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Join us at the table for a heartfelt recount of post-Easter warmth and the bonds forged over shared meals. George and I swap stories from our holiday spreads – my peaceful Easter dinner and George's fiery dance with island-style short ribs. We'll also take you through the smoke and sizzle of my ambitious plan to cater a massive feast for 60 people with my lang offset smoker, a tale of meat, fire, and friendship. With special nods to our high-spirited chum Fred, we celebrate the rekindled connections that make these occasions unforgettable.
As we savor these moments, we also peel back the layers of life's more daunting challenges. We share the profound shifts in our worldviews after personal health battles, from gallbladder crises to cancer triumphs, and how these experiences have taught us to treasure the mundane and embrace a fresh take on life. Our conversation dances through the philosophies of Picasso and Shaw, contemplating the purpose that propels us. Rounding out our chat, we marvel at the culinary journeys of my pals Jim Henry, a newfound pizza virtuoso, and Chris Nelson, who'll be popping by to talk about his cider escapades in Vermont, all while pondering the importance of staying sharp and informed in a world bristling with misinformation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone.
This is Steve from A BetterLife.
This podcast is brought to youby our sponsors, Premium
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(00:25):
Now our podcast.
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to A Better Life with
George and Steve.
Hello George.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey Steve, welcome, welcome back everybody Post
Easter, sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yes, it's Easter Monday.
A lot of people are off.
People are trying to tell methe banks are closed, but we all
know that's not true and it'sjust one of those Mondays.
I think spring is trying tomake its way in.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is this the most called out Monday or is that
post-Super Bowl?
Super Bowl is a big post-Mondaycall-out sick type of day,
right.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, a lot of people go away.
It's a hard time to go away.
Between Palm Sunday and Easter.
A lot of people are away.
A lot of schools are closed.
This week it's both things.
People go away, schools rotatewherever it is.
Take the week after or the weekbefore.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My kids were off the week before all week, so that
was a lot of coordinationamongst the houses and all that,
but I survived.
And then I got to enjoy thisreally relaxing Sunday afternoon
Easter Sunday dinner that wasphenomenal.
Sunday afternoon, easter Sundaydinner that was phenomenal.
I had lamb chops, ribeye steaks, string bean salad, roasted
(01:55):
cauliflower, roasted Brusselssprouts, roast potatoes, ravioli
, a huge antipasto spread.
It was really a nice few hoursin the afternoon to break away
from the routine and just enjoysome very nice intimate moments
with friends.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, you were over, josh's.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, josh had invited me over.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He knew that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I was single and flying solo this year.
It's always nice having goodfriends to watch out for you and
make sure you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was Fred there.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, I think that side of the family was down in
Florida.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, it was good to see him the other day.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I haven't seen him in so long years actually yeah, I
mean that man runs on I don'tknow nuclear fission.
He's always so full of life andjust so much energy going on,
always positive.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
A really amazing man I know we had uh, short ribs.
Sam made island style.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
She said the short ribs which really came out
unbelievably matter of fact, Idon't know anything about when
people say island style.
All I know is that must meanscotch bonnet peppers, so it has
a little kick.
I don't know anything aboutwhen people say Einstein.
All I know is that must meanscotch bonnet peppers.
It has a little kick.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I don't know what it really means, because she says
the only thing I've learned isthat she told me all my
seasonings are expired and theyall need to go in a garbage.
Can she told me all those kindof things, which is probably
true?
I'm thinking about when Ibought some of them before I had
my apartment and I've been here.
Got to be three years in May,right, so they're probably there
(03:32):
and they all need real newstuff.
And since my smoker's comingback into action this year in a
few weeks actually five or sixweeks I'm going to do a big cook
for a party of 60 people, whichI I'm a little bit intimidated
of.
There's going to be otherthings too, but it's a big
(03:52):
number to cater to, especiallygetting back on the saddle.
60 is a lot so I'm going to do15 racks of ribs.
So I'm basically going to cookthe day before and let
everything rest overnight, whichis what most big smoking places
do anyway.
I'm going to cook the daybefore and let everything rest
overnight, which is what mostbig smoking places do.
Anyway.
I'm going to cook 10, and then,when I wrap the 10, I will slip
in the other five while they'restill cooking wrapped.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Don't accidentally taste two racks, because you're
going to come up short.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's what I would do.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
If I was there like hey chef, I need to call in
control.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
That's what happens is people start hanging around.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's a great thing, it's a great problem to have,
but you end up running out ofsupplies and then next thing you
do, you prep for twice as much,and then now it's just back and
out the next morning.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I'm going to do 25.
Before the lunch I'm going todo I think it starts at 1, I'm
going to do 25 pounds of porkbellies, which is a heck of a
lot easier.
It just needs to be prepped.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You're talking about transporting the grill, but what
about your wood?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I probably have a half a quart of wood and I have
a case of pecan sitting next tome.
So I have a case of pecan whichwould be more than enough to do
the whole thing, but, and then Ihave hickory and cherry, so I
have plenty of wood, so I'mlooking forward to it.
And for those of you who don'tknow, I have a a lang offset
(05:15):
smoker, which is one of thebetter smokers out there, weighs
a thousand pounds, it's got 48inches wide with two levels of
cooking space.
So it really it really I coulddo 10 ribs.
I probably could do.
I've done 15 in one shot andI've created a second level kind
of thing I don't really show,choose to do that.
(05:35):
I may do it again just to savetime, but I don't know it's.
It does a lot of ribs.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, this grill is on four wheels.
Right, the bicycle pump isn'tcutting it.
You need a commercial electricair pump to fill these tires and
it's a monster.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It's a monster and I said I'm glad to move it there
to cook, except I'm not doing it.
It's just one of those thingsI'm looking forward to cooking
again, and hopefully more often.
I've had a few offers to cookfor people and hopefully George
and I can do a little combosession as well.
So the ribs will be ribs.
I'll make my own rub, I'll propthem the night before, then the
(06:19):
next and hopefully on the whileI'm cooking.
I'm going to make my own sauceagain, which I don't think
you've ever tasted, because Ithink all the times I cook for
you is I use somebody else's.
But I'm going to make my ownhomemade sauce and I think I'm
going to give it a little kickat a time, I think.
