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Our Trip to Noosa: Day 2

2011-06-13T17:17:00.001-07:00

Nick and I had concluded that for our second day's adventures, we would begin with a hike through the Noosa National Park. There is a trail that is right along the coastline and promised us some spectacular views.

We set off early - the weather was pleasant (we were happy with anything that did not include rain), we were in good moods, and we had a tasty coffee in hand. Here is Nick before we began the hike.

Because this is a national park that we were headed into, a lot of people will have the opportunity to see koala bears on their hike. Hard as we may have tried, we did not see any koalas; however, the views from along our walk did not disappoint.

While hiking with Nick, I found myself chuckling at him. Guys always seem to have a little bit of their inner child lurking about awaiting an opportunity to surface again. Nick was like a little kid climbing out onto rocks and ledges and loving every second of it. If I happened to venture out, however, he would tell me to be careful - all while he is teetering on some rocks himself:)

This is where Nick told me that I needed to be careful:)

And these were the steps to get from the beach back to civilization, or civilisation if you are in Australia!

We then headed back to our hotel from here, where Nick calculated that we had walked about 11K, or around 7 miles. We were quite pleased with ourselves but really hungry at this point. We found a little place called Cafe Rococo where we were able to satiate our appetites and relax a little after our adventure. A steak and pork sandwich with fries is exactly what our tired bodies needed.

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Our Trip to Noosa Day 1

2011-06-13T04:02:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the Queen's Birthday, Monday was a public holiday. So we used this opportunity to take a trip north of Brisbane to Noosa Heads. Do to a late evening on Friday, we were a little late getting to the train station Saturday morning. We missed the first train out and had a little time to kill before the next one. We walked a ways and found this little cafe called French Twist.

The interior was decorated in French victorian, and they had some of the best looking desserts and breakfast pasties that I have ever seen. They were amazing and now I want to send Faith the pastry school so she can make me these kind of things. I took some pictures of the interior, but thought better of taking pictures of all their cases of bread and breakfast.

After a coffee, we headed back to the train station and started on our journey. We didn't get very far before being told that the track was being worked on and we were being transferred to buses for the majority of the trip. Arriving several hours late, we grabbed a quick lunch of prawn sandwich for myself, and a smoked turkey melt for Faith at a little shop called La Vida and then headed down to the beach.

Now it was time to find our hotel. This turned out to be significantly hard then imagined. We hadn't printed out any of our information and couldn't find any free wireless internet. We started walking and debating where our hotel could have been. Finally stumbling onto some internet we looked it up. Turned around and started walking the right direction. I am not fully admitting that I had been mistaken in my side of the argument, but Faith's turned up to be more correct. Having picked the cheapest hotel that was located in the area we wanted, we didn't have high expectations. To our surprise, it was actually really nice.

After getting everything unpacked, we set out to explore and find a spot for dinner. Unfortunately when we opened the front door it was raining. Luckily we had purchased ourselves a pair of seven dollar umbrellas. We set out into the rain.

We toured through a couple stores and had a coffee while we were waiting for the restaurants to open.

Mine is the manly one with the heart drawn on top.

We ended up having sushi at this restaurant named Jardin Japonesque. We ended up with five different sushi preparations and they were all great. One was a simple cube of raw tuna in a vinegar based sauce, it was both Faith and I's favorite. Then we headed by the bottle shop and picked up some Australian rum for some hotel room cocktails to end our first night in Noosa.

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Arriving in Australia

2011-06-08T17:01:00.001-07:00

It seemed as if the three weeks would never come to an end, but they finally arrived and I am now in Australia with Nick.

After meeting at the Roma Street Station near Nick's apartment, we went back to drop off my stuff and then headed out. The plan was to try and keep me awake all day so that I would be able to sleep that evening. We walked to the river and went over a walking bridge to get to a market on the other side. Nick had heard that the first week of every month there would be an artist's market and he thought it might be neat. After walking past a series of booths we were both a little disappointed; it felt more like a craft show than an artist's area. As we continued to walk on and Nick showed me more of the area that he has explored, we found another series of tents and realized that this was the artist's market, and it was much better. There were lots of booths with great jewelry and clothing; the only problem is that is it Fall here and I don't want to buy Fall clothes, I want Spring/Summer clothes. We continued on our walking journey and Nick narrated with the knowledge that he has accumulated about the different areas in his three weeks here.

We continued to walk along the river and found, yet again, another market in a shopping and dining area. We walked through and determined that we were getting hungry at this point. We settled on a place called Jude and sat down on the patio outside to await our lunch. We were having a great time catching up, and when our food was brought out we were having an even greater time. The food was delicious, the atmosphere was pleasant, and the gentleman that was serving us was enjoyable. What a great afternoon.

