**DISCLAIMER** This is a looong entry. I wanted to record my trip to Denver but honestly this entry is for me so don’t feel like you need to read it. Years ago, I needed to find a place to move to and it had to fit certain criteria. I looked and looked at many different places and finally decided on Denver, Colorado. I found a job, a house, and I was ready to move. The craziest part of this story is that I had never set foot in Colorado but I was willing to leave my current life and move across the country. Well, circumstances did not allow for the move but I have still always wanted to see, if not move to Colorado. Here are some impressive stats about Colorado which makes me all the more a big fan.
300 Days of Sunshine Annually4 National Parks5 National Monuments1 World Heritage Site 26 Ski Areas 7 Historic Trains 25 Scenic and Historic Byways 54 “fourteeners” (mountains higher than 14,000 feet) When my brother John moved to Denver last year to start his residency in internal medicine I was very excited. I was even more excited when I flew to Denver last Tuesday to finally set foot in the state that I had chosen to live in so many years ago. My trip could not have come at a more perfect time. I just finished my year of teaching early morning seminary and I needed a few days of perspective and peace. It was an amazing, serene, beautiful trip. John is one of my best friends and I feel so grounded and calm in his presence. He helps me think more realistically about my life while still making me feel that I can accomplish anything. His faith in me helps me have faith in myself.
To start our trip, it was John’s idea that I buy a gym pass for the week and I thought it was a great idea. When we went to buy me the week gym pass, the guy at the front desk told me that it would be $15 a day. This seemed very expensive and I told John that I would just go outside and walk (it’s free). So, John asked to speak to the guy’s manager in the nicest way I have ever seen someone do it. John complemented the guy on how well he did his job and told him that he knew he was only doing what he could but maybe the manager could do a little more. The guy was not upset or offended in any way and was very helpful. When the manager came, she told us that if we spent $15 in the pro shop then she would give me a week’s pass. So, I bought a new iPod cover because I lost mine and received a week’s pass. I thought it was a great deal. Thanks 24-Hr Fitness!
Here was our daily schedule for the trip. Everyday we would get up, go to the gym, come home, eat breakfast, get ready to go out, go on an adventure, come home, relax, go to sleep, and start all over again. It was so relaxing.
On Wednesday, we drove around Denver, saw some of the sights and ate good sushi (yummy caterpillar rolls). REI’s flagship store is in Denver and behind the store is Confluence Park.
This park is where the Cherry Creek and the Platte River meet. It is a beautiful park and every where I looked there were people biking, kayaking, running, etc. Denver is a very active city and I could spend a lot of time hanging out at the park or the REI. When we got home we walk through another park named Cheesman Park to the store and bought the ingredients for John to make Spaghetti alla Carbonara (John and his roommate found this recipe in GQ magazine, see below). For two extremely busy residents, I am totally impressed at the kind of good food that these two guys make.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Adapted from the December 2007 issue of GQ magazine
The amounts below make two servings, as long as there's a salad or some kind of side to fill out the meal. Amounts may be doubled.
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6-8 ounces pancetta or thick-cut or slab bacon
- 1/2 box spaghetti
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2- 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and/or Pecorino Romano cheese
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Garnish fave: Handful chopped fresh parsley and/or zest of 1/2 lemon
- Bring at least two quarts of water to a boil and add at least one teaspoon salt to the pot. Add spaghetti.
- While spaghetti is cooking, chop pancetta or bacon into quarter-inch matchsticks and heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat and fry until crisp. Turn down heat to low until you're ready to assemble the dish.
- Break eggs into a mixing bowl. Add a small handful of grated cheese and a pinch of pepper. Beat mixture together, only enough to combine.
- When spaghetti is al dente (about 10-12 minutes), drain it and add to egg mixture in bowl. Reserve some of the pasta water just in case. Add another small handful of cheese and using two forks or a pair or tongs, toss the mixture until spaghetti is well coated.
- Drain at least half the fat from the pancetta or bacon, and sprinkle the crisped bits into the pasta, plus remaining fat. Sprinkle with more cheese and black pepper. Do not stir immediately; allow contents of bowl to sit for about 30 seconds, then toss to combine. If mixture seems to dry, gradually add a few ounces of pasta water to make it creamier.
- Taste for salt, pepper and cheese, and season accordingly. Add garnish, if using. Serve immediately.
After dinner we went and saw the movie, Iron Man. Because it was Wednesday night, the theatre was practically empty and the movie was awesome.
On Thursday after our morning routine, Matt (John's roommate), John, and I headed downtown or LoDo as the locals call it to the Tattered Cover Bookstore. The Tattered Cover is an Independent Bookstore with so much charm. The owners found old buildings around Denver (a warehouse, a movie theatre) and turned them into cozy, on-of-a-kind bookstores. I spent an hour reading a Colorado cookbook on a couch while I smelled the heavenly aroma of freshly baked goods (they have a café in the bookstore). I could spend part of everyday at the Tattered Cover. If you are ever in Denver, go see the bookstores because they are amazing.
Reading cookbooks and smelling baked goods made me ready for lunch so after a quick walk around LoDo we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and we ordered Pho Bo Soup. This soup is a clear broth served with white rice noodles and thin cuts of beef. The beef is raw when it is put in your bowl and the heat of the broth cooks the meat. The soup comes with a plate of sprouts, Thai basil, lime wages, and chilies. You can garnish your soup any way you want. I tried the lime, the basil, and some fish sauce. It was surprisingly good.
