Madmen Me

I don't even watch this show, but this little app is so cute. That dress is totally something I'd wear in real life too.

Toledo Update

The Toledo trip is long gone, but I should post a little something. The trip was wonderful and a whirlwind--one of those trips where you don't have enough time to spend with anyone, before you need to run off and see someone else. Fun and exhausting.

On the food side of things, we hit the hot spots (i.e. the main places we wanted to hit, although we could have done so much more...).

I had the Chili Mac at Tony Packo's--a chicken version, new since I was last there.



As B would say, "Maaaa, I need a new plate. Somebody puked on this one," (semi-quoting Calvin and Hobbes). But ya know, sometimes those kinds of plates are the tastiest. I used to have a friend that called food like this "dumbass." And this was definitely a plate of delicious dumbass. Not shown are the huge mound of spicy pickles I ate, regular and fried (mmmmmnggggg....fried spicy pickles....)

We ate at Kotobuki:



I have a better picture of the boat pre-decimation with my lovely friend Phoebe, but since I don't have permission to post her pic, you'll have to go to Facebook to see it. I was so ridiculously excited by the gomae, that I gobbled it up before I got a chance to take a picture of it. And, in the picture above, you can see a little bit of the disappointment in my eyes that this is the biggest can of Sapporo they now serve. They used to serve a mini "keg" of it. I think maybe Sapporo doesn't even sell it now, because I couldn't find a picture of it online. Anyway, we used to go with a group and no matter the size, we'd get the "big beer." Fun times!

The sushi was good, but not as good as I recall. I was disappointed to see that they have succumbed to the non-traditional, what I call "cheesy super americanized" rolls (and what they call "special rolls.") Sniff. Now I can't say that Kotobuki is better than Sushi Den or Sushi Sasa.

Beirut was awesome. No pictures unfortunately--too busy eating. I want their baba ghanouj and Lebanese garlic bread to be the last thing I eat on earth, I think. J (my 5 year old) entertained us (i.e. embarassed us) by standing up at the table, pulling up his shirt, and saying "Boys have bretzles too. They're just little." God love him.

Vegas-Day Three

We woke up super late and then hit the casino's buffet. God, it was awful. But at least it was only 12 bucks.



We gambled a bit--played a little roulette and the slots. Then we hit the town. We started with drinks at the Four Seasons poolside bar.



Also see drinky pic #4 below. It was hot and snooty, so we just stayed for one, then hightailed it to Mandalay Bay to check out the sites and play some slots.

Then it was time for dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak.



They were having a recession deal called "Sunday Supper:" $48 for 5 courses ($70 with wine pairings).

We started with an antipasti course of Genoa salami, Molinari Coppa, spicy zucchini, marinated mushrooms and olives, and baby fontina. This was paired with Scarbolo 2005 Pinot Grigio.

The soup course was "Early Harvest Corn Chowder" with Oregon morels, bacon lardons, and fingerling potatoes. This was probably my favorite dish of the evening. It was paired with Rayon 2005 Blanc de Morgex.

The pasta course was "Granora Orichiette" with housemade pork sausage, sweet peas, and broccoli rabe. This was also very good. It was served with Castello di Montastero 2005 Chianti Classico.

The entree we chose was yellow fin tuna with acqua pazza braised cannelini beans, balsamic glazed mushrooms, and Yukon Gold potato puree with roasted garlic. This was paired with Movia 2003 Tokai Friulano from Slovenia.

The dessert was chocolate souffle with pistachio ice cream.

The portions were ridiculous. Each dish was the size of a full entree at another restaurant. It was disappointing to leave so much food on my plate! The service was also very slow. I could tell they did this on purpose. I'm all for lingering over a long meal, but I would prefer that it be on my terms, not the restaurant's. Plus it was just absurdly slow. Also, the place is too dark, as you can tell from the picture above, which did not turn out well. I didn't even try to take pictures of the food, because of the dark. It's a very masculine place, as you might expect from a steakhouse. The meal was quite good, but not outstanding. We greatly preferred the meal at Daniel Boulud's (which was also cheaper).

After, we went back to Parasol Up, Parasol Down at the Wynn, because we hadn't been able to see the light/water show the previous evening. We got the best seats right by the water and I had a glass of the same Sancerre we'd had the night before (still trying to find out what it is!). The show is about every 20 minutes and very amusing. There are projections on the waterfall, head shaped video screens that pop up out of the water, and colored balls that move and dance on the water.

Here's the head. Note that it is a separate video screen in front of the waterfall behind it.



And here are the lights in between the show. I loved the pink ones--it made the trees seems Dr. Seuss-y.



We then went back to the hotel, where I finally had to drag Erika away from the slots.

So that's Vegas! The highlights anyway. So what are going to do for Bitchapalooza 2019?

