vacation is underrated.

vacation is underrated. 

nine straight days of doing absolutely, 100%, nothing work-related. mother of GODDDD, i should have been born italian rather than just married one. i EXCEL in the art of vacation like no tuscan fella ever has.  

i didn't think it was possible after 90 straight days of planning, organizing and executing too many parties to count, that i would be able to shut this crazy-ass hamster wheel of a brain off and so thoroughly enjoy a vacation but i am here to tell you folks...IT WAS. aided by the oh so delicious Mount Gay Rum Southside every day at around 4:59pm, my toes in the warm sand and my kids cousins around to entertain them constantly with cards, boogey boards, roller blades, jaunts to town for massive bags of candy (don't think less of me, it was vacation, i did make them brush their teeth), i just aced vacation. give me a 100% because i am a master.

and i'm here to tell you one more thing for those of you still stuck in the parenting hell of diapers, naps, whiny toddlers & poorly inflated floaties, when you hit the sweet spot where your youngest kid can swim, wipe her own *ss and can put her dishes in the dishwasher and yet your oldest isn't sneaking bartles & james wine coolers out by the docks with the neighborhood boys (what? who did that? i never did that) you will be in NIRVANA. i know it doesn't seem like it will ever get here but when it does, let me be the first to tell you vacations feel like you that time the dentist gave you one extra hit with the silly gas...sublime my friend. just seriously a whole notha' level of fabulous.

but alas, the vacation is over and with it comes parties, banquets and some stupid tasty PIPING HOT DINNERS. so take a gander at the fresh meals we have below and order up your food for the upcoming week. our salads, soups, hot dinners & desserts will help bring you back to reality without such a hard crash to the ground.

i think summer is going to kill me.

i think summer is going to kill me. 

i don't know about you, but i had visions of sprinklers, laughter, back yard barbecues...so far, all i seem to have been doing is driving back and forth on the new jersey turnpike for the last three weekends hauling my kids to lacrosse tournaments. sticky portable chairs, shrill whistles from the refs calling my kid for shooting space (if you don't know what that is you are right there with the 600 people who sat next to me screaming "that's not a foul!" when it was absolutely a foul), and whining little sisters who so did NOT want to be at lacrosse tournaments from 7:30am until 5:15pm. only three more weekends to go, just three. more. weekends.

i vowed yesterday after a quick stop to subway for some nearly inedible sandwiches (i figured a little more nutritional value than mcdonalds) to embrace the journey (literally) rather than the destination. we were hauling ass north to get back to the pool so my girls could take a swim when the skies opened up...for twenty minutes, water pouring down on the highway into large swirling puddles. i realized then: best laid plans sometimes don't come to fruition. six year olds generally don't take that well.

 what could we do at that very moment (besides piss and moan, we did that for a bit too) to enjoy our summer vacation?? we tossed out a few ideas and ended on grabbing some stuff for dinner from the market, renting beauty & the beast out of the red box machine (that box is my savior at the end of the check out aisle of death) and pulling out the new puzzle birthday puzzle my daughter got from her birthday. GENIUS. may not have sounded fun but when you stay present and let go, sometimes the best memories come from the smallest moments. we picked out fun lunch items from the aisles for their camp lunches, i let my youngest push the cart into her older sisters ankles a half dozen times which was good for some laughter, i got a food shop done while they were preoccupied by staying in the aisle and not crashing over the bbq sauce display.

i plan to employ my "stay present and look for the little moments" state of mind today. and i'm pretty sure ordering up some citrus lime chicken wings tonight from our PIPING HOT DINNER MENU and enjoying them on the back patio with a frosty beer while they jump through the sprinklers is going to make the crispy, lime-swathed chicken all the better. feel free to join me...

ahhhh, it was a that kind of weekend if you know what i mean.

ahhhh, it was a that kind of weekend if you know what i mean. i love me some titos, cranberry and a shot of seltzer on a good day, but throw me into the middle of a graduation month and we are talking adoration at the highest level.

i know at this point in my blogging career you know me well enough to know how very much alcohol means to me. but this week especially, it came in some kinda handy in bringing my zen right into focus. there is a lot of sh*t i can do in terms of planning some major mother f*cker events but this week, well, this week TOOK THE CAKE. alongside almost a dozen confirmed events for the weekend we managed to take on a last minute graduation party for nearly a hundred that had my brain reeling by 7pm every night. if not for my very very good friend tito, i'm not sure any amount of headspacing meditation would have been able to get my grey matter to wind down at night. tito, oh tito, how i love you so in june. 

but june is nearing an end and with it, on june 30th, my dear manager maureen will be returning to the east coast (or so she promised). and i, for one, am greatly looking forward to her return. after all my organizing, staffing & ordering, i spent the weekend from 5:30am on saturday morning through 6pm sunday at two of my girl's lacrosse tournaments with my entire family and i couldn't have enjoyed a weekend more if i was sitting in bora bora on a chaise lounge. no phones. no computers. no invoices to check over. just sitting on a blanket on the sidelines cheering on my girls in new egypt, new jersey with the rest of my crew made smile with joy. my balance is returning and with it, a sense of peace i have been missing since maureen left in april. this weekend reminded me of why i could never be all work and no play. didn't work for jack and (my husband will attest), it hasn't worked well for me. ah sweet jesus june 30th you can't come soon enough.

