Tag: Denver dining

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

LaurenLeave a comment

Extended title for this post is “Thanksgiving Weekend 2016: A mixed bag, but mostly good.”  Because, uh yeah, it’s been a blurry roller-coaster type of deal for the past four and a half days.  And while I didn’t spend the entire time in the best of moods — I took a three day coffee break and I think my emotions are all over the place now that I’m back on the caffeine train — most of it was the custom food/family/fun explosion that makes Thanksgiving my absolute favorite time of the year.

Was that intro all over the place or what?  Oy with the poodles already!

img_4632img_4633img_4634img_4635

If Thanksgiving is my favorite day of year, then the three days leading up to it are my second favorite.  I get to tap into my plan -ahead, list-making, over-preparing talents and oh what a Type A high it is!  I looked forward to making this Salted Butter Apple Galette all day on Tuesday.  It turned out perfectly!  Pretty impressed with my apple slice feathering skills 🙂

img_4576img_4636img_4583

We managed to sneak out of work early on Wednesday, spent a couple of hours assembling/prepping dishes for the next day and made that one emergency trip to the grocery store, because something just HAS to go wrong when you’re cooking for Thanksgiving.  I totally made the Brussels sprouts with apple cider VINEGAR instead of actual apple cider and Joey had to pick up another two pounds so I could re-make them.  Yikes.

Crisis averted, we took ourselves to dinner at Uncle because after last year, I vowed to make ramen dinner our new Thanksgiving Eve tradition.  We people watched during the 45 minute wait, then sat in the exact same spot as last year!  What are the chances?

img_4587img_4637img_4638img_4640img_4639img_4641img_4643img_4642img_4644

THANKSGIVING ♥

Morning time perfection brought to you by a mug of coffee and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It feels so wrong to give up our Turkey Trot tradition, but it also so feels so relaxing and right.  Joey even had time to draw a little Christmas tree on our wall 🙂

Afternoon perfection brought to you by Meal #1, which involved the best turkey, the David Blaine special (I could not roll my eyes hard enough…), a nap for Jory and the Cowboys game.  They won, I guess.

Meal #2 at my parents’ made complete by festive cocktails, my sister ladling gravy onto her roll, MOM’S STUFFING (!!!!!!!) and James Bond.  We found a whole slew of the films on Amazon and went with Spectre.  Oh and that apple galette… YUM!

img_4609

On Friday, I watched Joey’s first game of the alumni tournament before heading off to Loveland with my family to see my brother & co. at their new house!  Guess I was too busy scootering with my niece, holding my nephews cup of coffee for him while he rode his bike (start em young, right?), sipping beer with brother and admiring the penguin cake my sister-in-law made to take any pictures.  Fail!

But afterwards, Mom, Joey and I headed back to our house for GILMORE GIRLS!  I got us matching shirts to celebrate the arrival of the revival (I wanted to say that so bad!) and while we only made it through two episodes together (they were 30 minutes longer than we had originally thought), it was still so fun.  It only makes sense to watch a mother-daughter show with your mother 🙂  Debating a full out post about the series, but we’ll see!

img_4612img_4645img_4646img_4649-1img_4623img_4647img_4648

Saturday started with pancakes (my turn!), progressed to the last episode of Gilmore Girls, followed by a run for me and outdoor Christmas decorations for Joey, who was just up on our roof when I got back from my run… normal, so normal.  Then we got ourselves together and headed over to the Denver Central Market!  It is BEAUTIFUL in there and I love all the restaurant/market stations, but I also think most people will use it to eat instead of taking advantage of the butcher, cheese shop and produce section.  I grabbed a tuna salad sandwich from Silva’s Fish Market and while the bread was Texas Toast-esque perfection, I kinda didn’t want to pay $12 to put the two halves together myself.

One major snafu later — paid $10 to park at the 16th Street Mall Pavilions only to discover the movie we wanted to see was sold out — we ended up in Arvada for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Okay, I ADORE being in the Harry Potter world but if you took away any prior HP knowledge and judged the movie on its own, it’s a lot less interesting.  I felt like the dialogue was so lacking.  Wait, was there even any dialogue?  Caught the winning end of the CU game afterwards though!

img_4627img_4630

Sunday started with breakfast tacos and ended with Thanksgiving leftovers pizza and that’s really all you need to know about that day.  Also, I’m guessing your attention is dwindling at this point.  Wishing you a quick recovery from this weekend hangover 🙂

Raw Food Night at Root Down

Lauren3 Comments

Guys, we are four days into August and some bad shit has already happened.  Namely, Trevor Story is out for (most likely) the season and I sliced my finger on a knife that I was washing with my hand instead of with a sponge, like a normal human being.

But!  Some really good stuff has happened too.  I have been brave enough to wear true red lipstick in public, our first squash blossom bloomed, I spent an entire hour reading in our hammock, we got tickets to Great American Beer Fest.  And on Tuesday night, we tried the monthly raw food dinner at Root Down!

IMG_3533

Root Down puts together a 4-course raw meal every first Tuesday of the month and for no other reason than that the menu always looks amazing and that Root Down has never ever let me down before, I knew I HAD to try one of their dinners this summer.  This was the menu we showed up to on Tuesday.

P.S. It only slightly killed me that I didn’t know the menu until we showed up.  I’m a before-we-go type of menu peruser for real.

IMG_3534

IMG_3535

Drinks.  All the drinks.  Had to order some alcoholic bevies first because you gotta retox before you detox.  And also, because the Pepper Blossom is THE BEST COCKTAIL IN DENVER.  There, I said it.  That tonic and cider drink tasted like cinnamon and fall in a way that really freaked me out, because I’m not even ready for fall.  But it also tasted real good, so I wasn’t that mad.

IMG_3536

Fact: I’m not into soup.  Which is sad for Joey because he LOVES soup, but I make the rules menu and soup is hardly ever on it.  That being said, this sweetcorn soup was SO GOOD.  It had a kick and that sour cream and hemp seed island in the middle was my favorite part.  I kind of forgot it was going to be cold soup until they served us, but duh!

IMG_3537

Okay, this was when it started pouring rain and we had to be relocated inside but we got a window seat so I was still able to get a lovely photo of this vibrant dish.  I wish I could tell you just how fresh and flavorful this pesto “pasta” was, but I don’t think I’ll do it justice.  Every bite was such a punch to the taste buds, in the best possible way.  The pesto was maybe the best I’ve ever tasted and it was all just so perfectly executed.

IMG_3538

I usually do not consider fruit to be dessert, but there are exceptions to this rule.  Like if you’re at a raw dinner.  First off, how adorable is that baby… nectarine??  I’m still not sure what it was but it was the cutest.  I mostly wanted to lick my bowl to make sure to get all the chocolate but figured that wasn’t ladylike.  Also, there was lavender sprinkled on there!

Okay, so Joey proceeded to go home and eat a post-raw dinner snack but otherwise, I loved this little experience!  As usual, Root Down delivered on flavor and freshness and their hospitality is always top notch.  I’m so glad we finally did this.