I'm going to take some of thosedry peppers I have in there I
don't know We'll talk aboutwhich one you can pick and then
(06:46):
add that to the sauce when Icook it and then I put it in a
immersion blender and just Idon't put it in, I use an
immersion blender and hopefullyget it just the right
consistency.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Cool, cool.
I can't wait to try.
So, one other thing we shouldmention is so we're playing
around with different softwaresthese days.
We're running today's episodethrough Riverside and I'm on my
laptop through Wi-Fi and I haveApple AirPods and so it's a
wireless headpiece with the mic.
(07:13):
Steve, you're running throughyour standardcaster mic.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Correct, also with it's going through the
Rodecaster Pro just for my audio, and also through a cloud,
whatever these things are called.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And are we?
We're running through Riverside, both of us.
I see our cameras are activatedand we have two windows.
Is this recording video as well?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
No, I just set it up for audio.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Okay, gotcha, I sent over a couple audio.
First, the lamb that we grilledyesterday.
I was just wondering if it wasa way for us to feed it into the
video.
But if we're not doing video,that's not a problem.
That'll be for the second halfof the year.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We're going to get there.
So we're going to get therewith the video.
Obviously, you can see thisvideo works well.
It'd work a little better.
We have to both download theRiverside app.
What's interesting aboutRiverside is not only do they
record to the cloud, which we do, we also record locally.
What it does is it takes alocal recording on my end, a
(08:26):
local recording on your end.
That's why you have to leaveyour computer open when you
finish for a little while.
Then it compares my copy, yourcopy, and the cloud copy, goes
through and makes the best copyof the whole thing and that
becomes what we export.
Wow, layers of the audio.
Because if there's an issuewith data on your end, say
(08:51):
you're, we all have that issues,we've all seen.
When our computers stop, ourtelevision stop and the internet
drops out for a minute, it ableenables that.
Keep recording on your ownsystem so that it goes in and
then it times.
It could tell the time and hookit all together Awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, this is great software.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
There's others, but this is the one I've been
looking at for some time.
I've recorded video on itmyself that hopefully I
destroyed, but it it workspretty well.
It's highly recommended.
A lot of people use it outthere a lot of podcaster, video
podcaster because I think youcan do as many as 20 people at
(09:36):
once.
Oh, wow okay and people do itwhat we're doing.
They just used apple headphonesand their software.
I can actually cut out one ofour softwares that we use I
don't know if I'm going to I may, just because Descript is one
of our other softwares that weuse besides Buzzsprout, but
Descript also does, also has aservice like Riverside where
(09:59):
they do this recording.
But I choose, but I'm not asfamiliar with that one.
This one I know works.
I know that it interacts withthe podcaster pro, that you just
have to change some settings onto do what we're doing.
Of course you could do it evensimply.
(10:20):
If I had a USB mic and USBheadphones, then we wouldn't
have to do any of those thingsand that would almost.
You could pretty much do itanywhere with this software.
There's also cell phone andiPad versions that you could use
, so you could do this fromanywhere.
You could do this from yourphone.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It's come a long way, hasn't it?
Podcasting when it first cameout it was a new word.
Who invented the word podcast?
And then, little by little,people get a little bit more
savvy, businesses seeopportunity and you get all
these new toys.
And technology certainly keepsup, and now we have all these
(11:00):
different iterations of phone,ipad, computer gadgets and
whatnot.
But again, like this is just,uh, a really fun hobby for us
and we're learning as we go whatdo you want to talk about today
?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
a little bit about you.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Were in japan last time we spoke yes, it's been a
few weeks, it's been it's been afew weeks.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
George was busy when he first came back.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know how you are when you come back you've been
on a business trip yeah,business trip catching up with
the kids and then just with work.
Um, with the new gig, we'refinally moving into our new
office this week, so it's alittle whirlwind of a week ahead
of me.
But getting back from Japan,I've always been when you travel
(11:45):
and you're not sleeping right,it's so easy to pack on extra
weight.
And my journey with weight lossand exercise and all this
health scare, things like that,for the last five years I've
been on this massive journey oflet's just call it
self-improvement.
Right, went through a divorce,had to readjust with my children
(12:08):
, my family life, all that.
I had a health scare withgallstones.
I had a very bad case where Iended up having two operations
and I was admitted in thehospital for about six, seven
days.
I went septic.
It was pretty scary.
A lot of pain, a lot of agonyand I came out still surviving.
I made a pledge to myself and Isaid I have to change things,
(12:33):
change my lifestyle, my eatinghabits, my sleeping habits, my
exercise habits, just everything.
A lifestyle change.
And it's been five years and Ilast week officially lost 100
pounds 100 pounds from exercise,from diet, from taking out
(12:56):
considerable amounts of sugarthat was in my diet, from from
taking out considerable amountsof sugar that was in my diet,
from trying to stop eating aftera certain time of day.
It is so hard because, going tobed hungry or thinking about
food, I go to bed pretty late.
Even if I tell myself I can'teat after 6.30, 7 o'clock, it
doesn't help me very much If I'mgoing to bed at 12 or 1.
(13:19):
That's another six hours ofnight.
I should be going to bed at 9,right and sleeping through.
And if I do wake up at 5 or 4or 5 o'clock, yeah, go have a
yogurt or something.
That'd be so much easier.
But it's almost torturingmyself when I don't do what
should be done.
But anyways, long story short,I got to a huge milestone.
(13:41):
I was 300.
At my peak I was 305 probably,and I got under 200.
I weighed myself at 199 theother day and I still have a few
more pounds to go to myultimate goal.
But I am so happy and so proudof myself for making this
(14:02):
five-year commitment come tofruition.
One thing I want to telleverybody is I'm probably the
last person I thought could everstick to a plan and lose this
much weight.
I've always struggled withweight my whole life, my whole
career, especially in the foodbusiness.
It's not easy.
It's probably somewhat of anescape code, somewhat of an
(14:24):
excuse for me to say that, butit really isn't.
When you go and talk to chefsand when you jive with them and
you have mutual respect andunderstanding of each other's
knowledge and passion, you wantto share meals, you want to talk
about food, you want toexperience some of the most
delicious things coming out ofkitchens here in New York, and
(14:44):
you sometimes end up having oneor two or sometimes even three
dinners a night ambitious insales and your craft, and you're
going from restaurant torestaurant and those nights are
long.
When you go home and you'retired, you fall asleep on a full
stomach.
