exactly what bag, where it was, it was and went to get it, but it wasn’t right where she left it…in the middle of the room and she was surprised! Actually I think she was more surprised because she had just pulled the bag out from wherever she was storing it.

Not to worry, the bag in question is sitting right where I left it, full of whatever I have in it, but…I was still in panic mode, I really like that bag!

What woke you this morning?

{January 17, 2021} Kitchen Nightmares…oh how I LOVE you!

I forgot how much I loved Kitchen Nightmares, hosted by Gordon Ramsay. I have watched the entire series, not when it first came out, but I’ve watched it and I la la la loved it! And watching it again this weekend, I realized how much I loved it!

I don’t know if I told you that I don’t always watch a series while it is on tv, I wait until it’s over, then binge watch it, it’s kind of crazy, but that’s how I do it, actually, the way I like it. Now, before streaming, even before DVR or On Demand, I watched shows each week, it was an event, wasn’t it? We got together to watch something. Ok, I’m not going down that path, I just got inspiration for another post! [Draft begun!] And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

As I said, I used to watch it if I caught it, it wasn’t something that I scheduled the time to watch, but I loved it! I loved watching it late night when it came on…laughing at some of the crazy things said, cringing at some of the conditions of the kitchen/dining room/walk-ins, crying sometimes at the heartache, hiding my eyes at the grody, gagging at the food Chef Ramsay samples, getting irate at the stubborn owners/chefs, impressed by what he can accomplish overnight when his team revamps the restaurant, and the transformation of the menu, triumph watching the chefs find their passion again, is that enough?

Watching the show, I always wondered why menus had to be so complicated. Chef Ramsay’s biggest message: Keep it simple and keep it authentic! What always amazed me was when a restaurant owner/chef doesn’t think, because Gordon Ramsay is not that nationality or something like that, he can’t cook whatever the local cuisine is. Really? Half the time when he shows up, they think their menu/restaurant is the bomb and when he tells them it’s shite, they fight him. THEY invited him! Then…he turns things around, simplifies the menu, cooks the food better than they do/could or imagine. He is a multi-Michelin starred chef, I think he might know a few things!

Just in case you don’t know who he is, a little background…Gordan Ramsay, as I mentioned, is a multi-Michelin starred chef, he has opened restaurants around the world, UK, France, Singapore, and the US, as well as well as the star of tv shows such as Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. I’m not into the shows like Hell’s Kitchen or Masterchef, but I love Kitchen Nightmares, as you can tell, and Hotel Hell, which is similar to Kitchen Nightmares, but with hotels.

The reason I’m telling you about this, I ended up on ‘tv’, meaning, it wasn’t a streaming channel and I started flipping and found a station that had Kitchen Nightmares Revisited, which, as you can imagine, is when Gordon goes back to restaurants he helped to see how they are doing. And despite the fact that I cannot stand commercials, I am sitting here watching Kitchen Nightmares and I think I remember every single episode, there are not surprises, it’s like a traffic accident, I can’t look away and I’m in…heaven!

{January 16, 2021} Adventure Quote…perfection!

I was watching a new show, Call me Kat, which I’ll review another time, the jury is still out, but there was a great quote from one of the characters to the other and I thought, wow.

‘Some people search for adventure and others create it wherever they go’. Just wow. It says so much and I wonder…which one am I? I love travel and new experiences and I have a good time wherever I go, someone once told me that I could have fun at an insurance seminar, a compliment if I ever heard one! So…that tells me I am a mix of the two.

PSM and I love to figure out what our next adventure is going to be and plan it, and each adventure seems to be more epic than the last. We’re bummed that we couldn’t go on our honeymoon, or next great adventure, it was scheduled for December and you can probably imagine what happened there.

When I met PSM, one of the things I was attracted to was his love of travel, he had been around the world and then some, I had traveled, but not to his level, I had a lot of catching up to do! Even before I met PSM, I had an adventurous spirit and I wasn’t afraid of taking risks or travel on my own, but since we met and started traveling together, even bigger. We love looking for the out of the way places a lot of people have never heard of, living in Hawai’i made that attainable for us.

As for creating adventure everywhere I go, I do try to have a good time, see the fun and possibilities and it seems to be working. Even when PSM and I go somewhere we think is going to be boring, we try to have fun with it, find something to make us smile or laugh. And it works, go figure!

‘Some people search for adventure and others create it wherever they go’. Are you one or the other or a bit of both?

{January 14, 2021} Trailers…say so much…or so little

I am, of course, talking about movie trailers, vs. the trailers you live in, or the trailers you haul stuff on or in. Movie Trailers.

They really can say so much or so little and they can make or break if you are going to see a movie. There are a lot of times I can watch a trailer and know instantly if I am going to like a movie or not. And…I am usually spot on.

There are great trailers that just give you a tease, or a taste, leaves you wanting more, which is great, then there are the trailers that give you practically the entire movie, where’s the fun in that? How about the trailers that give you the best one liners? Or the trailers that give you the best one liners that never actually make it into the movie.

When I was in college, I majored in broadcasting, and one of my dreams was to one day make movie trailers. I thought, what a job that would be, watching movies and determining what would be a great hook, to bring you in and make you want to watch it vs watching a trailer and realizing you just watched a mini movie and what would be the point to go to the theater to see it.

One of the best new trailers I have seen in a long time is for Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar written by, and starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. They also wrote Bridesmaids and I have to say, if the movie is half as good and funny as Bridesmaids, it will be amazing! I watched the trailer and I didn’t stop laughing, you never actually see their faces, only the tops of their heads, hands, and feet, it’s classic! They are talking about movie trailers, and what if they were in a movie trailer, they wouldn’t give away anything, especially their faces. It really is classic and clever!

