Yesterday was a gorgeous summertime day. It was warmer at 5 am than the whole day last Saturday at our farmers market in Troy, NY.

The week before, I wore layers, including a fleece, down jacket, and raincoat. I also wore winter socks and boots and froze to death. Yesterday, I wore a simple sundress. Yay! Finally. 

After we set up, we walked the 30 yards to the Hudson River; the market is located at Riverfront Park and is right on the Hudson. We sat in the sunshine for a bit, and I snapped a selfie of us. I call those an us-ie. 

Next, we headed up to Monument Square to see if much changed during the week of filming the HBO series The Gilded Age. 

This week all the carriages I saw in the tent the week before were placed through the “city” along with lots of props. There were two ginormous green screens like the weather people use behind them. The bucket trucks had cameras attached, and there was lots of security and people everywhere. 

We were still able to walk around freely and take photos. I knew last week when I was the only one there; it wouldn’t last. Glad I jumped on the chance in the terrible weather the week before. 

Groups of people took photos of themselves on the sets, and one woman offered to take ours. After Marty took my picture, a woman said, “Do you want me to take one of you guys together?” I replied quickly, “Nah, not really,” and immediately got a reaction from her and Marty. “Sure, I’m kidding.” 😂

We headed back to our booth, and our market neighbor Joanne said, “Oh my God, you guys are so cute I thought you were your tourists.” 

We went back over to the concrete wall near the Hudson River and watched the other vendors set up their booths. We like to be done early and relax before the market starts. 

A milk vendor said to us while we were sitting on the wall, What are you guys doing sunbathing?” “You betcha!” 

Halfway through the market, Marty wanted to see if the splash pad park was open. Last summer, since he was alone, he had to wait until the market was over to cool off before heading home. He started wearing these fast-drying shorts so the van seats would be soaked. 

Marty came back about ten minutes later, wet. He smiled like a kid with his big dimples and said, “The splash pad park is open!” He’s so cute! I took a walk over to see the splash pads in action. I saw a group of kids having the time of their lives. Not a care in the world except what pad was going to shoot water up like a geyser next.

As each pad would shoot up water, the kids would scream and giggle, then run to the next pad. What a great way for the kids to stay cool and have fun. I love it. Great job to the city of Troy!

Living on the journey or in the moment allows all of these kinds of moments to happen….just like those kids at the splash pad park. Living in the destination would be waiting until we got home to enjoy the nice weather and sunshine, or a day off to be tourists. Those moments are there; you just have to grab on to them.

Since I had the smoker grill all clean and still in barbecue mode I decided to try again. This time I would be smoking wings with a sweet and spicy glaze.

We knew our cooking time was way off and possibly the smoker’s temperature when we ruined our brisket. 

I brined some chicken wings for a couple of hours and lit the hard lump charcoal in the smoker. While the fire was getting hot, I patted the wings dry and sprinkled on a rub that I made.

When the charcoal started to turn white, I added pecan wood. I watched a YouTube video of a guy doing wings on the same kind of grill/smoker we have. He used a fruitwood too. I don’t remember him saying how much to put in, but he did say to spread it around the outside of the charcoal, which I did.

After the pecan wood started smoking, I put the wings on the grill and shut the lid. I literally sat by the smoker to watch the temperature. I thought things went wrong when I saw the smoker was way below 100 degrees. I opened the lid, and it was smoking like hell and hot. The wings looked done after only one hour. What? The Youtube guy’s wings took two hours.

Shit, shit, shit! I ran inside and got a digital meat thermometer and sure enough, the wings were at 180 degrees and dark in color like the YouTube guys.

I closed up all the openings on the grill to shut the fire down and took the wings inside. I was happy with how they looked, and I know they weren’t overcooked. 

I made a glaze and brushed it all over the wings. The plan was to reheat the wings later on for dinner; I popped them in the refrigerator until then. 

As I reheated them in the oven, I brushed more sweet and spicy glaze on the wings. I just took the chill off; I didn’t want to dry them out. 

I plated up the wings because I wanted to take a photo for a blog post. Marty and I both tried a wing at the same time. They were moist and came off the bone easily. 

I know the glaze was delicious on its own since I tasted it as I made it, but on the wings, you couldn’t taste it at all because I over smoked the damn wings! 🤦🏻‍♀️

The wings were way too smoky for us, even though everything else was perfect. Fuck!  I thought I hit a home run this time. As it turned out, I only made it between first and second base. 

I didn’t eat anymore, and I didn’t keep the wings for Klaus since he’s off poultry on his limited ingredient allergy diet.

