Yum.

Christmas goose dinner at Le Central last night.
the Yule log was especially chocolaty too, and I'm not a huge sweet freak by any means. Must be all the angst of late. I did manage to eat some of it,but was so stuffed on the snails app that I brought most of it home. So , yeah me, I get to eat it again for lunch!
Thanks to my dinner companion for lending an ear and being so sweet to treat!

Time to "art it up" gang!

music of the day: The Horrors, MC5, Gorillaz, Bassnectar, and maybe even some Marvellettes!
food of the day: see above
mood of the day: seeing the trees and feeling the love.

Fud

It was good. I made the cranberry sauce this year too! And I didn't poison anyone





SEE? Clean Plate Club Member !

Recovered, and enjoyed a moist little bird, which usually I don't!
My mind is muddy , maybe from the leftover tryptophan , but
I have been painting all day,and it leaves me a bit, undone at the end.
Selling one yesterday was a nice little nudge to get moving on more of em'
for sure.


music of the day; M83
food of the day: sweet potato!
mood of the day: missing my sweetness and light.

FOOD PORN

I forgot what this is but it was yummy.



Calamari to knock yer socks off.

This is a pork dumpling thingy I ate at Parallel 17 ..It was all good.
I'm posting it cuz I can't think of anything else to write about. It's too frickin' hot to think.

Have I posted this before...

I can't remember, but I don't care. Seems relevant right now to me.
See, I get into these weird food things every now and then, and I tend to eat the same thing everyday, until I overdose on it then leave it alone for a long time, sometimes years!
Anyway, Ritz cracker fluffernutters seem to be the "bad food" of choice these days.
Almost every day, like clockwork, 3:30 or so, I brew a hot cuppa NUMI Jasmine green tea, ( the best tea in the world IMO), and 6 Ritz cracker monstrosities of peanut butter and marshmallow whip junk food frenzy to snack on while I finish up my latest project or do resume send outs.

Pavlovian to be sure. Bad food for you to be double sure. (though the peanut butter isn't really that bad for you. But I seem to have lost 4 pounds over the past 2 weeks. What's up with that?)

The logical fairy inside me informs me it's my small meal noshing thru the day that did it. And cereal. I eat cereal for meals sometimes.
So that wacky Special K ad for a cereal diet is onto something!
But something else in me wants to say it was the Fluffernutter that did it. Magical, sticky, fluffy puffs of white pillowy goodness. I have a licking fetish developing I think. (Not entirely a bad thing to some people in my life to be sure..)

ohhhhhh me start over...waaaaaaayyyyyyy over.....




music of the day" LCD Soundsystem 45:33 looping eternally
food of the day: see above
mood of the day: cold hands, cold heart,but I still like you!

Hey ya jamokes!

been to ETSY lately?

Jus sayin'......

have a happy weekend. Do something fun ( I will...mwahahahah), be safe,
and eat some cake!



Cleanin' day today! WOOPA! I love finding new cleaning music.



photo of the day.....Buche Noel from Le Central

Wednesday

Shrimp chips.

nuff said.




music of the day: Oingo Boingo, Kings of leon, BOWIE
food of the day: tuna melt
mood of the day: ornery and feisty!

UG

It was a nice thought, going for Indian food on a lovely Sunday,with a lovely pal,but sometimes things can turn nasty pretty quickly. That was today.
Not an hour after eating, those familiar pangs of pain started in my gut. Indigestion, full blown within 20 minutes, and me not home. By the time I got some meds in me it was too late. My back went full into pain ,radiating up and down,semi-writhing.
"What's this ?", You ask, "I thought you said indigestion?"
Yes, but , the swelling of my tummy and chest from the buildup is enuff to full blown pop my back out. It doesn't happen too often, and I should have known better.
It's 5: 30 and I'm still feeling like crud. There goes my Sunday.

Lesson learned.

And the food wasn't even that good.

EGGzactly

I have all but given up eating eggs. Almost every time I do, I find myself sick for most of the day. Finding the freshest eggs possible with no 'additives" and possibility of contamination, or chemicals has gotten so difficult. I then started to rely on "organic free range" eggs from "happy chickens" (if you can determine a chicken is happy, let me know..)
Now that THAT is even in question now, and not being able to go to farmers markets year round now, getting a list of TRUE organic ,free range farms has become my quest. Granted you pay more for safe,quality chemical free food, I ask, WHY are we having to do that? Shudder.........oh this conversation could go on all day..we know the answers...so , why isn't anyone fixing it faster?