We then left Jude and purchased a couple of books from a gentleman with a booth at the market and then headed on back to the apartment to enjoy a couple of drinks on Nick's patio while we made dinner. All in all, a great day!

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Heaps of Culinary Inspiration

2011-06-05T03:45:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Gourmet's Ipad magazine I found the following link:

http://menus.nypl.org/

I don't know if this of any interest to you, but this link is to the New York Public Library's collection of restaurant menus. They have archives of menus from local restaurants, hotels, and even famous ships coming back and forth from Europe dating back to the mid 19th century. They have a glimpse at exactly what was being served in arguably the most important city in the world at that time. They also have a great blog that goes along with it. Definitely worth checking out sometime. Also, they have enlisted the help of the internet world to transcribe the information in all of the menus. This is a huge task, but necessary to make the archive searchable. So if you ever have any free time, it is easy to contribute to their project through the link above.

Here is a couple photos of one of the 5000 plus menus they have already transcribed.

Occidental and Oriental Steamship Co. June 6th 1900

Couple of the menu items:
Fricassee Sweet Breads Mushrooms
Curry and Rice
Boiled Leg Mutton

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Market Day

2011-06-04T01:39:00.001-07:00

Today I set out to find a couple of markets that I had heard about. The first was the St. Mary's Heavenly Harvest Market. As the name implies, this market is held at a church. The church sits right on the top of a cliff overlooking the city. Although, the setting was incredible, the market was anything but. If it wasn't for a loaf of sour dough bread I would have ended up with nothing. I figured a "harvest" market was going to be loaded with fruits and vegetables, but that was not the case. I guess it is winter here, got down to chilly seventy today.

The next market was the South Bank Lifestyle Market. Now this is in a pretty trendy dining and shopping area so I knew it was going to be busy at least. It was. The place was packed, but to my dismay, I still found nothing of any great interest. If only I needed earrings or a random piece of clothing made from kangaroo hide, both were represented in abundance.

So I headed back to my apartment. After looking at my map, I estimated that I had put about five miles on my pumas with nothing to show for it, but a loaf of sour dough. It better be good.

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Carnitas

2011-05-31T04:33:00.001-07:00

It didn't take too long being out of the country to start craving Mexican food. I was talking with Faith as she was looking through a cookbook of tacos. She was reading the different recipes out to my, thinking she was being nice, but was actually mildly torturing me. I asked her to send me a recipe. She sent over a recipe for carnitas. Carnitas literally translates to little meats, and that is exactly was this dish is. It is a bunch of cubes of pork traditionally fried in rendered pork fat. I have always fried mine in vegetable oil, but not this time. This time I was going to go big. This initiative was solidified when I grabbed the pork shoulder from the grocery store and it had the skin and fat still attached. I cut the fat off and put it into a small pot on low heat. Then I went to work on a little marinade.

Being that my pantry is limited here, I had to buy some spices. These are my essential Mexican spices: Cumin, Cayenne, Chili, and Cinnamon. You can make some very interesting dishes using different ratios of these guys. Too much cumin, call it Moroccan. Too much cinnamon, call it Indian. Too much cayenne, man up.

I mixed these spices with some vegetable oil and a glug of shiraz, because the bottle was open and it seemed appropriate to have a little bit of Australia in there. Then I poured the mixture over the chunks of pork and let it marinate at room temp for an hour. I know, raw meat + room temp. It will be fine. Plus I am not pregnant or elderly.

I cooked all the little pieces up in the pork fat which was awesome. It gave an incredible crisp to the out side, while being juicy in the middle.

Here is my finished batch. I just placed a couple chunks into a tortilla with a squirt of lime and a couple red onions. I don't know what is a traditional topping, and I don't really care. I just say add whatever you like. Some suggestions would be: radish, cheese, tortilla strips, avocado, cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, or roasted pumpkin seeds. Go crazy.

Being that I made 4 pounds of pork shoulder I also managed to turn this into a grilled cheese and carnitas sandwich, breakfast burrito (which was great), an open faced carnitas melt, and have plans for some type of casserole using those crinkle fries again.

Enjoy.

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Going Nuts

2011-05-30T05:38:00.001-07:00

Starting a blog post out with a corny title is not a good sign, but it was to hard to resist, along with all the other one liners I have in my head about nuts and the sack they came in. I will try to keep most of them to myself.

