I took a walk up to Bryant Park to their winter village with my boss after lunch to get some of the best kettle corn you’ll ever have…only one problem….they’re not there this year! Apparently after speaking with another vendor (selling grilled cheese which I might have been interested in had I not eaten a full lunch already) they made a mess and created a pigeon nuisance! Only in NYC. The vendor that replaced them is Pickle Me Pete. Sorry but we needed sweet and salty…not just salty. It was a sad day. I snapped a picture so it wasn’t a complete bust and we headed back to the office.

Bryant Park, NYC 41st & 6th

Bryant Park, NYC 41st & 6th

OK, I confess I stopped for a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks as a consolation prize. I’ve been trying to ween off of them as I started to make it a 240 calorie daily habit after someone gave me a gift card for my birthday. Well now the gift card is done and i’m dropping $5.17 for those empty (but tasty) calories. My boss ended up getting some kettle corn flavored Pop Chips. How disappointing!

I came home tonight to a nice mix of catalogs, holiday cards and bills…

catalogs-bills-cards

catalogs-bills-cards

And then after telling my mom I was feeling a bit feverish and achy tonight and that I wouldn’t be able to come over for dinner, she and my dad drove here to deliver it to me. My own meals on wheels!

salad-pot roast and orzo-pistachio pudding

salad-pot roast and orzo-pistachio pudding

There was a nice salad to start. The main course was my mom’s famous Spicy Pot Roast and she added some orzo pasta. Then a little cup of pistachio pudding with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. Yes—I’m 40 years old. This is sort of pathetic and sort of amazing all rolled up into one.

The recipe for the pot roast if you’re interested:

SPICY POT ROAST:
4-5lb rump roast
bag of baby carrots
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
parsley flakes
salt and pepper
3 cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 bay leaf

Dump all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 8-12hrs OR you can brown meat in 3tbs oil on the stove (in a big spaghetti pot), then add onion and a tbs. water and simmer for 3hrs. Add spices and baby carrots and cook additional 45min.

I just set up Twitter. Since “sweatoutthesmallstuff” was too long, I went with “SOTSS”. There will be a learning curve here as I’m not much of a twit =)

In case you wanted to know what it looked like when I’m blogging I’ll leave you with this visual (which if you follow me on Instagram @sweatoutthesmallstuff you saw already…

photo 2

Question: Do you like kettle corn?