Colorado part I: Euclid Hall

I'm sitting here staring at my post, thinking about Colorado, and completely stumped as to where to begin the FANTASTIC EPICNESS that was my trip!!!! Let's start with the County Fair....my friend won FIRST PLACE!!!! YAY!!!! This came as no surprise to me, her yarn was gorgeous... :)

We ate at Euclid Hall on Friday night. After a bit of discussion, we decided to do a tasting of quite a few things but to order them after each bit just in case we changed our minds, which we did a few times.

Beer in hand, Kristen had to talk me into starting with the bruléed bone marrow but let me say this: OH EM GEE. CAPS. PERIOD. Our server (who also happened to be quite adorable), described it perfectly as...."meat butter." It was completely different than what I had pictured in my mind (which I am not going to describe here because it was quite gross and the opposite of what it ended up being), and I ended up spooning up little bits of the delicious gravy that was served with it after we had finished gobbling it up.

Bone marrow, demi glace, sherry reduction, grilled sourdough

Just a quick note: I had brought my camera but didn't put it on the "food" setting so unfortunately, this picture is fuzzy. The other ones turned out well though! :)

Next, we ordered lamb poutine. Poutine originated in Quebec and is traditionally a dish of french fries, gravy, and fresh cheese curds. Euclid Hall kicks it up a notch and offers three gourmet poutine dishes that completely knock your socks off. We chose the lamb version and it was again, absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious.

Braised and grilled lamb, smoked espagnole sauce, goat cheese, micro sorrel

After a quick breather, we each chose a dish to share. Kristen went with the Spätzle, I chose one of their fresh, hand-cranked sausages. The sausage came with four different kinds of house-made mustard; all spicy, all grainy and delicious.

Caraway Spatzle, sauteed crisp, 10,000 island dressing

Beef short rib kielbasa sausage

At this point, we were stuffed to the brim but we couldn't walk away from sharing their S'mores Pot de Crème. Day to day,  I prefer savory over sweet but I couldn't keep my spoon out of this little dessert cup. I've also never had a homemade graham cracker before! Ummm can you say AMAZEBALLOONS?!

The beer that I drank was Lefthand Milk Stout Nitro. Similar to Guinness in texture but sweeter; It was poured beautifully and was the perfect accompaniment to my meal.

Euclid Hall - 1317 14th Street, Denver Colorado, 80202

Approximately $50, 2 people

3 - Different beers

2 - Bone Marrow

1 - Lamb Poutine

1 - Spätzle

1 - Kielbasa sausage

1 - S'mores Pot de Crème

Food: 8

Atmosphere: 8

Presentation: 8.5

This weekend

I'm going to Denver, Colorado this weekend to visit one of my best friends who moved there for her job a few months ago. Denver is a city filled with restaurants that serve up an array of amazingly delicious food and creative cocktails and I'm lucky that my friend is a foodie like me! I'm going to take a ton of pictures to create an epic Denver post when I get back!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Just a side note: Kacey of Kacey's Kitchen went to the Great American Beer Festival last year and her post HERE has had me just itchin' to go since shared her experience on her blog. Seriously....this post has had me drooling since last September.

Picture borrowed from the DCF website: http://www.denvercountyfair.org

Besides being a foodalicious foodie, Kristen (my friend), is also a super duper fiber spinning artist and she's entering some of her wool in a contest at the Denver County Fair. Below is a picture of Kristen's latest creation (I love her color choices!) They have many different pavilions at the DCF -- one of which is a Kitchen Pavilion and you know that I'll be hitting that one up, food and drink in hand.

Kristen's wool (she gave me permission to share this WOO HOO!!!) I love it! :)

Besides the Denver County Fair, just to give you an idea of some of our activities (*cough* eating activities *cough*), below are some of the places that we're going to go:

Euclid Hall

Snooze, an A.M Eatery

d Bar Desserts

You KNOW that I've already scoped the menus out! I can't wait to post pics and reviews when I get back!

In addition to sampling amazing food, we are also going to go camping (we = Kristen, myself, and her Denver friends) Saturday night. Kristen is going to make her mom's amazeballoons spaghetti Friday night for us to take with us so that we don't have to subsist on s'mores and hotdogs (although I would be more than ok with this).

All around, this is going to be an incredible weekend. :)

Delicious Dip for your chip!

I like love green dip. My friends can back me up on this one since they were there when I made myself physically ill a couple of birthdays ago from eating way too much of this stuff at a restaurant called El Tiempo. (Their dip is seriously fantastic and addictive...)