Getting into the macadamia nuts that I purchased yesterday was my goal of this evening. I thought it would be simple. I would just head to the grocery store and pick up a nut cracker in their small kitchen wares section. Well two grocery stores, a pharmacy, a 7 eleven, and a closed Target later, I was still without a nut cracker. I went back to my favorite grocery and bought this:

I was going to go cave man on these nuts. Well not caveman, but whatever the next man was who invented simple tools.

Now finding out if a macadamia nut is ready to be consumed is really easy. You just drop it from shoulder height onto a hard surface. When you pick it up, you can shake it and listen for the meat to be rattling around inside the hull. If there is no rattle, then it needs a little more time to dry out. If only opening them were that easy.

I had to place the macadamias on my tile floor at the grout crossing to keep the nut from rolling away. Then I channeled Thor and unleashed the fury of the hammer to open hulls without turning the macadamia meats into nut butter. It wasn't exactly full of finesse, but eventually I got pretty good at it and having to eat you mistakes is not really a punishment in this case.

Powered by Ginger Beer (alcohol free) I managed to release a good handful of nuts. I am sure that my neighbors were getting a little tired of what sounded like an elf workshop in my room, so I figured this was enough for one night.

Now, macadamia nuts are ready to eat right out of the shell, but I couldn't resist giving them a little roast. I was nervous to roast them too long due to scorching caused by their high fat content, so I only put them in for about seven minutes at 190C. I pulled them out (probably a little prematurely) and tossed them into a pan I had on the stove top with some brown butter. I shook them around in the pan and then sprinkled them with a healthy serving of powdered sugar and cinnamon. All that was left was to serve them in a newspaper cone. I don't really know why, but it seemed a lot more appetizing then a boring old white bowl.

Carrying on with my evening of innovation I also made a panini press.

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Touring North of Brisbane

2011-05-29T01:25:00.001-07:00

Today I took one of my co-workers up on his proposition to do some touring around the country north of Brisbane. So he, his wife, another guy, and myself took off from Ferny Grove at about ten this morning and headed for the hills. Once outside the city I finally got see just how green and lush this area actually is.

This is an old German cemetery on Samsonvale Lake.

View just outside of Dayboro.

Nice coffee shop were we grabbed a quick latte, I mean were we grabbed a manly coffee made from Copenhagen and chest hair.

Me representing for the Rockies at one of the scenic lookouts.

One of the Glass House Mountains.

Self serve fruit stand. Notice the black box on the left, that is where you pay. Honor system.

Macadamia nuts I couldn't resist. I don't know how I am going to free them from their shells. That may be tomorrows post. Little tid bit: The macadamia nut was first discovered south of Brisbane. Australia is still the leading supplier of macadamia nuts in the World. Exporting over 40,000 metric tonnes a year.

Some pictures from the Glasshouse Scenic Lookout.

And like every good trip, we ended at the beach for some fish-and-chips and a stroll.

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Apples and What?

2011-05-28T07:23:00.001-07:00

I got in a conversation at work about a couple of different pieces of equipment. It wasn't long before the old, "It's like comparing apples and oranges" was unleashed on me.

I though to myself, "well it wasn't like apples and oranges at all. Apples and oranges are actually quite similar. They are both fruit, sweet, colorful, healthy, and juicy."

This situation needed a better example than apples and oranges, but I did not have one ready. So I have compiled three groups of things below to prevent any of you having this problem in the future. Just grab one thing from one group and another thing from a different group. They should have nothing to do with one another.

Group 1:
Apples
Oranges
Pears
Carrots
Peas
Broccoli
Lima Beans
Cauliflower
Onions

Group 2:
Cows
Orangutans
Sheep Dogs
Alpacas
Lemurs
Rattle Snakes
Pandas
Caribou

Group 3:
Picket Fences
Volkswagens
Tire Swings
Frying Pans
Navy Ships
Taxi Cabs
Pencils
Bicycles

Here are a few examples:

It's like comparing...

Carrots and Cows
Lemurs and Navy Ships
Alpacas and Onions
Oranges and Tire Swings
Pandas and Pencils

People may look at you a little funny but they will fully understand the magnitude of difference that you are trying to convey. You're welcome.

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A Legend is Born

2011-05-27T18:41:00.001-07:00

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I get up a little early and go have a coffee at a little place called Nest Espresso. Not only do they produce great coffee, especially compared to the instant coffee sitting next to me now, but I have kind of been adopted by the two women who work there. My lack of coffee knowledge has become a little game of theirs to try and make me something new every time I come in. I have made it through all of the basics and am moving on to the "small" coffees, which apparently are strong little drinks with names like macchiato and piccolo.