in the meantime we have got another week of RIDICULOUS food. last week you ordered more from our website than any week. um, EVER. monday night broke our hot dinner record by a landslide. ba bam tequila lime chicken i thank you. 

you blow my mind. seriously. mind: blown

omg i can't believe you people. TWO RECORD BREAKING DAYS  OF SALES IN ONE WEEK. you blow my mind. seriously. mind: blown.

in just five days (yup, wasn't in really a full week), you managed to crush a record that stood for eleven months, set up a new one, and crush that mother f*cker again. what has gotten into you people??? damn.

i'm telling you this piping hot dinner schtick has caught on like WILDFIRE. i should have known it. no one likes reheating food even when it's fresh and tasty. what took me so long you ask?? i will tell you.

 as you may have gleaned from the past half decade of blogs, i fancy myself a laid back (uptight), loosey-goosey (uber-wound), chill (control freak)-type of perfectionist. i'm so relaxed sometimes people can't believe it (they can, i'm lying). i don't like to start something unless i know i'm going to win the equivalent of the national championship of it. what can i say, i'm a competitive motha. 

 so when we opened the doors at catchy, we didn't want to take on a new cafe, a bustling catering business, manage our corporate element and then start hot dinners only to fall flat on our faces. okay, i didn't want to fall flat on my face. i'm not sure why i said we there:(. i have an ego and i prefer it intact. but the more you asked (and ask you hard working, exhausted, super hungry folks did), the more we started to see that this could be something big. and you have made it so.

so check out the menu we have for you this week. these meals are, i can't even. i must share that the citrus spring chicken (i named it, she invented it) was eaten by yours truly about eight years ago at kevin's thyme when catchy. was merely a pipe dream far off my radar. it was one of my favorite, FAVORITE meals EVER. when my chef laura and i were brainstorming piping hot dinners on saturday she mentioned it and i nearly wept with glee. 

"you remember it??" yes.

"you created it??" yes.

"i love you!" you're creepy. stop.

so we are offering it with chicken or shrimp, along with our ridiculously delicious mediterranean roasted shrimp over lemony orzo. the options just don't stop knocking your socks off.

birth control people. birth control.

i don't know how my mother did it. or my grandmother. i only have four kids and i can barely manage their schedules on the first real spring weekend and between the two of them, they had 15. seriously. birth control people. birth control.

i get it. things were simpler then. we spent eight hours each day on weekends riding our bikes, making ramps, building forts in the woods behind our house, but still, that's a lot of kids. i can barely remember who eats pb&j and who refuses to touch a sandwich with a speck of yellow mustard on it after a weekend like the one i've had. and my husband is hands on. i'm pretty sure my father and grandfather spent the better part of their saturdays & sundays swinging a long, thin club at a tiny white ball and chasing it with a clear drink adorned with a lemon. seriously. i do not lie. our mom's were like army wives...but with golf. 

i am beginning to adore sunday nights. the week ahead. kids in school for EIGHT hours which means my ass is firmly NOT planted in a large SUV car of some sort,  a bleacher or worse, standing on a field with a lacrosse stick in hand and an angry look on my face a la early this morning at highlands among 38 six & seven year olds for 75 lonnnnnggg minutes. kids belong in school and i belong at my shop cooking you up some ridiculously stupidly tasty food. 

last week you broke records at catchy. friday was our biggest grossing day in eleven months...ELEVEN. do you believe it? i couldn't. i just kept obsessively checking my register app. deliveries of our PIPING HOT DINNERS (umm, 20 in one day),  our crisp, massively over-sized salads (err, 45, 45 people!!), you name it, and we sold more of it friday than we have in almost a year. we love to know that catchy. is growing because people like you are happy with the services we provide.

so take a gander below at the ridiculously tasty selections we have for you this week. and remember, order directly from our website www.thecatchycaterer.com three times in one week and you get an order of panko crusted chicken fingers & fries on us. yum.

call 201.445.6400 to order your salad or sandwich, piping hot dinner or corporate lunch for the office and enjoy our 7.5% rewards program on orders over $200. so much we offer, just give us a call to find out more.

is it pride? get over it. i have.

whyyyyyy do we wait people??? why??

t minus eight days and counting and we are closing in on easter. why, oh why do we wait to call and ask for help??

 you do NOT need to make those herb scalloped potatoes, those pigs in a blanket for 20 or that huge salad you told your sister you would bring. you don't have to, so why tax yourself? you not thinking this through. do you really feel like a trip to fairway when half of bergen county will be shopping for their passover or easter meals?? is it pride? get over it. i have. my kitchen is making my cheddar corn pudding and crudite because i just canNOTTTT be bothered with that one. making the rest of the meal: the filet, the pepperoni poppers, the bunny cake with the marshmallow butt (kids, pinterest - whhhhyy). do i need that major cheddar delicious corn pudding project? no. no i do not.

that's what catchy. is here for. you need a tray of macaroni and cheese for the kids table? we got you covered. you need a dark chocolate pudding cake - gluten FREEEE to bring to your dad's? yes, we do that to. anything you need we got. 

so call us up. now. and check that one off the list sister.

