I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby ducklings and goslings for quite some time now, but hadn’t seen any. I had seen some broken egg shells, so I knew they had to be around. But today, I saw the first of the ducklings, or as a friend’s daughter used to say when she was a baby, “duck-a-lings”. There was Momma Mallard with about 8 little ones following closely behind. Of course there were a couple who were busy doing their own thing too. Momma already looks tired. But she is also very proud of her little babies too.
Linger is a fun and funky restaurant in Denver. It is one of 6 restaurants owned by the group, Edible Beats. The Edible Beats Restaurant Group are known as the “renegades of flavor and masters of of remix. [They are also] known for responsibly-grown and innovatively simply sourcing veggie-forward fare.” The restaurants are all creatively named and grouped to spell out L.O.V.E.R.R.
L – Linger
O – Ophelia’s
V – Vital Root
E – El Five or El 5
R – Root Down
R – Root Down DIA
These are special occasion restaurants and we have now shared three special occasions at three out of the six restaurants with our dear friends Janet and Bob. We made a pact that we now have to visit the other three as well so we can complete the set. This time we were celebrating Bob’s birthday.
Linger has been creatively “remixed” from the old Olinger Mortuary into a fun a hip restaurant that is filled with personality. There are lots of fun remnants of the mortuary all around. They even named the restaurant with a macabre spin on the Olinger name. They turned Olinger Mortuaries into Linger Eatuaries. “Housed in a former mortuary, the decor layers macabre remnants with posh details in a window-flanked space overlooking the charming Lower Highland neighborhood. The drink menu features sips and seasonings as savory as the dishes with which they’re paired. While the rooftop patio—outfitted with 1975 GMC RV as bar and repurposed food truck as kitchen— beckons patrons towards adventure.”
Linger is truly a unique and one-of-a-kind place. The motor home behind us is up their rooftop and has converted into the bar, where they serve up the “Daily Pain Killer”.
The inside was just as fun and funky as the roof was. There are pictures all around that poke a little fun at the Grim Reaper. The front desk was actually something they used at the original mortuary.
The elevator door was a large photo of the old movie “Harold and Maude”.
These two are having some fun around the coffin.
My name for the painting of “Dead Man’s Party“, song from Oingo Boingo.
Not everything revolves around the old mortuary though. The bar upstairs is filled with a bunch of items that are definitely a blast to our pasts.
The lights above and on the bar are old Bright Lites that many of us remember from our childhood.
The ambiance and decor are fun and funky, but when it comes to the food, it is serious business. The food was AMAZING. It is locally and humanely grown. “Over 50% of our ingredients are sourced locally (within Colorado) and our network of responsible food sourcing supports over 55 local ranchers, farmers, growers & food artisans. We’re 100% wind-powered and have responsibly-sourced, vegetable-forward menus. All animal proteins are certified humane, pasture-raised and utilize non-GMO, vegetarian feed. All seafood is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council and is a “Best Choice Green” by the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. We also maintain a 6,000 sf organic garden that supplies 20% of the seasonal herbs and vegetables for our restaurants. That’s what we bring to the table.”
The Birthday Boy started us off with his choice of a bottle of Malbec that we deliciously enjoyed with our dinner.
Very rarely do we eat like this, but when we do, we do. We started off with appetizers to share. We all shared the loaded curried vegetable and potato Dosa and the Bao Bun Trio, with duck, chicken and pork belly.
We could have easily called these two appetizers a meal, but oh no. We were only just getting started. Bob and Janet shared the Wagyu Sliders,
Larry enjoyed the chicken padthai,
while I devoured the tempura chili-ginger shrimp.
Of course we all had to taste and test a little bit of everything, and we all agreed the food was not only colorfully presented, but was deliciously phenomenal as well. But wait. There is still more to come. You can’t have a birthday celebration without dessert right? Once again, we let the Birthday Boy choose, and we all shared a little bit of everything. Bob chose the peanut butter bar topped with pomegranate seeds and the maduros y crema or fried plantains in a cream sauce with pistachios.