Well I have been in there so much over the last two weeks, that they asked my name to start a loyalty card. Thinking it to business like of me to say my whole name, I simply say, "Nick." They seem fine with that. Well yesterday I ordered my coffee and sat at a table close to the counter. The girl taking the money is thumbing through all of the loyalty cards they keep in the till and quietly asks the other girl if I am Nick Something-Or-Other. I couldn't here the last name, but it wasn't mine. I was thinking about telling her my last when the other girl said back, "No, he is Nick Colorado." I officially have an alter ego, and he sounds bad ass. I wonder what would happen if Nick Colorado, Hat, and The Eaglrays all got together?

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State of Origin

2011-05-26T03:27:00.001-07:00

So walking around town the last week and a half, I have been seeing signs for the "State of Origin." I ignored them for awhile thinking it was something political like the State of the Union. I finally took the time to notice that they posters all had a rugby ball on them. I started asking people at work what the deal was, and they informed me that it is a game between the two eastern states of Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. Every player goes back to the State of their Origin in rugby and plays for that team.
Now I have a problem being a little fanatical. Especially when it comes to big games. I don't even know the rules to rugby, but I was pumped for this match. The game was actually being played in Brisbane. I thought about going but decided a brewhouse would be just fine.

We got to the brewhouse about an hour before the match. Being that I am in Queensland and innately have a disgust for New South Wales, I was going to have to cheer for a Maroon team over a Blue. That was a hard pill to swallow. I got over it pretty quick when I went into the bathroom, which was a trough I might add, and had a conversation with a fellow that had been pre-gaming since noon. I will refer to him as Drunk Guy.

Drunk Guy (standing at the trough): Whoo yah gon fer?
Nick: The Maroons
DG: No...talking bout the futbal, who yah gon fer?
Nick (slowly): The Maroons
DG: Ahright, you said the bloos i'sa gonna have a go at cha.
Laughs and then proceeds,
but ya would a said piss off and go F@#* yourself I cheer fer who I wan ta.

And then he laughed again, told me to have a good night and left the bathroom. Thats when I realized, it is always better to cheer for the home team. Everything is more fun and everybody likes you.

The game was just about to start and I got my self a beautiful ESB beer in a beautiful dimple mug. The beer was called Dog's Bollocks, which simply translates to Dog's Testicles. I always wondered what the veterinarians did with all the testicles. Apparently make beer. And good beer I might add.

Not only did the beer not disappoint, but neither did the match. I would recommend everyone to google it sometime. It is my new second favorite sport. These guys are ruthless. They use another players head to get up most of the time. It is barbaric and great. Queensland got out to an early lead and got me even more fired up. By the second half I was yelling at the TV with the locals. After a comeback by the blues, the Queenslanders pulled it out. We quaffed down a few more pints in celebration, and then walked home. Got a pretty cool shot of the city at night.

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What the hell is a Rasher?

2011-05-24T03:53:00.001-07:00

I thought rasher was just another name for bacon. I was wrong. A rasher is a strip of pork belly as seen below. The packaging says it all my friends; these things are special.

I saw them in the store and couldn't resist. I have very little to cook with at the house so I compiled the following ingredients:

Crinkle Fries

Celery, carrot, and onion. When all else fails, I always start with these three. They don't disappoint.

And a half eaten chocolate chip muffin, and not pictured, a bag of cheddar cheese.

After resisting the temptation to throw all of the rashers into the pan, I gently placed four in. I did this for two reasons. First, almost everything tastes better when it is browned, and secondly, because I didn't have any other fat to cook the vegetables in. Yes, this gave me a great excuse to cook vegetables in pork fat. Win-win. Unless you're a heart.

Speaking of vegetables. The carrot is one of the densest vegetables. They say that biting through a carrot is the same as biting through a human finger. I tried it. It was pretty close. What wouldn't go through the carrot, nor through a finger, luckily, was the knife that came with this apartment. To find a worse knife, it would need to be made of licorice and tin foil. I ended up cutting everything with a steak knife. It was like a vegi-tales version of saw.

While the veg battle was raging, the rashers where browning beautifully and making apartment smell ridiculous.

Finally, with the celery, onion, and carrot cut up, I removed the rashers from the pan and tossed the veg in. I cooked them until they were soft and starting to brown. Now, I can tell what everyone is thinking right. You are all wondering, "Did he deglaze the pan with beer?" Yes I did.

Then I tossed the veg with the potatoes, set the rashers on top and covered the whole damn thing with cheddar cheese. I baked it at 230 C which is about 450 F (thank you Jamie Oliver), until it was brown and bubbly.