Excuse me , it's time for my Oatmeal.........


music of the day: Gary Numan
food of the day: NOT eggs
mood of the day: ug......

TODAY...

is National Cupcake Day. So you owe it to yourself to grab a cuppycake and
smile!
I hear by decree D bar desserts to have the best cupcakes I have found ,so far, IN Denver.
So get yer buns over there!

Also the Denver cupcake truck might be prowling around the city still. SO that's another good cupcake source.


I'm spent from deadline meeting lately,so, that's about all
I can muster today kiddies.


music of the day: strange German radio
food of the day: mmmmmmmaybe a CUPCAKE!
mood of the day: strangely too excited by a cupcake.

Yum! Saturday night fun!

Le Central Restaurant 112 East 8th ave, Denver . I have never had a bad meal here,
and it's sooo cheap for a French place..hee hee.. If you go on Thursdays it's usually
souffle night!

app:Feuilleté d’Escargots
$9.00
Escargots sautéed with butter and herbs and served over a puff pastry with a creamy blue cheese walnut sauce







Cotes d'Agneau au Jus
$18.00
Grilled Colorado lamb chops finished with an herb jus







Faux Filet aux poivres
$20.00
Grilled New York strip steak served with the classic three peppercorn infused demi-glace; flambeed with brandy



Brioche Bread pudding with chocolate sauce.

Now I'm really full.


Back to organizing my studio some more.
Every time I start a new project I seem to need to
reorganize/clean things first. I must have tossed out a bunch of old crap




music of the day: old skool
food of the day: burgers on da grill
mood of the day: misty

it's a foodie world

Tonight was PHO PUN with a Priend. ( get it?tee hee ) I actually had some noodle dish that was a lovely combo of meats and veggies. Lovely to NOT have to heat up my pad with a blazing stove on.






And yesterday I ventured into the kitchen and actually made mac an cheese like my mom used to make. I even tossed in ham chunks. ( the only way I'll eat ham, so if you ever have me over for dinner don't serve ham to me.)
Anyway I got lots of fun time in grating, and stirring,and fretting over nothing. It turned out pretty dang good if I say so myself. It flashed me back to my "yute" days.


If you come over for dinner I will make mac an cheese, since I now know I won't poison you with it.
And NO I won't make it with little wieners cut up in it.

I will now be eating mac an cheese all weekend long.


music of the day: Morrissey, The Cure
food of the day: see above
mood of the day: life's curveballs keep you on yer toes!

Last night was a long overdue dinner with a good friend. Bistro Vendome, always perfect meal there and great atmosphere. I had the lamb.(mmmmmm). My dining companion had the steak ,several glasses of fine wine, and we split a belated birthday chocolate tart with butterscotch caramel around it ,fresh cream and candied walnuts.
we had snails for the app. ( double yum)
It was nice to:
A. go OUT for dinner
B. go out to a FANCY restaurant for dinner
C. not pay for said fancy dinner
D. get a free birthday dessert from the best waiter in years Dylan
E. Enjoy the company of a nice friend
F. Not have to slave in a hot kitchen ,cooking bad "Patty made this" food.







Steak


Lamb

OH yeah, we had a nice dessert wine too, my favorite!

Leftover steak for breakfast.

enuff food porn..
off to blast the A.C in my bedroom and sleep today off.

Sushi Festivities!

So , Sunday is my birthday. A bit conflicted over this one,since it's
a BIG one. And seems to be serving as
a deep reminder of all the things I haven't accomplished yet in my life.
I could let it serve as a reminder to
all the things I have accomplished and let it go at that, but I tend to get a bit reflective and wallow in "shoulda ,woulda' coulda's".

Until I snap out of it an enjoy something so wonderful as a serving of delightful sushi that is. And then I remember all the great things in my life.
Yeah I have been unemployed for a while, but I did pick up some killer opportunities lately, (including a swell book illustration job, and an cool web-comic gig.) and while I was laid pretty low by a then perceived devastating relationship breakup
a few years back, I seem to be in an interesting ,evolving, crazy fun as hell "thing" right now that makes everything else pale in comparison on a lot of levels.
I'm enjoying the ride, that's for sure. Can't wait to see where it goes. IF it's anything like I imagine, I'll send you a post card from Europe in a few years. (It's a Q- world to be sure.)

I've also made some pretty interesting friends thru my years,and some spiffy new ones here in Denver. For that I'm thankful. ( special shout out to Kyle pal extraordinaire)

Birthdays serve many purposes , reflections on the years past, visualizing the future...and cupcakes....
we can't forget the cupcakes can we?

