FOLIAGE.

Fall seems to be flying by already. My favorite month, October, has already come & gone. I don't know about y'all, but my life has been pretty kick ass as of late, aside from the whole ending up in a ditch thing. Halloween, the best holiday EVER, was a blast. We kind of laid low & stayed home with some friends, but that didn't stop up from dressing up. Since I started dating my girlfriend 4 years ago, every year I ask her to dress up as Beth Chapman, & I would be Dog the Bounty Hunter. Well I finally got her to crack this year. I have to say, I think our costumes came out pretty amazing.

Dog likes Dogfish Head. & approves of their 120 Minute IPA.

Even though I am sad that October is over already & that AMC won't be playing awesome horror movies anymore, I am pretty excited for November. I will be seeing my favorite band Chimaira 3 times this month. We went to the first of the shows in New York City on November 3rd. Now you know that I didn't go all the way out to NYC without getting a burger. I decided that we should go to Shake Shack since it was right around the block from where we were seeing the band at BB King's. I've been to Shake Shake before but was not very impressed with it. Since it's voted the 2nd best burger in NYC, I thought that I should go back & give it another shot. I'm glad I did. It was fucking awesome. Super fresh, cooked perfectly, the bun was fresh as well & super soft, almost like a potato roll. I also got it with their signature Shack Sauce, which was kind of like a mayonnaisey Big Mac sauce (so my girlfriend tells me, I have never had a Big Mac,) which was good, they just put a little too much on my burger. But yea, their burger was super yum, but they do need to do some work on their boring, crinkle cut fries. I also decided to try their Shackmeister, which is a beer that the Brooklyn Brewery makes for Shake Shack. This wasn't very impressive either, like a citrus lager kind of. It wasn't terrible, I just wasn't overly impressed with it. Overall though, I was really happy that I decided to try Shake Shack again. I understand their long lines now.

My friend Stephen got the DOUBLE BURGER. The 2nd photo is his.
Follow him on Twitter: @Stephen_ize

We had some time to kill before the show so we mosied over to the Rattle N Hum, my absolute favorite bar ever. I love how no matter what Sarah & I go to the city for, we always end up at this bar. What was really cool was their owner Patrick gave us free food! Another reason why I love that place, the people who work there are awesome! It was also International Stout Day, & I'm not normally a stout fan, but I did drink one for the holiday! A Sixpoint Otis. & it was pretty good, super hoppy & I'm all about super hoppy.

Thanks Patrick!

Chimaira was kick ass, but that's to be expected. We went in expecting epicness & that is exactly what it was. Got to see some old Chimmy friends, so that's always cool. The whole day was just fantastic, it really couldn't have gone any better. Well, the only thing I could have gone without was getting hit in the head during Chimaira which I am pretty sure re-concussed me, but hey, what are you gonna do?

The 2nd photo is again from Stephen. I was skipping after seeing Chimaira I was so happy.

& now I am in Vermont. haha In 24 hours I go from Times Square NYC to Fletcher, Vermont. I LOVE MY LIFE. haha My uncle is visiting from Washington state so my dad rented the cabin that Sarah & I usually rent in May. It's so different being here when it's cold. It's so gorgeous with the foliage. & you best believe I am taking advantage of all the delicious beer that is out here. Where this is going to be a mini-trip & I won't get to do much burgering or check out as much beer as I would like to, I'll be doing a seperate entry for that. You can also expect a guest entry from my uncle. I will give you this preview.

But now I have to get back to drinking & watching football. Until next time. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter if you don't already: @tastemyrizzo Also, if you'd like to check out the videos that my girlfriend took of Chimaira, they can be found on my YouTube channel. & the semi-decent photos I took with my cell phone can be found here.

I'm lazy.

So it's really been irking me that I have been eating all these awesome burgers but haven't blogged about them. I could sit & take the time to write a super long entry about all of them, but that would take forever & I'm really fucking lazy. I have still been taking photos even though I wasn't blogging, so I figured the easiest way to go about this is by posting them all in an album. I generally will just post them to Facebook with my cellphone, but being how we're not all friends on Facebook, I thought it would be easier to post them to a public album. Sooo here's that album. Check it out, there's some good'ens in there! Skinny Girl Diet's photo blog, if you will.

Snow storm my ass.

Sooo if you haven't heard, there is something fishy going on over here on the East Coast. First we had that damn Hurricane Irene, now we're getting hit with a Noreaster in October. Like, what the fuck? & of course it has to snow when I have elaborate plans. But we'll get to that.