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book. It combines the genres of memoir and food writing in the most beautiful of ways. Each short chapter is a memory of the writer's that involves food, followed with a recipe for the dish. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but definitely will as they sound wonderful. They range from something as simple as radishes and butter with fleur de sel on a baguette to fresh ginger cake with caramelized pears.



Her writing reminds me a bit of Ruth Reichl and I read a review that called her "this generation's M.F.K. Fisher." She writes lovingly of her relationships with her father and husband. She writes of her time spent in France.



The author is the owner of the food blog "Orangette," which I had heard of but never looked up. Unfortunately, it looks like she's now on hiatus, but I definitely plan on going back and reading past entries.



The book took me awhile to read, because--like a good dish--I wanted to savor it and really took my time reading it. I rarely read books again, but this is one I probably will (especially for the recipes). I hope there are more books to come from Wizenberg.


View all my reviews.

Vegas - Day Two

We left off yesterday with the beginning of the second day at the pool. Considering how late we got up, this took the majority of the day time hours.

We had early reservations for dinner at Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn. Right now is a great time to go to Vegas (if you can afford it) because of all the recession deals. The restaurants at the Wynn are offering prix fixe menus called Taste of Wynn. You can see the one for Daniel Boulud here.

The Wynn is absolutely gorgeous. For example, one of the "gardens" inside:



We started off with drinks at Parasol Up, Parasol Down (the down part).



Or you can see drinky pic #3 in the previous post. We had an excellent bar tender, who reminded us of someone we'd hang out with.



We ordered the three course menu and a bottle of Sancerre. The sommelier was so freakin' delicious and Erika made him blush, haha. She took a picture of him, but it didn't do him justice. Thankfully, she also took a picture of the Sancerre's label, because it was amazing and I can't find it online or remember it right now. But I have to get it.



I started with Country Pâté with homemade pickles and farmer’s bread and she got the Artichoke Velouté with brioche crouton and basil oil. I had just a taste of hers but it was great. Look at my beautifully presented plate (and it tasted as good as it looks):



We followed it up with the Moules Frites with bacon and crème fraiche for me and the Scottish Salmon with Asparagus, meyer lemon, and brown butter for her. Look at the colors in my dish! The fries were awesome too, perfectly dressed with vinegar.



The third course was to be dessert, but we had lingered too long and were running out of time before our show at the Mirage. So they kindly allowed us to cancel the third course. Thank goodness we did, because they already had special dessert plates for us since I had told them we were celebrating our 40th birthdays when I made the reservations.



The food was outstanding and the service was excellent. Although I'm not sure our female server appreciated our flirting with the male sommelier and her assistant, as we somehow ended up pretty much being served by them.

By the time we were done, we were seriously running late. We literally ran from the Wynn to the Mirage, where we were going to see Cirque du Soleil's Love.



Here's a picture earlier in the day (not during our mad dash):



Our timing was perfect. We sat in our seats and I swear the second my butt hit that seat, the lights went down. We didn't even have time to pee or (gasp!) get a drink. The show was absolutely amazing. I must admit I always had it in my mind that Cirque du Soleil was cheesy, but this was the best (non-band) live performance I've ever seen. Absolutely riveting and a blast. And our free tickets that came with our hotel/flight package were great seats. You can see videos of the performance here. So I'm now a CdS convert and am looking forward to the next time I get to see a show (although I'm not particularly interested in the Koozi show coming to Denver soon).

After, we hit the strip checking out the Vegas extravangas like the Bellagio fountains and horrid pirate show at Treasure Island. Here's a pic outside Cesars:



We ended up at a tequila bar in TI. Apparently it's part of the group that also owns restaurants like Zengo in Denver. Had some good tequilas.

We hit the Peppermill and Fireside Lounge much later for omelets and drinks (a wonderful combination). Wow, that place is cheesy:



The waitresses all wear long cocktail dresses and are eastern European. Our neighbors were a scary young meth-ed out type with a much older man who was supposedly wheeling and dealing on the phone (at 3 in the morning) to buy her a car. It was an...experience.

We walked back at our hotel, and for some strange reason, at 4:30 in the morning, "Sluts of Fun" is absolutely hilarious.

Finally Getting Around to Vegas - Day One

Lordy, I've been busy. No time to blog. I can't believe the Vegas trip was over a month ago. It's been a whirlwind since then. Vegas, then Ohio, then Steamboat, and the cabin this weekend. But we get a week without kids this next week, so much adult-oriented eating and drinking shall ensue. Hopefully a movie or two too (tutu, ha).

So Erika and I met at the Vegas airport, our flights getting in only 10 minutes apart and headed to our tacky hotel Circus Circus. Considering we paid $50 total for 3 nights (that's TOTAL, not each), I can't really complain about the place. It met our needs (i.e. a place to sleep that has a pool).



