Category: TV Talk

Recently Consumed

LaurenLeave a comment

A list of things consumed by my head, heart, eyes, ears and stomach lately.

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The Dry by Jane Harper

Maybe I’m not the best literary detective, but this book had me in the dark till the very end!  There’s nothing worse than a predictable ending, so I really appreciated the way Harper was able to keep you guessing, then give you an ending that felt like it was under your nose the entire time.  I also loved the cast of characters she created.  From the likable main character to the colorful townspeople, they were all well flushed out and entertaining.  The whole time I read it, I felt this sense of lurking danger and suspicion, that was both creepy and enticing.  Give it a shot!

Good Thing by Leon Bridges

Guys, are you straight wearing this album out like I am??  It feels more up-tempo and poppy than his debut album, but in a very good way.  And despite the change in tone, it still has those very lovely low-key slow songs that he does so well.  I’m very impressed by it!

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Arrested Development 

Did you guys watch Season 5 yet?  I want to tell you I loved it, but honestly, I could barely remember what happened in Season 4 (and much of Season 4 didn’t makes sense to me because I couldn’t remember where we left off in Season 3…), so a lot of the jokes and references were not landing like they probably should have.  Still, this was Will Arnett at his Gob-damn best (see what I did there?) and I’m now referring to red hair as “Howard Red.”

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A Big-@$$ Bag of Granola

I ran out of no-bake granola and really wanted the real deal baked stuff, but because I could barely handle the thought of having the oven on for 45 minutes, I decided to make A BIG batch and hope it would last me all the way through the rest of the summer.  Luckily, this Naturally Sweetened Toasted Coconut Granola is A) already a favorite of mine and B) makes something like 10 cups of granola.  I thought I may have burnt it, but it just tastes really delicious.

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Kaleo at Red Rocks

Way back in 2015, Joey and I bought $12 tickets to see Guardians of the Galaxy at Film on the Rocks and were treated to a pre-show performance by an unheard of Icelandic band called Kaleo.  Flash forward to last month when we got to see them headline their own show at Red Rocks!  From Row 7 with Hannah and Josh, no less!  Our babies have come so far.

This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This was our June book club read and what a discussion it was!  This is the story of a couple with five children, the youngest of whom is born Claude but becomes Poppy at the age of five.  It was so eye-opening, mind-opening, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time.  Mostly, it just sounds very hard to be a parent.

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Peaches

It’s stone fruit season, y’all!  Just kidding, I don’t say y’all, but it felt right in that moment 🙂  Feels like strawberries had just started to get really good when cherries then peaches popped up at the Farmers’ Market.  So summer fruit seasons have been a little condensed but here we are with peaches in hand, feeling our very happiest.  Or is that just me?  I’ve yet to have that PERFECT PEACH moment yet, but I KNOW it’s coming and for that, I am very excited.

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The Big Lebowski at Film on the Rocks

I took my family to Red Rocks on Monday night to celebrate my birthday and it was just the best!  We ate Illegal Pete’s, listened to two mediocre bands, laughed uncomfortably at a comedian, ate red velvet cupcakes (they were melty but OH SO GOOD!  Joey maybe dropped some crumbs in a White Russian and I maybe ate them :P), then were treated to a Coen Brothers masterpiece that is somehow better and funnier every time I watch it?  Just a perfect night all around!

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All the Wine

I’m your beer girl for real, but something about the heat of the summer has me preferring wine.  A chilled wine, specifically.  I’m not claiming to know anything about wine, I’m just claiming to have drunk many glasses this summer.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

I won’t say this is a show you can’t live without, but it’s so easy to watch and I find it extremely quick-witted for a 30-minute comedy.  I mentioned to my sister that we were watching the most recent season and when she admitted she didn’t know what it was, my explanation — “it’s about a woman who’s been imprisoned in a bunker for 15 years and when she gets freed, she moves to New York but she hasn’t been in the real world for 15 years so doesn’t know what a lot of things are and also, it’s Jon Hamm who imprisoned her” — sounded weird but don’t be fooled, because this show is great!  Titus is my favorite.

