Weekend Things

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I almost wrote “Top of the mornin’ to ya!” then decided that sounded seriously cheesy.  Although I may have actually written that on our chalk wall this morning…

Raise your hand if this weekend’s sunshine has you ready for full on spring.  Okay, so we had about an hour of wind and snow flurries on Saturday afternoon, but otherwise this weekend was so pleasantly warm and sunny.  I loved every single second and took full advantage by taking a walk on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Fact: I love walking 🙂

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Lunchtime stroll down the street (insert weekend walk #1) for a workday picnic = best way to kick off Friday fun.

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Prost Brewing is minutes from our house, yet somehow we’d never been!

Verdict: fun atmosphere, awesome Denver view and a good beer selection.  Plus… food trucks!

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Are you seeing these fries?!  Holy thick cut parmesan bliss.

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Apparently Joey did not want to be in this picture?

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So, the Avs lost… AGAIN.  Which I think means I’m bad luck and shouldn’t be allowed at hockey games, but these seats — given to me by one of our suppliers at work — were awesome and it was definitely the most exciting game we’ve seen this year.  Does anyone else feel guilty rooting on violence at a hockey game?

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The excitement I feel upon receiving the newest edition (almost just wrote addition) of Cooking Light is slightly embarrassing…

Insert weekend walk #2 to go get my hair cut.  The excitement I feel upon realizing the new hair salon I decided to try out is on the same street I live on, is pretty much at the same level of receiving Cooking Light (see above).  I really did attempt to take a picture of my hair, but selfies are just so uncomfortable.

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Saturday afternoon productivity: finishing all the painting in our living room and setting up our new island!  I am so in love!  The backside has a leaf that flips up so it can double as an eating area.  We need barstools ASAP!

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Close up of the falafel salad I was making on the island because it looks too pretty not to share 🙂

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Long story short: some of us may have had too much fun on Saturday night and pretty much spent most of the day Sunday being lazy on the couch… uh oops.  But around 3 PM, I decided getting up and enjoying the gorgeous weather outside might actually help so we took a stroll through the neighborhood (insert weekend walk #3).

This tree has buds!  Spring is so close I can taste it!  Or at least see it.

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Obligatory St. Patrick’s Day dinner at my parents’ never disappoints.  My mom actually cooked this corned beef and cabbage in the stout Joey and I just brewed!  How cool is that?  Dinner was followed up by a big slice of red velvet cake for my sister’s boyfriend’s birthday.  And because mom can’t resist an opportunity to bake red velvet.  I’m not complaining!

I’m hoping the spring weather continues this week (insert future walks #4-130948) because this whole getting to be outside without a heavy winter jacket thing is making me feel pretty happy.

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Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this weekend?

Does it feel like spring where you live?

What’s making you happy today?

Mardi Gras & National Pancake Day Celebrations

So, I originally planned on posting about our Denver Restaurant Week dinner at The Oceanaire last Wednesday (as in post finalized and scheduled for today), but I was feeling a little too jazzed (<— get it??) about Tuesday’s celebrations to not write about them.  Also, as I’m writing this (actually on Tuesday), I’m feeling a little too caffeine and sugared out — you’ll understand why in a moment — which = writing inspiration.  That’s acceptable, right?

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This is the chalk wall I was working on this weekend.  I figured there was no better message to break it in with than this one 🙂

Yesterday was Mardi Gras!  I expect most people outside New Orleans don’t actually celebrate or even realize it’s a holiday (unless you’re a college student…), but I’ve decided that having experienced a real Nola Mardi Gras (hello Bourbon Street balcony party!) as well as having family who lives there justifies me celebrating it.  Also, my Nola family is going through some tough stuff at the moment 😦 so my heart wants to keep them extra close right now.

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In addition to being Fat Tuesday, it was also National Pancake Day!  Could Tuesday get any better?  No, no it could not.  For the past couple of years, I’ve been aware that my favorite pancake-slinging breakfast restaurant celebrates this “holiday” by rolling out an extended pancake menu, selling them “sushi style” and donating the proceeds to a local charity.  I’ve always wanted to participate but as we were previously living a good 25 minutes from any Snooze location, it wasn’t all that practical of an idea.  Now that we live 5 minutes from one, there was no way I could pass it up!

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Remember how I always complain that this place always has a ridiculous wait to get a table?  Yeah, well I’ve figured out how to avoid it.  Go in at 6:30 AM on a Tuesday!  Empty tables galore.  Somehow, I don’t think this was Joey’s idea of fun but he perked right up after ordering a mocha and a flight of pancakes.  Funny how that works, huh?  Below would be buttermilk/salted caramel cream cheese, buttermilk/candied bacon/cheddar crisp, red velvet, king cake, buttermilk/mocha and my forever favorite… the sweet potato pancake.  I died and went to heaven shortly after trying all of these.

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 Typical Mardi Gras “celebrating” continued as I played the Mardi Gras station on iPhone Radio and streamed live parade and French Quarter feed all day at work.  I swear, I was also doing actual work.  Turns out it was cool and rainy all day in Nola yesterday, but even so, those parades are so much cooler than any other parade I’ve seen.  I read that Quentin Tarantino rode on one of the floats during Harry Connick Jr.’s parade on Monday night.  How cool would it be to catch a pair of beads from Tarantino?!

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Please ignore my awesome green polka-dot socks…

We topped the celebrating off with a traditional Cajun dinner of Red Beans and Rice.  Shockingly, I’ve been eating Red Beans all my life but have never once made them myself.  Actually, I swear I’ve never even seen my mom in the process of making them.  By some sort of magic, she just always seems to have a big pot full by dinnertime.  She kindly gave me her recipe so we could try it for ourselves.  Verdict: pretty good for our first try!

And that’s about as fun and crazy as a Colorado Mardi Gras gets for me 🙂  Regularly scheduled Denver Restaurant Week recapping will commence shortly.