It was awesome. This was the first time I made something that wasn't a hard boiled egg since the first night I got here. I tell you what, the rasher was good, but I am pretty sure that God created cheese and onions on the same day. They belong together.

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What I have been up to...

2011-05-24T03:27:00.001-07:00

I figured that tonight I would give everyone a little insight into my weekday evenings here in Brisbane.

I usually just hang out and have a few tic tacs; gotta love the orange ones.

Put on some chapstick.

Talk to my friends on the phone.

Clip my hair.

Just hang out in my sunglasses.

Brush my teeth (idea curtesy of Erin).

Or get stabbed in the neck by a giant pen.

And thats about it. Hope everyone enjoyed this little glimpse into my world.

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Art Gallery and Roma Park

2011-05-22T04:12:00.001-07:00

Today I took a stroll through the two Queensland Art Museums and then through Roma Park. All of which are free to the public which is pretty sweet. I have to say that the classical museum was nice, but a little dull, and the Modern Art museum was anything but dull, but completely over my head. I literally watched a movie from the seventies of a man holding his breath for as long as possible, followed by another movie made recently of a man lifting his mother for as long as possible. Apparently the latter of those two films is performed every year on the mother's birthday. Needless to say, I didn't really take any pictures of the museums other than the lobby pictured below.

Here is the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Brisbane River from the Museums back toward my apartment and on the way to Roma Park.

Roma park was the bee's knees. It is a large park/garden that showcases most of the different types of tropical plants that grow in the state of Queensland. Not shown in the pictures below was a three foot diameter spider web that wouldn't show up on film and a lizard that was just to fast for the camera.

Yes, I did feel like Indiana Jones. If only I hadn't left my bull whip and rugged good looks in the apartment.

I took this one for Faith's new desktop wallpaper. It needs a change.

One of the cool things about the park is the different levels of boardwalks. You can see in this picture the one I am on and the one crossing over it, and not seen is an entire lower area to the left. Pretty cool.

Here is the view from the highest board walk I could find. Not bad for being right in the middle of the city.

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Gold Coast

2011-05-21T03:41:00.001-07:00

Today was a beach day. We got up early-ish and hopped on a train and then on a bus and went down to the Gold Coast.

The waves are huge and break three or four times.

Looking North.

Looking South.

And then I sculpted a dragon head, because dragons are awesome.

Random Japanese drum line.

Nighttime at the beach.

Me after running home in the rain as fast as my pumas would carry me.

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Friday Night in Brisbane

2011-05-20T07:22:00.001-07:00

Well, I just arrived home from my first weekend night out in Brisbane. I have learned a few things.

The blues music scene in Brisbane is alive and well.
Sweaters are alive and well.
A kabob is not on a stick.
Troughs in bathrooms are the best no matter where you are.
Drunk Australian is not a translatable language.
Beer tastes better on Fridays.
A backwards peace sign is extremely offensive.
And you can officially rock a Chicago Bulls jersey under a suit coat.

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Evening Architecture

2011-05-17T03:59:00.001-07:00

Since it is fall down here the days are getting pretty short. So by the time I leave work it is nearly dark. I was in the mood to do a little walking so I grabbed the camera and started strolling. It only took me a block to decide that I was going to make an evening architecture blog.

Not so much architecture in this shot. This is just the road/alley behind my apartment. Not even two lanes wide, but still manages to be a two way street with on street parking. People don't really slow down on it either.

Although these two don't really match one another, they still look quite nice together.

This building is part of the original train station.

Here is another huge church. Slow shutter speed on the camera kind of made me seem artsy with the cars driving by.

This is actually a really small church in the middle of town. Kind of cool with the palm trees around it. As I was crossing the street to take the next picture I looked up and saw a giant bat. I named him Peter.

Same church, other side of the street.

"My house, a house of prayer"

Freemason building.

Treasury building, ironically now a casino. You are only seeing a quarter of it as well. The place is huge. I am going to have to go in there and try my luck sometime.

City Hall. Usually house an art museum, but is currently under a major renovation. Should be complete late 2012.

One last church.

I also saw peter again while I was walking through a park right before I got to the house. He circled a few times and started making me a little nervous.

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Lent Conclusion and What Followed

2011-05-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, the blogging disappeared near the end of lent. This happened last year as well. It seems that both years the lent season has brought some major adjustments to our life plans. Last year, we found out that we were going to be moving to Denver. This year, we found out that I was going to be spending six weeks in Australia. Brisbane specifically. I am actually composing this blog from my apartment on my first afternoon here. I am going to try a put a little finale on the lent portion of our blog before going into this Australia business.

