Author Archives: mags

big drop – pine trail pale

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well, thanks to the dysfunction of the usps these days, it took nearly two weeks to get to me in new orleans from chicago (even with priority mail), but i finally poured my very first tasteNA sample from big drop brewing, their pine trail pale.

it’s funny how for most of my adult life, i have not enjoyed pale ales, IPAs or anything that has a strong hops bitterness to it. i’m usually much more of a dark beer fan, a lover of maltiness, sweetness, and caramel, chocolate, nut, and/or coffee undertones. but now that i’m drinking NAs, i’m finding i can tolerate hops more and actually enjoy it in some brews. i don’t think i’m gonna become a huge IPA fan anytime soon, as things labeled as such usually have much higher IBU than things simply labeled pale ale and i’m not that into the bitterness, but i’m happy to have more options.

so, this beer. it arrived earlier today, late morning, due to its detour and extended stay in a distribution center in southaven, MS, so it was only in the fridge for like 6-7 hours. but i couldn’t wait any longer! (my fridge is petty cold though.)

first of all, i love their can design and logo. the company is originally from the UK and has just recently started brewing and distributing here in the US, so it has a bit of a different “cool” look to it than a lot of the US NA brands. this should help them stand out on the shelves, for sure.

it poured a pretty pale yellow color but had minimal head. usually that would make me think it might be flat, but not in this case and really didn’t bother me visually. it had a fresh, floral aroma that was inviting. the carbonation and body of the beer was great, good mouthfeel – that addition of lactose really helps it to feel like a beer in my mouth. i get the pine, a little citrus (lime), and the hops bite is there, prominent but not overpowering. it’s light and crisp and paired nicely with my pasta dinner. i can see why it won a world beer award for style!

i would drink this again for sure, and now that i have an idea of the quality of their beer, i’m even more excited to try their galactic extra dark, which is basically a stout. thanks tasteNA for the chance to sample this! hopefully next time it won’t take 2 weeks to get to me!

beer talk 3/6

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no new NA beers to sample this weekend since the stump jump and cerveza atletica arrived, but i have plenty to keep me busy. (my kitchen floor is littered with NA beer stock cuz i can only fit so much in the fridge at one time!) i did end up buying a six pack of the partake pale at total wine as i liked it enough to want to drink more of it. they were out of a lot of things and didn’t have anything new, so that’s all i got.

my friend allison went out there and asked at customer service for them to order brew dog NAs, and they said they would. (i hope they get the wake up call and nanny state, though i’m sure she asked them for the ipas cuz that’s what she drinks.) so maybe that is the route i will take in the future, instead of trying to find the beer manager who never seems to be available when i go. i’m gonna make a list and ask them to order a bunch of stuff because it will be cheaper for me to buy from them than ordering it online. (they need to restock wellbeing amber and coffee cream stout, and add their victory wheat; i’d love it if they added bravus peanut butter stout and blonde to the other bravus beers they already carry; and it would be great to be able to sample NA offerings from untitled art (mostly interested in the chocolate stout), two roots (helles), sober carpenter (blonde, white, red), gruvi (peach pie ale, stout, lager, pale ale), big drop (pale and stout) and ceria (i’m interested in the belgian white but they also have an ipa that would probably do well). i know, it’s asking a lot. but if i don’t ask, they’ll probably never order it and i know all of those are carried at other total wines around the country so they shouldn’t have trouble getting them.

meanwhile, i always look at every new retail food/drink store i’m in to see what they have. this past week: target doesn’t carry ANY NA at all; neither does the random circle k by tulane, though they have a pretty extensive beer cooler; lakeview grocery had minimal macro offerings and the lagunitas IPNA was randomly stuck in the middle of the alcoholic section next to the other lagunitas stuff; and i went back in to rouses on carrollton just to see if i could find the beer buyer (wasn’t there). this pic below is of their sad NA section.

however, i do have several new brews on the way to me. i couldn’t resist ordering the athletic st. patrick’s day offering of an irish red, which is one of the pilot brews; i’m not a big red drinker but i’m looking for variety right now.

