Month: July 2013

4th of July Weekend Things

Lauren7 Comments

The top 5 moments of the 4th of July weekend, in order of importance:

#5 Mini Sopapilla Pancakes.

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After a much-too-long hiatus, Pancake Sunday is back.  For this one week at least.  I dished up some of these pancakes for Joey and I after finally getting out of bed and limping to the kitchen (see below…) and they were A) ADORABLE and B) DELICIOUS.  They truly tasted like sopapillas, which makes this sopapilla-loving girl pretty happy.

#4 Putting Joey’s house up for sale!

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We spent all day Friday and Saturday at Joey’s house, fixing holes, touching up paint, fixing counter tops and pulling weeds so it would be ready to put on the market.  Don’t misunderstand me, the actual work that went into doing all this was horrible.  I am so not cut out for yard work.  My hamstrings are so sore from bending over to pull weeds that I basically can’t walk today.  Is that normal?!  What I am happy about however is that selling Joey’s house means buying one of our own together! 🙂 🙂

#3 The actual 4th of July.

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Joey and I put in extra hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday just so we could sneak out early on Thursday and enjoy a fun holiday dinner before heading to the Rockies game for baseball and fireworks.  Little did we know so many restaurants would be closed that day!  Eventually, we found an open restaurant — Highland Tap & Burger — that we’d actually been talking about wanting to go to for a few months.  I ordered the Great Divide Colette and was in love.  Also, BEST ONION RINGS OF MY LIFE.

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Plus, a Rockies win and a great fireworks show.  Serious question though.  Why do songs about America have to be so cheesy?

#2 Starting birthday celebrations a couple days early.

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My birthday isn’t technically until Tuesday, but why not stretch the celebration out as long as possible, right?  My family went to Vine Street Pub for an early dinner last night to celebrate.  There was good food, beer, laughs and perfect outdoor patio dining weather.  Say whatever you want, people with spring, fall or winter birthdays, but summer birthdays are where it’s at.

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Afterwards, ice cream at Little Man’s of course.  This picture right here is proof that ice cream trumps froyo.  Have you ever seen a line like this outside a froyo place?  Also, my dear sweet mother picked out a shiny red Kitchen Aid mixer for me.  I could not be more excited about it.  I hope Joey doesn’t mind cake, muffins and bread for dinner every night for a while.

Psst, you know something really exciting is coming if my birthday comes in second place!

#1 An engagement!!!

Not mine…sorry 😛 My best friend, Hannah’s!  Josh proposed to her while they were on a trip to Steamboat this weekend and I was beyond shocked.  I mean they’ve been together for 8 years so I had a pretty good idea they’d be getting married I just had NO idea it’d be now!  I am elated for them 🙂  The four of us grabbed some celebratory drinks on Saturday night, where they asked us both to be part of the wedding party.  Guess who grabbed that Maid of Honor title?  This girl!

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In true Lauren fashion, one of my first questions was “When do we get to do the cake tasting??”

Yeah, I guess you could say it was a pretty good weekend 🙂

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How was your 4th of July?  What’d you do?

Have you ever been part of a wedding party?

When is your birthday?  And is that “coincidentally” also your favorite month?

CSA Things: Faaava Beans

Lauren2 Comments

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling as excited about this week’s pick up.  I mean there’s only so much excitement you can feel about spinach and arugula — and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing much more of those two things — and the “OH MY GOD, GARLIC SCAPES” ship I was on two weeks ago has apparently sailed.  There’s really only so much pesto a person can eat.  But I think we made the best of it anyways.

CSA Pick-Up #3 Included:

  • Spinach
  • Arugula
  • Fava beans
  • Garlic scapes
  • Swiss chard

What We Cooked:

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How crazy-huge are fava beans?!

We served them up plain and simple as a side dish for a summery pasta salad (below).  Joey and I were really surprised by the taste/texture of the beans.  They’re pretty soft and have this flavor that’s pea-like but potato-y at the same time?  Upon first taste, Joey declared it “his new favorite bean!” — do people have favorite beans? — then decided they smelt weird, ha!  I would certainly try them again, but we’ll have to wait till next year as fava bean season is super short and this will probably be the only time they’ll be offered to us.

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As for that arugula I was so excited about, we tossed it in this salad.  We swapped millet for orzo, and arugula for spinach because that’s what we had on hand (and I had other plans for the spinach :P) and it turned out fabulously.  There’s something about fresh corn and a light lemony dressing that just screams summer.  And look, I know it isn’t quite corn season yet and what we bought at the grocery store probably wasn’t local, but CORN IS SO GOOD!  No lie, after we boiled this corn and cut off the kernels, Joey and I stood over the sink and ate anything that was left on those cobs.  It was very classy in our kitchen that night.

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Okay, stay with me on this one.  I was at a serious loss for what to do with the Swiss chard.  It was actually Joey who suggested I use the leaves as a wrap.  I just smeared some hummus and pesto on the leaves then tossed in some cheese and cherry tomatoes.  Plus a good sprinkle of salt and pepper, of course, it wasn’t half bad and I’ll admit I repeated this meal a few times.  Still, I think I could do with any more chard in our CSA bundle.

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The spinach went to good use in a homemade pizza.  We just sautéed some onion and spinach and tossed it on some pizza dough — homemade, mind you! — then topped it all off with some fresh mozzarella.  I can’t remember the first time I ate fresh mozzarella, but I imagine it being a very strange taste if you’ve never tried it before.  And I mean plain, not inside a fried breading!

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My plan was to use the garlic scapes in place of anything that called for garlic this week, but it after making my favoritest summer pasta dish with them, I realized scapes and regular garlic maybe aren’t so interchangeable.  They’re kind of crunchy!  That being said, nothing could ruin this pasta dish, especially when paired with some butter roasted carrots and a glass of white wine.

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Also, this is what garlic scapes look like, for any of you who’ve never come across this weird looking produce.  They’re usually even more weird looking, but it’s the end of garlic scape season, so this happens to be a smaller bunch.

And thus ends this weeks edition of “the weird (and probably extremely unappetizing-looking) things I did with a bunch of produce I wasn’t all that jazzed about.”  I’m sure it was crazy exciting to read, huh?

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderfully fun and exciting 4th of July!

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Is there a certain vegetable (or vegetables!) you just really don’t care for?

Have you ever seen a fava bean?

Favorite kind of pizza?