You've probably taken in 2,500calories in the evening.
Who needs that?
But when you do that over andover again for almost 20 years,
(15:09):
it catches up.
Things happen to your body,your liver shuts down, the
organs are very upset with youand yeah, so for me it was my
gallbladder.
That thing just went out.
It was totally fused to myliver.
My doctors, first of all.
If you don't think you're luckyto be alive, think again.
You should be dead.
So this is all somewhat of ait's all gravy really.
(15:34):
Every minute I live, every day.
Extra for me is some extra time, and I do look at it in a whole
different perspective.
And nothing's easy in life, butwhen you have health scares
like this, it really does changea lot of your perspective and
your vision and how you takethings in life and all the silly
things that perhaps bother you.
(15:55):
When you're in your 20s and 30syou can take a step back and
road rage that doesn't happenanymore.
I'm the slowest driving personon the highway.
Who cares?
I'm five minutes later to mydestination than I would have
been.
I don't need that kind of sillystress and a lot of my friends,
you know, feel the same and Ithink this is just one of those.
(16:15):
When you get older, certainthings don't really piss you off
as much, and I know, steve, youhave a similar story and you
beat cancer.
And this is again this fullcircle with our podcast, a
Better Life with George andSteve.
This is just us being sograteful for what we have, and
it's not what we want, but justreally appreciating what we have
(16:38):
.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I agree with you.
I'm a 9-11 victim.
So, as George had mentionedthat, and I ended up getting
sick or whatever, and it'samazing what you go through and
what you learn I lost 60.
I probably gained 15 or so back, but I'm on a mission to
probably lose another 35 poundsor so.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know what, though ?
When I was yo-yoing on diets,I'd lose 10 pounds.
I'd pick up 15.
I'd lose 20.
I'd pick up another 10.
And when it happens to you overand over again, there are times
where you're just so desperateYou're like I'll do anything to
make it stick, to make it last,but I don't know.
One thing is lifestyle change.
(17:22):
That's tremendous, and two issupport, and support can also
come from people sharing theirown stories.
It doesn't mean that you hear itonce and it's going to happen
to you, but if you know that,what is it that I always say?
You're never alone, right?
Anything that feels unique toyou.
For the most part, that's false.
(17:42):
Somebody somewhere out therehas experienced that same
thought, that same feeling, thatsame emotion that you are
feeling right now, and neverlose hope or helplessness can
easily be flipped around andjust know that there are people
(18:03):
that love you and people thatcare, Reach out For me.
My thing is yeah, I've lostsome really dear friends for
some silly reasons.
Right, they just felt alone.
They felt no one couldunderstand, no one could really.
No one wanted to be there forthem, perhaps, and that couldn't
(18:25):
be further from the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I think people sometimes just can't fight the
fight anymore.
I think that's more likely whatgoes on and they can't fight
the the fight and they don'trealize that there are other
ways to fight the fight.
There's other ways than theanswers in their head, because
their head is not necessarilythinking clearly right.
(18:50):
So you have to keep people onthe path, and you know what I am
.
I do that for people all thetime.
It's just, it's just a shame,but that's what goes on.
We pick our battles right.
We pick our small ones, we pickthings.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We can do.
Pick the ones you can manage.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, pick the ones you can manage.
I'll manage about 500 differentones today, but that's what
goes on every day of my life,and I apologize for looking at
my phone, but I'm looking for anemail back on an answer to
something I have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
For the rest, of the week.
I find a lot of inspiration evenfrom silly Instagram feeds.
I know it's sometimesconsidered poison in our society
today to look too much intoInstagram, but there are some
very interesting quotes that popup once in a while, and this
one I actually took a screenshotbecause I thought it was so
(19:43):
beautiful.
It's a picture of Pablo Picassoblack and white, and it's one
of his quotes the meaning oflife is to find your gift.
The purpose of life is to giveit away, and that really just
resonated with me quite deeply.
And yeah, age old questionright, what's the purpose,
(20:03):
what's your meaning in life?
And all this and this certainlyhad a good perspective and I
thought that was something Iwanted to share with on our next
podcast.
So there you have it, folks Alittle bit of life philosophy
from George and Steve A littlebit of life philosophy from
George and Steve.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, so I sent, if we're doing this, I sent
something to George and othersthe other day and it's a quote
from George Bernard Shaw and itsays this is the true joy in
life being used for a purposerecognized by yourself as a
mighty one.
Recognized by yourself as amighty one, being a force of
(20:42):
nature, instead of a feverish,selfish little clod of ailments
and grievances complaining about.
The world will not devoteitself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that mylife belongs to the whole
community and as long as I live,it is my privilege to do what I
can.
It is a sort of splendid torchwhich I have got hold of for the
(21:07):
moment, and I want to make itburn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to futuregenerations.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Legacy stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Right.
So I think that's lost in thisworld.
I think, if we're reallytalking about this, I think
what's lost in this world is wehave all, or the majority of
people have become in us, themsociety you don't believe what I
believe.
Instead of listening to whatyou say and maybe trying to
(21:39):
understand what you believe so Icould figure out what about
what you believe I don't agreewith, or maybe I could figure
out what I'm really wrong about,I think now just we all say and
I use this term often the otherside sucks, that somehow just
(22:00):
being on the other sidealienates people.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not just politics, right, it's also in
relationships.
I think Just being back in thedating pool and I found someone
very dear to my heart, but thetimes that we this what's the
word I'm looking for that wedon't see eye to eye.
It's a different.
It's a different feeling of man.
(22:23):
I'm lacking the words, but whenI was, let's say, in school,
like in grade school, whenpeople had different opinions,
it wasn't so passionate orpassionately fought over.
I think when we have just adifferent idea today, perhaps
(22:45):
it's because we're taught bywatching the news or by
listening to the leaders of oursociety how they handle it.
We mimic it and it's just avery different sensation I get.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
It's funny because I am always reminded, when you
talk about the news, ofsomething I think it was Justice
Blackmun said in his decisionwhen talking about the Pentagon
Papers and where they should besuppressed was a study made by
(23:22):
the Rand Corporation at therequest of the Department of
Defense regarding the VietnamWar, and what it did is just
documented how the governmentwhether it was Truman, kennedy,
eisenhower, johnson, nixon alllied to us about what was really
(23:45):
going on in Vietnam.