If you're awesome, you know that there was a new Hunter S. Thompson movie that just came out, The Rum Diary. If you don't know who Hunter S. Thompson is you need to stop reading this right now & Google him. My girlfriend & I are big fans of him & his work, so we made it a point to see the film the day it came out. (we only go out to the movies if it's a flick that we really want to see, otherwise we wait for it to come out on DVD) We decided to kick it old-school & hang out at the mall prior to the movie, just like when we were back in high school, except this time we thought it better to go get drunk at Ruby Tuesday. Now, right off the bat, I have beef with Ruby Tuesday. Every time I go there, they have Fat Tire on their "craft beer" menu, but they never actually have it at the bar. They need to just take that shit off. Luckily, they did have some Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, which is always a tasty brew. As far as burgers are concerned, Ruby Tuesday doesn't do too bad of a job, it being a chain resturant & all. Now, I usually get the same thing when we do come here, the Smokehouse burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, onion straws, & barbecue sauce, but I felt like switching it up. I ordered the Boston Blue burger, with blue cheese, onion rings, & Boston barbecue sauce. Now I really couldn't tell you why I ordered this burger, because I don't even really like blue cheese, but I figured "What the hell," & gave it a shot. I have to tell you, it was fucking delicious. The Boston barbecue sauce was great too. (I don't know what makes it different from regular barbecue sauce, but I don't tend to discriminate when it comes to BBQ) It was a pleasantly surprising plate of awesome.

& in case you were wondering, the movie was pretty good too. The only complaint that we had was that it seemed like they tried to fit a lot of stuff within the 2 hour time span, so it was kind of all over the place, but we enjoyed it.

So we come to Saturday, the day of the snow storm. Now like I said earlier, we had kick-ass plans for the day that were squandered by the stupid snow. Now don't get me wrong, I love snow, but this was just plain silly. We were planning on going down to Blairstown, NJ where they shot the original Friday the 13th, then we were going to pick some apples & pumpkins, followed by checking out the Gem & Keystone Brewpub in Shawnee on Delaware, PA. But noooo, since we had winter storm warnings & everything, we decided driving South into the storm was probably not the best idea. Theeen we changed our plans & decided to check out Oktoberfest at the Bear Mountain Lodge, but of course it was outside, & I was not about standing outside in the snow drinking beer, as much as I do adore Oktoberfest.

Now you would think that after having to change our plans completely that we would take a hint & just stay home. Nope, not us. Me being the brat that I am, I couldn't be contented with just sitting home on my day off. (I get really antsy if I don't go out & eat a burger when I'm not at work) So I decide that it would be a good idea to drive up to Half Time in Poughkeepsie, even though it's about an hour away. (it's the best beer store EVER) Driving up there wasn't too bad, aside from the fact that it took about 2 hours, but we kind of blamed that on the people driving slow on the backroads. We did some damage at Half Time. Here's the line up:

Samuel Adams New World Tripel, Meantime IPA, Dogfish Head My Antonia, Laughing Dog Brewing's Dogzilla Black IPA, Ithaca Beer Company Cascazilla, Dogfish Head Midas Touch Golden Elixir, Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Wild, Laguinitas Maximus, Lost Coast Brewery Alleycat Amber, Shipyard Brewing Company Old Thumper ESA, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, a growler of Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale, a growler of Three Heads Brewing's Skunk IPA, & a growler of Blue Point's Hoptical Illusion.

Not too shabby, huh? I was especially excited for the 120 Minute IPA. They were even limiting customer's to one bottle. Shit's rare! But yea, you would think that the trip up would send up right back home after the beer store, but nope, again, not us. We decide that we have to go to Poppy's in Beacon. I've heard great things about this place, & figured since we were already up in the area & hadn't eaten anything yet that we needed to go. We also drive a Subaru so that just means we can drive in any weather no matter what, right? So we get to Poppy's all fine & dandy. I ordered the Egg Head burger, with cheese, diced onions, & a fried egg. Now I don't know if it's just because I don't really eat diced onions, but decided I should attempt to eat them anyways, but I was no impressed with this burger. To me with the onions, it kind of made it taste like a meatball, but I think it might have just been because I'm used to eating my onions battered & fried, not raw. Their fries were amazing though. Most of the ingredients that they use are fresh & local, & you can certainly taste that in the fries. I've decided that I'm not really going to count this against Poppy's & that I have to make another trip out here, because I feel like it should have been delicious & circumstances we working against me. They also had a cute selection of NY beers, so I went with a Saratoga IPA from the Mendocino Brewing Company, which was nice & crisp.

Now you know we couldn't just get home to enjoy all our lovely beer right? Of course not. As we were driving home, this asshole driving on the NYS Thruway was acting a fool, so we tried to pass them, & ended up in a ditch on the side of the highway. You would think since we have a Subaru that this wouldn't be a problem? Nooope. We ended up stuck in that ditch for 3 hours, killing the battery, until we were pulled out & towed back home, to the tune of $170. I don't know what I did to karma to piss it off lately, but it was definitely messing with me that day. I should have just listened to all the reports telling people to stay home, but I am just way too stubborn for that & refuse to let the weather decide what I am going to do. (that & all the people on Twitter encouraging me to also ignore all the weather reports)

Getting stuck in a ditch definitely sucked, but everything ended up working out. We were able to make it home, injury free, which is really the blessing in all of this, because we were completely sideways on the Thruway, & in any other circumstance we would be fucking dead right now, so that God for that. I guess we'll have to see what happens to us on our next burger-venture, which is going down tomorrow. We're going to NYC to see my absolute favorite band CHIMAIRA. It will be my 16th time seeing them, & provides the perfect opportunity to re-visit Shake Shack. Just like Poppy's, I heard great things about Shake Shack but in my initial visit was not impressed. We'll see if my mind changes tomorrow.