The fried fish friday challenge was completed and The Irish Snug, still reigned. We went to two places that had the potential to knock the Snug off the podium, but they fell short. One of the places only fries fish. That is 100% of their business, and they still couldn't get it done. The other place was Lola, which is a completely different cost bracket than the Snug. If I could vote based on Lola's fried scallops, they may have had a shot, but on fish alone, the Snug was unstoppable.

Our first meal back in the meat world was Cuban Sandwiches. Slow cooked pork topped with ham, swiss cheese, mojo, and pickles. Best damn sandwich ever made.

Now, onto Australia. I am going to use this blog as a connection point to everyone at home to get a little insight into what I am up to. I am going to try and keep the writing to a minimum and primarily use pictures.

Today is my first day down here. I spent the day cruising around the city on foot trying to get a lay of the land.

As you see and will see, I like to take pictures of the plant life that we don't have in Colorado or Montana.

This was a pathway in the Botanical Garden which used to be a farm that supported the penal colony.

This is a boardwalk through the Mangrove trees that grow on the sandy edge of the Brisbane River. I like how they don't prune the trees to accommodate the boardwalk. Everybody just ducks under them.

This was just another beautiful tree. The picture does not do it justice.

Looking at the center of Brisbane from the cliffs on the opposite side of the river from the Mangroves.

This is a fountain and covered walkway. I took this picture from my chair right before I ate lunch. You can see a couple birds hanging out in the picture. They are not looking for food in the water, they are waiting for the diners on the other side to drop something.

First day in town and I already found some fish and chips. It wasn't bad, but I think there is a better batch out there. This did come wrapped up in parchment paper, which was pretty cool

Jax Fish House

2011-04-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

For this last week’s Fried Fish Friday, I made reservations for Nick and me at Jax Fish House in downtown Denver. We were excited to see what they could offer our tour, seeing as they specialize in fish. We began with cocktails and a raw oyster sampler: two oysters each from the east coast, two oysters each from the west coast. Each of the oysters had significantly different shells, and to our surprise, very different variations of briny flavor. The experience was enlightening and quite unexpected, considering the fact that we really only had expectations for our entree. Unfortunately, I think that we set our expectations too high. Although the fish was cooked very well, the sides fell flat. The fried catfish was also under-seasoned and paired with every ingredient that could be deemed southern in a manner that just didn’t work. Nick’s sides had an extreme variation in salt content, only remedied by mixing of the two. When we had finished our dinner, we started talking about our dining experience. Even though, we have had some meals that let us down, we always seem to have a good time. Dining out is probably the only place we have encountered this. What else can you do that falls short of your expectations, but you are still glad you did it?

~Faith & Nick

Jax Fish House in Fifty Words or Less

Casual atmosphere with a formal menu. Crowded bar but spacious table seating. Great happy hour and extensive cocktail and wine menu. Perfectly cooked fish, but the oysters steal the show. Many different varieties and they all taste as fresh, or fresher, than ones I have had on the coast.

Fried Fish Friday Tour Rankings

The Irish Snug
The Blank's Cabin
Illegal Pete's
Jax Fish House
The Fainting Goat
?
?

Salmon and Cocktails

2011-04-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

The winter weather in Denver has not been quite what I was prepared for; most the time it’s gorgeous, but Saturday felt like the first real day of Spring. It was so nice, that we spent most of the day working outside, playing outside, or calling my parents and rubbing in the fact that it was over eighty degrees. When the evening came it was just too nice to spend it inside making dinner. After enjoying the cocktail that Faith made on the Relleno evening, we decided that we were going to have to sample a few more classic cocktails from the Vintage Cocktails book. We spent the next three hours doing nothing more than sitting on our front porch drinking cocktails and listening to music. The cocktails that we enjoyed are the following: White Russian, Gimlet, Mai Tai, and a Collins. Pictured in that order.

While it was getting pretty late, I did not want to give up on the dinner that I had found earlier in day. The recipe was for salmon. I am not usually the biggest salmon fan, but it was from Giada. This was one of the fastest and most gourmet looking recipes that I have ever made. It is a must try. The lemon brodetto was the bee’s knees. This is a great recipe to impress dinner guests with. One word of wisdom, don’t flip your fish too early. Leave it until it gets a beautiful golden crust. By the way, Karma caught up with me on Sunday. It snowed.

