Tag: rooftop patio

Weekend Things & a Summer BBQ

LaurenLeave a comment

You know when your weekend was so good that just thinking back on it has you doing a little good mood dance in your office?  No?  Yeah, me neither…

But seriously, this weekend we had a very chill Friday that involved cooking vegetables from our garden, a Saturday that started with a new coffee shop and ended with a summer BBQ with our friends and family and a Sunday that was so blissfully relaxed it almost felt wrong but mostly felt so damn right.  THE BEST!

img_1182img_1181

To say I had been looking forward to this dinner all week long would be a major understatement.  We pulled four cute little beets from our garden and used them to make this flatbread from my new cookbook and then I sauteed a HUGE bag of chard we harvested from our garden and Joey raved about it all through dinner.  I was like “it’s just some chard!” but yeah, it was actually VERY GOOD.  Also, I guess I’m just gonna quit my job and be a beet farmer now, okay?  Please tell us the difference between pizza and flatbread though!

img_1208img_1190img_1210img_1209

Everyone was coming over at 5 on Saturday and our house needed to be cleaned and burgers, sangria and broccoli salad needed to be made, but there is ALWAYS time for coffee first!  And Blue Sparrow Coffee was ADORABLE, so I’m 100% glad we made it there.  I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, RiNo is just the coolest neighborhood in Denver!  We got our coffee and headed up to this rooftop patio and had the whole thing to ourselves.  It was so cool and peaceful and quiet up there ♥  We went full-on dorky married couple and inspected those garden beds so hard.  I loved every single second!

img_1215img_1204img_1216img_1201

Afterwards, we cleaned and prepped (hallelujah for husbands who mow and pull weeds and water lawns and put out tables, chairs and cute little drink stations so that when you come outside everything is already perfect!) and it was all so low stress that I even took a hammock nap and finished a book afterwards.  WHO AM I?!

As for the actual BBQ, I loved it SO much!  Everyone brought such delicious things and Joey grilled the burgers (x3!) to perfection and everyone was like “this water with fruit in it is so good!” and I got to see and laugh with all the people I love best in this life.  It was magical indeed.  Also, for the record, the pregnant lady outlasted everyone else and was the last person out the door at the end of the night.  Guys, Hannah and Josh are having a baby boy and it is fucking fun to talk about HIM instead of IT now.

P.S. Totally ate a brownie while cleaning up after everyone had left.

img_1206img_1218img_1222

img_1220

Started Sunday with a run breakfast at Sassafras and yeah, those roasted vegetable grits with goat cheese and a side of jalapeño cornbread were as good as they look!  Afterwards, while Joey being a bike mechanic in the backyard (don’t ask…), I I re-stocked myself on granola and made some hummus with extra virgin olive oil that Lori brought back FROM GREECE!  She also got me thee most stunningly beautiful blue opal jewelry and I am actually the luckiest daughter-in-law ever.

Then…our first Sunday Rockies game of the year (how?!) and we biked and had seats in the shade and won 13-3, so I was in my happy place for real.  Afterwards, we tried to move as little as possible and keep all the lights off because summer heat is not messing around this year.  Plus we had our groceries delivered and decided to wait till Monday to do our weekly salad prep so we really had nothing we needed to do.  It was honestly SO NICE.

img_1228img_1227

For dinner, I picked our first squash and tomato of the year (!!!) and then we ate outside and I was like “I LOVE SUMMER!”  Big Brother and Game of Thrones afterward!!!!  Ummm how incredible was that episode of GoT?!  I had literal chills so many times and even Joey couldn’t stop talking about how crazy good that ending scene was.  My sister and Wayne just started watching the series and I’m simultaneously jealous that they get to watch from the beginning and disappointed that they’re JUST NOW watching from the beginning.

This week, I have book club, birthday celebrations for my sweet mama and a weekend concert to look forward to so I think I’ll be riding this summertime high for a while 🙂

Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

This weekend was unexpectedly perfect.  It started with post-work patio beers and ended with a twinkle light backyard dinner and sandwiched in between was Hannah and Her Sisters, a Saturday morning run, THE BEST NIGHT at the Denver Mart Drive-In, donuts, a day date to the museum and lots of time for just chilling out and reading a book.  Like I said, unexpectedly perfect!

IMG_3788

IMG_3792

IMG_3820

IMG_3816

We skipped out of work early on Friday in favor of a beer on the patio at Epic Brewing.  My Hopulent IPA was magical and Joey’s Imperial Red Ale was pretty good too!  It was sunny but sprinkling at the same time?  We don’t know about you, Colorado weather, but it was okay because the patio had big umbrellas.  We went home afterwards and cooked ourselves a steak dinner.  Still “hmm”-ing over the flavor of green tomatoes but Joey cooked that steak to pure perfection.

Did you see that #Fave7Films thing on Twitter a few weeks ago?  I saw a few lists that included Hannah and Her Sisters and felt like I needed to see it.  We couldn’t find it on Netflix but Joey surprised me by ordering it online.  Then he made me this dessert that I’d been hinting at all week and I was like WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS PERSON?! ♥♥♥

IMG_3818

IMG_3819

IMG_3804

IMG_3821

Saturday morning, we went for a run then hung out for most of the day (though we did fit in some yard clean-up and a trip to the grocery store) before heading out to the main event… THE DRIVE-IN!  I was totally going to be a financially responsible adult and eat the leftovers we had in the fridge but then Illegal Pete’s sounded just so much better.  And it was!

Also, our guest room mattress fit perfectly in the back of the truck.  It’s a double feature, so we got to Kubo and the Two Strings and Ghostbusters.  Guys, I think a giant animated beetle is my favorite role ever for Matthew McConaughey and GB wasn’t terrible.  I kind of loved Melissa McCarthy in it.  But mostly, I loved this perfect summer night 🙂

IMG_3822

IMG_3809

IMG_3823

IMG_3824

IMG_3815

Joey was out running 8 miles on Sunday morning and I felt like the least I could do was make the donuts he mentioned he was craving.  But really, going from pajamas to apron isn’t a terrible way to start the day and neither is a donut as a breakfast appetizer.  Later on, we biked over to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which I seriously adore.  It’s small enough to make your way through before museum fatigue sets in, crowd-free and the rooftop café is Denver’s best kept secret.  But let’s keep it that way okay?  The views are A+++ and how is it that a place without an actual kitchen can produce food that good?!

Post-museum, Joey napped, I read, all was good.  I also took a nightmare trip to the Cherry Creek Whole Foods and I will NEVER go there on a Sunday evening ever again.  Apart from that, this weekend was just too good.  The weather, the food, the activities.  Felt so good to let August go out on such a good note.  TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!