Recipes

With everyone trying to eat better these days we tried some new recipes this week and thought we would share them.

The first thing we made is Vietnamese spring rolls. These are a little different than regular spring rolls as they are not fried, but are made with rice paper wraps that you simply soak in warm water.

When the wraps were softened we filled them with thin rice noodles, saute'd shitake mushrooms, avocado, fried tofu, basil, shredded carrots etc… you can pretty much fill them with whatever you want, we put shrimp in Andre’s instead of tofu. Then you wrap them up like an egg roll and serve them with a Thai peanut sauce for dipping.



The next thing we tried was fried sesame tofu with Thai sweet chili sauce. Andre and I have never, ever liked tofu but this recipe definitely changed our minds. These were delicious!!!

You are going to want to purchase Extra Firm organic tofu for this recipe. When you get it you need to drain all the water out of it and pat it dry. Now because it was soaking in water you need to press it, I put a paper towel on the top of it followed bye some heavy textbooks then let it stand for about 15 minutes. Soak up all the water and then wrap the tofu in some paper towels and put the books back on for another 15-45 minutes. You really want this tofu to be dry.

You are going to cut the tofu in to small one-inch cubes.
While the tofu is being drained of its water you can mix the other ingredients together.

So in a bowl mix together

5 Tablespoons of sesame seeds
4 Tablespoons of corn starch
4 Tablespoons of rice flour
½ a teaspoon of salt
½ a teaspoon of sugar

After that is mixed together you are going to coat each individual cube of tofu in the mixture, coat it extremely well so that it is completely covered with the powder.

Take out a large nonstick pot and pour about 1 ½ inches of canola oil in it, then turn the heat to medium. After the oil is heated drop about 5 of the tofu cubes in the oil and wait a full minute before pulling them out with some highly heat resistant tongs. (We used silicon tongs, which stood up to the oil well.)

Put the fried cubes on some paper towels so that they can dry, then repeat with the rest of the cubes.

When they're are all done serve them with a Thai sweet chili sauce which can be found in the Asian section of any grocery store.

The Lake

So some of Andre's relatives are watching a house that has a lake, a ranch and an indoor pool, which is awesome. So they had a party and we drove up yesterday and swam for a while and I got to ride a horse named Skip. It was pretty fun. Andre, Pierre, Monique + some cousins and I all took a small boat up to some ledges and did some jumping and diving into the lake which was a lot of fun.








Well it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll be able to visit again next summer.

Remodeling

So here are two videos, one of the guest bedroom we just ripped the carpet out of and the other of our tiny master bathroom which had moldy linoleum in it.

You can't really hear me, it seems I was mumbling or something so just turn the volume off.

Rodizios Brazilian Steak House

Last week we decided to go to a place in Denver called Rodizios for our anniversary. Andre got me a TomTom GPS so we plugged in the address and headed north. We had a very interesting experience. For around 35$ a person not including drinks or desert it is all an you can eat meat and exotic salad bar. The Salad bar had strange things like hard boiled Quail eggs, but normal things like salad, fresh mozzarella, fruits etc.



After you fill up on salad you are ready for the main course! When you feel you are ready to try some different meats you turn the wooden block on your table to green, during this time a variety of waiters dressed in what looks like some sort of pirate costume stop bye your table. They explain what the meat they are carrying is and ask you if you would like some, if you say yes they cut you a slice and then make their rounds to the next table. The meat is usually in the middle of what looks like a giant sword with the tip in a piece of wood.


We were able to try lamb, chicken, pork, sausage, grilled pineapple, pot roast etc. It was pretty good-- a bit pricey but an interesting experience overall.

Bubble Tea

It's been a while since we've enjoyed the infamous bubble tea, so we decided too see if Colorado Springs had any decent Bubble Tea Cafe's. Our search lead us to a place called Vina Bubble tea and Coffee which is located in the Chapel Hills Mall (Dillards Wing). We were pleasantly surprised with the variety of flavors they offered, they had all the traditional flavors plus some others including coffee and lavender... They also had the boba and several different flavors of the gummy squares. They are a bit on the pricey end so expect to spend 5$ a drink. Overall Vina Bubble tea gets a 4/5 for their bubble tea.

Denver and Fort Collins Adventure...