i also “discovered” rightside brewing, randomly, from a post in one of the NA fb groups i’m in. i’d heard the name before but hadn’t been curious until a link to an interview with the founder/owner was posted. turns out it’s a woman-owned brand and southern, out of atlanta, georgia. they have a great website with a blog that tells the story of the beer/company and offers inspirational and informational posts. how could i not support this business? so i immediately ordered a six pack of each of their citrust wheat and ipa, as they are smartly offering the two six packs = free shipping promotion that is quickly becoming the standard in the NA beer world. i’ll let ya know what I think when they get here.

the other thing that happened was that i reached out to bravus brewing‘s customer support after my experience revisiting their oatmeal stout left me confused as to whether my taste buds had just done an about face on their beer, or if it was a bad batch. they immediately wrote back, offering to give me a pre-paid return label if i’d send them back some of the beer in question. i’d bought two four packs so i tried some from both and both tasted off to me, so i sent back two of each. i mentioned how i was hoping to try some of their other beers (pb stout and blonde) and they offered to send me a free fresh mix pack of oatmeal, pb stout and blonde to try! now THAT’S customer service! so that is also on the way. i hope they don’t get the beers i sent back and tell me there is nothing wrong with them, cuz that would just mean a) my taste buds are wack, and b) i don’t like their beer. but i will remain hopeful until i try them.

ok, that’s all i got for this week. and yes, i am clearly obsessed at this point and this is becoming quite an expensive habit. but i’m also not spending nearly as much money as i used to on food and due to the pandemic i never go out and spend money in bars or restaurants or anywhere else, so i figure it’s ok for now. and at some point, when i’ve sampled all these beers, i will know which ones i like enough to want to keep on hand and it will be a much smaller number of beers. but for now it’s a fun adventure that takes my mind off this fucked up world we are living in and at least feels like a semi-healthy choice to be making in my recuperation.

athletic stump jump and cerveza atletica + partake pale

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copied over from my instagram:

i am behind in posting my NA beer reviews.

i just finished drinking this athletic brewing stump jump autumn brown ale, which i had been dying to sample for quite a while. (it’s hard to find it in stock on their website.) sadly i am underwhelmed. i think i actually like their maple brown pilot brew better. this one definitely has the look and mouthfeel of a brown ale down, but the taste is just kinda meh. it’s smooth, malty, a little nutty, and not as sweet as the maple brown, but kinda nondescript. some brown ales can be like that but i guess i just expected a richer flavor out of something called an autumn brown. i have five more of them so i guess i’ll be drinking them but they will not be the first thing i reach for. it’s not a total miss, but not anything exciting either. 😕

earlier this afternoon with lunch i tried partake brewing‘s pale. if you recall, i had been previously disappointed with their blonde and unimpressed with their stout, but someone in one of my facebook groups suggested that i give their pale a shot because it was better. and they were right! just enough hops to make it interesting and give it a bit of a bite, which is something that beers without alcohol often lack, but not so much that it overwhelmed me. i don’t really like an overwhelming hops bitterness, hence why i don’t like most IPAs. it had a pretty good mouthfeel even though it’s pretty thin and light but it is crisp and refreshing and went very well with the pizza i had for lunch. and it only has 10 calories! that is ridiculous! tastes pretty spot on and only 10 calories – i give it a 👍!

lastly is the athletic brewing cerveza atletica, which they describe as a light copper brew. i found its color to be darker than light copper and i was expecting this beer by its name to be more in the vein of corona or similar light lager/pilsner mexican beers. i would say it’s more like dos equis amber. very smooth, good body and mouthfeel, malty and fairly light. i like this one and can see it being a good table beer for me as i think it will go with pretty much any food. i will buy this one again. 👍

ok i think that catches me up. 

selection at whole foods broad

finding NA beers in new orleans

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this topic is so frustrating it needed its own post.

when i first started this NA beer adventure back in the fall, i began by ordering direct from breweries online. this seemed the easiest way at first to check out some of these brews. athletic brewing is smart enough to offer free shipping if you purchase two six packs – well, it’s of course not free cuz they just build the cost of the shipping into the price of the beer ($12.99/six pack) – but still, some of the other breweries charge high prices for their beer AND add on shipping. some you have to buy a whole case to get free shipping. so it can get very expensive, especially when you don’t even know if you’re going to like what you are purchasing!

