While it was chilly yesterday, somehow if the sun is out, it puts me in a better mood. The drive in was so pretty – look at that sky!
And when I got to work, of course, more treats. This time someone brought donuts. I am not going to say what the long john and two donuts on the left look like. My Mom and MIL read the blog.
I avoided the treats and heated up another omelet – this time with egg beaters because I left out my container of egg whites on the counter all day the day before. Gah. I had when I do crap like that.
I was all set to go to the gym. I tested my blood sugar – NO! 95. Which is great, but too low to work out. I already ate my fruit and I didn’t think it made sense to eat more to work out, so I ran a couple errands. My office is having their Christmas lunch on Friday. We are having an ugly sweater contest so I went to a thrift store by my office. It’s huge! (that’s what she said).
While I was looking for an ugly sweater, I couldn’t help but find snowmen galore!
I didn’t buy any though. I have enough at home. In fact, I haven’t even started decorating and may only at this point put up the tree. Tony really doesn’t care about decorations at all, so it’s really all about me. Like it should be, right?!
Tony made me a spicy chorizo minestrone soup for my lunches this week. Yes, the man who thinks soup is not a meal makes me the best soups because he knows I love them. Here’s the deal though – he made this soup using just what we had on hand. Because there was so much flavor in the chorizo that was leftover from my Thanksgiving stuffing, he ended up just using water. He sauteed garlic with sriracha, added in the chorizo, and built the soup up from there. Orecchiette, or little ear pasta, was added. Black beans and corn. Then the green shit aka baby spinach. He said he tried it at the very end to season it for salt and almost passed out over the heat level on this soup – but it’s flavorful spicy. The best kind in my book!
So flipping good! So happy I have more for today and tomorrow. And the best part? When I got to the end of the bowl – I got to see this!
And later in the afternoon I had a skinny latte. And even though Skippy is not blogging anymore, I hope she still reads my blog and sees all these wonderful snowmen pictures! She loves snowmen just as much as me!
I had to go straight from work to the restaurant. It being a Wednesday, I had no idea what to expect. Word of mouth is getting out about our restaurant. After Christmas signs will be posted outside that we are now open, and after the new year they will start advertising.
My first table sat down. We have a signature dipping sauce that is complimentary to every table. Fresh bread with a dipping sauce – a base of olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper, fresh basil and then a drizzle of balsamic glaze. I could do some damage with that stuff!
So my table sat down and I said “Welcome to Zeal, my name is Biz and I’ll be your server tonight.” They both looked at each other and said “we are confused – what happened to Vidalia?” Well, Vidalia was the previous restaurant that went out of business six months ago. I explained that we opened two weeks ago. They were expected another couple, so I just told them I would give them a few minutes to look over the menu. I have no idea what the price point was of the old restaurant, so if they decided to get up and leave, no big.
They decided to stay, when the gentlemen asked me to recommend our best White Zinfandel. Snap. Um, I really don’t consider white zinfandel to be a wine, and we don’t actually carry one. We do, however, have amazing house wines that are very generous at $5 a glass. I recommended an Oregon Riesling, that I can’t remember the name of, but since he liked a sweet white zinfandel, I thought it would work. He actually enjoyed two glasses of it and asked me to write it down for him – he’d never had a riesling before!
My service was excellent, they enjoyed the food. They told me it was the gentleman’s birthday, so I told him what desserts we had and he chose the tiramisu cake. It’s heavenly! I put a candle in it, we sang happy birthday, all was well! They asked for the check. They looked it over and said “there must be some sort of mistake, because you charged us for the cake, and it’s his birthday.” I explained that since all of our desserts are made in-house with the highest quality of ingredients, we will never give away any of our desserts. I guess they didn’t like the $8 price tag, but it’s worth every penny of that and more. I got a $10 tip on a $100 tab.
But, I got home early – I cleared $50 bucks and was home at 9:30, so I am not complaining at all. And check out some of our specials from last night!
- Sliced NY strip steaks with caramelized onions (ew!) and horseradish sour cream with a baked potato
- Jumbo shrimp and scallops in a Diablo red sauce served over linguini
- Rolled stuffed chicken – stuffed with spinach, asiago cheese and roasted red peppers served with a light creamy pest sauce served over orzo
- Burrata salad – burrata is a delicate mozzarella that is served with roasted peppers, fried prosciutto and then drizzled with a balsamic glaze and topped with shredded basil
The salad looks a little bit like this – and if you like cheese, you would love this dish.
I ended up having pizza for dinner again, with a bit of wine. I think after the new year I’ve got to ditch the wine again, it’s slowly creeping back into my life. I still have 20 pounds to lose to get to my goal weight, and the wine isn’t going to help me get to my goal.
No stats for the day – I have no idea how to figure out Tony’s soup and overall, I don’t think I did too bad. Today at lunch me and one of my co-workers are going to GOODWILL! It opens today and I am hoping to find my ugly sweater – if not, I’ll have to hit up the local thrift store by my house after work.
Alright, time to get this show on the road – only two more work days, and then I am off from my day job until next Friday! Not sure what the restaurant schedule will be until Saturday night – I know we are closed on both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. But New Years is supposed to be good – the Rod Stewart impersonator will be back!
Make it a great day!
Hi biz!! I’ve been a reader if your blog for a few years now, and this post inspired me to finally comment. I’m 27, and a fellow sever, so I feel your pain. Sometimes I like my job, it’s nice to feel like you’ve made a difference in someone’s day, but it is TOUGH dealing with all the ding dongs out there as well. The table who left you a poor tip are an example of this!
