Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Restaurant Week '08
We went out for dinner last night at Bonfire, a restaurant owned by Todd English, who has competed on one of our favorite shows: Iron Chef. We're seriously nerds for that show. That and Top Chef on Bravo.
Anyhoo, the place was amazing and the fanciest place I've ever eaten. You know it's upscale when you order salad for your first course and get 4 tomatoes on a stripe of green sauce with balls of cheese on the edge of the plate. At least that's what they want us to believe.
2nd course
Robert: Grilled salmon with pork belly, carrot puree, king oyster mushrooms, peas, pea tendrils, crispy carrots, corn and tomato salad
Rachel: Buttermilk braised chicken, rhubarb and pequillo pepper puree, dandelion greens, smoked fingerling fries, garden vegetable salad
3rd course
Robert: Guanjuja chocolate mousse sponge cake, chocolate sauce, and chantilly cream
Rachel: White peach and blueberry tart, creme anglaise, vanilla ice cream, blueberry compote, and pistachios
The food was really great, and it was a fun experience. Definitely not something you do everyday. Also, we had to look up about 1/3 of the words on the menu before we went to figure out what they were talking about.
I wanted to take the camera to document the presentation and the tinyness of everything, but felt that would be frowned upon. The dress code said "casually elegant" and I thought that maybe a camera hanging off my neck wouldn't suffice. Here's a pic of the inside from their web-site:
Anyhoo, the place was amazing and the fanciest place I've ever eaten. You know it's upscale when you order salad for your first course and get 4 tomatoes on a stripe of green sauce with balls of cheese on the edge of the plate. At least that's what they want us to believe.
2nd course
Robert: Grilled salmon with pork belly, carrot puree, king oyster mushrooms, peas, pea tendrils, crispy carrots, corn and tomato salad
Rachel: Buttermilk braised chicken, rhubarb and pequillo pepper puree, dandelion greens, smoked fingerling fries, garden vegetable salad
3rd course
Robert: Guanjuja chocolate mousse sponge cake, chocolate sauce, and chantilly cream
Rachel: White peach and blueberry tart, creme anglaise, vanilla ice cream, blueberry compote, and pistachios
The food was really great, and it was a fun experience. Definitely not something you do everyday. Also, we had to look up about 1/3 of the words on the menu before we went to figure out what they were talking about.
I wanted to take the camera to document the presentation and the tinyness of everything, but felt that would be frowned upon. The dress code said "casually elegant" and I thought that maybe a camera hanging off my neck wouldn't suffice. Here's a pic of the inside from their web-site:
I love August.
1. We celebrate our anniversary. Normally we eat Chinese food (we had a Chinese buffet at our reception) and recreate the top of our wedding cake. This year, we didn't eat Chinese food, but we had three houseguests from Taiwan, so maybe that's a little bit close. And behold the hexagonal rainbow chippiness:
2. My birthday is always a fun day too. This year we went to Little Italy for dinner and gelato (Caramel Apple=yum!) and then went to a play. A good time was had by all.
3. NFL commercials start to come back on TV, and this brings me more joy than I care to admit.
July
Boxes. Everywhere, just box after box. Kind of like this:
Mom and Beege flew out to help us pack and move. They were amazing. We watched fireworks together on the 4th and then they had to leave. The rest of the month was spent moving boxes around to get to necessities like the bathroom and bedroom. I have full confidence that we'll be completely unpacked by Christmas.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
June
1716 miles.
4 states.
4 hours of Navajo Nation Public Radio.
Way too much money on gas.
Best road trip ever!
Nerd-a-palooza 2008, I mean the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Meeting, was in Denver this year (a city on "my list"), so I flew out with Robert for the week. Afterwards we did this:
Friday: rented car, drove from Denver to Moab, UT. Stopped in Vail, CO and tried to feel cool. (It didn't work.) Went to rodeo in UT. Got numerous stares for taking an inordinate amount of pictures and not wearing 10 gallon hats.
Saturday: Went to Arches National Park. Enjoyed, despite lack of big horn sheep. Drove to 4 Corners, NM. Took obligatory photos (We're in 4 states at once!). Ate Navajo Fry Bread. Became upset later that we forgot to document the fry bread. Drove on to Grand Canyon, AZ. Viewed one of the most amazing sunsets ever.
Sunday: Toured GC with a vengeance. We saw almost every official overlook in one day. We basically rock. Stayed till sunset again. Tried to chase down an elk for a photo, wasn't that successful. Sat in hot tub.
Monday: Back to GC in the morning for breakfast at the "fancy restaurant." Our table overlooked the GC, it was very nice. Stopped to buy some Navajo pottery and went to Monument Valley. It was very beautiful and totally off-road. I think this may have been Robert's favorite part of the whole trip: off-roading in the rented Grand Prix. Drove back to Moab, UT.
Tuesday: Canyonlands National Park. Very nice, way up in the sky. Went to see some ancient Native American petroglyphs. Touched the Colorado River. Drove back to Denver. Went to Rockies game. Watched from right behind home plate!
Wednesday: Fly back home and back to reality.
4 states.
4 hours of Navajo Nation Public Radio.
Way too much money on gas.
Best road trip ever!
Nerd-a-palooza 2008, I mean the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Meeting, was in Denver this year (a city on "my list"), so I flew out with Robert for the week. Afterwards we did this:
Friday: rented car, drove from Denver to Moab, UT. Stopped in Vail, CO and tried to feel cool. (It didn't work.) Went to rodeo in UT. Got numerous stares for taking an inordinate amount of pictures and not wearing 10 gallon hats.
Saturday: Went to Arches National Park. Enjoyed, despite lack of big horn sheep. Drove to 4 Corners, NM. Took obligatory photos (We're in 4 states at once!). Ate Navajo Fry Bread. Became upset later that we forgot to document the fry bread. Drove on to Grand Canyon, AZ. Viewed one of the most amazing sunsets ever.
Sunday: Toured GC with a vengeance. We saw almost every official overlook in one day. We basically rock. Stayed till sunset again. Tried to chase down an elk for a photo, wasn't that successful. Sat in hot tub.
Monday: Back to GC in the morning for breakfast at the "fancy restaurant." Our table overlooked the GC, it was very nice. Stopped to buy some Navajo pottery and went to Monument Valley. It was very beautiful and totally off-road. I think this may have been Robert's favorite part of the whole trip: off-roading in the rented Grand Prix. Drove back to Moab, UT.
Tuesday: Canyonlands National Park. Very nice, way up in the sky. Went to see some ancient Native American petroglyphs. Touched the Colorado River. Drove back to Denver. Went to Rockies game. Watched from right behind home plate!
Wednesday: Fly back home and back to reality.
May
Graduation! Finally!
Congrats to Dr. Robert. And now he has to call me Master. You know, in an official capacity.
Most of the fam came out for the weekend and we had a great time, including a family game of Laser Tag. My dad won. Though there was speculation that he was covering his chest so he couldn't be shot.
It was a great weekend and went way to quickly. Also, we determined that we actually could sleep 8 people in our one bedroom apartment. A record for us.
Congrats to Dr. Robert. And now he has to call me Master. You know, in an official capacity.
Most of the fam came out for the weekend and we had a great time, including a family game of Laser Tag. My dad won. Though there was speculation that he was covering his chest so he couldn't be shot.
It was a great weekend and went way to quickly. Also, we determined that we actually could sleep 8 people in our one bedroom apartment. A record for us.
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