I'll eat one for you Sunday.



music of the day: NIN, Joy Division, DEVO
food of the day: sushi, pho
mood of the day: see above

(bonus food of the day for Sunday: cupcakes!)

It's.....

"SQUID-TASTIC"
(the rest of the meal)





So years ago when I lived in Atlanta I worked at this cool boutique in the
"hip" part of town, Little Five Points, and one of the things we sold
were funny postcards. One of my favorites was this goofy one with a cat
and ,well, you can see what it says. But anyway I always used to walk around the
store saying that phrase in that weird voice this old lady had in the movie
Paper Moon. The scene where Addie Pray is
at this old ladies house to flim-flam her and the lady goes all sweet on her and
says "I bet you'd like a nice slice of paaaaahhhhhhh." O.K , obviously you'd have to
see it to get it,but, it stuck with me,and to this day whenever I'm at a meal with dessert. I pipe up with the "Keep your fork...." in that wack ladies gravely, sweet voice. Yes, I know I need to get out more.

I was happy to find the card online someplace. I used to buy them when we'd get them
back in stock and send them out constantly. You know, before e-mail became all the
rage. I miss getting actual MAIL these days. I used to get lots of mail,postcards,letters and cool stuff..Now it's the occasional mag and lots of bills.

And Qwest seems to think I will use more of their services if they bombard me with
giant postcard upon postcard. NO you losers, I will not. But you could lower my bill by not spending so much fricking money on giant postcards. And while we're at it, you called me AGAIN this morning with the solicitation of your 'great' services I could add on to what I already have. You called me 4 times already, each time I ask you to not call again. I will be rude next time I swear.
I didn't mean to go on a Qwest rant, I'd much rather talk about pie. So I will stop now.

Warning : FOOD PORN AHEAD!

I keep driving by Lovely Confections on Colfax and always thought: "HMM I have to try
them sometimes." After all, I tried most of the cupcake joints in town already,and this one is practically in my own backyard. Plus,Friend Lovely Miss Jane had first hand love of the place so today was the day for my exploration. I was warmly greeted and had a hard time deciding what to get. As today is ST. PATTY'S (me ) day, I was informed that any cupcake with a shamrock on the bottom was free,so I went for it.
I got a chocolate with vanilla butter cream frosting, a vanilla with chocolate ganache like frosting and WEEEEEE!, Wouldn't you know it, a shamrock stickered carrotcake cupcake for free! I never win anything!


Beautifully decorated and not dry I had a nice little nosh at home with the Chocolate one. Not cloyingly sweet, nicely dense and richly flavored. The icing was pretty nice too...and here's my sacrilegious confession: After a few bites I scraped most of the icing off. I KNOW! I KNOW! STOP YELLING AT ME! What can I say but, I'm a "big cake,little frosting" kinda gal. So if you want to get a frosting overload take me with you on yer next cupcake bender and you can have most of my icing. O.K?


I'm pretty stoned on cupcake now..so the other ones will have to wait for me
to recover. Can't wait to see how the carrot cake one is!
So yeah, I'd say that's a good place to get your fix in. Nice hang out joint, free wi-fi, coffee..comphy looking sofas,and a friendly face behind the counter!

Now excuse me, I have to prepare for tonights festivities of watching everyone else
get snackered on green beer.
And as it IS the Irish Holiday of all Holidays:



HAPPY FOOKIN" ST. PATTYS DAY!!

Flogging Molly will be here in a few months..can I STAND IT!????
WOOOOOO!!!!!!
This time I KNOW not to stand up at the very front!



Music of the day: DUH! FLOGGING MOLLY
food of the day: cupcake!
mood of the day: sugar buzzed!

New Vitamins!

I have been doing really well lately with my eating habits. Until I got that nasty
ass head cold/chest/bronchial cough of death that is. then I stopped eating much
due to lack of taste buds and a effed up system. I seemed to be 'noshing' more than
actual meals. Knowing that wasn't helping me regain my strength and health, plus I don't want to put BACK on the 15 plus pds. I recently lost, I have been
making an effort to get all my daily requirements of vitamins, omegas, yadda yadda into my system. Case in point, this LOVELY
little meal I made last night. Chock full of brain food, vitamins and greens!
I am so proud of myself for creating ,actually ,one of my favorite meals to eat.

