Are we officially Minnesotans now?

Jessica has been harping on me to post this, so even though it has been a while since it happened I changed the oil in our car "buddy" and got him some new 10,000 lakes Minnesota license plates. Looks pretty good I think.

Vineland Trip

Last week I attended Thermal Process School in Vineland NJ.  The most convenient airport to fly into is Philadelphia and then we take a car to NJ.  I had to drag 2 of my coworkers, they didn't seem like the planning type, so I set in motion some events so we could get into Philly early and visit the city. I had been to Philly once before with my manager but I barely got him to stop for a Philly before we headed to the plant. Since I was the "lead" on this trip I took it upon myself to do some fun things before going to the plant.

Since the 1st "National Treasure" included scenes from Independence Hall I wanted to take a tour and it being the day of elections I thought it was appropriate to visit where the declaration was signed. In my research I also found that Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef extraordinaire, had a restaurant not even 3 blocks from there so I had to go visit.

 

Independence Hall. Towards the end of National Treasure Nicolas Cage's character climbs up to the bell tower and goes across the roof to retrieve Benjamin Franklin's glasses from a brick that is on the chimney. (upper right hand)

Where the declaration was signed!

The day was soggy wet and a bit cold

At Morimoto's the food was delicious. So delicious in fact that I had 2 desserts. Yeah, I know a bit excessive especially since we had appetizers and then a big meal but you only live once right!?!? Let me also explain that in our company there's a fair amount of business drinking, and we are not talking "Shirley Temples". I kinda feel left out as far as employees spending $$$ on their dining experience. I decided that my dining experience is deserts so I ordered 2. It wasn't the 1st time I did it and it won't be the last and since the "General" pays for everything I say "why the heck not".

The man himself, Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef

The decor was amazing. The glow changes to other colors blue, shown above, purple, green, etc. We had been sitting for 20min or so till we noticed. We were seated in the middle right.

Our appetizers. Also my point, my coworker is having a beer tasting w/ his meal.

My meal-Seafood 'Toban Yaki": King crab, shrimp, scallops, New Zealand mussels, shanghai greens oyster mushrooms w/ citrus butter.

1st dessert - Chocolate Pot de creme - Chocolate custard, caramelized banana, whipped cream. Doesn't that sound amazing, now you can see why I couldn't just choose one.

2nd dessert- Yuzu meringue tart. This one was my favorite. The meringue was sinful and the yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) was refreshing.

 

Progresso Plant in Vineland, NJ

Can you believe how cheap the gas was in Vineland NJ a week ago. Now its even less. I thought I would never see it be less than $3 let alone less that $2. They tell me that the gas here doesn't have as many taxes on it. Dan and I are pleasantly surprised that the gas in Minneapolis is also a lot less than the national average. Currently the cheapest gas here is $1.87 and the national average is $2.18

On the way back from the airpot we visited Philly's Chinatown. I had peking duck for the 1st time and it was yummy! I wished that Kevin could have been there to translate. There was all this great food but didn't really know what it was. 

Gates of Philadelphia's Chinatown

Ducks and Chickens

Crazy huge cabbage or sofa pillow!

You might be thinking...now was this a vacation or a business trip. I'll assure you it was both but the "General" is amazing when it comes to travel. So we did have plenty of fun but we did plenty of learning as well.

Progresso Spirit Event

Last week our group played hooky and visited an orchard, that's big around here. It was an opportunity to know my co-workers a little bit better. The orchard provided lunch and we had all-things apple: brats and hamburgers soaked in apple cider, onion/apple relish, 2 types of apple pie, potato-apple salad, and apple cider. Delicious.

Chuga-Chuga-Choo-Choo

I'm a farm girl now

Last week I did my first formulations and ran them in the pilot plant. I was a bit nervous and I didn't do everything a 100% but good enough to have my cans judge by my team and for them to be deemed worthy to be judge by the bigger Progresso team.  Unfortunately I will be in NJ when the larger team meets. Hopefully no one will think its awful.  So everybody cross their fingers and hope that they pass. If so my formulation will be the new formulation used on 100 of thousands of cans. How exciting!