And when these Pan-Chinanpapers came out, it proved that
they were all their owndocuments, proved that they were
lying to us the whole time.
They were lying to the people,and Justice Bachman said that
it's an informed electoratethat's charged with deciding who
(24:06):
runs our country.
The thought of informed goesback to Madison.
I mean an informed public.
We need an informed electorate,and some of that has been
quashed, if not all of it.
There is not.
I beg anyone out there to tellme that they believe
wholeheartedly what any newsagency they're watching, whether
(24:30):
you're on the right or the left, do you believe either one of
them?
I don't watch the news, so nowwe're uninformed.
We don't read the paper.
What do we get?
We get whatever we see onsocial media, or maybe something
we see on the Internet, but wedon't know if that's true or not
, so everything's taken with agrain of salt.
Certainly, our politicians alllie to us.
(24:51):
They're all telling us adifferent story, because we all
know that both things can't betrue at the same time.
Right, we don't know whatanybody's motivation is or what
anything.
Until we get back to aninformed electorate, our
government's going to be adisaster, and I think that goes
with everything else.
I think people and somewhatwe've created whole groups of
(25:15):
people who don't want to beinformed.
They want to believe what theywant to believe.
They don't want to know Ifthey're wrong.
They don't want to know thetruth.
That selective hearing is reallycancerous and I don't care if
you're from the right or theleft, both sides do it because
we know nobody's really accurate, nobody really knows.
(25:38):
Everybody's guessing Come on,everybody's just as my father
used to say everybody we see ontelevision is just as my father
used to say everybody we see ontelevision is just as much dumb
schmuck as we are.
So they just fake it better yeah, it's an interesting thing, and
I and I and that's I.
I think that's part of ourdisillusionment, because, back
(25:58):
to what you're saying is peopleare don't know what they should
believe anymore or what theyshould believe in when we used
to believe in everything.
So what do we do?
We pull back into ourselves andour little worlds.
We try to protect them.
We don't know the right thingto do for our families, for our
children, for the environment.
We don't know what the truth isanymore.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
And that is so hard Because we have so much
information.
It's almost okay then we'rereally going to hide the truth.
We're really going to takeextra precaution in manipulating
the masses.
But you know what One thing Ican tell is the truth is the
national pizza competition thathappened in Las Vegas a few
(26:41):
weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And with that said- Back to why we're really here to
talk.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, we are going to have a guest speaker next week,
jim Henry.
He's been a buddy of mine forquite some time now.
We have a mutual friend.
I went to high school with myfriend, dave, and he's neighbors
with Jim and whenever I go tovisit Dave, jim's around
Excellent pizza man, actuallyjust a foodie.
(27:08):
He's really a genuine foodie andhe found his calling in pizza
and little by little he startedmaking pizzas for his family,
then his neighbors, then theneighborhood and he's come to a
level of pizza uh, I don't know,perhaps it's some higher
(27:28):
calling, but he really haselevated his game and created a
style.
He's a detroit style pizza guywho loves putting on that frico,
that crisped up cheese wall onthe side of a Detroit style, and
we oftentimes share textmessages about dough.
I was in the noodle businessfor quite some time and just
(27:52):
understanding fermentation andhydration, water source, how
hard or soft the water is, andthen finally the yeast and just
geeking out with Jim on that isnostalgic for me, but I digress.
The reason I wanted to bringthis up is because he competed
the second year in a row in LasVegas and just that experience
(28:13):
alone being timed, beingscrutinized, being just videoed
and watched by all these sets ofeyes and then judged on your
product as an amateur.
That's really something, andit's gotten to the point where
he's now sponsored by a varietyof suppliers.
(28:35):
He's an ambassador for a fewdifferent equipment
manufacturers and ingredientsmanufacturers and when we have
him online, he will proudlyexplain his journey and all
these little tidbits about pizzaand just meeting all his pizza
gurus and heroes, if you will,throughout the United States.
(28:56):
They'll gather in Vegas forthat week and, yeah, so I can't
wait to have him on later andwe'll have that up in a week or
so.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And then you have another friend you spoke to that
was going to come on right.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And then our other celebrity guest, if you will, is
my buddy Chris.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Nelson.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
And he was one of the founding partners of Citizen
Cider up in Vermont, burlington,vermont.
Vermont was one of the plots ofland with massive apple
orchards dating back to GeorgeWashington period and I think
(29:45):
President Washington did havesome orchards in Vermont if not
just across the water from LakeChamplain on the New York side,
but I know that he was a bigcider and, yeah, when Chris
comes on he'll talk a little bitmore about that.
But he's done so many coolthings before and after.
I actually know Chris from mysake days when I was with New
York Mutual Trading and ourdistributor in Vermont was the
company he was with Vermont WineMerchants, and so we became
(30:07):
colleagues.
And when you work with guysthat are just oozing with
passion for food and wine, it'sonly natural that we get
together.
And, yeah, just having Chris onwill be a really interesting
outlook into the beverage sideof things for our podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I look forward to them both.
This is probably just a recapof where we've been for a few
weeks and we're going to be backinto our pretty much regular
podcast within, probably at theend of this week, this one will
probably be out tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And the software is just.
It's going to helpsignificantly.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It's going to make it easier to do yeah, yeah and
then one day.
We're going to have to, we'regoing to have to move into the
video yeah, oh yeah video.
We have another forum.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
We're going to bring these wireless mics to
restaurants and and on-sitelocations where we'll get to
taste right, Especially yourbuddy's place at Casalettos.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
And then we also want to try the new deli in Ardsley
that came up from Riverdale yousaid if they have pastrami.
Homemade pastrami.
Yeah, say no more, it's kosher,so they have homemade bacon
made out of beef.
Everything's kosher, so theyhave homemade bacon made out of
beef.
I will travel some distance forgood pastrami yeah, it's
(31:30):
supposedly really good, and Ilove pastrami.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I'm not against going later tonight.
Leibman's in the Bronx, delisince 1953 and now a new
location in Westchester.
Here we go see they close at 8.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh, looks good they had the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I'm dying to go so, all right, I think that's pretty
good for today.
We had a little recap trying tosegue ourselves back into the
swing of things.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
See how it processes, see how it sounds and hopefully
we can use the software moreoften.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Sounds good, all right.
Well, let's call it a day.