Ok…I used too much pecan wood. Poultry takes on smoke easily, which I now know. Probably one piece of pecan wood would have been enough, but I used several. 

As far as waste, at least the wings came out of our freezer after being in there for at least a year when I remembered we had them. Some were freezer burned anyway, so they were perfect for another try. 

Wednesday, I picked up a big package of chicken thighs for 99 cents a pound; I’m going to try again on Sunday. I’ll use the same brine, rub and glaze as before.

It took me seven years to develop our spätzle recipe, which happens to be the only gluten-free, fresh—no-boil spätzle in the world. As I was trying to develop the recipe, I used ingredient after ingredient only for the spätzle to fall apart as soon as the batter hit the water. Very, very frustrating. The more I tried, the madder I got. I made so many attempts I lost track, so I just started counting the years. 

I knew I was getting close to success three attempts before I nailed the spätzle recipe. I feel the same way; close to getting the smoked barbecue chicken right. 

Clearly the thermostat on the smoker isn’t worth shit, so I have to get one that works.

On the bright side, the brining was right. The rub was right. The glaze was right. The doneness of the chicken was right. The amount of wood was wrong, an easy fix…add less.

After the brisket catastrophe, I decided to practice barbecuing using chicken first since it’s less expensive than beef or pork if I mess up again. After I get the chicken right, I can move on to pork shoulders and ribs; then try beef brisket again. Brisket is the hardest meat to smoke even for people who know how to smoke meats; why the hell we chose it, I’ll never know.

Barbecue champions didn’t make award-winning barbecue their first or second time. It could have taken hundreds of times to account for each kind of meat, sauce, rub, barbequing method, and time.

Barbecue guru Aaron Franklin of the famous Franklin BBQ in Austin, TX said it took him seven years to get his brisket right; then, he opened a food truck with his wife. It took him seven years to perfect his brisket, just like it took me seven years to perfect my spätzle! 

When it comes to learning how to barbecue, Aaron Franklin’s advice is only to change one thing at a time and keep track, which I am doing just like I did with my spätzle recipe.

I fixed the cook time on Tuesday when I did the wings, now I have to fix the amount of wood for smoking and watch the temperature closer.

I am not nearly as disappointed as I was with the brisket; I learned more about barbequing smoking the wings. These were actually edible for people who like a super smoky bbq taste which is more than I can say for the burnt brisket. 

The score reads as follows: Barbecue 2 Julz 0. I’ll get it, just you wait.

I don’t get to write on Wednesdays. We get up early, guzzle coffee and gobble down a banana, then head straight into the production kitchen. Afterward, I eat lunch, shower, and get ready to dance with Kathleen for an hour at 3:00 pm, grocery shop, then teach dance classes from 5:45-7:45 pm. By the time we clean and sanitize the training room and I drive home, it’s almost 8:30 pm. 

I have something pre-made for dinner so Marty just has to heat it up while I am driving home. After chugging down some wine, eating and STILL washing my dishes by hand (those bastards) it’s 9:30 pm. I’m done. ✔️ 

Yesterday morning when I was making coffee, I looked outside, and the sunshine was beautiful. Our house faces the East, and we get some beautiful sunrises. I re-arranged my side of the porch the day before and wanted to sit out there and have a cup of coffee and enjoy the sun. 20 minutes wouldn’t make or break the day. 

Now my side of the porch is like a cozy little nook. When the couch was facing out to the street I always had to crane my neck to talk to anyone on the other side of the porch. Now I can look across the porch, or if I want to face the street, I sit sideways with my feet up on the couch. 

Why did it take me so long to figure out this seating arrangement? Or better yet, why did it take me years to live in the moment and enjoy a little morning coffee and sunshine? The good news is that I figured these things out at the beginning of June and not at the end of the summer. 

As I was finishing writing this post, Noah stopped over. It was really nice having the four of us hanging out on the front porch together. I was sitting in my little nook while Marty, Sam, and Noah were sitting on the other side of the porch.

The light rain falling and the sounds of the crickets and peepers reminded me of the days when we used to go camping with our little pop-up camper when the boys were little. Those camping memories are awesome to have, and now we are making new ones right here on the front porch.

Yesterday, our son Sam who graduated from nursing school a couple of weeks ago, passed his nursing boards, making him officially an RN. A pretty impressive accomplishment for a 20-year-old; he turns 21 at the end of August. 

Last summer, Sam worked in the hospital as an ER tech during the pandemic; he starts in July as an ER nurse in the same hospital. He will continue to run on rescue squad calls as well; he runs on adrenaline.