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The Peach Pit from Pizzeria Lui

I’m not joking when I say I’ve been lusting over this pizza since LAST summer.  We didn’t manage to get over to Pizzeria Lui until after this special was gone, so I’d been hoping and praying they’d bring it back this year and they did!  Last night, my sister came over to give me a manicure (!!!!) and Joey was kind enough to go pick us up some pizza.  Biting into that warm peach, creamy ricotta, salty prosciutto and spicy honey felt like a dream come true!

Tell me what you’re reading, eating, watching or listening to these days and please please have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

Can we pause on this moment in time for just a few more weeks?  Because this pre-spring feeling has me in such a good good mood.  We’re not quite in full-on spring mode, so anytime it’s nice enough to walk outside without a jacket or grab an iced coffee or enjoy a sunny Friday happy hour feels like a true blessing.  At some point, all of those things will feel expected, so I’m loving this up-in-the-air, surprise-spring-weather time we’re having.

FRI-YAY!  We were heading to the Nuggets game (why do I feel like I hadn’t been to a game in sooooo long?) so we decided to make it a full out date night and go to happy hour before.  We were thisclose to trying out Citizen Rail but then we remembered we’d also been wanting to try Hearth & Dram and after one glance at their HH menu, we were sold.  It was even better than we had hoped!  We maybe over ordered but everything was INCREDIBLE and we maybe can’t stop talking about it!  Denverites, PLEASE GO NOW!

The Nuggets beat the Lakers afterwards, but I still cannot tell you the name of any player on the team 🙂

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Saturday started with Greek Yogurt Waffles!  We topped them with not-so-great strawberries but they still tasted good so let that be a testament to the recipe and waffles in general.  A little bit later, we hit up the gym, where I ran while listening to a Margot Robbie interview and she is GREAT.  We honestly had no real plans for the rest of the day and it was amazing!  We ate lunch — my Concord Grape Kombucha turned out real nice! — showered, made pizza dough and went to the grocery and it all felt very leisurely and perfect.

Also, they bagged someone else’s ice cream with our groceries and though we felt bad for the person who was going to get home and find themselves without dessert, Joey seemed happy to enjoy said ice cream for that person 😛

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Homemade pasta for dinner!  It was our second time around and I think we did a little better than last time!  Putting the dough through the fettuccine cutter was so satisfying.  We used the noodles to make Fettuccinne with Tomato-Cream Sauce, which we’ve been making for something like six years, so it was already a favorite, but it was EVEN BETTER made with fresh pasta.  I think we were both doing a little happy dance the entire time we were eating it (or was that just me?).  Oh and we finally watched Wonder Woman!  I had mixed feelings that had nothing to do with Wonder Woman or the way Gal Gadot portrayed her and everything to do with ARES, GOD OF WAR, being played by dorky Professor Lupin.  When they superimposed his head on that muscular body in the flashback, I about lost it.  As a fan of Greek mythology, I’m very offended by this casting decision.

Did you guys watch Sterling K. Brown on SNL?!  I thought he KILLED it!  When he came out for the monologue, we already knew he was going to be good, but then he was SO SO good!  I also laughed VERY hard at Alex Moffat as Willem Dafoe.

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We slept a little later than usual — or was it the same as usual but felt later because of the time change?? — so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go to Annette for breakfast, since they don’t open till 10.  We did that French Press, biscuit-of-the-day, pork hash thing that we do every time we’re there and it did not disappoint.  We don’t know how they make the biscuits so perfect or the pork hash so delicious, but we’re not going to question it.  Back at home, Joey tackled lunch salads while I cleaned the bathroom/backroom and I felt very proud of us.

At 3, I walked to get a manicure and it was just lovely outside.  I saw someone with silver nails the day before and felt inspired to do the same.  I think I’m into it!  While I was out, Joey returned this horrible book that I finally finished for me and I hated it so much that this is the only time I’ll be speaking about it.  After I got home and we had watched our 100th episode of The Amazing Race for the weekend, we made dinner and then suddenly it was the end of the day and sadly, the weekend.  Noooo!  Hey, at least I got to catch snippets of both The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast and annoy Joey by singing/dancing along to “Tale as Old as Time.”

Tell me about your weekend 🙂