On a Roll: One Grease Trap, Zero McDonald's, and a Tiny Sous Chef Named Georgie

ON A ROLL BABY!!!

Damn, the last few weeks have been booked solid and I’m not complaining. Well, my feet are and my soul is tired, but I’m loving it. There’s a difference, you know? Like, I may be standing in the shop at 3:30PM on a Sunday afternoon staring at a pile of boxes and meals but I’m also looking around thinking, “Wait… people are actually trusting me with their parties and birthdays and work events???” Wild. Amazing. Terrifying. I’ll take it.

The shop is running smoothly, which is always a sentence I’m hesitant to say out loud because the universe hears things and loves a dramatic entrance. But generally? Smoothly! Orders are moving, the fridges are full, the boxes are going out, and I’m managing to keep most things where they’re supposed to be instead of creating little ingredient colonies all over the counters.

Aside from the grease trap.

The grease trap was due for a cleaning, so the guy came in to do whatever mystical plumbing science they do to those things. Wet vac? Maybe? Then he snaked the sink, which sounds innocent until you’ve experienced the smell. Oh my god. I nearly passed away right there next to the sink, and I had already eaten, which was a mistake on my part because apparently I like to live dangerously.

I was standing there trying to breathe through my mouth, which somehow makes everything worse because now you’re just tasting the air. Absolutely disgusting. A full sensory experience nobody asked for. My eyes were watering, my soul was trying to leave my body, and I was thinking, “This is the glamorous small-business-owner life I signed up for!”

Then the guy tells me mine wasn’t even bad.

Not even bad???

He said actual restaurants are terrible, which is both comforting and horrifying. Comforting because apparently I’m not running the greasiest operation in Massachusetts. Horrifying because what do you mean there are grease traps out there worse than this? What are we talking about? A haunted soup cauldron? A sinkhole made of chicken fat?

Anyway, that was a lovely expense in the books. Just a casual little (big) surprise bill to remind me that businesses require more than cute packaging, good ingredients, and me remembering where I put my keys. Don’t get me started on overhead costs. You’d cry because I cry. You have to maintain the unglamorous stuff too. The drains, the grease trap, the invoices, the things that make a noise you don’t like and then cost money. It’s all part of the adventure, apparently.

And honestly, I’m grateful the shop is busy enough to have these very specific problems. That’s where my brain goes now. I can complain about the smell and the bill while also thinking, “Okay, but look at us.” We’re doing it. We’re maintaining things. We’re figuring it out. Even if “figuring it out” occasionally involves standing six feet away from a bucket and questioning every decision I’ve made since 2018.

The streak continues: NO MCDONALD’S!

Now, onto the real headline.

NO MCDONALD’S!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been deeply tempted. Deeply. Meals are in my cart in case I have a mental breakdown and I can just hit order. There have been moments when I’ve been tired, hungry, and approximately 30 seconds away from ordering enough fries for a family of six even though it’s just me and I would absolutely pretend the extra fries were “for tomorrow.” They would not be for tomorrow. We all know this.

But I’ve really been trying to buy wholesome food that won’t give me a heart attack, and so far? We are on a roll.

First I quit the Red Bulls, which felt impossible at the time. Then I cut way back on DoorDash. Now I’m on this no-McDonald’s streak, which is honestly becoming a tiny personal Olympics. I don’t have a medal, but I do have groceries in the fridge, so basically the same thing.

I prepped a ton of ground beef to make a bunch of mix-and-matchy bowls. I got some nice salmon and a giant package of chicken thighs, because apparently I forgot how versatile all these things are. You cook the protein, put it in the fridge, and suddenly Future You has options. Future You is usually exhausted and standing in front of the open refrigerator in socks, so Future You appreciates this deeply.

I can throw the beef in a bowl with rice and whatever vegetables I have left. The salmon can become a bowl, a salad, or a “standing at the counter eating directly out of the container” situation. The chicken thighs can go with potatoes, greens, a wrap, or basically anything that isn’t nailed down.

This is not fancy meal prep. Nobody is walking into my kitchen with a clipboard and saying, “Wow, the color story on this Tuesday lunch is really intentional.” It’s more like: cook a bunch of things, put them in containers, label nothing, forget what day it is, and assemble something before I start looking at McDonald’s on my phone.

And it’s a lifesaver. Literally saving me from a heart attack. Or at least saving me from spending money on food when I already have food at home, which is a separate but equally important emergency.

The biggest thing is that I’m making it easier on myself. I’m not trying to become a wellness influencer who wakes up at 5AM to drink celery juice and journal about abundance, although I tend to wake up around then, unfortunately. I’m just trying to have food ready before I get so hungry that a drive-thru starts looking like a spiritual calling.

Tiny adjustments. That’s the theme lately. Less Red Bull. Less DoorDash. More real food. More “I can make something with what I have.” And yes, sometimes I still eat something chaotic over the sink. I’m growing, not auditioning for a cooking show.

Meet Georgie, my tiny sous chef

I’ve also been doing fun foodie projects with Georgie, which has been such a different vibe from the work kitchen.

We’ve made gingerbread houses, mini muffins, and pizza. Basically, we’ve been creating a small flour-based disaster zone and calling it quality time. There were crumbs. There was probably sugar in places sugar should never be. There may have been a muffin situation that I’m choosing not to discuss in detail.