And again, thank you all forstaying tuned in and listening
to us.
We are about to get some reallycool episodes in the next few
weeks, so hang on tight,appreciate your support and if
you haven't subscribed or hitlike on any of the forums,
please do so.
We are just a handful of clicksaway from hitting a thousand
downloads.
Guys, help us get there.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And we're so happy to have this thing.
Keep on going.
Yeah, on this, this note,thanks for listening and stay
tuned, guys.
Hello everyone.
This is Steve from A BetterLife.
This podcast is brought to youby our sponsors, Premium
Botanical.
They are the makers of HerbalSpectrum, which is a
full-spectrum hemp-based CBD.
They make salves, liquids, andthey have a great mixed berry
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You can check them out atwwwmypbcbdcom.
(00:25):
Now our podcast.
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to A Better Life with
George and Steve.
Hello George.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey Steve, welcome, welcome back everybody Post
Easter, sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yes, it's Easter Monday.
A lot of people are off.
People are trying to tell methe banks are closed, but we all
know that's not true and it'sjust one of those Mondays.
I think spring is trying tomake its way in.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is this the most called out Monday or is that
post-Super Bowl?
Super Bowl is a big post-Mondaycall-out sick type of day,
right.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, a lot of people go away.
It's a hard time to go away.
Between Palm Sunday and Easter.
A lot of people are away.
A lot of schools are closed.
This week it's both things.
People go away, schools rotatewherever it is.
Take the week after or the weekbefore.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My kids were off the week before all week, so that
was a lot of coordinationamongst the houses and all that,
but I survived.
And then I got to enjoy thisreally relaxing Sunday afternoon
Easter Sunday dinner that wasphenomenal.
Sunday afternoon, easter Sundaydinner that was phenomenal.
I had lamb chops, ribeye steaks, string bean salad, roasted
(01:55):
cauliflower, roasted Brusselssprouts, roast potatoes, ravioli
, a huge antipasto spread.
It was really a nice few hoursin the afternoon to break away
from the routine and just enjoysome very nice intimate moments
with friends.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, you were over, josh's.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, josh had invited me over.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He knew that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I was single and flying solo this year.
It's always nice having goodfriends to watch out for you and
make sure you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was Fred there.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, I think that side of the family was down in
Florida.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, it was good to see him the other day.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I haven't seen him in so long years actually yeah, I
mean that man runs on I don'tknow nuclear fission.
He's always so full of life andjust so much energy going on,
always positive.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
A really amazing man I know we had uh, short ribs.
Sam made island style.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
She said the short ribs which really came out
unbelievably matter of fact, Idon't know anything about when
people say island style.
All I know is that must meanscotch bonnet peppers, so it has
a little kick.
I don't know anything aboutwhen people say Einstein.
All I know is that must meanscotch bonnet peppers.
It has a little kick.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I don't know what it really means, because she says
the only thing I've learned isthat she told me all my
seasonings are expired and theyall need to go in a garbage.
Can she told me all those kindof things, which is probably
true?
I'm thinking about when Ibought some of them before I had
my apartment and I've been here.
Got to be three years in May,right, so they're probably there
(03:32):
and they all need real newstuff.
And since my smoker's comingback into action this year in a
few weeks actually five or sixweeks I'm going to do a big cook
for a party of 60 people, whichI I'm a little bit intimidated
of.
There's going to be otherthings too, but it's a big
(03:52):
number to cater to, especiallygetting back on the saddle.
60 is a lot so I'm going to do15 racks of ribs.
So I'm basically going to cookthe day before and let
everything rest overnight, whichis what most big smoking places
do anyway.
I'm going to cook the daybefore and let everything rest
overnight, which is what mostbig smoking places do.
Anyway.
I'm going to cook 10, and then,when I wrap the 10, I will slip
in the other five while they'restill cooking wrapped.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Don't accidentally taste two racks, because you're
going to come up short.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's what I would do.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
If I was there like hey chef, I need to call in
control.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
That's what happens is people start hanging around.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's a great thing, it's a great problem to have,
but you end up running out ofsupplies and then next thing you
do, you prep for twice as much,and then now it's just back and
out the next morning.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I'm going to do 25.
Before the lunch I'm going todo I think it starts at 1, I'm
going to do 25 pounds of porkbellies, which is a heck of a
lot easier.
It just needs to be prepped.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You're talking about transporting the grill, but what
about your wood?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I probably have a half a quart of wood and I have
a case of pecan sitting next tome.
So I have a case of pecan whichwould be more than enough to do
the whole thing, but, and then Ihave hickory and cherry, so I
have plenty of wood, so I'mlooking forward to it.
And for those of you who don'tknow, I have a a lang offset
(05:15):
smoker, which is one of thebetter smokers out there, weighs
a thousand pounds, it's got 48inches wide with two levels of
cooking space.
So it really it really I coulddo 10 ribs.
I probably could do.
I've done 15 in one shot andI've created a second level kind
of thing I don't really show,choose to do that.
(05:35):
I may do it again just to savetime, but I don't know it's.
It does a lot of ribs.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, this grill is on four wheels.
Right, the bicycle pump isn'tcutting it.
You need a commercial electricair pump to fill these tires and
it's a monster.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It's a monster and I said I'm glad to move it there
to cook, except I'm not doing it.
It's just one of those thingsI'm looking forward to cooking
again, and hopefully more often.
I've had a few offers to cookfor people and hopefully George
and I can do a little combosession as well.
So the ribs will be ribs.
I'll make my own rub, I'll propthem the night before, then the
(06:19):
next and hopefully on the whileI'm cooking.
I'm going to make my own sauceagain, which I don't think
you've ever tasted, because Ithink all the times I cook for
you is I use somebody else's.
But I'm going to make my ownhomemade sauce and I think I'm
going to give it a little kickat a time, I think.
I'm going to take some of thosedry peppers I have in there I
don't know We'll talk aboutwhich one you can pick and then
(06:46):
add that to the sauce when Icook it and then I put it in a
immersion blender and just Idon't put it in, I use an
immersion blender and hopefullyget it just the right
consistency.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Cool, cool.
I can't wait to try.
So, one other thing we shouldmention is so we're playing
around with different softwaresthese days.
We're running today's episodethrough Riverside and I'm on my
laptop through Wi-Fi and I haveApple AirPods and so it's a
wireless headpiece with the mic.
