Over the weekend of the first snowpocalypse of 2010, I actually wasn’t at home to witness it. Instead, I was in the poconos, where they got about 2″ of snow, as opposed to the 20+” laid down at home. While there, we were treated to some fine home cooked meals. For saturday brunch, we had eggs benedict that M made. How come whenever I try to make poached eggs it turns into a mess, but when M makes them, they’re perfect?

After snowboarding in mostly artificially created snow, we had some appetizers, including cheese and crackers. Everyone was particularly fond of the triple cream blue cheese from trader joe’s. I don’t like stinky cheese of any kind, so I stayed away from it. And who doesn’t like ritz crackers?

Also had some chips and green salsa. These chips tasted like they were guacamole flavored or something? Delicious!

For dinner, we had some of this belgian onion and pepper soup.  It had been made awhile back and the pepper had been stewing for awhile, so it was extremely peppery. Tasty, but peppery.

The main course was a chili. This was also tasty, but a bit on the spicy side. I was fine with the spice, but had to take my time with this. It ended up being too spicy for E, poor thing. She ended up eating a bunch of salad instead. D had added a whole can of jalapenos to this, and man, the hotness had been infused through and through. The sour cream was necessary to cut it, and also, because it just tastes darn good with chili. It was a fun weekend away!

I used to work at a company that gave us free lunch every day. And by free I mean subsidized, so either free or nearly free, depending on how much you decided to eat. It was luxurious. Not because the food was particularly great, but because you never had to worry about packing a lunch, worrying about where to go out for lunch, or wondering if you should take your leftovers into work the next day. The caf was always there, enticing you with their salad bar, sandwich station, entree line, hot grill line, and soups. You could rely on it. Plus it saved you a ton of cash.

In the first few years they basically served typical american cafeteria fare. Towards the latter years, after they changed vendors, the food started getting a bit more interesting. Some days we had sushi or chinese. They even had indian and middle eastern! They were trying to introduce some pseudo-internationalized cuisine onto unsuspecting American suburbanite office drones. And I admired them for it.

My new company feeds us twice a week. On Wednesdays it varies from restaurant or caterer. on Fridays it’s pizza from Tony A’s. But a few common themes abound through our free lunches – vegetarians and dieters, you’re screwed. It’s not the healthiest in the world, and always meat-laden. Last summer on Fridays was my favorite day of the week because of Chef Donald. That’s right, we had a chef that came in on Fridays that grilled for us. It was unbelievable what that man could do with onions and garlic, his main staple ingredients, and whatever meat they brought in that day. I wish it was summer again, because damn, Chef Donald’s meals were the best.

Today was Tony A’s as usual. And I always eat the same pizza – Bacon Burger. Bacon Burger pizza you say? It has everything you love – bacon, ground beef, caramelized onions, and hot peppers. How can you go wrong? After all, everything tastes better with bacon. The onions on this pizza…. Man! I don’t know what kind of crack they sprinkle on it, but I could eat it straight from a bowl.

I didn’t eat the pizza today though. Last Sunday I had decided to make chili. It was a particularly cold day, and on cold days, there’s nothing better than pho or chili. I’d had pho on Saturday (more on that later), so I decided to make chili. I made a giant vat of it and ate the last bits of it today. Mmm, mmm, good.