It’s hard to believe how fast our boys grew up; they say don’t blink, or you will miss it. When they were small, I realize now that I worried too much about small stuff like trying to be the perfect mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, housekeeper, and cook. I was so focused on trying to do everything perfectly; I lost myself along the way. I didn’t enjoy those years as much as I could have or should have.

I still want to be a great mom, wife, and business owner but not to the point of being so stressed out sweating the small stuff anymore. For the year that I’ve been living my life on the journey and not the destination, these types of things are crystal clear to me now. Being on the journey has changed my life, now I can finally enjoy my family and have fun with them.

Congratulations Sam! Hard work pays off and we are very proud of him. ☺️

Yesterday we made a quick trip to New Paltz, NY. We were meeting my sister Jennifer there; it’s a good in-between spot to meet with people coming from Jersey. There is a free commuter parking lot literally right off the NY Thruway and a perfect place to meet and leave a vehicle behind so we could ride together into town.

For us it’s a two-hour trip, we travel so much making deliveries, we are used to it. We used to meet our Pennsylvania distributor, The Alpine House in New Paltz, to drop off spätzle, another halfway point from Honesdale, PA. Luckily for us, their drivers deliver their wursts and sausages to Shop-Rite locations in Niskayuna and East Greenbush, NY, only an hour trip for us now.

We met Jen at 10 and walked around the small village of New Paltz. It was good to see people out and about; small coffee shops were booming. We wandered in and out of antique shops and boutiques until we were all starving.

We decided on the Mexican Kitchen, located on Front Street, a cute side street off the main road. The weather turned out to be better than forecasted, so we ate outside, the only seating option at the restaurant.

On our way to the Mexican Kitchen, we spotted a pile of items with a big free sign in front of them. One item was a framed print that I loved. It actually is a well-known piece of art with a Parisian theme. Paris is my favorite place in the world; after everything is truly back to normal, Marty and I plan to go.

We had a knowledgeable, attentive, and friendly server. He took care of the tables effortlessly. We weren’t rushed and could really catch up since we haven’t seen each other in person since last July in NJ.

Jennifer is my biological sister on the parental side of my family. She found me two years ago through Ancestry. com. We felt connected immediately and realized we had so much in common. She literally told her daughter Sofia the day before that she always wished she had a sister and found me the next day.

I guess it was the right time for us to find each other; I also have two brothers on that side of my family, aunts, and lots of cousins. It’s super exciting that combined; I have 4 nieces and 1 nephew as well. They are all under 14 years old, so I get to know them while growing up; I love being Aunt Julz.

I’ll write more about Jennifer when she visits us in July, but for now, I wanted to introduce her to you guys. I always wished for siblings when I blew out my birthday candles growing up; those wishes just took 45 years to come to fruition.

Our lunch at Mexican Kitchen was fresh and delicious. Everything, except for their burritos, was gluten-free, including their homemade tortilla chips! We can never eat homemade tortilla chips because they usually are fried in the same fryer as wheat and gluten-based foods. Yay!

The only bummer of the day was someone hit Marty’s side mirror on his truck, his baby, his big green tank. The main road is tight and always bumper to bumper with visitor traffic, but that’s not an excuse to drive like an asshole. Now he has to order two side mirrors, so they match. The truck is a vintage diesel Excursion, so the parts are harder to come by.

The traffic is so bad going through town that they have pedestrian flags to cross the street. Marty thought this was great fun and loved waving the flag at the non-stop traffic so we could cross safely. None of us ever saw or heard of such a thing before. 😂

We said our goodbyes back at the commuter parking lot. Of course, we brought a couple of bags of spätzle for her and her two kids; she said that the kids would be happy. It still makes us smile every time someones tells us our spätzle makes them happy; when it’s my niece and nephew, even better.

Our trip home on the NY Thruway was smooth sailing with very little traffic. Southbound on the Thruway was pretty much bumper-to-bumper slow-moving traffic heading back to New Jersey and downstate NY. Campers, boats, and family-packed vehicles filled the other side of the road. I’m glad we were headed in the opposite direction. Hopefully, they had a good holiday weekend despite the rain up in our neck of the woods, we really need the economy from travelers and visitors, but I’m also glad when they go back home too.

Klaus went on strike and didn’t want to eat his expensive, limited ingredient diet dry kibble anymore. His skin, ears, face, and feet are healed and look fantastic after a long struggle of figuring out what he can eat that won’t set off his allergies again. 

