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Today much of the East Coast is being pounded by a nor’easter, dumping over a foot of snow “down the shore” in NJ with more on the way! Yikes, they never get snow like this!

The Boston area has received a foot and a half of snow in some areas. Blizzard warnings are in effect until Sunday morning, with another 4-7 inches of snow expected.

Our area of the North East was spared from the blizzard snowfall by only getting an inch or two but fell into another deep freeze. Again! The last three Saturdays, which are our Troy Farmer’s Market days have had sub-zero temperatures not counting the wind chill. We are under a wind chill advisory tonight, with wind chill temps as low as 20-30 below zero. That is cold AF!

It was a cold, snowy ride to the market this morning. We got stuck behind a plow truck for miles going under 25 mph, making the ride to Troy feel like it took forever. I shouldn’t have been so eager to get there as I sat in Marty’s warm truck with heated seats.

The Artium building that houses the Troy Market isn’t used during the week; however, the heat gets turned on Fridays. Our spot at the market is 20 yards from one of the entranceways making it super cold without any heat.

We thought the last two weeks at the market were cold, but the cold was different today than the previous two Saturdays. It was relentless and unsympathetic with strong winds.

We dress appropriately making me feel like the Michelin Man but it honestly doesn’t matter when you aren’t moving around for 6 hours. I usually wear a surgical mask but today I wore a heavy three-layer cloth mask; which seemed to keep my face from freezing. The market manager’s wife makes them from super cute fabric and gives them out to the vendors. Thank you, Sue!

Here is an FYI…we use toe warmers on these cold days and they really work keeping our toes from cramping up standing on the cold tile floor. I bought two six-packs of toe warmers and now can’t find the other package for next week. I put things away in easy-to-find places for when I need them; then I can never find them. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I use anti-fog wipes for my glasses that work brilliantly. You have to take your time and use them correctly. I wipe my glasses and let them dry, then repeat two more times. The problem I had today was instead of my glasses fogging up; they kept glazing over with a thin layer of ice. 😖

We found a warm spot in the building before the market started and set up a picnic area. We had fancy toast with avocado egg salad. Actually, we had toasted whole-grain gluten-free english muffins from River Canyon and they sucked! The texture wasn’t good but thank goodness the avocado eggsalad was lit!

I made my normal eggsalad but instead of using mayonnaise, I added mashed avocado. It had a great consistency with “good” fat from the avocado as opposed to “bad” fat in mayonnaise. I ended up eating some of the eggsalad off the english muffins. The package of 4 english muffins cost $6.99 a disappointing purchase. I never mind spending money on good things, but I was pissed about these. Now, what the fuck will I do with the other two? I hate throwing food away.

We made it through the long, cold market and were slapped with temps that felt colder than the morning. I stayed dressed in my down coat zipped up, my scarf, hat, and gloves on the entire ride back to Vermont. When we got home the temperature here was 5 degrees colder than NY. Is there really a difference when we are talking about such extreme bitter, and ungodly cold temperatures?

I had the tea kettle on as soon as I stepped inside. We were cold inside and out. I made Marty a cup of tea and a hot chocolate with a shot of Bailey’s in it for me. The plan was to grill wagyu burgers outdoors tonight but the hell with that idea! I have no clue what to make now and have no backup plan. It happens to all of us…the great dinner dilemma. It will probably end up heating up leftovers.

Stay warm my friends and don’t overdo it with the shoveling. The white stuff will still be there in the morning.

I cook dinner almost every night and usually make enough for leftovers. Sam’s question most days is, “What are we having for dinner, how much are you making, and will there be enough for leftovers?” Lol.

As I am cleaning up after dinner, I put some leftovers in a “Swanson’s dinner” type of to-go container for his work meal. It’s not extra work, and I am happy to do it. 

Sam said when he reheats his food; his coworkers always say how good it smells. The other night, he told me his coworkers wanted to know when his mom would make them some food. 😂

I’ve made food for the emergency department, aka ED, before and planned to do it again. After Sam’s comment, I decided to do it this week. 

Sam works as an RN on the overnight shift from 6 pm – 6 am most nights. I know that some people have restaurants deliver pizzas or donuts & muffins to the ED or make platters of food for the staff…the day shift staff, that is. The overnight crew never even gets leftover scraps. 

Working in a hospital as a frontline worker or volunteer isn’t in my blood. Just the thought of medical issues makes me queasy. I can’t even look when someone has an eyelash in their eye. Noah, my older son, is just like me.

What can I do to give back, to show my appreciation to the frontline folks? Well, I can cook for them, of course!

Marty wanted to give back to the community after witnessing the brave fire and rescue workers on TV on 9/11. The next day, he went to our local rescue squad and has been a volunteer ever since. He is an advanced EMT; his calls are usually in the middle of the night, horrible accidents, very sick people, and lately, many suicides.