If Pho Bo Soup wasn’t enough, we stopped for gourmet cupcakes. They had mini cupcakes so we each had 1 ½ and headed to our next stop-the Denver Art Museum. The museum looks like a metal winged machine which makes sense because Daniel Libeskind, the architect said, “The shape came to me as I flew over the Rockies. I copied the shapes outside my airplane window."
The museum was extremely modern and I found two new artists to love. The first was a man named E. Martin Hennings. He was from New Mexico and did many Western landscapes. I love Western landscape paintings and his work was incredible. When I got back to D.C., I called on a painting of his I saw on the internet (below). I nicely told the owner of the gallery (Richard) that $35,000 was a bit out of my price range. Richard then informed me that for art like this, “Sometimes you need to stretch until it hurts.” I thanked him for the advice and laughed at the idea of taking out a loan to stretch for a piece of art-but it is incredible. Too bad George Bush doesn’t want me to buy that!
The next artist that I fell in love with was a printmaker, Melissa Harshman. Her work is very different from Hennings' landscapes but I love the bold colors and patterns. Her work retails for about $1800.00 which is much more reasonable but still not in this month’s budget.
The best part of the museum was an exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism. I love Impressionism Art but what I loved about this exhibit is how the exhibit was designed. Most of the Impressionists studied and copied the works of the Old Masters at the Louvre. So, as you walk through the exhibit, they would show you the original Old Masters work next to the copy of that work painted by the Impressionists. I loved walking around and comparing the works and noticing the differences. It was probably one of the best exhibits I have ever seen. $20 well spent!
When we got home, John and I walked to the grocery store and bought food for dinner. Then John and Matt made Lemon Chicken with homemade Mashed Potatoes. So YUMMY (see recipe below). I should give a little shout out to Matt for his incredible chocolate chip cookies. They were some of the best chocolate chip cookies I have tasted and I love chocolate chip cookies. Matt was so sweet that the night before I left he copied the chocolate chip cookie recipe and his mom’s famous sweet roll recipe for me to take home. THANKS MATT!
Gordon Ramsay’s Lemon Chicken
- 1 large chicken, jointed into 8–10 pieces (chicken breasts work)
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 3–4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
- Few thyme sprigs
- Splash of sherry vinegar
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1 lemon, finely sliced (ideally with a mandolin)
- Bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
Champ
- 1kg floury potatoes (e.g. King Edward), peeled
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 30g butter
- Bunch of spring onions (about 6–8), trimmed and chopped
- 100ml double cream
- 100ml whole milk, plus extra if needed
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper and heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Brown the chicken pieces (in batches if necessary) over a high heat with the garlic and thyme for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Return all the chicken to the pan, add the sherry vinegar and bubble until reduced by half. Drizzle over the soy sauce and honey and shake the pan to mix.
- Pour in a good splash of hot water and add the lemon slices. Let the liquid bubble and reduce down until syrupy, which will take about 10 minutes or so. By now the chicken should be cooked through.
- Cut the potatoes into similar-sized chunks and boil in salted water for about 10 minutes, until tender when pierced with a small sharp knife. Drain well.
- Mash the potatoes while still hot, using a potato ricer if you have one, then stir through the butter and spring onions.
- Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Take off the heat and gradually pour on to the potatoes, mixing well. If the mash is too thick, add a little extra milk. Season generously.
- Transfer the chicken to a platter and sprinkle over the chopped parsley, serve with the champ and green beans.
On one side of Denver you see the plains and I think you can even see Kansas. On the other side you can see the Rocky Mountains. On Friday, John and I drove over to Boulder to get a closer view of the mountains.
Living back East I miss the mountains and it was so fun to spend some time in Boulder. We walked Pearl Street (the outdoor mall), ate lunch at a great Mexican restaurant, and drove around the foothills of Boulder. It was a beautiful day. Along Pearl Street they had tulips that looked black but they were really dark purple, so cool.
Boulder is a place that I could enjoy living in. Evening brought delicious pizza and a walk to another Tattered Cover Bookstore and a record store. John decided to help my music library and bought me the new Feist CD.
Saturday we hit the freeway and headed to Colorado Springs. The drive was beautiful and we enjoyed watch the landscape change. Our first stop in Colorado Springs was the Garden of the Gods. The park has red and white sandstone formations that are incredible and in the distance you can see Pike’s Peak (the mountain covered with snow).
John and I walked around the formations and I took a lot of pictures. Here are just a few.
On our way home we stopped at the Air Force Academy. I have always wanted to visit the academy and the visit did not disappoint. The area around the academy is like visiting your own private forest. I am so glad that we stopped.
For dinner Matt, John, and I walked to a French restaurant named Potager which means kitchen garden. The restaurant is based on seasonal, locally-grown food including fresh herbs and vegetables grown in their own garden. We all loved the appetizers more than our entrees but we would definitely go back. For our after dinner treat, we walked home and then two more blocks down the street to an ice cream parlor named Liks. My homemade peppermint ice cream was a great ending to a fabulous day.
If you made it this far in my travel log, CONGRATULATIONS! Denver was great and I can see why I wanted to live there in the first place. I had a wonderful trip and I wish I could go back next weekend.
In honor of Jennifer & Jill, here is an AP article about an upcoming show. I am serious about going. I hear that Minneapolis is awesome in the summer and it would be fun. We could even dress up!