then, add in all the problems that come with shipping. USPS is still having trouble so every time i order something that ships through the postal service, it takes forever to get here. (i currently have a tasteNA sample that was sent out last monday stuck in post office purgatory in mississippi for who knows how long, as tracking hasn’t been updated in more than two days.) and even when private shipping like UPS is used, it’s still a major headache and there are delays. here in new orleans, i’m always worried any delivery will get stolen off my porch if i’m not around to grab it as soon as it’s delivered. (has happened before.) i live in a rear apartment and i can’t seem to train any delivery service to actually drop packages on my back porch or at my door – they are always thrown on the front porch somewhere or sometimes even my neighbor’s back porch, so if i don’t stay on top of when something gets delivered, it can easily go missing. yesterday i left my dog sit to wait at my house specifically because UPS gave me a 3 hour window that my athletic beer delivery would arrive in, and via the app i watched the truck drive all over midcity and my neighborhood for hours without dropping my box off. (it finally arrived at 6:10pm, almost 3 hours later than they told me it would and after i’d already gone back to my dog sit.)

in addition to all this, i have received dented and leaking cans in shipments, and when much of the country suffered from severe cold weather in recent weeks, i read dozens of stories online of frozen beer arriving at folks’ doorsteps, cans completely burst open. i imagine the extreme heat will also be hazardous in the peak of summer.

so because of all the stress getting my NA beer shipped causes me, i have undertaken the even more frustrating task of searching out the various retail outlets around the city where it seems likely i might find NA beer, including grocery stores, specialty liquor/beer/wine stores, and even corner convenience stores. my findings have been disappointing across the board as to what is currently stocked, and i have endeavored to speak with beer managers and purchasers at many of these outlets to request they order beers for me, with mixed results.

i feel like i sound like a commercial for total wine these days because they have turned out to be the only place in town that carries a decent selection of NA beer, including craft varieties from the smaller breweries. during dry january they stepped up their NA marketing nationwide and have since added a singles shelf where you can sample individual bottles from packs, which is enormously helpful in determining what you might like or not. the downside is that they are out in metairie almost to clearview, so a hike from midcity, and they don’t seem to restock very quickly when they are out of things, which is often. i have yet to track down the beer manager as she is never there on the days i am out there, but i will keep trying. i did have a good convo with another worker in the beer department who said he would leave her some notes and the names of some of the beers i’m hoping to have ordered. (mostly bravus peanut butter stout and ceria’s grainwave, but brew dog beers would also be nice. maybe big drop, untitled art, or any number of the new small breweries popping up every month.) but they are still my best bet for finding something to drink.

(at least I don’t mind giving them my money, as the goods unite us app scores total wine highly and 100% democratic in its corporate contributions.)

grocery stores i’ve checked out: rouses on carrollton only has a few macros like o’douls and buckler and sharps, maybe heineken and bud. no craft, at least the last time i was in there a couple of months ago. (i stopped shopping there for political reasons.) i did not speak to a beer manager but i probably should go in there just to ask, as the more retail that carries craft NA the better for the scene in general here in NOLA.

i have looked at winn dixie on carrollton, roberts fresh market on claiborne, dorignac’s, and the big easy fresh market, which has a surprising amount of craft beer but like the other groceries, only has a few macro NAs, the more mainstream commercial brands that i’m not interested in. i haven’t found a beer manager at any of these places to speak with yet.

i have, however, spoken to beer managers at whole foods both on broad and arabella station, asking them to beef up their NA selections. (i also checked the metairie whole foods for selection but did not speak to anyone there.) the photo at the top of this post is of the selection at the whole foods on broad in midcity. both uptown and midcity carry brooklyn brewery special effects and IPA, as well as lagunitas IPNA, plus a few more mainstream NAs like heineken and beck’s. i asked each of them to order specific beers, like athletic, ceria or bravus, and they basically said they weren’t familiar with the NA craft beers and would see what they had available to them to order… that they can’t order what isn’t on their distribution lists. i haven’t been back yet to check if they’ve gotten anything in.