917.721.9217. boom. mic drop.

EASTER MENU

         Mouth Watering Appetizers:

              Shrimp Cocktail with Spring Pea Coulis

          Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

  Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Dinner Must Haves:

Cucumber Soup

Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad with Creamy Citrus Dressing

Blood Orange & Roasted Fennel Salad

Apple Cider Braised Brussel Sprouts

Asparagus Hollandaise

Sagaponack Corn Pudding

Herb Scalloped Potatoes with Goat Cheese

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Panko Crusted Creamy Macaroni & Cheese

Herb Crusted Braised Salmon

Spinach & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast with Cumberland Sauce

Beef Tenderloin with Cabernet or Shallot Cream Sauce

Spiral Sliced Ham with Maple Orange Glaze

Sticky Pork Tenderloin 

Desserts:

Chocolate Babka 

Vanilla Amaretto Pudding Cake

Assorted European Cookies

Gooey Butter Bars

this snow is making me feel like i'm in an insane asylum...

this snow is making me feel like i'm in an insane asylum. is that politically correct? i'm not sure. but then again, i can't imagine 98% of what trump's been saying is politically correct so i'm going to go with it. 

instead of the all white, padded walls, i'm hurdling snow banks of piled up, slippery gray ice when i walk my dog and its making me more than just a bit crazy and claustrophobic. or maybe it's this sling and the news i got on friday that my shoulder is going to take six full months to get back to normal vs. the three i was convincing myself of. oh my god, spring, summer and freedom: you can't come soon enough. 

but i'm told god doesn't give us what we can't handle so i guess he thinks being cooped up all weekend inside with my cagey kids is good for my state of mind. because looking at the forecast it doesn't look like these snow banks will be melting any time in the near future to get us out onto those lacrosse fields and baseball diamonds. #majorsuck.

kids are meant to run , to be free, to get out of their parent's freakin' hair and play outside on march weekends. and with temps in the low 20's, that just isn't making that whole expectation a reality for me. i keep sending them out, and they somehow manage to sneak back in a different door, gather up 38 pounds of sh*t from around my house and make forts in all the nooks and crannies that i never seem to get ahead of cleaning up. lord just send me so spring-like temps and get a lacrosse stick into their hands!! 

so i'm just going to act as if over here at catchy. and cook up some delicious good like none of this slushy snow is upon us, like these slippery sidewalks i just took my dog for a walk on are going to be a thing of the past soon. lincoln told us that all we could choose is our attitude (lincoln? or was that roosevelt? i don't know, who freakin' cares). so i'm choosing happy. i'm betting that once you see are slammin' PIPING HOT DINNERS & fresh salads & soups like the cape cod wheatberry & our blackened chicken with a cup of butternut squash,  you will choose a smile too.

call the shop. order up some tasty treats for your family this week and let us deliver them to your doorstep. 

201.445.6400 #makeyourweekdivine

i think the caged bird schtick is wearing on me.

you ever have one those nights where you think: if i spend one more second with my kids either me or my husband could potentially be brought up on charges for something?? yeah. i get that. that was our sunday night.

i think the caged bird schtick is wearing on me. this friggin' sling that has me velcroed six ways to sunday, the dull, throbbing pain in my shoulder that makes me about as fun to be around as a protocologist, good god i used to think i was fun and entertaining to be around. no longer. spending an hour in physical therapy, two hours locked into an ice cuff and the rest of the day tiptoeing around my usual routine has made me GRADE A BORING. my poor husband. it's been 9 days and he's climbing the walls. thank god for march madness. 

by tonight, the kids were just bouncing off us. and we off them. trying to get them ready for the 6pm mass was akin to trying to peel the backing off a bandaid without the use of one hand: frustrating, mind numbing and just plain sad. "it's freakin' lent for god's sake, get in the god damn car for church before i throw you in!!" must have been hollered no less than a dozen times. and then jt and i decided on another tact. f*ck 'em, we decided, how about we leave them home and go have a peaceful hour to ourselves. heaven. 

it was a like a joke. the moment we told them we had had enough of trying to convince them to go to church and were leaving them home we had two in tears and one with a raging case of 14-itis. you're kidding right? we couldn't pay you to get your act together and now this. hilariously as jt and i would recount in the car, my son billy just sat there with a cheshire cat grin on his face, happy as a clam that he wasn't going. classic.

so needless to say, can't wait for the new week to begin. to make it even better we have brought back last week's mac & cheese because when you sell 42 of them, that tells me we need to bring them back and fast. we have decided to offer them as they were as well as with a generous serving of bacon added in. why not, right? throw in the meatloaf as well as our ridic chicken pot pies as a third option and we plan to be breaking records all over the frickin' place. call tomorrow to make your monday night as heavenly as our sunday was:)...nothing like a little time to yourselves. 

201.445.6400 #makeyourweekdivine