Jumping back on the horse.

Instead of attempting to play catch up on the past 2 years of burgers, I think I'm just going to jump right back into this, and start blogging again. It's not that I don't have the free time to blog, I am just beyond lazy, and lack any creative writing skills. (those AP English classes in high school didn't seem to do shit.) Sooo...here it goes. If I don't go to eat a burger on my day off, I get a little crazy. I've been having some rough times the past couple days at work, so my lovely lady Sarah made sure that I got a tasty burger today, no matter what. We went out to one of the best local spots in our area, Woody's All Natural in Cornwall, NY. This place is know for it's all natural ingredients and fresh, local products. In other words, it's AMAZING. It's only about 15 minutes from our house, but we definitely don't get out there as much as we probably should. They make a lot of things seasonally, such as pumpkin bisque and pulled pork sandwiches for the fall. Another one of their fall seasonal items is the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger, which consists of cheddar cheese, bacon, pulled pork, and onion straws. I didn't even have to look at the rest of the menu, as soon as I saw the sign for this burger I knew I had to order it. It was HUGE and DELICIOUS. Peep this shit.

I only had time to pose for a smug photo before I dove my face deep into this beefy goodness. Woody's will cook your burger to order, so as per usual, I ordered mine medium rare. My only complaint about this burger was that it was a little more on the medium side, but I can live with that. The pulled pork was really good, and was complimented by the bacon, which was cooked perfected, not that burnt crap. A little sharper cheddar would have been nice, but that might just be because I LOVE extra sharp cheddar cheese. Those are my only complaints.

Needless to say, I would absolutely recommend Woody's All Natural to anyone and everyone. You can taste how fresh their ingredients are, and they even offer some bottled craft beer. If you're ever near Cornwall NY (even though I don't really see why you would be OTHER than to go to Woody's) I urge you to stop in here & get a burger.

Yeaaaa...about that...

I am a terrible blogger. This is not to say I have not been stuffing my face. Check it out. CHEESEDBURGERS.

Burger month, week one

Now I have to start off my saying, I think I might have gotten a little excited when I first heard of burger month. Now the idea of eating a burger every single day sounds awesome, but it’s pretty unrealistic. Not to mention pretty expensive, especially when you’re trying to save to go on vacation. So where I haven’t been eating a burger every day, I’ve been trying my best.

The first place we went to for burger month was Jackson Hole in Englewood, NJ. There’s a bunch of Jackson Holes in NYC so I was really excited to find out that there was one in NJ because I really don’t like going into the city unless it’s absolutely necessary. So, first we stopped at Corrado’s because we needed to get some more sanitizer for homebrewing. That places is crazy. They have like everything you can think of for homebrewing. I wanted to buy everything. But yea, after Corrado’s we went made our way to Jackson Hole. It was not what I expected; it was located in a diner car basically, & I almost drove past it. It was kind of on the pricey side, but the burgers were huge.

 

Jackson Hole is the home of the 7 ounce burger. I wish I realized how big 7 ounces was before I ordered fries, because I didn’t even touch them. Now I got he Western Burger, topped with Jack cheese, fried onions, bacon, & barbeque sauce. The onions were a little overwhelming so I had to take some off, & the barbeque sauce was very tangy, more like a hot sauce, but other then that the burger was really good. It was very juicy & messy, but it tasted awesome. My girlfriend ordered the Soul Burger, with bacon, ham, American cheese, & friend onions, which was also very good (I make her let me try what she orders.) Overall, very good burgers, I just know next time not to order fries.

Now I know that Hamburger Helper & Wendy’s aren’t very impressive, but I’m trying to show homage to this lovely month by consuming burger meat as often as possible. They were my options. & they were good. haha Of all the fast food restaurants, I really don’t mind Wendy’s burgers. & $2.99 for a value meal is OK by me.

As far as beer goes, things have been realitively quiet. We are brewing a pilsner right now, which I am pretty excited for. I was going to go get some Mexican beer for Cinco de Mayo, but as I’ve said before, not really a fan of Mexican beer, so we had to stick with margaritas. For Sarah & I though, Cinco de Mayo is a lot like Christmas, so this was our tree.

We’ve began counting the days down until our vacation. In less than 2 weeks we will be in Vermont, drinking all their lovely beers. I really can’t wait. I can’t even begin to tell you how badly I need a vacation. & hopefully this year we will be able to get our VT beer passport completely stamped. & I think this year I’m going to get a hop tattooed. Last year I got a burger, so I guess it would be appropriate. I really can’t wait to get out of here. Bring on those Green Mountains!

Oh happy May.

I just stumbled across the little fact that May is National Burger Month. With this only one thing comes to mind: I’m going to have to eat a burger every single day this month. It’s ooon!