I could probably explain the trip with just these pics:











Are you getting the picture?

Okay for posterity's sake, here are some of the fill-in-between-the-drinks details:

After a couple drinks in the room and some catching up (we hadn't seen eachother in 3 years!), we gussied ourselves up and hit the town. We had dinner at Mario Batali's Enoteca San Marco in the Venetian. See the first drinky pic above. It wasn't fabulous, but wasn't bad. We shared a bottle of wine, a cheese plate (which contained some delicious peppered honey), a Romana pizza with tomato, mozzarella, anchovy, capers, and chili and Pennette alla Norma: pasta with tomato, eggplant, and ricotta. The pizza was meh and the pasta was absolutely tasty.

Erika, unlike me, is possibly the most gregarious person in the world--which does tend to rub off on me a bit. This results in lots of perks, in this case getting chatted up by the sweet old men next to us and some lovely dessert wines on their tab.

We decided to head over to the Mirage to check out where the show we were seeing the next day was. We had no real plans for the night. Maybe check out the strip and then settle in a quiet bar for some catching up. Erika started chatting with some nice young men there for directions to the box office. Let me tell you--telling people in Vegas that both of you are celebrating your 40th birthdays gets you stuff. Next thing we know, the guys tell us to come back in a half hour when their place opens--they were bouncers for Jet Night Club. You know, one of the night clubs you always see pictures of celebrities in? With throngs of people and lots of girls dancing on stages? Not. Our. Kind. of Thing. But we figure what the hell.

So we have a drink at the casino bar (see the second drinky pic above) and head back over to the two cutie pies, where there is now a huge line. They literally open the velvet ropes, afix special armbands to our wrists, and hand us a bunch of drink tickets. Quote of the weekend: A girl goes, "Hey, it's my 21st birthday." Erika growls back, "Well, it's our 40th." Nuff said. It turns out the special wristbands entitle us to unlimited free drinks--as long as they're vodka-based (okay with me!). Not sure why we needed the drink tickets too. We thought we were just really hot (haha) with all the young men tumbling all over themselves to talk to us, then we realized they just wanted our free drinks. S'okay.



I generally can't stand places like that--didn't even like them when I was young. Have always preferred loud, raucous bands and/or dive bars. (Although we used to have a standing weekday evening at a place called Uptown, where we danced to Siouxsie, Love and Rockets, Sisters of Mercy, and the like). But I. Had. A. Blast. It was so Vegas and over the top and I'm sure the 40 year old women looked ridiculous. But we didn't care.

After, we stumbled down the strip the long, long way back to Circus Circus, stopping for omelets at Denny's. The next morning it was bagels and coffee and off to the pool: the perfect cure for the "day after" (especially if you include margaritas).



I'll have to continue this tomorow.

Ohio, Here We Come!

Lordy, have we been busy. I will post about the fabulous trip to Vegas as soon as I have time, but who knows when that will be.

Tomorrow, we leave for Ohio. We'll spend the first half of the week in Toledo and the second half in Columbus. It promises to be a whirlwind trip and we even had to cut out our trip to Cedar Point, due to time constraints. Very disappointing.

But the focus of the trip will be family and friends. Too many to count and can't wait to see them all and give them a big ol' hug.

And, of course, we'll have to hit up our favorite Toledo eateries. Beirut for the best Middle Eastern ever. I can already taste the Lebanese garlic bread (so garlicky it burns your mouth) and baba ghanouj, which is like no other I've ever tasted--smoky, tangy, and sweet. I don't care what else I have--fatoush, hummus, tabbouleh, whatever, it's all good, just as long as I have the first two. They would actually be a part of my "last meal."



Hopefully I'll also have time to go to Tiger Bakery for more Middle Eastern food to take home, including their delicious bright pink pickled "stuff." (I'm not sure what is pickled, just that it's delicious. I think they're probably turnips).



We also have to hit Kotobuki, my absolute favorite sushi place of all time. Not only do they have the best sushi (even better than Sushi Den or Sushi Sasa in Denver!), but they are only place I've ever found that serves Goma-ae (other than Sushi Sasa who doesn't do it as well): cold, boiled spinach with a sesame sauce. It is seriously out of this world. It would be part of my last meal too.



And, of course, there's the incomparable Dennis, the owner, known for his food and good looks. I haven't met a female customer yet that doesn't have a crush on him!

We'll hit up Tony Packo's for some original Pickles and Peppers to take home. We're on our last jar right now and need to stock up. I may have to ship some, actually.



And, last but not least, all the Bell's Oberon we can drink. Why, oh why, in the land of good beer, can we not get this in Colorado? Are they afraid it may be too much competition?



Watch out, Ohio, here we come!