Since my experience at El Tiempo, I like to tell myself that I have developed a bit more self control as I've aged/matured (*snickers* yeah right...), BUT I haven't eaten myself into a food induced illness in a while. Coma yes, illness no.

I cooked dinner for my parents this past weekend and it was there that I put this green dip together. This stuff is mild enough to take to any party, and tasty enough that it's popular with everyone! :)

Yummy Green Dip

• 4 medium sized avocados
• 1/2 container of sour cream (about 8oz)
• 4 green tomatoes OR tomatillos
• 1/3-1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
• 2-3 tsp. minced garlic
• Jalepenos, seeded (I ended up using 4 mild jalepenos)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients other than the salt and pepper in an electric mixer or blender. Blend until creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a garnish of fresh cilantro. We ate ours with tortilla chips but carrots/celery/cucumber would also pair well.

Happy eating! :)

Pulled Pork

I was cruising Annie's Eats the other day looking for a yummy (and easy!) recipe to make this weekend and boy, did I sure hit the nail on the head with this one!!!

The prep time took NO TIME at all and all I had to do was stick around the house and turn my pork shoulder over every hour. My apartment smells AMAZING right now! :)

Shredded Pork

4-7 lb. pork shoulder

1 onion, quartered

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. ground cumin

¼ cup brown sugar

3-4 garlic cloves

1-2 tbsp. salt

pepper

1-2 tbsp. olive oil

2-3 tbsp. white wine vinegar

2 cups water

Rinse and pat dry the pork shoulder.

 

Combine the onion, spices, brown sugar, garlic, salt and pepper to taste in the bowl of a food processor.  Add the olive oil and white wine vinegar.  Blend mixture until totally combined.  Pour over the pork shoulder.  Rub over the whole surface of the pork, being sure to cover any folds or crevices. *NOTE* I unfortunately do not have a food processor so my onions remained chopped. It was still delicious. :)

Place the pork in a Dutch oven or roasting pan and add water to the pan.  Cover tightly and roast at 300° for several hours, turning once every hour.  When it is fork tender turn the heat up to 425°, remove the lid, and roast skin-side up for 15-20 more minutes until crispy.  Let rest 15 minutes.

Shred the pork shoulder using two forks.  Pour some of the juice from cooking over the shredded meat to keep it moist.  Serve with warm tortillas, lime wedges, sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo. (And cheese if you're a cheese-love like me!!!)

 This was seriously nom-tastically delicous! Five stars!!!

Happy Eating! :)

* Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

Word association games

Here I am, sitting at work playing the waiting game for my report and an idea just popped into my head that is slightly food related (really...do I ever actually stop thinking about recipes/food/techniques/delicious new kitchen appliances/cheese?!), but is also kooky and random.

Thought process:

Hmmm...I wonder what my family and friends are up to this weekend? I'm making this new dish on Saturday, I hope it turns out well. I really hate that my pictures suck on my blog. I wonder if my family and friends actually read this blog. I wonder if they would like the Saturday dish. WHAT IF MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WERE A DISH?! WHAT KIND OF FOOD WOULD THEY BE?!

 The end.

So I'm going to play a little word association game here on the blog (yes with myself but I'm ok with this). I'm going to list my family and friends and then put the first food item that pops into my head next to them! WHAT A GREAT TIME PASSER ON THIS FRIDAY AFTERNOON WHILE I WAIT FOR MY REPORT TO PUBLISH EVEN THOUGH IT'S ALREADY 3PM CENTRAL TIME.

Moving on...

Lauren's Game

Nana - Meatballs

Boopsie - Black Licorice

Mom - Bluebell Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream

Dad - Brie Cheese

Frank - Pickles

Maggie - Chocolate

Erin - Goat Cheese

Kristen - Caramel Cinnamon Rolls

Amanda - Kinder Hippos

Ryan - Sugar

Jenny -  Dr Pepper 

Megan - Steak Lupe

Jason - Tamales 

Tim - Turkey

Keith - Bagels

Mollie - Wine

Stephanie - Avocado

Sharon - Oreo Cupcakes

Rebecca -Butterscotch

Jordan - Wings

I know I'm slightly crazy right now but these are what popped into my head!! And yes, wine and Dr Pepper aren't technically considered food but WHATEVER!

.......

I would just like to add that between the cookies I brought that I baked last night, some cake someone brought in, and the mini twix that Mollie tossed onto my desk, I've consumed a lot of sugar today.