Weekend Things

The number of times I come to this space to write up a “Weekend Things” post, only to discover the last thing I wrote was the weekend recap from the week before seems to have increased lately.  Oops!  Let this serve as a gentle reminder to myself to get back to writing up quick mid-week posts about how I saw Lady Bird two weeks ago or that I finished a book that I hated.  Those little life things deserve their own post sometimes 🙂

img_2856img_2888img_2858

Friday night, we headed home, cooked dinner (this vegan alfredo is so good and it’s easily one of my favorite things we make regularly) and then…. you guessed it, went to a movie!  It’s that time of year and Joey and I are truly on our movie seeing game.  This time it was Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri which is a mouthful but it’s also very good.  Parts are funny and parts are heavy and and you never know which is coming.  I kept feeling caught off guard but in a good way.  I just really enjoyed this movie!

img_2889img_2885img_2878

Saturday started with breakfast at my favorite place, aka Stowaway.  We shared a bourbon banana cake while sipping our coffee and I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier.  Afterwards, we checked out the brand new Union Station Whole Foods and not to be dramatic, but this feels life changing.  Ample parking, a spacious layout and all the specialty items your heart could desire.  I’m not about to do my weekly shopping there but I frequently find myself needing to take a trip there for something I can’t find at my regular grocery store and having this new store within 5 minutes of home is going to be SO NICE.  Also, I forgot my phone at home so I couldn’t geek out taking Instagram videos of the store, which is probably for the better…

Post-WF mania, we picked up beer supplies to brew over Thanksgiving weekend then headed home because I had a noon-time manicure scheduled.  The color is called “Edith” and I’m telling myself it’s as in Piaff.  We spent the night at a wedding reception for some friends but not before grabbing a beer at Diebolt.  We decided we need to be bigger supporters of our neighborhood brewery by drinking a beer there more often.

img_2880img_2882img_2883img_2877

And then there was Sunday, the day I only took food photos 🙂  To be fair, I also went on a run, finished a book and watched a few episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (all the way caught up!), but I just didn’t take pictures of those things.  While Joey was out watching football, I made a pie dough for a caramel apple pie I’m making later this week and even though it doesn’t look “perfect,” I did my best while telling myself “pie dough can smell your fear.”  We had a mishmash of ingredients in the fridge and only three days of work to get through, so I just threw together some salads for us.

Highlight of the day was dinner, for sure!  The Cowboys were playing that night and to me, this reads: WING NIGHT!  I made this jalapeño popper bean dip (with mini bell peppers) and baked chicken wings with ginger-soy glaze and then Joey made us a buttermilk ranch dressing and it all turned out SO GOOD.  I was absolutely delighted by all of it and would definitely use all the recipes again.  I guess the Cowboys lost?  I was obviously distracted.

And now here we are, three days out from Thanksgiving and I am literally unable to think or speak of anything else.  Happy Monday!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

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 🙂