Weekend Recap

I must have jinxed myself when I wrote my previous blog. The rest of the week was nutz! My first full full-time week with Taste Carolina and I was extremely busy. Our weekend tours were completely sold-out by mid-week. I received two last minute requests for private corporate tours, not too easy to put together, especially on short notice. Plus, we had a corporate tour Thursday night that didn't run as smoothly as I would've liked. Then I woke up Friday morning to an email from my boss saying she was in labor, which meant that I was completely on my own from that point forward. Well there is a co-founder, but my boss has been running the day-to-day business for the past (almost) two years and we've been bouncing ideas off of one another via email, texts, phone calls and weekly meetings for the past month. The co-founder has a full-time job as a lawyer so he's not as familiar with the day-to-day operations, and other than my interview and the baby shower, I haven't really talked to him much. He doesn't have time to run the business, that's the reason I was hired, and now that the baby has arrived, TC is my full responsibility, eek!

Okay breathe. With that panic session in black and white, I feel much better. All of the tours went great this weekend, no need to worry. I am confident that I can handle whatever Taste Carolina throws my way and I even think I can get used to the whole head spinning thing. Really, all I have to do is read my previous blog and I remember that I absolutely cannot complain about this job. It is quite possibly, the best job ever!

So being the superwoman that I am (I had Alicia Keys' version of that song in my head all day Saturday, hah!), I did manage to have a great weekend and spend some time with Cameron. Friday night we attended our usual Fuqua Friday Happy Hour. The Blue Devil was also in attendance:

After Fuqua Friday Cameron and I headed home to make chili. We entered ourselves in a chili cook-off Saturday night hosted by friends, and I had been collecting my ingredients all week long. My secret ingredient was a really nice Scotch Ale (Wee Heavy) that my friends at Carrboro Beverage Company & Bottle Shop recommended. It is, of course, a stop on our Carrboro tour, but these guys have an encyclopedic knowledge of beer so I knew I was heading there when I saw that my recipe called for beer. Cameron and I seldom cook together. Our kitchen in NYC was too small and he's been too busy since starting school. It was so much fun to collaborate on this chili and it really paid off, we won! I'll post the recipe in a separate blog once I make sense of all of my notes.

For round two I have some ideas. There was another chili that evening that was deliciously smokey and full of bacon, Becca and Gary's chili. When I was at The Bottle Shop picking up my Wee Heavy the guys also recommended Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (smoked beer) for chili and marinades. Once I get my hands on Becca and Gary's chili recipe, I think I'd like to combine recipes and use that smoked beer to see what we come up with. Look for a blog in the future with those notes as well.