Not only were we celebrating Bob’s birthday, but we were also happy that Janet was once again healthy and well and my new upcoming job. Our server, Heather, was fabulous and never missed a bit. She took great care of of us, and just as we thought we were finished, she brought us all a glass of the bubbly to make the celebrations complete.
Needless to say, we left with very full, very satisfied tummies. We had a fantastic meal, the ambiance was so much fun, and we shared a lot of laughs. Thank you for a deliciously fun evening. As I have said many times, life is all about sharing it with the people we love. We have a very good life indeed. Thank you Janet and Bob for including us in so many fun times throughout the many years of friendship and family. We love you lots. Happy Birthday Bob.
Linger is located at 2030 West 30th, Denver, CO. I would definitely call or register online for reservations. Their phone number is (303) 993-3120 or you can reach them online at lingerdenver.com. People are just dying to get in. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mothers. It doesn’t matter if your kids all have fur or no fur at all. It doesn’t matter if they have two legs or four. To us, they are all our children and we love them all.
I don’t know if I just seeing more birds, of all varieties out and about or if there really are more birds, but either way, I am loving seeing all the beautiful birds all around. This time, I have another Cassin’s Finch, perched up high in the trees. I think he was posing for the camera. He sure looked like he was having fun. He really made me work for these pictures though. He was so high up in the trees, and I really had to fight steady my camera and focus to get these shots. But they turned out well and were worth my efforts.
Have a great day and a great weekend Everyone. ‘Til next time.
As you all know, we are definitely carnivores, and we love all kinds of meat. Larry is from Kansas, and he is a meat and potatoes kind of guy at heart, steak being his favorite. So, we eat a lot of meat and a lot of steak. I love streak too, don’t get me wrong, but I like a wide variety of foods. That being said, because we eat a lot of steak, I am always looking for new ways of preparing it and/or topping it. This time I found a delicious recipe for an onion marmalade to to use as a steak topper. It would also be good on pork as well.
The steak itself, was leftover from a a previous meal. I know, surprise, surprise, right?! Me, eating and using leftovers. Who would have “thunk it” right? But this onion marmalade just really made the steak pop out. It was sweet and tart and tangy all at once, and very, very good too.
Onion Marmalade
2 TBSP olive oil
3 medium red onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 TBSP garlic
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 TBSP fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup water
salt or Kosher salt to taste
Over a medium-high flame, heat a skillet with the olive oil and add the onions and sugar. Cook for about 35-45 minutes, or until the onions are very brown and caramelized. Stir frequently to make sure the onions do not burn.
Once the onions are completely browned and tender, add the red wine vinegar, garlic, thyme, salt and water.
Continue to cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until the remaining liquid starts to thicken. Once the mixture has thickened, it is ready to serve on top of your favorite meats and enjoy. I served it all with some roasted potatoes and green beans, along with my cheesy-pepper bread. Cheese and Pepper Wreath and a smooth, but bold red blend. Delicious!
Stay happy, healthy and well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
My pelicans are back for the season, and they are having so much fun. Lately they have really been preforming and putting on a show every time they are around. Sometimes there is just one or two, and other times, there are quite a few.
And as with any good show, they invited some of their friends to join them as well. Here Mr. Mallard is swimming with the big birds.
An egret is making his cameo as well.
The show was spectacular right up to the finish. It ended in style, with the pelicans performing some of the aerial acrobatics.
I grew up in Southern California where there is a very large Hispanic population and my mother was from South East Texas, where there is also a very large Hispanic population. So I am very familiar with a lot of the customs and traditions of Mexico and as well as the Mexican culture. And I LOVE good Mexican food.