GOOD FOR ME RIGHT?
Then I had to go an spoil it all with this little nugget of yum:

Yes. Chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure that it MUST hold some nutritional value.
If only for the happy smile it puts on ones face. NO. I'm pretty sure it
contains special vitamins. Vitamins not yet discovered by modern science and the FDA.
I hear by decree it to contain the special Vitamin H. Vitamin H stands for "HELL YEAH, CAKE!", and HAPPY FACE.
Go on, try to disprove me! I double dog DARE you to NOT smile with a big hunk o'
sweet,warm,moist,chocolate love in your mouth! GO ON!!!
I DARE YA!


Yeah,*smirk* I thought so.



music of the day/weekend: pet shop boys, Gary Numan,Bowie,Joy Division,Flogging Molly
food of the day: need you ASK?
mood of the day: sugared up!

With REAL MoNkEyS in every bar!

O.K not REALLY , but wouldn't that be funny?
MONKEY BRAINS OATMEAL, ( yes the same one I rave about all the time..) ,has finally come out with their new chewy granola bar line. I actually found them in King Soopers.
I assume Whole foods has them as well. Why King Soopers isn't carrying the oatmeal as well? I dunno,but this is about the bars. I'm not normally a fan of 'soft chewy' anything,but again, not everything is free of high frucose crap and fake shit.
So I gave em a shot. The had promised me a box a while ago..but I see from their website they have reorganized,(sold?),reassembled,and obviously got a real marketing team going for them now.So I won't hold my breath, it was sweet enough of them to send me a CASE of oatmeal last year while I waited out the regrouping and couldn't find the stuff anywhere!


I bought the blueberry vanilla ones,and while I HATE iced anything, ( I know,I know,call me a freak again.)I didn't mind these at all. For one thing nothing tasted FAKE. NO fake vanilla, no fake blueberry, so YEAH for the MONKEY!

These have a probiotic ,nutroflora in it to aid digestion health and not spike your blood glucose levels. All I know is, no weird aftertaste, and no FAKE flavoring. I HATE fake. Why do fake when you can have real?
here's the igredients:

Chewy Granola (Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Roasted Soybeans, and Almonds), Brown Rice Syrup, Super Monkey Power Fruit Blend (Dates, Raisins, Cranberries, Blueberry and Grape Juice Concentrates), Vanilla Flavored Coating (Evaporated Cane Juice, Palm Kernel Oil, Nonfat Dry Milk, Vanilla and Soy Lecithin), Brown Rice Flour, Maltodextrin, Fructan (NutraFlora®), Natural Flavors, Sugar, Salt, Citric and Malic Acid.

Contains Almonds, Soy, and Milk Ingredients.
while I DO question the Palm Kernal Oil ,(there are two camps on that front)
I'd say, go for it. It's a good "quickie,tide you over, here kid ,yer bothering me" -snack. Certainly not an everyday thing for me, but I can see grabbing one if I know I'm going to be stuck out somewhere with no resource for a quickie nosh.

O.K I'm done my little food soapbox review ,now back to the other stuff.
Obviously I feel better ,or I had to go out cuz no one else was gonna go shop for me...hee hee
NO, seriously, I DO feel better,and will be back to my ol' %100 pretty soon.

Nap time!


music of the day: Gary Numan, Morris Day.
food of the day: MONKEY BRAINS !!!
mood of the day: closer to myself , not as ornery.
MUCH thanks to MISUN OH and her magic needles of acupuncture goodness!!!!

too pretty to eat WARNIING GEEK OUT AHEAD!

O.K so after a lunch of sushi at SUSHI DEN with the ol' sister today
and running errands, I swung by KEEGAN GERHARD's D BAR DESSERTS on 17th
today. Hey,there was a parking space right in front,how could I NOT swing by.
I kept hearing and reading so much about the place. And hell,I think
Keegan is cute. Anyway, in I go,and wow,there he is,working on a cake order.
Not just ANY cake order, a SPECIAL cake order, a SPECIAL, GEEK OUT cake to meet
ALL GEEK OUTS. A STAR TREK ENTERPRISE MODEL CAKE! MY geeky heart did a double skip,
as I had a moment of panic set in ,all smoothness gone.
"Don't get all goofy now Patty, be cool, it's cool", whispered my innerself..
I sidled up to the counter and perused the menu,and ordered the mac and cheese with panko crumbs and salad combo..and the ,"OH yeah one of THOSE too" aside to the semi-disinterested,but polite waitstaff,pointing to the case filled with glimmering,glowing cupcakes ,cookies,and all manner of
Sugar coma inducing treats.
A Vanilla square cupcake...Wintery sugar coolness in a paper wrapper,snowflake on top.