i’ve been in to martin wine cellar uptown and was disappointed with their meager NA selections, and on a whim stopped in at a convenience store at the corner of broadway and claiborne that i knew stocked a lot of craft beer. (probably since it is close to the universities.) they didn’t have anything but the guy working there was really nice and wrote down all the brewery names i mentioned and said he would see what he could order. i pass by there every day in my work travels so will definitely follow up with him.

and lastly, i’ve been in a few times to 504 craft beer reserve, a place that literally stocks hundreds if not thousands of craft beers. i really thought if anywhere in town would have a good NA selection, they would be the place. but no, they had maybe 4-5 options, mostly macro or commercial import, nothing craft. i spoke twice now with one of the guys who does the ordering and the second time he actually wrote stuff down and took my number to call me back when he’d researched it, to see what he could get. i’ll report back if i ever hear from him.

there’s lots of other places yet to check but the story i keep getting from the folks i do talk to is that distribution is limited for these NA craft breweries. the buyers at the national chains (like whole foods) tell me that even when a brand is available in other parts of the country at their stores, it’s not always available to us here. and they always point out they don’t have a big audience for NA so it’s not worth it to them to order a lot of new and different NA beers. they are all uneducated about the burgeoning NA craft movement but sadly most don’t seem interested in learning about it.

personally, i think local retail is really missing out on a LENT promotion opportunity. dry january comes at a really bad time here in NOLA cuz of carnival season, so it’s not as big a thing here as it might be in other parts of the country. but lent is a missed marketing opportunity, as tons of people give up alcohol during lent and might be open to trying non-alcoholic options during this time. grocery and liquor stores should have end caps promoting NA beer and spirits. it just seems dumb that they don’t. but as with most things, new orleans tends to lag behind the rest of the country, so i guess the NA craft beer trend is just one more thing in that category.

i will keep trying to educate and plant the seeds of interest in NA brews in retail outlets around the city. i feel like a one-woman NA promotional machine! if you are reading this and are in new orleans and interested in craft NA beer, please try to speak with the beer managers at whatever retail outlets you shop at to let them know there is interest. i think the only thing they will respond to is direct pressure from shoppers, and it needs to be more than just me asking repeatedly.

lagunitas hoppy refresher

lagunitas hoppy refresher

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i picked up a few new things off the singles shelf in the NA section when i was at total wine yesterday. lagunitas hoppy refresher was one of them. it’s not an NA beer but it’s adjacent, so i’m including my review of it here anyways.

it’s basically hop infused carbonated water. so kind of like a hoppy lacroix. i don’t usually like fizzy waters or seltzers or things like lacroix, and i also don’t usually like beers that have a heavy hop flavor to them, like IPAs, but for some reason this sort of works for me. i can’t see me wanting to drink these very often but i could definitely picture myself ordering this with a meal out at a restaurant on a hot day when i wanted something beer-like that’s refreshing and not sweet. there are zero calories, zero carbs and there is zero alcohol in this beverage. (it does, however, have small amounts of yeast in it.)

if you are a fan of fizzy waters and hoppy beer, you will probably love this. i give it a thumbs up even though i probably won’t buy it to drink at home. it is indeed very refreshing though there is a slight aftertaste and mouth residue that i’m not crazy about. but i’m glad i tried it and i will definitely drink the whole thing and enjoy it.

four and a half months out

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just a quick update to say all is going well. i had my last speech therapy appointment feb. 18th and don’t have any more doctor’s appointments until march 18th when i see dr. ballay, the ENT, again.

i continue to work half days dog walking with four clients, and just this last week reintroduced dog sitting to the repertoire. i’ve been staying with the world’s most lovely 10 year old husky named luna, and i’m in love with her! she is the sweetest and best dog, though has been exhausting me with four more walks a day in addition to my usual four. so my daily average of between 8-10,000 steps has gone up to around 15-17,000 steps a day!

the rollercoaster of weather changes has my body a little out of whack though. i’ve had some random vertigo outta nowhere that comes and goes in the course of a day; nothing so severe that i can’t function but enough to make me feel slightly “off.” and sleeping overnight in a different bed, regardless of how comfortable it is, always affects my sleep. so as this week of dogsitting winds down, i’m feeling myself pretty drained and exhausted. hopefully the weekend will recharge me.