(07:13):
Steve, you're running throughyour standardcaster mic.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Correct, also with it's going through the
Rodecaster Pro just for my audio, and also through a cloud,
whatever these things are called.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And are we?
We're running through Riverside, both of us.
I see our cameras are activatedand we have two windows.
Is this recording video as well?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
No, I just set it up for audio.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Okay, gotcha, I sent over a couple audio.
First, the lamb that we grilledyesterday.
I was just wondering if it wasa way for us to feed it into the
video.
But if we're not doing video,that's not a problem.
That'll be for the second halfof the year.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We're going to get there.
So we're going to get therewith the video.
Obviously, you can see thisvideo works well.
It'd work a little better.
We have to both download theRiverside app.
What's interesting aboutRiverside is not only do they
record to the cloud, which we do, we also record locally.
What it does is it takes alocal recording on my end, a
(08:26):
local recording on your end.
That's why you have to leaveyour computer open when you
finish for a little while.
Then it compares my copy, yourcopy, and the cloud copy, goes
through and makes the best copyof the whole thing and that
becomes what we export.
Wow, layers of the audio.
Because if there's an issuewith data on your end, say
(08:51):
you're, we all have that issues,we've all seen.
When our computers stop, ourtelevision stop and the internet
drops out for a minute, it ableenables that.
Keep recording on your ownsystem so that it goes in and
then it times.
It could tell the time and hookit all together Awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, this is great software.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
There's others, but this is the one I've been
looking at for some time.
I've recorded video on itmyself that hopefully I
destroyed, but it it workspretty well.
It's highly recommended.
A lot of people use it outthere a lot of podcaster, video
podcaster because I think youcan do as many as 20 people at
(09:36):
once.
Oh, wow okay and people do itwhat we're doing.
They just used apple headphonesand their software.
I can actually cut out one ofour softwares that we use I
don't know if I'm going to I may, just because Descript is one
of our other softwares that weuse besides Buzzsprout, but
Descript also does, also has aservice like Riverside where
(09:59):
they do this recording.
But I choose, but I'm not asfamiliar with that one.
This one I know works.
I know that it interacts withthe podcaster pro, that you just
have to change some settings onto do what we're doing.
Of course you could do it evensimply.
(10:20):
If I had a USB mic and USBheadphones, then we wouldn't
have to do any of those thingsand that would almost.
You could pretty much do itanywhere with this software.
There's also cell phone andiPad versions that you could use
, so you could do this fromanywhere.
You could do this from yourphone.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
It's come a long way, hasn't it?
Podcasting when it first cameout it was a new word.
Who invented the word podcast?
And then, little by little,people get a little bit more
savvy, businesses seeopportunity and you get all
these new toys.
And technology certainly keepsup, and now we have all these
(11:00):
different iterations of phone,ipad, computer gadgets and
whatnot.
But again, like this is just,uh, a really fun hobby for us
and we're learning as we go whatdo you want to talk about today
?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
a little bit about you.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Were in japan last time we spoke yes, it's been a
few weeks, it's been it's been afew weeks.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
George was busy when he first came back.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know how you are when you come back you've been
on a business trip yeah,business trip catching up with
the kids and then just with work.
Um, with the new gig, we'refinally moving into our new
office this week, so it's alittle whirlwind of a week ahead
of me.
But getting back from Japan,I've always been when you travel
(11:45):
and you're not sleeping right,it's so easy to pack on extra
weight.
And my journey with weight lossand exercise and all this
health scare, things like that,for the last five years I've
been on this massive journey oflet's just call it
self-improvement.
Right, went through a divorce,had to readjust with my children
(12:08):
, my family life, all that.
I had a health scare withgallstones.
I had a very bad case where Iended up having two operations
and I was admitted in thehospital for about six, seven
days.
I went septic.
It was pretty scary.
A lot of pain, a lot of agonyand I came out still surviving.
I made a pledge to myself and Isaid I have to change things,
(12:33):
change my lifestyle, my eatinghabits, my sleeping habits, my
exercise habits, just everything.
A lifestyle change.
And it's been five years and Ilast week officially lost 100
pounds 100 pounds from exercise,from diet, from taking out
(12:56):
considerable amounts of sugarthat was in my diet, from from
taking out considerable amountsof sugar that was in my diet,
from trying to stop eating aftera certain time of day.
It is so hard because, going tobed hungry or thinking about
food, I go to bed pretty late.
Even if I tell myself I can'teat after 6.30, 7 o'clock, it
doesn't help me very much If I'mgoing to bed at 12 or 1.
(13:19):
That's another six hours ofnight.
I should be going to bed at 9,right and sleeping through.
And if I do wake up at 5 or 4or 5 o'clock, yeah, go have a
yogurt or something.
That'd be so much easier.
But it's almost torturingmyself when I don't do what
should be done.
But anyways, long story short,I got to a huge milestone.
(13:41):
I was 300.
At my peak I was 305 probably,and I got under 200.
I weighed myself at 199 theother day and I still have a few
more pounds to go to myultimate goal.
But I am so happy and so proudof myself for making this
(14:02):
five-year commitment come tofruition.
One thing I want to telleverybody is I'm probably the
last person I thought could everstick to a plan and lose this
much weight.
I've always struggled withweight my whole life, my whole
career, especially in the foodbusiness.
It's not easy.
It's probably somewhat of anescape code, somewhat of an
(14:24):
excuse for me to say that, butit really isn't.
When you go and talk to chefsand when you jive with them and
you have mutual respect andunderstanding of each other's
knowledge and passion, you wantto share meals, you want to talk
about food, you want toexperience some of the most
delicious things coming out ofkitchens here in New York, and
(14:44):
you sometimes end up having oneor two or sometimes even three
dinners a night ambitious insales and your craft, and you're
going from restaurant torestaurant and those nights are
long.
When you go home and you'retired, you fall asleep on a full
stomach.
You've probably taken in 2,500calories in the evening.
Who needs that?
But when you do that over andover again for almost 20 years,
(15:09):
it catches up.
Things happen to your body,your liver shuts down, the
organs are very upset with youand yeah, so for me it was my
gallbladder.
That thing just went out.
It was totally fused to myliver.
My doctors, first of all.
If you don't think you're luckyto be alive, think again.
You should be dead.