As with the United States, Mexico is a large country with a lot of regions and regional cooking. In Southern California, the most popular type of Mexican food is Sonoran, or the Northern styles. In Texas, the traditional Mexican styles are mostly from the Gulf region. There are actually seven regions in Mexico that are known for their great cuisines. We go to Mexico a lot, mainly for diving, and we have been fortunate enough to try many of these different styles of cooking. We are very familiar with the foods from The South and especially Quintana Roo, since that is where we spend the bulk of our time when we visit Mexico. We are also very familiar with a lot of the Mayan and Yucatan foods, which are completely different again. I love all the different styles of cooking in Mexico.
The North, which includes Baja, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas
The North Pacific Coast, which includes Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima
The Bajio or Michoacán, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi and Queretaro
The South Pacific Coast, which includes Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas
The South or Campeche, Yucatan & Quintana Roo
The Gulf or Tabasco & Veracruz
Central Mexico or Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo and Distrito Federal (Federal District / Mexico City)
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, or the 5th of May. Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Just like on St. Patrick’s Day when everyone is Irish for the day, everyone becomes Mexican on Cinco de Mayo, even if only for the day. I honored the day by cooking Mexican food too, although I prepared something more from the Central part of Mexico, in the Oaxacan style. I made a mole sauce from apples, peanuts, chilies, onions and tomatoes to go over my chicken. I served it with arroz verde, or green rice, and maize or corn and topped it with avocates, or avocados. !Este mui delicioso!
Moles are traditional Mexican sauces that are found all over the country. There are many different kinds and many different flavors, as well as many different colors. The name mole comes from the Ancient Nahuat’l word molli, which means “a bunch of ingredients ground up”. Moles are most typically made from a combination of chilies, spices, herbs, tomatoes or tomatillos, chocolate and seeds. The combinations are usually determined by the region where they originate. They can be thick or soupy, and can range in color from yellow, to vibrant green, to deep red and midnight black. Moles when made at home came use up to about 22 different ingredients and can take hours to fully cook and blend together. The task of making moles can seem a bit daunting at first, but really it is just roasting and grilling the vegetables and herbs and spices first, and then once that is done, it is just blending them all together to make the sauce. And like so many foods, they are often better the day after they are made, so all the flavors can fully mix together. The magic about mole sauces is that all of the ingredients used combine together in such a way that they surrender their individual identities and mesh together to create a whole new flavor that is unique to the sauce.
The mole I made this time was made from apples, chilies, peppers, tomatoes, onions and Mexican chocolate. In English, the name is Pasilla and apple mole. In Spanish, it is Mole de Manzana con Pasilla. It sounds so much more exotic in Spanish. This was a simple mole, and only needed a few ingredients, rather than 22 that many other styles require, and I even added a few of my own ingredients as well.
Mole de Manzana con Pasilla
3 1/2 oz pasilla chilies, seeded – if you cannot find pasilla chilies, try something different
1 white onion, quartered
3 tomatoes, split at the top
2 TBSP olive oil
1 lb sweet apples, sliced thin – I used Galas
1/2 cup peanuts, preferably raw
1 1/2 -2 TBSP garlic
1 tsp cumin
4-6 whole cloves
1 tsp cinnamon or Mexican canela (cinnamon sticks)
salt to taste
6-7 cups chicken stock
2 TBSP apple cider or apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP sugar
1/3 cup Mexican cocoa powder, or regular cocoa powder
red pepper flakes to taste
1 TBSP oregano
1-2 tsp chili powder or your choice – I used Ancho chili powder
1/4 cup cilantro
Roast the peppers and tomatoes until charred and grill the onion quarters until charred. Then sweat for a bit and remove the skins and the seeds from the peppers and rinse.
Preheat the oven to 500* F or 270* C.
To roast the tomatoes, remove the core and score the top of the tomatoes. Place them on a piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet and roast for about 20-30 minutes or until charred.
While the tomatoes are roasting, saute the apples in the olive oil, along with the herbs and spices until soft, or for about 6-10 minutes.
You can either add the peanuts at the same time or you can do them separately. This time, I did them separately, in the remaining juice from the apples, along with the apple cider. Cook for about 2-3 minutes.
