Football Season

Football season is back!  I'm not gonna pretend to be the biggest football fan out there, but I do love me some tailgating.  Mainly because it means quality time with good friends.

Denver: Friends, Food, Great Times

As promised, I've got some more fotos to share from our trip to Colorado over Labor Day weekend.  We made this trip to attend our close friends' wedding, but since it was over a holiday weekend we decided to extend our stay for a couple extra days.  We arrived Friday evening and made our way to the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek (where the reception would be held the following day).  Saturday was dedicated to celebrating the wedding.  It was a ton of fun!  Steve (the groom) has been a good friend since Freshman year at USC.  We all stuck (and at times suffered) through the engineering program together.  A handful of our other engineering friends made it out to the wedding too, so it was like a mini-reunion.  Good times!

Cocktail hour.  I tried buffalo meat for the first time here.  It was so yummy!

No detail was overlooked.  And we were happy to see a drink dedicated to our alma mater: the USC Breeze.                      Hellz to the yeah. 

The USC table.  woot woot

Photobooth and scrap-book making fun!

Daaance partaay! The groom and his brother doing the "Lucero Shuffle"

Chocolate fondue dipping station?! YUM

USC Represent!

After the reception, the party continued with the newlyweds at a nearby dive bar.  Mini bowling & dranks: perfect end to a wedding.

Danielle gettin her bowl on.

The next morning..err...afternoon we went to pajama brunch at the hotel restaurant.

Steve and Danielle stuck around a couple days after the wedding to hang out with friends and family.  They arranged for a baseball game on Monday afternoon.  But first, husband and I started our day with a yummy breakfast at Snooze.

We did have to wait 45 mins to be seated, but it was worth it (and we should have woken up earlier).  We enjoyed the Peaches n Creame French Toast, a Blue Corn Buttermilk Pancake, and Chorizo Breakfast Tacos.

Snooze: an A.M. Eatery.  Coming soon to San Diego!  Will def need to hit this up when it opens in Southern Cal.

 The group made our way to Coors field later on in the afternoon for a Rockies vs. Diamondbacks game.

The boys at the ball game.

Finally, we made sure to do a little bit of research to find some good eats in Denver.  We only had a couple of nights to find good dinner spots, but I think we made some wise choices.  Both nights we ended up at Larimer Square.

 

First: Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen.  They had an impressive beer list.  I'm not a beer drinker at all, but the hubby was allllll over it (their cocktails did not disappoint, though!)  They make their sausages in house, so we couldn't resist trying all of em.  Also, crispy pig ears?  Yeah.  Had to try those too.

Never ending beer list.

Sausages+Mustard. Beef Short Rib Kielbasa, Bavarian Veal, Uncensored Hoppwurst, and Boudin Noir.

Crispy Pork Ears+Dipping Sauce.

Second: Tag.  Their concept is "Continental Social Food."  To tell you the truth, I'm really not sure what that means.  It was enough to get us interested in the place (plus their great reviews).  And dinner was amazing.  That's all that really matters.

The kitchen table was available, so we got to sit where all the action happens.  Also, interacting with the chefs and watching them do their thang was super cool.

Their amuse for the night: Lobster with crispy nori rice and a balsamic reduction.  I have this love/hate relationship with amuses cuz they are always so delicious, but they are the size of my thumb so I always want more!

Appetizer: Australian Kangaroo meat (I know!) with watermelon, sriracha, lime, and goat cheese.  Can I just say that I could have had like 3 servings of this stuff as my main course and would have proclaimed it the best meal ever.

Appetizer: Duck fat fries.  These were great.  They were sweet yet salty; almost like dessert but not quite.  Honestly, we only ordered them cuz they had the words "duck fat" in the title.  Duck fat can do no wrong.

Entree: Colorado Bison.  Perfectly juicy and flavorful.

Entree: Scallops, potato puree, and haricots verts.  Scallops are one of my favorite things in life.  These were perfectly seared and made me so happy.

With dinner being so delicious, we had to try desert.  We went for the Banana Cream Pie, and it was delicious.

On our last day in Colorado, we decided to take a mini day trip.  Our friends had left town and one of them let us keep their rental car.  We were mobile - yay!  Off to Boulder we went.  We were determined to do something outdoorsy, so we looked up local parks.  We decided to spend our morning at Boulder Springs park.  We walked one of the trails and caught some really pretty scenery.  It was a great way to spend our last morning in Colorado.

We worked up quite an appetite, so we headed back down to the Pearl Street Mall for lunch.

We grabbed lunch at The Kitchen Cafe.  This place was awesome.  So glad we found it!  It's a community and sustainably-minded restaurant that focuses on good, fresh foods.

We tried their hummus: simple and fresh.  The flax seed sourdough bread wasn't too shabby either! 

I ordered the house made Quiche with greens.  Delicious.

Husband ordered the Farmer's Veggies and Cous Cous.  Also very fresh and tasty.

Boulder was so picturesque!  I wish we could have spent more time here, but we had a plane to catch that evening.  

We definitely had a very memorable trip.  Friends and good foods really did make for one great Labor Day weekend.

R&R

Memorial Day Weekend in 10 words or less:

Palm Springs.

Cranium, grilled pineapples, mojitos, dance party, friends.

Somuchfun!

Good Foods, Good Friends

Aw man, I missed a day of blogging yesterday. It was so not intentional. What had happened was that we had friends over for dinner and drinks. Then after dinner we spontaneously decided to walk to The Association for more drinky time. I planned on writing my daily post after getting home, but, well, I was really in no condition to be blogging. So..I failed. But the night itself was a big win! Here are some pictures from our impromptu dinner party last night.

On the menu: roasted beef brisket with red wine reduction and scalloped potatoes.

Husband the carver.

After our meal we popped open a bottle of cava to have a group toast with Dan & Anthony in celebration of their engagement.

Oh, these two. A typical Kirstin & Anthony foto.

A bit blurry, but I love this picture! I don't remember what we were talking about here, but clearly it was very funny.

Impromptu dinner parties are the best! Must do this more often.

Chicas

I met up with two of my good friends for dinner in Pasadena tonight. We had fun catching up, and sharing stories & laughs. We also established that we need to plan a serious girl's weekend or two in the near future. Summer is just around the corner after all!

Danthony

This morning, husband and I had a brunch date with two of our besties. We had a delicious meal at Taste on Melrose.


It has to be one of the better restaurants we've gone to on the trendy strip of Melrose. My crab cake benedict plate was delish!


We had a great time catching up, and celebrating their engagement!! We heard the good news after returning from our Spain trip, and have been meaning to get together with the boys and hear all about it.

Congratulations Dan and Anthony!

Anthony (on the right) has been our good friend since freshman year at USC. We all survived the engineering program together, and he was even my stunt partner for 4 years on the competition cheer team (see below).

ahh, good ol' cheer days. That's Anthony on the left! He never let me touch the floor. :)

Anthony started dating Dan 3 years ago and, of course, Dan became a good friend of ours as well. We are super happy and excited for them!

The boys & I

Just to add to that excitement: husband and I get to be groomsman/woman for Anthony!

eeeep! I'm so excited!!

Dan and Anthony still aren't sure when the wedding will happen. They literally got engaged like two weeks ago, so the date is one of the many things to be determined. But hopefully California will get its damn act together soon so that our friends (and many others) can enjoy their wedding planning process to the fullest.

Congrats boys!!!