so i guess no more health updates until the next doctor’s appointment. i’m doing ok, trying to remember to do my PT and ST exercises on my own regularly, still doing weekly neurosculpting mediations with emily, and trying to eat more fruits and vegetables by making weekly purchases from the farmers market. i hardly go to the grocery store anymore though i do still eat out more than i should, especially when i’m staying outside my home. but for the most part i think i’m doing a pretty good job of self care and i continue to be so grateful to have had the resources and support to take this recuperation at my own pace.

bravus oatmeal stout

on sampling NA beers

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i’ve been at this non-alcoholic beer exploration for about four months now, with mixed results. i keep thinking i’ve found 5-star beer choices *for me* (cuz everyone’s taste buds are different), but then when i go back and try the same beer a few weeks later, i’m experiencing that beer in a totally different (and usually more unpleasant) way.

the latest example of this was last night with bravus brewing‘s oatmeal stout. i’d bought a bunch of singles at total wine in metairie a few weeks ago, so i could sample a bunch of different NA beers without having to buy full six packs in case i didn’t like it. and bravus’ oatmeal stout was one of them.

my experience drinking it then was a great one. i thought it tasted remarkably like a “real” stout, was full bodied, slightly sweet, and didn’t have any kind of weird aroma or aftertaste, as some NA brews do. “a little chocolatey, a hint of coffee and lots of creamy dark goodness,” i said in my IG review in the moment. i thought i’d found a winner!

i then spent the next several weeks trying to find more of it to purchase to have on hand in the fridge to drink, but total wine was out of stock and nowhere else in town had it. (i will make a whole ‘nother post about my retail adventures seeking out NA beer and talking to beer managers here in new orleans.) i contemplated purchasing online but bravus only gives free shipping if you buy a case and i wasn’t convinced i liked enough of their beers to mix and match a case; i really wanted to try their peanut butter stout but prefer to get a single to sample it before investing in a lot of it. and purchasing less than a case at a time means paying crazy shipping charges, making the beer very expensive. so i just kept holding off on the mail order, hoping the oatmeal stout would come back in stock at total wine.

yesterday was my lucky day – i drove out after work in the mid afternoon on a whim. they hadn’t restocked everything i wanted (wellbeing brews, aside from their IPA, were still out of stock and my total wine doesn’t carry big drop or ceria or any of the other new breweries i want to sample), but the bravus oatmeal and raspberry gose which i also had liked were back in stock. so i got 2 four-packs of the oatmeal stout and one of the gose, plus a few more random singles to test out.

i had one of the goses as soon as it cooled down in the fridge – it wasn’t ice cold like i like it but it wasn’t warm either; it was sufficiently cold for drinking. this time the aroma was more overpowering than i remembered and the extremeness of both the sweet and the tart were magnified, making me enjoy it a little less than i had before. it almost felt like i was drinking a kombucha! i still drank it and i think i will enjoy drinking the others in the right circumstances, but it’s not an everyday kinda brew.

later in the evening, after i’d had some food (though the taste of the gose was still on my palette a bit i have to admit), i cracked open one of the oatmeal stouts. i let it sit for a while to warm up and air out, and for my food to digest a bit more. but when i finally went in for a taste, the aroma really overwhelmed me! i’m not great at identifying smells with much specificity but it was a weird off-putting smell. someone in one of my facebook groups described it as sour or beets/vegetables, and i can’t say i disagree with that. it was definitely not what i was expecting – for an oatmeal stout i expect something more sweet or at least malty or grainy. and i couldn’t taste any of the chocolate or nuttiness i had previously with this beer. i kept drinking it thinking it would get better but it did not. the taste was tainted by the overpowering smell and i can’t say i enjoyed it all that much.

i will give it another shot perhaps with a clean palette and a glass that i don’t have to stick my nose down into to drink. (i was dog sitting so had to use the glassware on hand instead of a regular pint glass, which i usually use.) and maybe i just have to accept more inconsistency with batches of the non-alcoholic brews, because without alcohol as a preservative, i imagine it’s much harder to keep things consistent. i dunno. i’ll report back next time i try it. but i’m pretty bummed since i still have 7 of these to get through.

lesson learned, i guess.

last of the singles batch

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copied over from my instagram:

more NA beer reviews. i have finally finished the last of those singles that i bought at total wine.