Many people aren’t sure how to give back to show their appreciation to first responders, firefighters, and hospital workers. These men and women make the difference between life and death in many cases. Some people like to donate to their local fire and rescue agencies each year.

A couple of days after I decided to make dinner for the ED, I saw a Facebook post that Sam’s hospital, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, posted. They set up a meal train for people who wish to donate meals to the hospital’s staff. Here is the link to the meal train if anyone is interested.

A meal train is a coordinated schedule that people can sign up for a specific day and time to have a meal brought in or delivered to the department of their choice. FYI…As I mentioned earlier, most people never think of the overnight night crews.

The hospital has been at or close to capacity and very busy with covid patients and many other very sick people. The staff are too busy to even think about food and sometimes don’t eat anything during their 12 shifts. 

In Sam’s case, nothing is open in the middle of the night if he and his coworkers are hungry and want to order take out from somewhere. 

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I sent Sammy off to work yesterday with a big pan of Swedish meatballs, 59 to be exact, and a 4 lb pan of buttered spätzle to go with the meatballs. He would put the food out in the break area at the beginning of the overnight shift so his coworkers could grab some whenever they had a spare second. BTW…My Swedish Meatball recipe is available in the new Food & Recipes section of the blog.

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It doesn’t matter where you live; if you want to show your appreciation to any hospitals staff or fire & rescue agencies personnel for making a difference in their or their family’s lives may consider sending them a meal. It doesn’t have to be fancy; pizza is always a big hit. 

You can call your local hospital, fire, or rescue squads to inquire how you can send a meal to their staff. It could be the ED, the ICU, labor and delivery, or medical-surgical floors. It can be anything from donuts or cookies to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

For anyone unable to send a meal, consider sending a handwritten card or email thanking staff members, which is also appreciated. Nurses and staff get awards and recognition when the hospital receives letters praising one of their employees for doing a great job or going above and beyond to help a patient. It takes a lot of dedicated team members, not only nurses or doctors, to keep the hospital running smoothly, safely, and clean. 

Over the last two years, the pandemic has been very hard emotionally and physically on frontline workers who have seen more death and horrible situations to last them a lifetime. A small gesture from someone makes them feel like it’s all worthwhile, and their hard work is appreciated. 

I don’t usually write posts like this one, but it’s important to share this with you. Hey, we will all get through these tough times, but in the meantime, making someone else’s day a little brighter can’t hurt. Hope helps. ❤️

Yippee! I am excited to announce in this 300th post there is a new section in the menu of my page, Food & Recipes. Thank you, Marty, for helping me with this. ❤️

This morning, I went through all my blog posts categorizing the food and recipe posts. So far, the posts that contain an original recipe have the word recipe in the title. I say so far because I may go back in the future and write the recipes for some dishes I only wrote about.

Some cooking posts contain links to websites I used to make the dish giving the recipe’s owner credit and not just copying and pasting as many food blogs do. This annoys me beyond belief that people claim a recipe as their own when they blatantly steal it from another site.

Creating your own recipe isn’t hard; the copy and paste folks could at least customize the formula even if it means changing the quantity of an ingredient. Do they not know this? Are they too lazy or don’t care? If they like a recipe the way it is, give the person credit; it’s as simple as that. Always give credit where credit is due.

I hope you like the new section and find it helpful. I am also open to cooking questions or suggestions for dishes you would like me to showcase or demonstrate.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Good morning! Normally, we are in production on Friday mornings but due to an issue with our special water supply lines out to the production kitchen and the negative degree temps coming, yesterday we produced enough spätzle for two days.

New heated water lines are coming in the next day or two after the original ones were damaged last week due to the sub-zero wind chill temperatures.

My blog turned one year old this week and this is my 299 post. I tried blogging every day, but with a busy business I missed a few days here and there.

My writing mentor Jon Katz said to always write when you have something to say, if you don’t then don’t write for the sake of writing and producing shit no one cares about. True, true true!

Thanks Jon for taking the time to work with me and help me improve my writing skills. I hear your voice in my head while writing and try to follow your advice.

So what’s new this year? I am finally going to categorize the recipes I’ve posted with a separate category titled “Recipes.” Clever name right? 😜

This morning I am going through my blog posts looking for ones with actual recipes. I have to change the title of each of those posts to make them have the recipe’s title.

Over the last few months I taught myself how to write a recipe directly on the page and not somewhere else then try to import it into the post. Much easier for a person not good with technology.

Marty is going to teach me how to create the new category and how to add recipes to the section. The new recipe category will be in the same menu section with “My blog” “About me” and “Support my blog” choices.

My goal is to also have someone help me figure out how to add a print button on my recipes. I know it can be done with a whatever you call it thingy but I am not sure.

So, thanks for reading my blog over the last year. Looking back I see improvement changes to my writing and positive changes as a person. Your comments and support have made the blog something I look forward to do on a daily basis.