So yesterday we decided to make our way up north to the big city of Denver and try out a burger joint we saw on the Discovery channel called "The Cherry Cricket". We left around our house around 11:30 and got there around 12:30, we then parked and put our names on the list. The woman said it would be a twenty-minute wait, but five minutes later we were sitting at a large round booth probably meant for a party of 5 or more... The place was a bit run down, it smelled of stale beer and urine which surprisingly only took a few minutes to get used to.

Anyhoot, Andre ordered an all beef cricket burger ( 1/2 pound of 100% angus beef) with the toppings of cream cheese and a green Chile. I ordered a little cricket burger (1/4 pound of angus beef) with bacon, cheddar cheese, and a green Chile- cooked well done. We also got a side order of cheese fries smothered in a delicious green chile... The food was not a disappointment at all, in fact we both agreed that it was one of the best burgers we have ever had. The cheese fries were also incredible they were coated in an amazing green chile with bits of pork and lots of white cheese. Overall the meal was delicious but a bit pricey. I give The Cherry Cricket a 9/10 for its fantastic burgers, 6/10 for price and a 3/10 for restaurant atmosphere.

After a delicious lunch we headed over to the Cherry Creek Mall and did some window shopping, there we found the strangest thing... children playing on bacon- and other breakfast food.


We then decided to venture even further north to the city of Fort Collins, André's brother Pierre was in town visiting his girlfriend so we decided to meet them for dinner. We walked around town and decided to eat at this place called HuHot. Now this is unlike any restaurant I had ever been too, it's sort of buffet style you pay one price and can eat whatever you want. The buffet has many different kinds of noodles, meats, seafood's, vegetables and sauces. You take a bowl or two up to the buffet and fill it with whatever you want, the meats are all frozen and so is the sea food, then you douse your meal in a variety of different sauces and get in line.

There is a guy standing at this giant round grill and he dumps your combination of food out onto it and cuts it up and cooks it for you while you watch, then he puts it all on a plate when it is cooked and you go sit down. The food was outstanding, I mainly had noodles with beef and a spicy sauce but it was incredibly delicious. Andre also enjoyed his meal which contained plenty of squid and crab. HuHot is definitely an innovative restaurant and because you eat only what you choose- you are bound to find something you like there. I give HuHot a 10/10 for their food, a 7/10 for price and a 10/10 for restaurant atmosphere.

Vacation

So, we got back from our New England vacation last week on the 23rd. We had a great time, everything went smoothly and we got to see lots of family. Our first few days were spent in Lowell, Cambridge and Boston with our personal tour guides Jen + Tommy. We got around using the subway, did lots of shopping, visited two museums, saw Harvard, went to a St. Patty's day parade and we were cordially introduced to bubble tea and candle pin bowling... All in like three days.


We visited Long Island NY for a day and a half where we went on an eating tour with Bob and his family. We saw the beach and bought some sabrett hot dogs which we smuggled half way across the country back to Colorado Springs.



Later in the week we made our way to Portsmouth NH with Yaya, Jen and Tommy where we did some more shopping. We drove up to Kittery, MN and visited the amazing trading post, then we made our way across the street for some free lobster...




The trip was a success, Andre had his fill of lobster and I had my fill of maple syrup candy (almost). We really miss Jen and Tommy so we hope to venture out east again soon...

Nuggets

So last Thursday we went to a Denver Nuggets game with Pierre and his girlfriend. I have to say basketball isn’t something I’m really into but we had a good time… maybe it was those woodchucks from Old C’s… but it was fun.
We saw Shaq even though he didn’t play, Carmello was out with a broken hand, and the Nuggets won in overtime.


We went out and looked for new bed… we are anxiously waiting on our tax return for funding. I painted our bedroom a much better color (it was purple, thanks to the previous owners) and also got some new curtains etc. overall it looks much, much better.

School started today and it couldn’t have gone worse… I’ve decided to change my major for the 8,789th time. The college called me today and cancelled my math class, which destroyed my schedule. I’m pretty sure that community colleges were created to destroy lives...

Museums

Friday we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, (used to be Natural History), they didn't have any special exhibits out, but it was still fun. There were plenty of stuffed creatures which are always interesting, there were space exhibits and of course fossils. Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant by the name of "Hacienda" which was delicious...

The moose and I

Some sort of whale

Saturday we volunteered at Woodmen Valley Church to help make welcome home banners for the troops that are returning to Fort Carson. Apparently some individuals on our team showed talent and we were commissioned to make "The Big One" for the overpass...


Andre finishing up on a banner