We’ve been avoiding poultry and sticking to red meat. Poultry gives some bulldogs issues, so removed it with great results. 

After days of turning his nose up to his food and Sam hand feeding him, I decided to try making a super healthy beef stew to mix with the kibble and a pumpkin natural peanut butter mixture to mix in for breakfast.

Last week I bought beef ribs that I braised, making stock at the same time. I repeatedly skimmed all the fat off the top. Then I added carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, celery, and red kidney beans. I thickened the stew with a potato starch slurry that worked brilliantly. He likes it and gobbles up his kibble again along with his allergy pills hidden in the carrots. 😉

I used some pet-approved herbs like rosemary, basil, and oregano to further flavor the stew. Salt is a no-no, so when I tasted it, I had to remember its dog food. With salt, it would be delicious human food.

I froze a couple of containers of the stew, but he went through what I had in the fridge in less than a week. I have to make bigger pots of stew as this will get old quickly, especially when we are so busy. 

Today I made…Burnt Brisket Stew. When I added the sliced brisket to water, it softened up and gave the water a beefy smokey taste. I cut up more of the same veggies as last week and have it simmering on the stove. I added the potato starch slurry and, bam, dinner for Klausie-boy!

Let me tell you that our house smells freakin fantastic. I tasted it, again bland without salt and human spices but very good. I am waiting for Sam to come busting through the back door and ask what’s for dinner when he smells the aroma from the stew. 

I feel less wasteful now, and Klaus will reap the harvest of yesterday’s brisket disaster and have some tasty grub. 

So when life hands you lemons, you make limoncello, and when life hands you burnt brisket, you make stew!

After we set up at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market this morning, I went for a walk and took a step way back in time. 

Sections of downtown Troy, NY, have literally been transformed. HBO is filming a new 10 part movie series called, The Gilded Age. 

Julian Fellowes, writer, and creator of Downton Abbey, latest period drama, The Gilded Age, is set in and around New York during the 1880s. The title refers to this time of prosperity in the United States thanks to the industrial boom, and the show will follow the comings and goings of the upper-crust of New York’s high society during that time.  

More than 300 people have been on hand transforming the streets of Troy. Crews have turned the paved streets into dirt roads and will soon lay cobblestone “jigsaw puzzles.” Modern signs have been removed, building’s facades changed and landscape brought in.

Storefronts have also taken a step back in time. Some businesses are still open for business behind the scenes; others have been paid to close during the filming. 

Locals were able to audition for parts as extras for the series. I never knew the attention to detail they spent on extras. 

One woman we know from the market is an extra and sat for 4 hours to have her hair done just to walk down the street. She was then squeezed into a corset and a huge bustled period dress. 

Everyone says the HBO crew has been very nice and accommodating while setting the stage for the series, originally scheduled for shooting last year. Covid 19 had other plans. 

The filming is in such early stages; there isn’t even a trailer for the series yet. The star-studded cast is here and has started filming this week. Shooting is scheduled through most of June. Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Amanda Peet, and Morgan Spencer are part of the cast.

For the last two days, the extras all sat in the Troy Music Hall. Everyone sat on one side, then the next day, the other side. The extras were rearranged on the second day for the illusion of a full audience in the music hall. One said they sat for a long time while they shot the same scene 12 times, the actress had trouble pronouncing one word. 

Walking around the transformed streets early this morning in the rain was almost magical. The storefront window displays and the attention to detail were amazing to see. I could really imagine what life was like back in 1880 in the greatest city in the world, NYC. 

I drudged through the dirt-filled streets and was glad I wore my muck boots this morning after seeing the weather forecast. 

I felt like I struck gold when I came upon a tent filled with horse-drawn carriages. I was literally all by myself with only one other guy out taking photos out in the streets as well. We commented to each other how cool it was actually to see and experience the set.

It’s pretty weird to see behind the scenes and the many trucks, lights, scaffolding, trailers, and bucket trucks amongst the 1880 scenery.

Inside some of the storefronts, artists were still at work lettering the windows and antiquing the doorways. Others were dressing the window vignettes with period items. I told one of them how amazing it looked; he got a big smile on his face and said, thanks!

I’m not sure I will ever have another opportunity like this again. I was so happy the streets were deserted; having a bunch of other people walking around would have completely spoiled the magic for me. 

I went back to our spätzle booth at the market to cold, rainy conditions; everything was soaking wet. It was a long day, but more people came to the market regardless of the weather. I could tell the ones who checked out the movie set, they all had muddy boots and shoes like me.