Father’s Day Weekend Thing

Do you ever feel like the events of a weekend are passing you by faster than you’re able to fully process and feel present during?  That’s how this weekend felt!  But I do vaguely remember an especially painful Friday Rockies game, picking sweet baby strawberries from our garden, making cinnamon rolls, a beer fest birthday celebration for Jenn, Father’s Day breakfast and crafting with my niece and somehow fitting in chores on late Sunday afternoon, so by that list, it sounds like a great weekend!

Not entirely important, but amusing: I opened a container of toothpicks on Friday morning and accidentally flung the whole thing onto the floor!  Toothpick confetti to start the weekend!

After driving around busy Five Points for much too long, we parked and were able to nab two seats at the teensy Cart-Driver bar and enjoy our favorite clam pizza before heading to the game.  We left in the bottom of the 8th because we were up FIVE and by the time we got home, it was a tie game.  WHY??  I literally fell asleep on the couch but vaguely remembering waking up a few times to Padres home runs.  We lost this game and I’m still mystified as to how that is even possible.  Bleh!

Saturday was a new day though!  It was so nice and sunny outside, so after I got some cinnamon roll dough started (Father’s Day prep!), Joey ordered me outside to pick strawberries and he made us pancakes.  Oh my god, I was so happy after I filled this little colander.  Of all the things we’ve grown, strawberries are my most proud accomplishment!  Plus those pancakes were the best ♥  In my head, cinnamon rolls were going to take forever, but then it was only 4 hours and mostly hands-off time.  I think I’ve got it down now!

At 2, we headed over to RiNo Beer Garden, which we’d never been to, for the RiNo Beer Fest, aka Jenn’s 30th Birthday Celebration!  It was so much smaller, less crowded and more manageable than GABF!  Plus, can you even handle how cute those little mason jar taster glasses are??  I got conned into voting for Wibby Brewing just so I could have a tiny inflatable flamingo with a spot in the middle for your taster glass, then felt bad for contributing to their first place medal because it was not even the best beer I had.  It maybe rained at one point and we had to hide under a tent, but then it cleared up and we had so much fun!

The fest ended at 6, so we walked down Larimer and found ourselves at Dio Mio and Joey and I were secretly delighted to be hitting up another Larimer Street fav.  It was, as always, AMAZING.  We went back home after this and our Lift Driver rudely pegged us when he joked about going home at 8 PM to watch Netflix and eat ice cream, HA!

Happy Father’s Day to my dad and even though I got Joey a dog dad card from Andi, his complaint that I was letting him clean the bathroom on Father’s Day only elicited a major eye roll from me.  My mom made breakfast and I think everyone liked the cinnamon rolls!  My sister and I got my dad tickets to a Beatles tribute show that he’d been asking me about for several months, during which I had to act like I didn’t really want to go.  Felt good to finally let that cat out of the bag!  My niece must be entering “chapter book” territory, as she authored/illustrated her own after breakfast and, BE STILL MY HEART, told me she’d like to start reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone!!!!

I had an acupuncture appointment that afternoon and wow did it feel extra relaxing for some reason.  Back at home, I read in the backyard and listened to another wild Rockies game (that also ended NOT in our favor…) until Joey got back from golf/lunch with his dad.  We put off laundry, bathroom cleaning, and lunch-making for as long as possible, but then knocked it all out in time to cook dinner and watch… The 10th Kingdom!!!  Someone please tell me you know what this is!  It was a 5-part mini-series on NBC in 2000 and my sister and I watched the hell out of it.  Joey had never seen or heard of it and it is just now, 12 years into our relationship, that I’ve decided he must know this most integral part of who I am, ha ha!  Anyway, it’s dorky and delightful and available on Amazon Prime.  Max Medina is in it, for all my Gilmore Girls fans!

Please tell me how your weekend was! 🙂

Make This Now

So much of life is a Catch -22.  I like planning ahead, but I like to match things to my mood and you can’t plan your mood ahead of time, can you?  That would be nice though!  Good moods every Friday please!  Anyway, this is all to say spring is so up and down and I find it hard to match pre-planned meals to ever-changing weather.  I feel like grilling a burger when it’s 80° and sunny and curry when it’s rainy and gray, but those things can happen in the same day!

I guess this list is comprised of meals that managed to match my mood and the weather.  Those make me extra happy and are the reason I continue to chase that feeling.

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One-Skillet Lemon Pepper Shrimp and Orzo

Do you every just HARD-sear some zucchini coins and then realize they look bad in pictures?  Me neither…  Anyway, we made this skillet dinner a few weeks back and were delighted when the orzo cooked perfectly and tasted wonderfully decadent but still light and citrusy.  Also, we bought a bag of Meyer lemons to make this and I legitimately full on ate the other six?  Joey thought I was insane, but they tasted like candy to me!

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Banh Mi Burgers

Okay, I maybe said “next time I make these, I’m definitely adding more salt to the beef” something like 10 times the night we made these, but they were still REALLY GOOD.  Then again, I’m a sucker for banh mi anything.  Joey asked me “what makes these banh mi burgers??” and I was so confused, because… everything?  Those quick-pickled veggies, that fiery sriracha mayo, all that cilantro!  I loved them.  Also, I’ve tried SO MANY sweet potato fry methods and then I just tossed these in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them for 30 minutes and I think they were the best ones I’ve ever made, ha!

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Tomato-Ricotta Pizza

Per my Dinner Diary (yeah, I still keep that!), I made this pizza two years ago and not since.  Which is a shame, because it is delicious!  It has a pesto-ricotta and roasted cherry tomatoes and a sprinkling of feta and basil.  So many flavor bombs that just really sing together.  Plus I ate a cherry tomato while prepping this pizza and it had NO RIGHT to taste as good as it did this early in the season.  Not mad about the leftover ricotta I have in the fridge either because it means ricotta pancakes are in my very near future!

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Black Bean and Tempeh Tacos with Cashew Cheese Sauce

These tacos were a breeze because I had leftover cheese sauce from burrito bowls the week before and black beans I’d already cooked from scratch in the freezer.  Look, I’m not really one to enjoy a veggie taco because you know what’s good?  Steak, chicken, shrimp, carnitas!  But these were honestly so good and satisfying.  Also, how good are those corn-wheat blend tortillas?  Thank you, La Tortilla Factory, for this little gift.

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Skillet Poblano and Pumpkin Enchiladas

Two skillet recipes in one post?  You know it!  And let me tell you, skillet enchiladas are way way way easier than real enchiladas.  Joey and I are still traumatized by the time we made enchiladas from scratch (cooked the meat, made the sauce, individually fried the tortillas, milked a cow and made cheese… okay, maybe not that last one) and it took HOURS, but this recipe basically just requires you to stir some tortillas strips into a skillet and that I can do!  Plus all the garnishes just make this meal feel extra special.  There’s a lime yogurt sauce, a sprinkle of salty Cotija and those spiced pepitas.  We loved it!

I hope that you’ll find some inspiration here and that you have a wonderful weekend!