The Fainting Goat

2011-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

This last Friday we decided to take our Fish Tour to the Fainting Goat. The Fainting Goat is a great Irish Pub off Broadway near 8^th. I found it one afternoon while driving around with my dad. We spotted the hilarious logo (pictured) and decided to stop in. We were reading the specials off the sandwich board on the sidewalk, when we noticed that drinks were going to be buy one get one after 4:00. A quick glance at the watch showed 4:10. It was destiny. While we were enjoying our pints of 90 Schilling, I noticed that on Fridays they do all you can eat fish fry, making this a perfect stop for our Lent journey. The risk that you take with all-you-can-eat, and which proved to be true, is that the fish quality tends to be a little below par. The batter would bite crispy, but end up a little chewy. One thing I can say with certainty is that the fries were perfect. Fries are something that usually gets the treatment of a second class citizen, but at the Fainting Goat they were delicious. Crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and hot enough to remove a little flesh from the top of your mouth, that’s a good thing. For all-you-can-eat, it was not all that bad, but for this tour it definitely fell a little short.

The Fainting Goat in 50 Words or Less

Three level Irish pub. Loads of TVs and a good selection of draft beer. Great place for darts and shuffleboard. Mixed crowd which adds to the atmosphere. Look for the great drink specials to maximize your visit. On a non-Lenten visit, try out the Irish nachos for a unique appetizer.

Fried Fish Friday Rankings:

The Irish Snug
Blank's Cabin
Illegal Pete's
The Fainting Goat
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Chili Rellenos

2011-04-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

With this week being my Spring Break, this gave me an opportunity to think about making a meal that Nick would really like, and my mind kept coming back to Chile Rellenos. Nick has always been an admirer of Mexican cuisine. We often laugh because on those nights when we are struggling to think of dinner options, you can bet money that Nick will suggest tacos. If he is feeling a little daring, he might suggest taco salad. Either way, there is something about Mexican cooking that piques Nick’s interest. He loves the ingredients and the way that the flavors come together, but what he really has a deep appreciation for are the chiles, and what better way to showcase a pepper than through a Chile Relleno? I did much of the prep work on the front side of Nick coming home, and then waited to roast the peppers. I knew that this would be something that Nick would want to participate in. As Nick finished assembly of the peppers and got them ready for the oven, I turned my attention to making us a couple of refreshing cocktails. A Southside, from my Vintage Cocktails book, was the perfect accompaniment to this meal. And like I’ve said before, a refreshing cocktail always makes the meal, and preparing the meal, that much more enjoyable. The meal did not disappoint.

Our Chili Relleno recipe came from The Professional Chef

Here is great slide show on making rellenos from Saveur.com

~Faith

Rigatoni with Zuchini and Pesto

2011-04-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

While driving back to Denver after spending our weekend in Billings, I looked over some food magazines that my grandma had sent home with us. Grandmas are always funny like that; you cannot escape a visit to their house without leaving with something. (We also visited Nick’s grandma – she sent us on our way with four individually packaged biscotti and a small creamer vessel). As I was perusing through a Bon Appetit magazine, I stumbled upon a recipe for Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch. I am always a sucker for pasta, and pretty much anything baked with cheesy and crispy goodness on top. I determined that this would be our next meal. While I made a few minor changes (zucchini instead of eggplant, and I simply mixed in a bit of pesto to the tomato sauce), the dish was savory and satisfying: a great way to start our week back at home.

~Faith

Montana Weekend

2011-04-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Nick and I headed to Billings to meet our niece (my sister and brother-in-law’s newest addition) and our nephew (Nick’s sister and brother-in-law’s newest). Both of the babies are wonderful little people and we enjoyed getting to know each of them, even though Nick was a little afraid of their all-important heads being supported by necks as "strong as licorice." We spent the first two days with Nick’s family, and second two days with mine. Our families were great in accommodating us in our meat-free journey.

Day One – The Blank’s Cabin

Our first day in Montana was spent up at my parent’s cabin. It also happened to be a Friday. My mom, being fully aware of our Fried Fish Friday Tour, decided to throw her name into the competition with fried fish tacos. With fish tacos being in my top ten favorite main courses, this was going to be a good evening. She used cod fillets and fried them in a wet batter. The batter fried up golden brown and ate like tempura. With a wide selection of toppings, including a spicy mayo that she whipped up, the tacos came out great. Although a little unorthodox, the side dish of homemade mac and cheese was also delicious. A scoop of mac and cheese, topped with shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream: genius, not for the heart, but definitely for the soul. While I would love to put this meal at the top of the rankings, I am afraid even my family has not been able to dethrone the Irish Snug’s fish and chips.