Once everything is cooked and charred, the hard parts and time consuming parts are finished. Now all that is left to do is to blend it all together and add the remaining ingredients in either a blender or a food processor to turn it all into a sauce. You might have to make it in batches, depending on the size of your blender or food processor.
This sauce is smoky, sweet and spicy all at the same time. The flavors were so smooth, and literally like nothing else you’ve ever tasted. It is Mexican velvet. I used this sauce over chicken. I still had some of our latest Costco rotisserie chicken left that needed to be used. This sauce will also go very well with pork or shrimp too though. !Desfruitas! !Esta mui delicioso!
Feliz Cinco de Mayo a todos. Stay happy, stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
Our Blue-Winged Teals are back. This time, I got lucky and saw both Mr. and Mrs. Teal swimming side by side. A family that swims together stays together. I keep looking for babies, for all my water birds, but so I haven’t seen any. I know they are around, yesterday, I saw some broken egg shells, but I haven’t seen the babies yet. Soon, though.
We are all familiar with shrimp scampi. It is a succulent shrimp dish with lots of garlic and butter that is served either over rice or pasta. As with any dish, particularly those that are widespread and have been around for a long time, there are many variations. These variations are part of what makes cooking so much fun. You can always start with the basics or classics and add your own personality to them to make them your own.
I was making some shrimp scampi and saw a recipe for shrimp rampi instead. As usual, I used the recipe as more of a guide and did my own thing. In all honesty, I had never heard of ramps before now. So, see, I learn new things all the time too. Ramps are wild leaks that are foraged from shady wooded areas all over North America. They have a pungent garlic and onion flavor and can be used in lieu of green onions. Ramps (which are sometimes called wild leeks or spring onions, adding to the confusion) look like scallions, but they’re smaller and slightly more delicate, and have one or two flat, broad leaves. Who knew? Now we all do.
For my rampy scampi, I did not use either leeks or ramps. I used spinach instead. You can also use mixed or collard greens as well. The dish was a big hit and it was a perfect spring meal.
Rampi Scampi
olive oil for cooking
lemon olive oil, optional
1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 oz of your choice, ramps, leeks, spinach or greens, chopped rough
1 1/2 TBSP garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
1 shallot, sliced very thin
1 cup grape tomatoes, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 TBSP butter
salt & pepper to taste
1-2 TBSP lemon juice
Get a skillet nice and hot and add your oil(s). Then add the shrimp and the red pepper flakes and cook until the shrimp are done and are nice and pink all around, about 7-8 minutes. Then add the wine and continue to cook for about 2-3 more minutes, or until the liquid is reduced to about half.
Add the garlic, shallots, spinach or greens and tomatoes and cook just long enough for the spinach to get wilted. to make it even more springy, I used a combination of tomatoes. I like the variety and color that they add.
Add the butter right at the end and fully incorporate into the mix. Then serve it all up over either cooked rice or pasta.
This time I served it over rice, with some herbed cheese bread on the side, and of course I completed the meal with some cool, crisp buttery chardonnay as well. Delicious!
Be bold and be creative. Don’t be afraid to think outside o the box. If fact, throw away the box. At the very least, you’ll have a good time, and more so than not, you’ll also have a delicious meal.
Stay happy, stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
I am seeing more and more birds around all the time and I love it. Maybe they are just getting more comfortable with me and my camera these days too. Lately, all the birds are letting me get some really good shots of them. In fact, it’s almost like they are posing, just waiting to be discovered and captured with my lens. No matter what the reasons are behind it, I love each and every moment of it. 🙂
Today, I had some more Common Grackles that wanted my attention. They are so beautiful and multi-colored, and their colors were really on display too.
Yes, I do love my birds, a lot. But in reality, I just love taking pictures of all kinds. I just happen to come across a lot of birds. I will take pictures of anything and everything that tickles my fancy. 🙂
