Wednesday, July 25, 2007

“A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.” ~ James Beard

There have been a lot of changes going on here with regards to diets. It seems like I have been on every diet known to man. I decided to have a chat with my doctor and we are trying a new approach. Slow Food.

Yes, I am joining the slow food movement and getting rid of my Diet Coke habit. I love to cook. I love to cook REAL food. I hate all the non-fat, no calorie, psuedo food. I am going to start enjoying real food but watch my portion sizes. My doctor seems to think this is the best way for anyone to lose weight. Get rid of the chemicals and eat the nouritious stuff.

There is a lot more I need to write down about this but for now I will leave you with my latest cake invention. Don't worry, I haven't started eating all the cake I want. These are going to work with Sean tomorrow. My best friend and I were trying to come up with a new flavor.

You know those yummy chai teas you can get at Indian restaurants? Well, I love them and thought they would go really well with chocolate. The cake is chocolate with chai mixed with milk instead of water. I added a couple extra splashes of pure chai mix to the batter before putting batter in the cups.

The icing is vanilla buttercream with cinnamon and 1/4 cup of chai mix. Then I sprinkled cinnamon and powdered vanilla on top.

They are so yummy

Sunday, July 15, 2007

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano P

Saturday was our 6th anniversary.  I can't believe how fast the past 6 years has just flown by. We decided to do a weekend in downtown and it was amazing.

Sean booked us a room at the Hyatt at the Convention Center. We had a room on the 37th floor (the top floor) and had access to the Regency Club. It was great! Our room was huge, the view was gorgeous (we could see the mountains and pretty much all of downtown), the snacks at the Regency Club were tasty, and the service was impeccable.

On Friday we went down to the RC to have a drink and some snacks before we hooked up with our friends Rob and Amy at the Peaks Lounge. The concierge in the club was so nice. She bought us each a beer for our anniversary. We also found out that her boyfriend used to live in our house back in the early 1980's. It was crazy! She asked if the seafoam green paint was still in our basement. You can still see it in some spots. LOL Met our friends, had a couple cocktails, and headed out to dinner. We went to Cafe Berlin. They serve the best German food in the States. They were out of bread so they gave us a round of Apple Schnapps. I LOVE real German apple schnapps. It is smooth, sweet, and tastes like apple juice. Very, very, dangerous. :) Loads of beers and lots of schnitzel later we ended up back at the Peaks Lounge for some Irish coffees.

Saturday was awesome. We got to sleep in!!! No baby, no piggies (our dogs), no phones, just quiet. We hit the breakfast at the RC, went back to the room, lounged some more, then went to see Ratatouille. SO CUTE! I loved every single second of it. I think Disney should release Gusteau's cookbook. It would make them a ton of money and would be really fun and cute to have. After the movie we headed back to the hotel and took naps.

Then it was time for dinner at  Venice Ristorante & Wine bar. We each got a tasting menu. Sean got the Veneto and I got the Lombardy. Our tasting menus aren't listed on the website but holy crap they were good. You can read the description for most of the items on the website but there are a few that aren't on there. This is a sample of our dishes: Carpaccio al Profumo di Tartufo, Insalata alla Grappa di Camomilla, Insalata di Pere, Pappardelle alla Veneziana, Gnocchi di Pere (the gnocchi were like little air pillows of deliciousness), Risotto con Spinaci e Salsiccia, Risotto all’ Aragosta e Fragole, seared tuna, seared beef tenderloin with fois gras (MMMMM), Tiramisu, and a crepe filled with a deep milk chocolate and hazelnuts served with homemade hazelnut gelato. We also had incredible wines, a bottle of Prosecco, a couple glasses of white wine, and finally some dessert wine (a gift from the Chef for our anniversary), and cappuccinos with Frangelico to go with dessert. I can't even begin to explain how good the food was. The whole dinner was almost 3 hours long. They treated us like superstars. I have never had this good of service in a restaurant in Denver. We were totally pampered but they weren't in your face either. I can't wait to go back!

Today, as we headed home we went by the Kwik-E-Mart. It is SO fun. If you love The Simpson you have to find one. We bought a couple doughnuts and a 6-pack of Buzz Cola. I wanted to get some Krusty-O's cereal but they were out until Wednesday.

Loads of pics under the cut!



The brown buildings and grass to the left is where I went to school. That is the Auraria campus.




THE KWIK-E-MART!!!