Happy Friday! This is the first one of my blog’s new year and another year on my journey! Thanks again everyone. 😊

Happy Friday! I only have a second to check in and show you a quick peek of the tile we chose. The tile work is done and the vent hood is installed. My stove back is in place; sparking clean and hooked back up to propane. Yay!

Today, we were in the production kitchen cranking out spätzle. Fridays are Broadway Fridays so production goes fast listening to fun broadway hits.

I went on a delivery run and Marty packed us up for the farmers market tomorrow. It’s going to be a cold one, they are forecasting -6 degrees when we will be leaving. Our spot at the farmers market is in a hallway near a doorway. The building isn’t heated during the week so it starts off very cold; we never feel the heat that comes on anyway. Needless to say, we will be freezing our asses off.

I am taking lots of layers with me to stay warm, but to be honest with you, I am dreading being cold for so many hours. Well, it’s part of the job and goes with the territory.

Have a great Saturday. Stay warm if you are in the Northeast and get out your snow shovels for Monday’s snowstorm. ❄️

Yup, it’s that time of the year—the time when temps dip down into the negatives here in the Northeast. When I got up this morning, it was -1 degrees, but it felt like it was in the negative teens with the wind chill. The kind of morning when you step outdoors and the inside of your nose freezes instantly.

As I walked the 38 steps outside to work in the production kitchen, I noticed most of the houses in my neighborhood had little puffs of smoke coming out of their chimneys. When we moved to Vermont from NJ over 32 years ago, I thought this was the quaintest thing I ever saw. I felt like I was living in a Currier and Ives painting.

Where I grew up in NJ, the only smoke I ever saw billowing out of chimney pipes were from all of the refineries and plants nearby. I never remember seeing little puffs of smoke coming out of people’s chimneys.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings because I always did. When I used to walk to and from school or to a friend’s house, I would try to identify who was watching tv. I am guessing I could hear a high pitch sound of tv tuners. Then I tried to imagine what I thought they would be watching. This was long before cable tv, so all the programs were pretty clean-cut, all American tv shows except soap operas, perhaps.

My sense of smell would kick into gear whenever I was walking too. I could smell cigarette and pipe smoke coming out from people’s windows. Car fumes. Good smells coming from the bakery or Chinese take-out place. In the mornings, I smelled bacon some days. I could smell meats being grilled in the evenings, and I could always smell whenever some had a big pot of sauce on.

Most Italian families I know saved their pots of sauce for the weekends, but Wednesdays were Prince spaghetti days. I remember the commercial from when I was a kid. An Italian lady yelled out of the apartment window, “Anthony!” She said it like this, “An-the-nee!” Next, they showed Anthony running his cubby little ass off home for Prince spaghetti day. Good marketing when you can remember something 40 years later.

I also remember sounds. Kids playing ball in the street yelling, “Car!” Babies and younger kids crying or shrieking, and dogs barking. The thing that stopped me in my tracks and gave me a stomachache half a block from my house was my mother yelling. I hated when I heard her yelling at my father or the other child they adopted. I knew when I got home, I would get yelled at too.

It was so embarrassing knowing that if I could hear my mother yelling, the rest of the block could too. I knew other kids got yelled at; it didn’t matter because I still remember my cheeks getting red from embarrassment and the dread of the rest of the walk home.

Back to puffy little smoke clouds coming from chimneys. I don’t want this blog post to turn into a nasty memory piece; it’s supposed to be about looking for beauty we can find in our surroundings, whether you are in NJ, NY, Vermont, or anywhere else in the world.

I always make my family stop and look at beautiful sunrises or sunsets: rainbows, the moon, and the stars. I have them stop and listen to a particular bird or other sounds. I saw rabbit footprints in the snow this morning on my way to work. If it weren’t below zero, I would have walked to see where the bunny came from. Just looking up, you can see a whole different world around you and it can change your entire day. A world where everyone is on their fucking phones. Look up, dammit!

I feel fortunate to live in such a picturesque place. We chose to take the plunge and move here to live a simpler life, a place where we raised our boys in a more peaceful and safer environment. Marty and I chose to start our business, The Vermont Spätzle Company, here as well. This isn’t the place to make a lot of money, wear dressy clothes or shoes, or have convenient things around, that’s for sure.

I remember reading an article about when you start your day, it can be a good day or a bad day; it all depends on your attitude and what you see outside your little bubble. It’s for you to decide every single day. This is very hard to remember especially during these difficult times; noticing the small things in life helps to remind me of this, but not always. Some days I am bitchy, depressed, or miserable.

Good news! We are pretty close to completing the kitchen project! Yesterday, we did the tiling on the wall behind the stove, and it came out fantastic! Coming up with the pattern made my head hurt, but it looks good. Tomorrow, the tile can be grouted. I can’t wait to be able to cook normally again. Tonight, I am attempting French Onion Soup in Sam’s Instant pot, I am honestly not sure how it will turn out, but it smells good!