I sat down at the bar,to wait for the order, mere inches away from Keegan and assistant working feverishly on the cake.
Smoothing the white chocolate over and over the hull of the ship, schematic plans at the ready.Obviously well researched.
After about 5 minutes of smoothing he notices me sitting there, motions to the waiter ,sees I'm waiting for take out and I use the opportunity to chime in.."Nice cake".
yes ,he acknowledges. "And I should know," I add, "I'm an old Start Trek geek.."
"Oh you are are you?" Keegan responds with a grin.
And thus the conversation turns to how much research he put in..how much I bet he knows about the ship ,MORE than he wanted to know..etc...on it goes.with some instruction to construction, materials used, what he plans to do for the sides, decals, base, hull, etc....a full blown CAKE/ STAR TREK GEEKARAMA on it went for another full 5 glorious minutes..He hands me some of the white chocolate they use to model with and explains how he likes to work with it..he was a very cool guy.
I almost wanted to say "Teach me oh master the way of the cake.."
But I held back.

Bag of noodlie lactose challenging warmth handed to me, I said my goodbyes, he grins and waves goodbye.....

I have to go now..the soft whispers of a cushy ,sweet cupcake are beckoning me
to the kitchen.

I'll let you know how it is.

MMMM, food PORN!

"GRONK! You WILL enjoy your Chinese Food !!





Of COURSE we will. Enjoyed a wonderful pre New Years meal of great Chinese ,dim sum food at Star Asian in Denver..UNBELIEVABLY good stuff..so fresh , no cloyingly
sweet sauces. This is one of the dishes we had. Squid with peppers. YUMMERS!
We also had sesame chicken ( way to be bold Tommy..giggle),Shrimp in egg noodles, and eggplant and beef hotpot. AND assorted dim sum

Shrimp balls, scallops and shrimp dumplings, turnip cakes, beef tips in black been sauce, shrimp dumplings, squid, lot's of hot green tea and fun chat with good friends.
Honestly I have NEVER had a bad anything there..so if ya wanna have some fun..give me a call, I'll go again! Anytime :)
A good way to round out the Christmas holiday weekend.


In another note, finally deciding to actually post this.
Do you ever think about someone, then, out of the
blue ,after not seeing or taking to them
for years on end.. WHAM,there they are?

I bumped into an old work /friend
in the mall the other day while shopping. Someone I hadn't seen in a long ,long time.
It's not that we ever really hung out or anything when I did see her, but she is one of those people you don't easily forget. Delicate gentle ,kind, positive, loving and stunningly beautiful.The kind of woman that men flock to and girls get girl crushes on. Beyond sweet.
I hired her near the end of my tenure at a store I was managing, and at the time I secretly knew I was leaving soon, and regretting that I would have to abandon her and the other employees to the unknown.
But, I did, and over time lost track of her. I knew where she worked next ,but never seemed to cross paths with her.Until now.It was quite touching and exciting to see her again, In a way I was so proud of her. But what got me was when after hugging and catching up on things, she told me that..she was happy that I hired her and that I gave her a chance. I was floored when she said, I opened doors for her and how grateful She was to me for that...ME? I impacted someone somehow? I had no clue.
Both our eyes welled up and I felt a wave of emotion come over me.. She has put up with such adversity in her life, I had no thought that I ever did anything for her.
We both were going through some rough patches when I hired her, me a nasty breakup with someone I was SO head over heels about, her ,personal things I won't say.
But A rough time indeed. I think we came,and are, coming through some things again.
But she was positive and excited, and I was happy to see her again and possibly reconnect.
Then she said ,she was moving in 2 weeks to California. I pretty much know we may never see each other again. It was bittersweet, but I can say how happy I was to see her, see she was doing well and surviving. What we all do. I am honored I got a chance to know her.
And I wanted to thank her for making me feel like I accomplished something with someone. No matter how small it may seem to others. It is HUGE for us.
I will always have your back girl, you deserve the ultimate BEST in this world, you EARNED it fully. Safe journey and happy life.
Hugs.


music of the day: New Order
food of the day; see above
mood of the day: melancholy,yet happy.

Lost In Translation

Chefs Noodle Bowl House - Udon noodles combo. Tasty treats abound! Slurpy
noodle-rific fun!



Sesame Chicken Combo. My dining partner attempted to order some Lo-Mein
noodles instead of the rice that usually comes with. Try as we did, the
lady did NOT quite grasp what substitute meant. So after her saying
"COMBO?" over and over, yeah, we got this. Make no mistake , it was still quite
good.

Located on 6th and right before you hit Havana in Aurora.
One of my fave. places.

music of the day: Fantastic Mr. Fox
food of the day: nothing special
mood of the day: shades of foreboding