So this is all somewhat of ait's all gravy really.
(15:34):
Every minute I live, every day.
Extra for me is some extra time, and I do look at it in a whole
different perspective.
And nothing's easy in life, butwhen you have health scares
like this, it really does changea lot of your perspective and
your vision and how you takethings in life and all the silly
things that perhaps bother you.
(15:55):
When you're in your 20s and 30syou can take a step back and
road rage that doesn't happenanymore.
I'm the slowest driving personon the highway.
Who cares?
I'm five minutes later to mydestination than I would have
been.
I don't need that kind of sillystress and a lot of my friends,
you know, feel the same and Ithink this is just one of those.
(16:15):
When you get older, certainthings don't really piss you off
as much, and I know, steve, youhave a similar story and you
beat cancer.
And this is again this fullcircle with our podcast, a
Better Life with George andSteve.
This is just us being sograteful for what we have, and
it's not what we want, but justreally appreciating what we have
(16:38):
.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I agree with you.
I'm a 9-11 victim.
So, as George had mentionedthat, and I ended up getting
sick or whatever, and it'samazing what you go through and
what you learn I lost 60.
I probably gained 15 or so back, but I'm on a mission to
probably lose another 35 poundsor so.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know what, though ?
When I was yo-yoing on diets,I'd lose 10 pounds.
I'd pick up 15.
I'd lose 20.
I'd pick up another 10.
And when it happens to you overand over again, there are times
where you're just so desperateYou're like I'll do anything to
make it stick, to make it last,but I don't know.
One thing is lifestyle change.
(17:22):
That's tremendous, and two issupport, and support can also
come from people sharing theirown stories.
It doesn't mean that you hear itonce and it's going to happen
to you, but if you know that,what is it that I always say?
You're never alone, right?
Anything that feels unique toyou.
For the most part, that's false.
(17:42):
Somebody somewhere out therehas experienced that same
thought, that same feeling, thatsame emotion that you are
feeling right now, and neverlose hope or helplessness can
easily be flipped around andjust know that there are people
(18:03):
that love you and people thatcare, Reach out For me.
My thing is yeah, I've lostsome really dear friends for
some silly reasons.
Right, they just felt alone.
They felt no one couldunderstand, no one could really.
No one wanted to be there forthem, perhaps, and that couldn't
(18:25):
be further from the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I think people sometimes just can't fight the
fight anymore.
I think that's more likely whatgoes on and they can't fight
the the fight and they don'trealize that there are other
ways to fight the fight.
There's other ways than theanswers in their head, because
their head is not necessarilythinking clearly right.
(18:50):
So you have to keep people onthe path, and you know what I am
.
I do that for people all thetime.
It's just, it's just a shame,but that's what goes on.
We pick our battles right.
We pick our small ones, we pickthings.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We can do.
Pick the ones you can manage.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, pick the ones you can manage.
I'll manage about 500 differentones today, but that's what
goes on every day of my life,and I apologize for looking at
my phone, but I'm looking for anemail back on an answer to
something I have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
For the rest, of the week.
I find a lot of inspiration evenfrom silly Instagram feeds.
I know it's sometimesconsidered poison in our society
today to look too much intoInstagram, but there are some
very interesting quotes that popup once in a while, and this
one I actually took a screenshotbecause I thought it was so
(19:43):
beautiful.
It's a picture of Pablo Picassoblack and white, and it's one
of his quotes the meaning oflife is to find your gift.
The purpose of life is to giveit away, and that really just
resonated with me quite deeply.
And yeah, age old questionright, what's the purpose,
(20:03):
what's your meaning in life?
And all this and this certainlyhad a good perspective and I
thought that was something Iwanted to share with on our next
podcast.
So there you have it, folks Alittle bit of life philosophy
from George and Steve A littlebit of life philosophy from
George and Steve.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, so I sent, if we're doing this, I sent
something to George and othersthe other day and it's a quote
from George Bernard Shaw and itsays this is the true joy in
life being used for a purposerecognized by yourself as a
mighty one.
Recognized by yourself as amighty one, being a force of
(20:42):
nature, instead of a feverish,selfish little clod of ailments
and grievances complaining about.
The world will not devoteitself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that mylife belongs to the whole
community and as long as I live,it is my privilege to do what I
can.
It is a sort of splendid torchwhich I have got hold of for the
(21:07):
moment, and I want to make itburn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to futuregenerations.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Legacy stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Right.
So I think that's lost in thisworld.
I think, if we're reallytalking about this, I think
what's lost in this world is wehave all, or the majority of
people have become in us, themsociety you don't believe what I
believe.
Instead of listening to whatyou say and maybe trying to
(21:39):
understand what you believe so Icould figure out what about
what you believe I don't agreewith, or maybe I could figure
out what I'm really wrong about,I think now just we all say and
I use this term often the otherside sucks, that somehow just
(22:00):
being on the other sidealienates people.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not just politics, right, it's also in
relationships.
I think Just being back in thedating pool and I found someone
very dear to my heart, but thetimes that we this what's the
word I'm looking for that wedon't see eye to eye.
It's a different.
It's a different feeling of man.
(22:23):
I'm lacking the words, but whenI was, let's say, in school,
like in grade school, whenpeople had different opinions,
it wasn't so passionate orpassionately fought over.
I think when we have just adifferent idea today, perhaps
(22:45):
it's because we're taught bywatching the news or by
listening to the leaders of oursociety how they handle it.
We mimic it and it's just avery different sensation I get.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
It's funny because I am always reminded, when you
talk about the news, ofsomething I think it was Justice
Blackmun said in his decisionwhen talking about the Pentagon
Papers and where they should besuppressed was a study made by
(23:22):
the Rand Corporation at therequest of the Department of
Defense regarding the VietnamWar, and what it did is just
documented how the governmentwhether it was Truman, kennedy,
eisenhower, johnson, nixon alllied to us about what was really
(23:45):
going on in Vietnam.
And when these Pan-Chinanpapers came out, it proved that
they were all their owndocuments, proved that they were
lying to us the whole time.
They were lying to the people,and Justice Bachman said that
it's an informed electoratethat's charged with deciding who
(24:06):
runs our country.
The thought of informed goesback to Madison.
I mean an informed public.
We need an informed electorate,and some of that has been
quashed, if not all of it.
There is not.
