Just stuff!

It's cold, raining, and gloomy. I have been on a cooking spree this week and will be hunting for a treadmill before long. Since Lisa and I have been home together for the first time in 25 years it has been a treat to enjoy the holidays and have dinner together in the evenings. The problem is it is starting to show in my stomach. I am not used to eating three meals a day plus snacks even though I am a chef ( we just taste little samples of food all day). Lisa don't seem to have this problem (lucky her!).

This week I made black eye peas with sauteed onion, garlic, bacon, and thyme ( a good luck thing), home made basil and ricotta ravioli, red sauce ( a basic light marinara sauce not as chunky), fried crabmeat wontons, bourbon chicken wings, spicy hot grilled chicken breast croistini with provolone and bleu cheese dressing, antipasta, vegetable beef soup, coconut smoothies, apple pie with caramel, tomato and basil pizza, hot bacon salad, and the list goes on. Now you know why the need for a treadmill. Rusty and Abbey are in heaven when I get in the kitchen. They will lay at the doorway for hours waiting to devour any scraps or goodies that will pass their way. In my entire life I have never seen dogs eat so many different types of food.

Each one will finish any leftover salad or component of one. They eat wedges of lettuce, tomatoes, celery, cucumber, any type of fruit such as tangerines, apples, and watermelon. I have only found one food that they snub which is shrimp. They don't really like the texture of it. Rusty is a sugar hound. One whiff of something sweet and he is walking around with his nose in the air, eyes just begging for a taste of it. So of course I give in and make them a not to sweet smoothie and they are happy.

We got our tree cleaned up that fell outside and it was enough to fill the whole back of my truck up to the cab and an eight foot trailer. It looked like it was going to be more than we thought. Our neighbors gave us a hand which was really nice. The one young guy finally moved out across the street where the supposed robbery happened. I really think it was a set up due to the fact that he did not have the rent.

The economy is really hurting business and things have been more than slow. I really anticipate slow winters but this has been the slowest. Everywhere I look I see more and more people home from work. If the housing market would not be so bad we would consider selling and moving to somewhere like Seattle Washington. They seem to be holding there own with a good job market still going on. It has gotten brutal here! Went for an interview that was an hour away and during the interview they stated it would be several different shifts. I was actually kind of pissed that they did not include this in the job posting or make mention before hand. So I am still looking and of course holding on to business at hand. Things seem to get more interesting everyday and I can't wait until Obama gets sworn in to see what will happen.