no picture for the brooklyn brewery special effects because i drank it on mardi gras while freezing my ass off in full costume outdoors at a friend’s house and i just forgot. i thought it was pretty beer-like but I was quickly reminded that i don’t usually like their beer because it is hoppier than i prefer for a lager. but if you like their style of beer then you will probably like this. it seems to get really good reviews, but it’s just not really my jam. i drank it while eating gumbo and fried chicken, but i just probably wouldn’t buy it again.

the first picture here is of the moritz 0.0 which i had one day with my lunch of lentil soup. this spanish NA lager was very beer-like in every way, light and refreshing and a little malt forward. people keep comparing it to corona but i don’t really like corona and i actually really liked this. it’s not really my favorite style of beer but i think in the summer it would make for a great brew on a hot day. i would buy it again because it was solid.

the next picture is the partake brewing blonde. partake is canadian and known for their low calorie, low carb beers and this one certainly fits that description coming in at 15 calories! it was ok and i did drink it but i don’t think i’d buy it again. it was light but really thin and didn’t have a lot of flavor. i will still give their other beers a try though because they certainly have a following.

the last one is from suntory, all-free, from japan. i’ve read a lot of really great reviews of this brand but again i don’t think it’s my jam. it’s very light and crisp but there’s a weird aftertaste to this one that i can’t put my finger on but it’s not pleasurable. there’s definitely a hint of lemon/citrus here & it has the mouthfeel of a lighter beer, but there’s just not a lot of flavor here. i’m about halfway through the glass and i’m not sure i’m gonna finish it. but i’m glad i gave it a try.

beer talk

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i’ve had a lifelong love of beer, with craft beer being my alcohol of choice for most of my adult life. (in high school it was all mickey’s, bass ale and wine coolers; by college rolling rock and miller high life were my go-to beers. but i was lucky enough to move to new orleans post-college, where abita beer was already a thing. it was my first introduction to craft beer and their brews are still some of my favorites. i’ve probably drunk more abita amber than any other beer in my lifetime.)

in recent years, however, i started to notice my body REALLY not liking alcohol anymore. so i reduced the amount of beer i was drinking, usually no more than 1 or 2 at a time and only on the weekends, because of how awful it made me feel the next day. alcohol is very much a way of life here in new orleans, though, so it was still very much a part of my social life, even at a reduced amount. i just tried to get smarter about choosing lighter beers, drinking only with food, interspersing water with beers, and stopping at 2 in a night. but even with all that, it was still affecting me adversely.

about a month before my brain surgery (around september of last year), i stopped drinking alcohol entirely, wanting to go into surgery feeling as good as i possibly could. post surgery, i have not felt like i am ready yet to return to alcohol; i’m wanting to give my body and brain some more time to heal without the inflammation and toxicity that alcohol brings. i’ve dropped and kept off 10 pounds or so, and all my pants are loose, which feels good. given all that, around mid-november, ahead of the holiday season and some anticipated socially-distanced social gatherings, i began investigating non-alcoholic beer as a possible option.

much to my surprise, i’ve found a burgeoning and exciting NA craft beer scene taking root in the US. (NA beer has already been a much bigger thing in europe and other parts of the world, but as usual, the US lags behind.) i started sampling various brands and breweries, mostly ordering online because it’s so hard to find locally, and joined a few facebook groups dedicated to non-alcoholic beer appreciation as a way to learn more. i now find myself reading a lot of articles online and listening to several podcasts about NA beer and its makers. i’m a little obsessed!

so i am making a category here on this blog to easily catalog all my reviews of various NA brews and other thoughts on the trend/industry as it develops. not that i’m any kind of expert, just documenting mostly for myself what i’m learning – and if it can help anyone else, great! i am hopeful that the craft brewing scene here in new orleans will eventually catch on and some of our successful local breweries will take on the challenge of making delicious NA brews of their own.

brain talk

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this might take me a while, but i’m gonna copy/paste all my meal train updates from my brain surgery saga here and back date them so i have a record of all that not on meal train. and then i can post future updates here.

so any posts you see from before this one are copied over. any posts you see after this one are new updates and probably aren’t on the mealtrain site.