Blank’s Cabin in Sixty-Seven Words or Less

Cozy cabin, minutes from world class fly fishing (I should know, caught one the length of a baseball bat). Always hospitable with a warm fire, plenty to eat, and continuous attention from the barman, Steve. In the summer months, enjoy jeep rides, swimming, and cooking hot dogs over the fire. If winter nights get too cold you can always warm up at the Atlas Bar in Columbus.

Fried Fish Friday Tour Rankings:

Irish Snug
Blank’s Cabin
Illegal Pete’s
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~Nick

Day Two – Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict and Bouillabaisse

With both my family and extended family, it is no secret that I have a mild obsession with crab cakes. There is something about the wonderment of crab, combined with all the rest of the cake fillings, rolled up, flattened, and crisped on both sides that makes life complete for me. With that in mind, my sister-in-law surprised me in the morning with none other than crab cakes eggs benedict. She was a little worried about making them because this was her first time. Let me tell you – she did not disappoint. The cakes were crisped to perfection, the eggs were poached (by my mother-in-law) with expertise, and the hollandaise was exceptionally tasty. I was full and absolutely satisfied. I think everyone else liked them too, but Erin didn’t make these crab cakes for everyone else: she made them for me :)

~Faith

With Nick and me now living in Denver, we did not have an opportunity to celebrate Steve’s (Nick’s dad) birthday. We thought that our time in Billings would be a great opportunity to make him a belated birthday dinner. When looking through Anthony Boudain’s Les Halles Cookbook, we found his recipe for Bouillabaisse and knew that Steve would love it. This classic French recipe was a new and interesting way for Nick and I to prepare fish. We used everything from tiny fish we bought at Little Saigon to sea bass bones from Whole Foods. The star attraction of the dish was a red snapper, head and all. The finished dish was the essence of fish. It turned out pretty good, but I think practice make perfect on this one.

~Faith

Day Three – Blackened Tilapia and Roasted Potatoes

Sundays in my family are always a fun day; we head to church in the morning, and typically, have lunch together in the early afternoon. It is always fun because my mom will, many times, have to run to the grocery store. Nick and I love to go to the grocery store; therefore, we almost always go with her. This time was no exception. We had fun meandering through the store and picking out food for our Sunday meal. When we made it home, my dad had already begun making his oven-roasted potatoes and then began to assemble the Tilapia for grilling. Our meal was great; the blackened tilapia was tender and flaky, and potatoes were crisp and delicious: I especially enjoyed the honey-barbeque sauce that my dad made to accompany the potatoes.

~Faith

Day Four – Dad’s Pancakes (Max Café)

When I was younger, leftover night was never something that my siblings and I enjoyed. As a result, my dad began calling it Max Café. When you stepped up to the counter of this fictional restaurant (our kitchen counter), you had to put in your order: would it be spaghetti, BBQ chicken wings, chicken noodle soup? The choice was ours and suddenly leftover night was awesome! Needless to say, the Max Café name carried over into our breakfast world. My dad has always been the breakfast man, and his specialty is pancakes. When I asked him if Max Café would be open the morning that we would be leaving town, he assured me that it would. I headed into the kitchen for some coffee and deliciously thin pancakes (still cut into bite sized pieces for me by my dad). It was a great way to bring our trip to a close. We loved being home; our parents really are the best.

~Faith

Spring Rolls and Mojitos

2011-03-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Spring Rolls

Last week after Nick and I made it to the Asian grocery store, Little Saigon, we decided that we must return. We wanted to go back and buy ingredients for a weekend meal, and the spring rolls that we bought from the market inspired us to have a spring roll night. Having very little experience with Asian cuisine, we knew that this would be a great opportunity to expand our repertoire of skills. When you have an entire evening to devote to a meal, as well as a cocktail to accompany the time, you find yourself in no hurry and approaching each feat in a lighthearted fashion. Our spring roll assembly definitely left something to be desired, but the rolls themselves were tasty and filling. We know that we will be having spring roll nights again, but for our first attempt, this wasn’t too bad. Here is a link to a spring roll recipe on allrecipes.com.

Mojito

Nick and I really enjoy fun cocktails while making our weekend meals. For some reason it just makes the evening that much more relaxed and enjoyable. Because the spring rolls that we made had mint in them, we had both unanimously decided that our Saturday night cocktail would be Mojitos. I love Mojitos! They are light and refreshing and provide a bit of a tropical feel to the evening: an escape if you will. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drink in Cuba was the mojito; I can’t help but imagine how fun it would have been to sip on one while penning the next great American novel. Here is a link to the supposed original Mojito recipe. Write drunk, and edit sober. -Ernest Hemingway