There is a second trailer, Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar: Fashion Trailer, which only has them at the very end, and they are buried in sand, you only see the tops of their heads! It’s hysterical, especially what it represents and pokes fun at.

I cannot wait for February 12th, that’s when the movie comes out and they make a point of it in each trailer to mention the air date, clever. As I said, if this is half as good as Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig will have made up for the WW84 Cheetah mess. Here’s hoping!

{January 13, 2021} Does unsubscribe actually do anything?!

Seriously! Why isn’t it working?! AAAARRRGH!

When you make the decision that you no longer wish to receive emails from a particular company or vendor, something you actually signed up for and would like to unsubscribe, because we know that half the time we get an email, the vendor is phishing and if we click unsubscribe, we are actually verifying our email addresses, rude! Sorry, par for the course, I digress…here you are, you have an email you don’t want and you take the time to scroll to the bottom of the email and sometimes have to hunt for the unsubscribe hyperlink, that just annoys me! then you click unsubscribe, which I prefer so much more than click here to change your email preferences, OMG! I just want to unsubscribe!

Now…I am being routed to the website so I can make it known I want to unsubscribe from their mailing list. Then…I have choices, what?! I like the ones that just say click here to unsubscribe and it’s over. Well, maybe a note telling me that they are sorry to see me go, but…other ones, do I really have to tell you why I no longer want to receive your emails? Yes, I am sure it’s to help with their reporting stuff, but I just want you to leave me alone! Is that so hard?! apparently!

Now…I have unsubscribed from your mailing list, you were sorry to see me go, you tell me that it may take a minute for the emails to stop. Ok, I get that, maybe a few emails will come later today or tomorrow, until the little tiny workers, maybe they are Oompa Loompas in there, remove my name from their mailing list. That’s understandable, what is not understandable is a few days or even a week!

I recently went through one of my inboxes and decided to unsubscribe to quite a few emails that I no longer need or want. That was over a week ago. Why, oh why….are you still sending me emails?! Please stop! Just stop!

Ok, rant over. What’s next?! Let me check my email! HA HA HA

{January 12, 2021} Do I look like my Bitmoji now?

Ha Ha! I finally got on the Bitmoji bandwagon with everyone else about two or so years ago, I’m not even sure, I know I was still living in Hawai’i. The reason I know that is my Bitmoji has a Hawai’ian flair.

Bitmoji me’s got red hair, just like me. Short red hair, definitely just like me as of last week! Bitmoji me’s got blue lips. I have blue lipstick, and, you might not believe this, but anyone who knows me from middle school knows, I wore blue lipstick. Well, not just blue lipstick, there was purple lipstick, green lipstick, and black lipstick. And sometimes…at the same time. I would divide my lips and put one color per quarter, it was quite colorful. But, back to Bitmoji, blue lipstick.

White bikini-like tank top. I wore tank tops all the time, but I got brave and wore a bikini quite a bit, work with what you’ve got! The skirt, could be a skort, not sure. And for those of you not sure of what a skort is, it’s combination skirt with shorts in it, nice for those of us who might not want to start a fire when our thighs rub together! It’s red with tropical flowers, could be a hibiscus, looks like a Hawai’ian shirt!

Bitmoji me has slippahs like the first pair of Tevas I bought in Hawai’i, one of which Mother Nature STOLE from me! [Just so you know, I haven’t gotten over it yet, I LaLaLaLOVED those slippahs!!!] First, let me ‘splain! A slippah is what is referred to as a flip-flop on the mainland. Sometimes you can include sandals. One of my favorite signs, which we have hanging outside our front door Please remove your slippahs, but don’t take mo bettah ones on da way out! Classic!

Hawaii Style – Signs PLUMERIA-SLIPPAH | Indonesia Export

Even bettah…check out this scene from Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, when Momma stands up and threatens all her sons wit her slippah! The whole clip is 3:11, but momma gets up at 2:30, SO worth it! I watch that scene over and over again!

So…now you know what my Bitmoji looks like… ME! Do you agree?!

{January 11, 2021} How to spot a biker chick…

A friend, KN, sent me a text the other day, no message, just the picture you see below with the caption How to spot a biker chick. I got so excited! Let me tell you why!

If you are not a motorcycle rider, here is something to know about a bike so this makes sense. A motorcycle is similar to a 5-speed car, in that you have a clutch you engage when you’re shifting gears. Just like driving a manual transmission car, you engage the clutch and shift gears, and just like a car you shift with your left foot, on a bike, it’s by either putting your foot under the shifter and pulling up, or pushing down on the shifter. There is another type of shifter, called a rocker shift, that you rock forward and back on. PSM has a rocker shift on his bike, I have a traditional shifter, pull up or push down.

The point of the photo is to show the mark that the gear shifter leaves on the toe of your left shoe…if you have a traditional shifter. In the image, notice the huge black scuff marks on the left sneaker. The best part of the image is that I can tell it’s a Chuck Taylor/Converse All-Star! And guess what…that’s what I wear for a riding shoe!

I’ve worn Chucks for years as my riding shoes. I’ve had other riding shoes, ones that I’ve been told would be safer and protect my foot better, but I haven’t found the perfect pair yet, still looking. But…as I said, I’ve worn my Chucks for years. I even introduced you to the group in a post Meet the Family! If you look at the pair in the middle, striped, I talk about wearing them as motorcycle riding footwear!

One of the pair in that group I turned into my most recent motorcycle riding shoes and I love them. And to go back to the point of this post…if you look at my Chucks…you can see the black scuff marks forming on my left foot!

Proof…How to spot a biker chick!!!

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