Tag: dinner in Denver

Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

Joey was out of town this weekend and that was sad, but here’s some things that weren’t: Friday pizza night with my Mom and sister, Saturday morning yoga followed by two hours of reading in the backyard, a pink-red mani, wings and gelato at my parents’, a 5-mile run and playing fetch with my doggy, pretty tulips and perfect weekend weather ♥

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Thursday night, I gazed at tulips, walked Andi, poured myself a lavender soda and started watching Captain America: Civil War.  Guys, I just want to see Avengers: Infinity War so I can be part of the pop culture conversation, but I have some work to do because I saw Iron Man in 2008 and Black Panther in February and nothing in between (actually, I’ve seen like 80% of Guardians of the Galaxy but we left early to avoid Film on the Rocks traffic, ha!).  I only made it half way through the movie though because it’s many many hours long and it was a school night.

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I was going to be lame and have Hermit Night on Friday but then my mom and sister wanted pizza so out we went!  I made a list of like six pizza places we could go to, but we decided on Cart-Driver and I was so happy to introduce them to that little shipping container that busts out the best wood-fired pizza.  My sister suggested we do weekly Sister Dinners in Denver and I am so down with that idea!  Oh and my mom just got back from New Orleans (she got there the day after I left!) and brought back presents.  She is truly the best ♥

Back at home, I finished my movie and hey, I thought it was really good!  It’s ten years later but Iron Man is somehow still cool?  And I really appreciated that scene where Captain America is holding onto a helicopter with one hand and a building with the other and it was just a long shot of Chris Evans’ flexed biceps.  So subtle.

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Saturday!  The best day!  I woke up and ate pancakes before taking myself to a hot yoga class.  The fitness class next door was BLASTING their music and at the end of yoga my teacher said “Bow your head and say ‘Namaste.’  May you be free.  Free from pain, free from suffering and free from bass in your face.”  I thought it was so funny!  The library was only a few block from the yoga studio so I walked there to return a few books and pick up our May book club pick, then I got iced coffee and it all felt too good to be true.

Back at home, I parked it in the backyard to start a very important re-read and hold a cute pup on my lap.  His face looking up into the sun pretty much sums up how we both felt about basking in the summer-like weather.  By the way, I know it seems like I’m always watching/reading Harry Potter but this is seriously only the second time I’ve read books 4-7.  I’ve read the first one like eight times though 😛

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Sorry not sorry for showing you so many tulip photos but can you even believe that feathery one??  I realized I had booked a 5 PM manicure and the Kentucky Derby was set to go off at 4:50, so I anxiously stood in the living room, ready to RUN out the door afterwards.  I told Joey — who was in Vegas — to bet on Justified but he didn’t listen and lost it all.  I made it to my appointment right on time (phew!) and took my sister’s suggestion to go red (plus the color was called Emily and I felt like my cousin would approve) then I dashed over to my parents’ for dinner.  My mom was sick and still managed to make two different types of wings, roasted Brussels sprouts and mac and cheese.  We had Talenti for dessert and it was better than most ice cream I’ve eaten in my life.

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I went for a run Sunday morning and though I didn’t beat my time from the week before, I’m still loving these longer weekend runs 🙂  Came back to Banana Bread Overnight Oats, iced coffee, a new Cooking Light and… TULIPS.  Also gave Andi a bath then let him dry off outside in the sun.  Later on, we went back inside to watch the Rockies game (SWEEP!), cook beans, make California Caprese Bowls for lunch this week and start laundry.  Joey made it back home and we got to catch up outside — “tell me all the things you ate while I was gone” is a real thing he said to me — before heating up leftover wings and grilling some zucchini for dinner.  We started watching Thor Ragnarok and oh my god, I heard it was funny but it’s really funny.

It was nice all weekend, it’s going to be nice all week and I am fully in the summer spirit so I am pretending it’s not going to be chilly and rainy this weekend.

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

Mother Nature has been so cruel lately, giving us perfectly warm spring weather during the week then letting it rain all weekend.  But, last week she turned it around, meaning we had THEE BEST weather all weekend and as a result, we were able to clean up our yard, plant our garden, eat meal after meal outside and I just truly felt like my happiest self.  Our doggy even got to join us outside and I was like, “Andi, this is our summer life, isn’t it the best?!”  He concurred… then barked at a squirrel for 15 minutes.

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Friday, we headed home, walked Andi and mixed up these Spring Pea Veggie Burgers from Joy the Baker for dinner.  As meat eaters, we’re pretty pro-real burger but these were SO GOOD!  They held together NO PROBLEM, and decked out with cucumber slices, watercress, avocado, mustard and most importantly, a perfectly spicy Sriracha mayo, they tasted truly incredible.  Would have been the perfect opportunity to actually grill a burger (had I planned better), but we compensated by grilling some sweet potato discs.  Joey gifted me the very last can of Madame Psychosis from Fiction Beer Company.  In other words, this was a perfect night!

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Briefly considered Saturday morning waffles but then the idea of defrosting buttermilk, zesting a lemon and waiting for butter to melt then cool was all too much, so I mixed up our super simple go-to whole wheat pancake batter instead and wasn’t mad about it.  Also, we filled a growler of iced coffee on Friday and that’s how you ensure that the rest of the weekend is good.  Plus we needed all the caffeine for an afternoon of yard work!

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We maybe spent way too much time and way too much money at Paulino Gardens but we finally made it back home and to the backyard.  Joey did most all the hard stuff, but I planted our backyard pot and front porch buckets and I’m so in love with them!  How incredible are those stripped and speckled petunias??  We tag-teamed the garden bed and now our tulips — one of which finally opened up! — don’t look so lonely.

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Later on, I left Joey in the backyard and hit the grocery but then I came home and we cleaned up just in time for my sister to come over so we could all go to dinner ♥  We took her to Meadowlark and look, I feel conflicted about giving away this secret, but this might be one of the best restaurants in Denver.  I didn’t even know they had a back area but that’s where they sat us, so we got to be half inside/half outside and it felt perfectly summery.  We split a burrata dip with fried naan, a spring salad, chicken nuggets and the famous Meadowlark burger.  I’m kicking myself for taking an Instagram video and not an actual picture, because it was CRAZY.  Look it up!  Also, it tasted incredible.

Back at home, we all watched Tragedy Girls and it was super quirky and weird and gruesome and inappropriate but enjoyably so?  We think we liked it.

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Sunday started with another 5-mile run.  We did it in 47-something minutes, which is really fast for me and probably explains why I felt dead at the end.  We recovered with carrot cake overnight oats from The Savvy Cook and I think I want to make them again!  The rest of the day involved making Chili Mango Zesty Quinoa Salads for lunch this week — I’ve been cooking beans in our pressure cooker and even though I keep overcooking them, it’s been a fun experiment — and finishing up garden stuff, aka planting our seeds.

We jotted down some notes at the end of last year so hopefully we’ve refined the process just a bit more for this growing season.  I’m mainly excited for speckled lettuces!  It’s a bit more work — water, weed, harvest, repeat — but now that things are planted and there’s LIFE growing in the backyard, all feels right in the world.  We ended Sunday by watching 6 Balloons and while I didn’t LOVE it, I liked it and still thought it made for a perfect end to a perfect weekend.