Now that you’re back in the industry, I reccomend that you follow “The Bitchy Waiter” on Facebook, he’s hilarious, and I’m sure you’ll get a laugh out of it.
Regardless, keep fighting the good fight, I love reading your blog, and wanted to say thank you! Have a great weekend 🙂
SkippyMom here – and our course I still read your blog,silly.
And I am in AWE. I don’t now how you are doing both jobs, but I love you for it.
I wish I could send Wallene up to decorate your house for you. The kid is a whiz with snowmen. giggle – You know what an explosion it is my house.
I think of you everyday – regardless of whether are smiley friends are dancing across the mantle.
I miss you Biz. PLEASE take it easy and try not to over do. I am insanely proud of you, but take care, ‘kay?
Love you, always. JG
I am never going to proofread am I – and I will remain sounding stupid in everything I comment.
NOT “are” but “our”…..sigh.
College evidently got me no where.
Ha, no worries J! 😀
So happy you shared your snowman pics with me on Facebook. Happy Holidays to you and yours Skip! Hugs and Love, Biz
$10 on $100 that is worst. At least they didnt leave you a religious pamphlet as well. I hated the dreaded 10% and condescending pamphlet, like i look like a sinner.
I dont know how you do it and make it sound like fun. I miss serving and i hope you get 25% from here on out:)
I bet you will have lots of stories to tell the longer you waitress!
Best White Zin. Huh. I don’t even know what to say to that.
Lol, best white Zin? Those are a couple wine snobs in my book!
I agree with shelley B!!! No White Zin over here.
Your doughnut comment made me laugh 🙂 🙂
So sorry I’ve been gone for so long! I’m glad you talked about your second job on this post b/c I was wondering what you were doing after you mentioned in a comment you took a second job. I can totally see you as a waitress-perfect! Mad props for juggling both jobs, working out, and keeping up with your blog. I hope to return to mine soon.
I love that they just expected the dessert to be free! wth! They’re at a restaurant!
omg, people these days. lol.
And Reisling is my FAVORITE. I love a sweet wine!
I’m a 20% tipper for mediocre service so I’m really bummed for your $10 tip because I know you’re phenomenal. I enjoy a glass of Riesling every now and then. I’ve seen some really cute snowmen decorations this season and they all make me think of you.
Sorry about them stiffing you on the tip! I don’t know of any restaurant that still does the free Birthday dessert either.
I really want to like wine but I guess I’ve just tried the wrong kind.
I love Christmas collectibles!! I wouldn’t have been able to pass the Snowmen up!! lol
Long john & donuts – *snicker snicker* 😀
It probably wasn’t even his birthday! Hate people like that. The food looks great at this place. I think they should give you a bonus for free advertising! Now they have an ugly sweater website! Happy snowman to you!
Most restaurants around here don’t give free desserts anymore for birthdays (haha, could it be all the college students conveniently had birthdays more often than once a year?), but that sucks that they basically stiffed you on your tip to pay for the cake.
And white zin? It’s the Kool-Aid of wine. If that’s what you’re drinking, just order a rum and coke and stop pretending.
You know, it has been so crazy that I haven’t been reading your blog lately. And so, wait, you have a second job now? How did I miss that?? I did just really enjoy reading a bunch of old posts…
And tell your husband that I like the name Jeff.
I love dipping oil with bread – I make one very similar except I use a dry seasoning (Tuscan Sunset) from Penzeys. Husband and I love it way too much!! The food at your restaurant sounds amazing – we’ll definitely have to try it when we get down there for a weekend. Sorry about that birthday cake mix-up – I guess I can see how people that don’t even know what restaurant they’re in would make assumptions…I’ll stop there.
Have a great day – I hear there may some major snow on Sunday! Kind of sucks for travelling and last-minute shopping, but oh so pretty for the holidays:)
I don’t know how you resisted all those cute snowmen. 🙂
I’ve been making a lot of soup lately and last night we had beef stew which turned out rather well since I didn’t really have a recipe. Good job on turning down those doughnuts.
Geesh! really!?? They think the bday cake is free….what idiots! Sorry for your great service being disrespected! Bread is creeping back into my life and it sux because I always feel like crap after eating it. Good luck ditching the wine. Merry Merry!
Bright blue skies and sunshine most definitely help, even when the temp is in the teens!
So, white zinfandel. For goodness sake, I wish they’d take that wine off the market. It’s the equivalent of Boone’s Farm in my book LOL!
I remember when I worked a second job, the only way I ate healthfully was to make sure whatever I’d eat was already prepared so that when i got home I just heated and ate. Also, I find this time of year, with all the extra activity to be quite hard in sticking to the best laid eating, drinking, and exercise plans. Just do the best you can as you work through both the holidays and your new routine.
I’m with you – I need the sunshine. Today is cloudy but I’m enjoying my Christmas lights so that’s good!
And I’m so happy that you introduced that guy to Reisling – my favorite wines are all Reislings!!! (the sweeter the better in my world) Bummer that they shorted you on the tip!
Lucky you to have the whole week off. One of the advantages of your job 🙂 I can imagine your schedule has been so crazy you barely have time for anything. I hope you find time to get your tree up. I’m all about the decorations. Something about all the lights everywhere just soothes my soul.