Off Season

Steve and I just ended our 3 weeks of what triathletes call the off season.  It's a time where we do not do any swimming, biking or running.  The extent of my physical exercise was taking Sam for a hike up Mt. Kearsage where my gluts were so sore the next two days! 

Anyways, we started the off season in Miami, which was absolutely splendid.  We then continued the trend of eating bad, bad food, or what half of America calls breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Let's start this post off with the delicious marshmallows we ate from Planet Marshmallow.  That's right folks, there's a little place here in Manchester, NH that makes marshmallows, you can make S'More's at your table or get them to go.  We opted to get them to go, because at that point, the few beers we had consumed were telling us we first wanted dinner (we got pizza that night from 900 degrees, cheese and extra garlic if you wanted to know).  We got cinnamon, chocolate mint and chocolate raspberry, all of which are outstanding.  We also took home a pumpkin whoopie pie, chocolate covered S'More and a chocolate covered marshmellow.  I'm pretty sure the last item is still in the fridge, hmmm.

We stopped by Bert's Better Beers This place is beer heaven.  If you enjoy craft beers that is, they don't sell Corona or Bud Light.  If you're looking for that, Bert's is not the place for you.  However, if you want to enjoy some Laguinitas Brown Sugga, which is my new favorite by Laguinitas.  Although, Lil' Sumpin Sumpin is a very close second.  Just look at the bottle, it screams deliciousness!  The highlight of the first two weeks was Shipyard's Smashed Pumpkin Bourbon Barrel Aged.  Wowza's!  This beer is da bomb.  Once you get it to room temperature, the bourbon and pumpkin come together and it's a party in your mouth.

We went to O Steaks in Concord and both had really nice meals (service is another story), the salads were super fresh and of course I got blue cheese dressing on it (OFF SEASON)!  The steaks were cooked perfectly and I got a side of mac and cheese which was by far the best mac and cheese I have ever had (at a restaurant).  My moms homemade mac and cheese clearly is the winner in this category.  Steve got a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes, with a TON of roasted garlic cloves, nom nom nom! 

Then I met a group of friends at the Backroom, which is a local joint known for the chicken tenders and MUDSLIDES.  Now, you might be asking yourself, what's the big deal with mudslides.  Well my friends, if you ever have the privelage of trying a backroom mudslide, get ready to be knocked off your feet.  They are all liquor, there's no milk, cream or ice cream in these bad boys.  They only allow you to have two of them.  I got the mint chocolate one and then the pumpkin one.  The pumpkin one was to die for!

The next day we had a big fall harvest at work where I made my universally famous double chocolate peanut butter pie.  The crust is a chocolate wafer cookie crust.  You remember those delicious vanilla wafer cookies, well throw in some melted butter and melted chocolate bar with some cocoa powder, voila!  Then the middle is heavy cream, cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter.  REAL peanut butter.  No PB Powder in this!  Then the topping is a melted chocolate bar and heavy cream.  The richness of this pie is ridic, but it's so tasty.

This past Saturday was the last night of the off season (well, we are going to Portland and specifically Novare Res on Saturday, which is a late birthday celebration for Steve.  That's what happens when your birthday falls in the middle of race season!  We capped it off with this bad boy.  There's really no words to describe this, other than 13.2% alcohol, which is why there's no words.

 As we go into the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm super thankful for being able to swim, bike and run everyday and be able to travel and race is some places I normally would probably not go to.  I'm also thankful for being an American and living in America.  If you read the newspaper or watch even 1 minute of the news, you know what's going on between Israel and Hamas.  Be thankful you're not someone living in the Gaza Strip being bombed at on an hourly basis.  Let's hope they can resolve this as soon as possible before more people die.  I'm also thankful for my family and friends for just being them.  Super supportive and caring.  I'm also thankful I have Steve in my life.  It's amazing to be able to share all the wonderfullness of life with him.  We laugh together on a daily basis.  Oh, and let's not forget about the buddha boy, Sam!

We also just registered for Ironman Arizona for November 19, 2013!  It sold out in 40 seconds online and we BOTH got in!  We have some solid races lined up for 2013 which I'll talk more about later, because this post was about the off season!