But it was fun!

You gotta teach them young, though, or else they’re gonna expect someone else to do everything for them. I’m serious! You need to know how to feed yourself. You need to know that pizza dough does not magically appear in a box. You need to learn that after you make the muffins, there are approximately 5 bowls and spoons to deal with, and no, they do not clean themselves while you’re sleeping.

That said, cooking with Georgie feels completely different from cooking for work. I’m thinking about timing, orders, portions, presentation… though that could use some work, honestly, but whether I have enough of this cheese, where that order is going, and why there is suddenly a rogue blueberry under the cutting board. It’s fast and practical and there’s always something next.

At home, it’s slower. Messier in a different way. We can take our time decorating gingerbread houses or deciding whether a mini muffin needs one sprinkle or seventeen sprinkles. The answer was seventeen, obviously.

It’s nice to spend a busy day in the kitchen with him and not have the kitchen feel like work. It’s still cooking, but it’s playful. It’s learning. It’s making something together and then immediately wanting to eat it before it cools down.

And maybe he’ll remember it someday. Maybe he’ll remember that food can be fun, that feeding yourself is a skill, that everyone should know how to make at least one decent meal, and that cleaning up after yourself is not optional just because you are small and charming.

I’m passing down the important stuff! Or at least I think I’m supposed to be doing this? 4 years and I still have no idea what I’m doing? Do any of us?

Also, Georgie started ninja classes a few weeks ago and LOVES it. I get an hour of me time so I usually just catch up on emails and admin work. Sometimes I doom scroll on TikTok but that’s another thing I need to start limiting. Baby steps, Abby. I haven't done the whole soccer thing with him yet and I'm unsure if I will, but maybe karate? It's fun watching him grow but it also makes me really sad, because 4 years has gone by so fast and yeah. Makes me unwell.

Handy Girl Abby

I have apparently gotten it into my head that I can do anything now, which is adorable because based on what, exactly? The confidence of someone who has watched zero tutorials and decided this is a personality? Very that. I decided to change the shower head in my bathroom and the curtains, and there are two of them, because apparently we are fancy now and they open like actual curtains, which feels unnecessary but my god, they are SO cute. And the shower head is a whole rain shower situation with an extra handheld one that sprays at the same time, so basically I installed myself a spa. Casual.

And because I clearly had not done enough, I then decided to put up actual curtains in my future library room, which is a very bold sentence considering that room is currently more of a concept than a fully realized lifestyle, but okay! And not just one set either, two sets. One sheer, one velvet, layered, for dark library vibes. Mom doesn’t like it but probably didn’t want me to cry so she said it was definitely very me. Moody. Mysterious. Honestly they look so good. Just me, somewhere in the house, with big 'I own a drill somewhere' energy, making projects for myself like I don't already have enough going on. Which is extra funny because I got myself a new tool set on Amazon Prime Day, sorry… but all I had before that was one single Allen wrench and ha, did that get me absolutely nowhere. Honestly explains a lot. I still need paint, a dining room set, and maybe a cool couch for said library, so let’s all take a deep breath here. Baby steps, Abby.

The Tag Sale Haul

On Tuesday night I bought early access tickets to the Just Between Friends tag sale in Tyngsboro and I got SO many good outfits for George. Most of them still had the original tags on them for like 60% off, plus winter gear, all the Bluey stuff, hats, games, toys... all of the things. I went last year too and it’s so well run and easy to navigate. Highly recommend checking out their next one.

So that’s the week: booked solid, feet complaining, soul tired, grease trap conquered, no McDonald’s, all groceries being turned into bowls, Georgie officially entering his tiny sous-chef era, a new shower head installed, two shower curtains that open like actual curtains for some reason, and future library room curtains hung by a woman who still sometimes forgets why she walked into a room.

Alsoooo, little scheduling PSA: I’m closed October 20th-27th, and honestly you’ll be lucky if I come back, but the show must go on so I probably will. Plus, I’ll miss those Georgie kisses. Thanksgiving is somehow sprinting at us too, and maybe I’ll disappear for that at some point as well, but only after every last order is out the door because I’m not completely feral. I’ve never really been into holidays. Don’t judge me right now. Is it the pressure? Maybe the pre-loaded exhausting checklist? Or maybe it’s the relentless cultural script that says you have to feel a certain kind of magic on a specific date. This can be for another blog but I love how you all love the holidays!

If you need Thanksgiving goodies, please get those orders in early though! I also have a few more trips planned through 2027, trying to get to as many SailGP events across the US and I’d like to plan ahead so I can stop scrambling for time off like a lunatic and I’ll get my website schedule updated so you guys can plan ahead with me, too.

Thanks for sticking with me through the grease trap chronicles and my ongoing battle with fast food. You guys are the best. I’m tired, but I’m happy. And I’m figuring it out one muffin crumb and questionable plumbing expense at a time.

XX,

Abby

Song of the day: Lana del Rey-Cinnamon Girl because this is my week in audio form. Matches my new moody library curtains and that sweet spot between feeling totally overwhelmed but also completely in my element. Trying to romanticize my own life right now.

We made pizzas!

Georgie was so brave getting a haircut!

3 minute dinner win!

Spooky Halloween gingerbread house at 8AM

Umm what? 😆