I beg anyone out there to tellme that they believe
wholeheartedly what any newsagency they're watching, whether
(24:30):
you're on the right or the left, do you believe either one of
them?
I don't watch the news, so nowwe're uninformed.
We don't read the paper.
What do we get?
We get whatever we see onsocial media, or maybe something
we see on the Internet, but wedon't know if that's true or not
, so everything's taken with agrain of salt.
Certainly, our politicians alllie to us.
(24:51):
They're all telling us adifferent story, because we all
know that both things can't betrue at the same time.
Right, we don't know whatanybody's motivation is or what
anything.
Until we get back to aninformed electorate, our
government's going to be adisaster, and I think that goes
with everything else.
I think people and somewhatwe've created whole groups of
(25:15):
people who don't want to beinformed.
They want to believe what theywant to believe.
They don't want to know Ifthey're wrong.
They don't want to know thetruth.
That selective hearing is reallycancerous and I don't care if
you're from the right or theleft, both sides do it because
we know nobody's really accurate, nobody really knows.
(25:38):
Everybody's guessing Come on,everybody's just as my father
used to say everybody we see ontelevision is just as my father
used to say everybody we see ontelevision is just as much dumb
schmuck as we are.
So they just fake it better yeah, it's an interesting thing, and
I and I and that's I.
I think that's part of ourdisillusionment, because, back
(25:58):
to what you're saying is peopleare don't know what they should
believe anymore or what theyshould believe in when we used
to believe in everything.
So what do we do?
We pull back into ourselves andour little worlds.
We try to protect them.
We don't know the right thingto do for our families, for our
children, for the environment.
We don't know what the truth isanymore.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
And that is so hard Because we have so much
information.
It's almost okay then we'rereally going to hide the truth.
We're really going to takeextra precaution in manipulating
the masses.
But you know what One thing Ican tell is the truth is the
national pizza competition thathappened in Las Vegas a few
(26:41):
weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And with that said- Back to why we're really here to
talk.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, we are going to have a guest speaker next week,
jim Henry.
He's been a buddy of mine forquite some time now.
We have a mutual friend.
I went to high school with myfriend, dave, and he's neighbors
with Jim and whenever I go tovisit Dave, jim's around
Excellent pizza man, actuallyjust a foodie.
(27:08):
He's really a genuine foodie andhe found his calling in pizza
and little by little he startedmaking pizzas for his family,
then his neighbors, then theneighborhood and he's come to a
level of pizza uh, I don't know,perhaps it's some higher
(27:28):
calling, but he really haselevated his game and created a
style.
He's a detroit style pizza guywho loves putting on that frico,
that crisped up cheese wall onthe side of a Detroit style, and
we oftentimes share textmessages about dough.
I was in the noodle businessfor quite some time and just
(27:52):
understanding fermentation andhydration, water source, how
hard or soft the water is, andthen finally the yeast and just
geeking out with Jim on that isnostalgic for me, but I digress.
The reason I wanted to bringthis up is because he competed
the second year in a row in LasVegas and just that experience
(28:13):
alone being timed, beingscrutinized, being just videoed
and watched by all these sets ofeyes and then judged on your
product as an amateur.
That's really something, andit's gotten to the point where
he's now sponsored by a varietyof suppliers.
(28:35):
He's an ambassador for a fewdifferent equipment
manufacturers and ingredientsmanufacturers and when we have
him online, he will proudlyexplain his journey and all
these little tidbits about pizzaand just meeting all his pizza
gurus and heroes, if you will,throughout the United States.
(28:56):
They'll gather in Vegas forthat week and, yeah, so I can't
wait to have him on later andwe'll have that up in a week or
so.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And then you have another friend you spoke to that
was going to come on right.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And then our other celebrity guest, if you will, is
my buddy Chris.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Nelson.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
And he was one of the founding partners of Citizen
Cider up in Vermont, burlington,vermont.
Vermont was one of the plots ofland with massive apple
orchards dating back to GeorgeWashington period and I think
(29:45):
President Washington did havesome orchards in Vermont if not
just across the water from LakeChamplain on the New York side,
but I know that he was a bigcider and, yeah, when Chris
comes on he'll talk a little bitmore about that.
But he's done so many coolthings before and after.
I actually know Chris from mysake days when I was with New
York Mutual Trading and ourdistributor in Vermont was the
company he was with Vermont WineMerchants, and so we became
(30:07):
colleagues.
And when you work with guysthat are just oozing with
passion for food and wine, it'sonly natural that we get
together.
And, yeah, just having Chris onwill be a really interesting
outlook into the beverage sideof things for our podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I look forward to them both.
This is probably just a recapof where we've been for a few
weeks and we're going to be backinto our pretty much regular
podcast within, probably at theend of this week, this one will
probably be out tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And the software is just.
It's going to helpsignificantly.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It's going to make it easier to do yeah, yeah and
then one day.
We're going to have to, we'regoing to have to move into the
video yeah, oh yeah video.
We have another forum.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
We're going to bring these wireless mics to
restaurants and and on-sitelocations where we'll get to
taste right, Especially yourbuddy's place at Casalettos.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
And then we also want to try the new deli in Ardsley
that came up from Riverdale yousaid if they have pastrami.
Homemade pastrami.
Yeah, say no more, it's kosher,so they have homemade bacon
made out of beef.
Everything's kosher, so theyhave homemade bacon made out of
beef.
I will travel some distance forgood pastrami yeah, it's
(31:30):
supposedly really good, and Ilove pastrami.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I'm not against going later tonight.
Leibman's in the Bronx, delisince 1953 and now a new
location in Westchester.
Here we go see they close at 8.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Oh, looks good they had the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I'm dying to go so, all right, I think that's pretty
good for today.
We had a little recap trying tosegue ourselves back into the
swing of things.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
See how it processes, see how it sounds and hopefully
we can use the software moreoften.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Sounds good, all right.
Well, let's call it a day.
And again, thank you all forstaying tuned in and listening
to us.
We are about to get some reallycool episodes in the next few
weeks, so hang on tight,appreciate your support and if
you haven't subscribed or hitlike on any of the forums,
please do so.
We are just a handful of clicksaway from hitting a thousand
downloads.
Guys, help us get there.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And we're so happy to have this thing.
Keep on going.
Yeah, on this, this note,thanks for listening and stay
tuned, guys.
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