Wednesday, November 21 – Saturday, November 24, 2012
I’ve been focusing on spending time with my friends, so I
haven’t had a chance to update, but now I have some free time and can get
caught up a little bit.
On Wednesday (the 21st), my friend Julie had to
work in the late morning/early afternoon, so I drove around town a little,
checking Colorado Springs out and drove up into Manitou Springs (the area her
husband Gene has suggested) to do some shopping and sightseeing. It is a very quaint little area just west of
Colorado Springs, heading up into the mountains towards Pike’s Peak. It was fun to walk around and check out the
shops. It’s very bohemian and artsy. I felt very peaceful walking about the
downtown area.
I decided to stop in at PJ’s Bistro (www.pjsbistro.com) for lunch. I had checked out the other restaurants (at
least, those that were open) and its menu appealed the most to me. I had a Baked Chef Sandwich on Ciabatta –
turkey, ham, bacon, tomato, swiss and cheddar, baked on the roll. It was amazingly delicious and filling. It came with shoestring fries that had been
deep fried to perfection. It would be worth
checking out again on another trip.
Later in the day, I drove back to meet Julie at her house
and we drove out to the Garden of the Gods (www.gardenofgods.com) – a public park
just on the edge of the city, bordering on Manitou Springs. It’s a stunning landscape of weathered red
sandstone spires and boulders that they have built paths and trails through
that you can meander around admiring their simple beauty. We walked around for a little while, then
headed back into Old Colorado City so Julie could get some lunch.
We wound up picking Tapateria (www.tapateria.com) since the restaurant
(Gertrude’s) Julie wanted to take me too was closed by the time we got
there. But it was a happy accident that
we missed Gertrude’s and could enjoy a bunch of different tapas. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, and
have since forgotten everything we had, but I can tell you that the food was authentic
and locally sourced. Plus, everything we
had was delectable. We also imbibed on
some lovely blood orange sangria while munching on our tapas. It was a nice late afternoon snack for me,
and lunch for Julie. It really compared
well to many of the other tapas restaurants I have been too.
We didn’t do anything for dinner since we were both full,
and spend the evening having a B movie fest on the sofa, enjoy each other’s
company. I really am grateful to have
reconnected with such a wonderful, dear old friend.
On Thanksgiving Day (the 22nd), we were cooking
for a bunch of people. We didn’t really
need breakfast or lunch, since we were munching on snacks all day while we were
cooking. Julie baked a lovely, and very
moist turkey – she bakes it in a paper bag and it browned up beautifully and
kept it real moist. It also wound up
giving us a lot of drippings to make some homemade gravy with (that was one of
my jobs). I showed Julie how to turn
drippings into excellent gravy. We
didn’t really even need to add much, if any, chicken stock. The only thing I added was about a cup of
prosecco (you can use any white wine or bubbly) to give it some zing, and salt,
pepper and a pinch of sage to boost the flavors. To thicken, I just added some drippings to a
measuring cup with maybe half a cup of flour and made a paste/slurry to pour
in. I did it again to give it the right
texture and thickness. It turned out
wonderful.
I also was responsible for making the stuffing. Normally, I would take some day old bread and
let it stale up a bit and break it into cubes – but we didn’t have enough time
for that, so we just used bread crumbs (Mrs. Cubison’s) since we needed a
shortcut. I added chopped onions,
celery, and some apples and dried cranberries.
I wetted it with some chicken stock, and added salt and pepper, and a
little bit of sage again, and fried it up in butter in a pan to get the flavors
to meld and give it some caramelizing.
We through it in the oven for a half hour after we took the turkey out
to finish it up before dinner.
Everything was delicious!
It was one of the best Thanksgiving meals I’ve had in a while – all made
better by sharing it with good friends.
Yesterday (the 23rd), we wound up spending the
day, having Turkey Day – Part 2, at her sister’s house on the other side of
town. We just heated up leftovers and
played games all day. It was a real fun
day. It’s the kind of holiday I really
enjoy – low stress, high fun – and spending it with wonderful people.
Yesterday (the 24th), I took Julie and Gene to
lunch to thank them for housing me for several days. We drove over to the Old Colorado City area
since the restaurant we were going to dine at near downtown was closed for the
holidays through next week (bummer!), so we opted for something else. We wound up choosing an Italian bistro –
Paravicini’s (www.paravicinis.com) on
the main drag. It turned out to be a
wonderful choice! They had some great
lunch specials available, and we could enjoy some appetizers and soup as well.
We ordered the Bruschetta Pomodoro. It was a wonderful bread, heated up and
topped with a little melted mozzarella cheese, and topped with tomatoes,
garlic, red onion and olive oil. It just
melted in your mouth.
We each also ordered the Pasta Fagioli soup. It was just a cup size, but it really hit the
stop, plus I enjoyed the addition of chunks of pancetta in the soup.
For my entrée, I had the Tortellini Carbonara. It was a little salty (in a good way), savory
and cheesy. The tortellini was cheese
filled and the sauce was an alfredo, with peas and prosciutto mixed in. It was one of the best takes on Carbonara
I’ve had in a long time. The texture was
smooth and velvety. I’d definitely order
it again.
Gene had the Canelloni with sausage, which I got a taste of
and was a dish I would order myself, and Julie had the Eggplant Parmigiana
(which I didn’t taste) and really enjoyed it.
Overall it was a restaurant I would visit again and Julie and Gene will
now take others there when they want some good Italian.
Last evening I was at a colleague and friend’s home in
Bailey, Colorado (up in the mountains west of Denver) and we headed out for
tapas last night – it was an interesting menu and I will share with you in the
next day or so. I’ve had some major
issues today, that I will talk about on my next posting. Tomorrow I head out for a long slog of a
drive through Utah to Nevada to spend a night in Vegas before I head home.
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