Weera Thai in Las Vegas (Sunday, April 9th, 2017)

One of the downfalls to living in a small town is that sometimes you have to travel to the big city to get things done. 

About two weeks ago, Steve had to upgrade his phone because the touch screen on his old phone went out, and it's REALLY hard to do anything on a cell phone without a touch screen.  So we went to Las Vegas to the Apple Store and got him a new phone.  He was really sad to see the old phone go as it had been a total trooper for the last three and a half years!!!

Today, in the middle of texting, his new phone turned off and wouldn't turn back on.  He did a hard restart on it, and still nothing, so off we went again to Las Vegas to see what was going on with his new phone.  

To make a long story short, with the I-phone 8, you no longer do a hard restart by pressing the power button and the home button at the same time, so the way Steve was trying to restart his phone no longer works.  

We learned on an I-phone 8, you now press the volume up button, then the volume down button, then hold the power button for about 20 plus seconds.  This should reset your phone and restart it.  It sure would have been nice to know this before driving clear to Las Vegas (we had stopped at our local cellular phone store and they couldn't help us), but maybe that's just too much to ask.  

As we were finishing up our marathon at the Apple Store, we texted some friends of ours (Sam and Sharon) who had recommended a Thai restaurant in Las Vegas (because they know we LOVE Thai).  We thought a nice Thai meal might be a nice end to a crazy day. 



The restaurant they had eaten at a few weeks earlier was called Weera Thai.  It is in a small strip mall on Sahara Avenue.  So we drove over to give it a try.

We arrived at about 6:50, and the restaurant was packed with six more people already in line.  We decided to sit at the bar and not take up a table for the two of us.



Weera Thai specializes in Issan food, which is from the northern region of Thailand.  The menu was extensive and had many things that Steve and I had never heard of.  So we chose a couple of entrees that we weren't familiar with to give them a try.

Steve chose from the Street Food section of the menu and ordered Kao Soy, a noodle dish.

I chose an entree called Kaeng Ho, which was a stir fry with shrimp, clear noodles and a curry sauce.

Steve's noodle dish came out first, and it was AMAZING!  It came with a small dish of pickles that you stir into the noodles just before you eat them.  We ordered the noodle dish with a heat of 2 out of 5, not knowing how spicy this restaurant serves up their food.  We ended up adding a little more spice, so next time we would order a 3 out of 5 on the heat scale.

Mine came with a side of rice and had lots of vegies and shrimp in it.

We finished Steve's noodle dish without any problem at all.  

We ended up having to take about half of mine home in a doggy bag because we were trying to save room for desert.  The waiter at the bar told us that they serve durian with sticky rice, and we really wanted to try it.

Durian is a fruit that is native to Thailand.  It is really sweet, but when cut open, it kind of smells like stinky feet.  So people either hate it (because of the smell), or love it (because of the sweet flavor).  

Steve and I really wanted to try durian when we were in Thailand, but it wasn't in season, so we never got to try it.

So we ordered the durian with sticky rice.  They have to use frozen durian because it doesn't grow in the U.S. and it can't be shipped here in it's fresh form.  Luckily, the previously frozen durian looses most of it's smell.  So we got to enjoy our durian with sticky rice without the annoying odor.

We loved the sweet flavor of the durian, and their sticky rice was so good.  

Weera Thai was definitely the best Thai food we have ever eaten outside of Thailand.  Both of our meals had the perfect combination of flavors!  We will definitely go back next time we are in Las Vegas, and will definitely order the Kao Soy again.  It was SO good!

At least we had a nice end to an otherwise crazy trip to Las Vegas.  We ended up getting home at about 11:00 pm.  Not ideal, but at least Steve's phone is working again, and we have full, happy tummies and some really yummy left overs to enjoy later.

A huge thank you to Sam and Sharyn for sharing this great restaurant with us.  We'll have to go together some time and enjoy some more great food!

Sprouts (Sunday, April 2nd, 2017)

My friend Joyce has my same passion for healthy, fun food.  So just before our kids came, she surprised me with a sprout jar and a bunch of seeds for sprouting.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to try it out!

I read the instructions, and it's super simple to grow your own sprouts.  Start by oiling the lid of the jar with olive oil.

Pour in the seeds.

Put the lid on, with the screen inserted.

Rinse two or three times.

Then fill the jar with water, about an inch above the seeds.  Let the seeds soak for 8-12 hours.

Each day you rinse the seeds, and before you know it, they are sprouting.

About a week, and our sprouts were ready to eat.

A nice fresh, healthy meal, complete with home grown sprouts!

Thank you, Joyce, for my wonderful sprout jar and seeds!  We will enjoy this for many meals to come!

Denver Food and Wine Festival (September 10th, 2016)

It feels like we have been pretty busy lately, and thought we would just enjoy a nice quiet weekend at home, but last night I got a text from my wonderful friend Claudette.  Her husband works for an upper-end liquor distributor.  He was working at the Denver Food & Wine Festival on Saturday and had some tickets available.  

We are never one's to pass up this kind of an opportunity, so of course, we said yes!!!

The festival is an over 21 event, held from 1:00 to 4:00 on Saturday afternoon, with early entry for VIP ticket holders.  Claudette warned us that once the gates open for general admission at 1:00 that is gets crowded fast, so Steve and I decided to be there at 12:00, when the doors opened for the VIP ticket holders.

The event was held on the grounds of the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver.  

As we entered the main gate at 12:00, they handed us each a huge wine glass (they held an entire bottle of wine), and a plate, and told us that the VIP tent was off to our left, so we headed over there first.  Claudette said that the best food and wine is usually in the VIP tent.  

Each restaurant that is represented in the VIP tent offers one or two items from their menu, with a wine pairing.  There is also a wine table as you enter the tent that provides tastings of a large variety of wines.  

We stopped at the wine table first, and one of the servers was talking about a particular Merlot, that he said presents itself more like a Cabernet, very dark and robust.  Well that sounded like it would be right up our alley, so we both tried it, and it definitely didn't disappoint!  

The funny thing is that since our glasses were so huge, a taste of each wine is more like about half a glass, so a little caution throughout the day would be necessary.

After enjoying that wonderful Napa Valley wine, we made our way into the tent, where there were about ten different restaurants represented.   We tried small bites from all of them, with a variety of different dishes and wines.





Our favorite was the buckwheat polenta and wild boar stew from Del Lagos restaurant in downtown Denver.  I was to die for!!!  And of course, we loved it so much that we forgot to get a picture of it until after we devoured most of it.  Oh well.



They also had some tasty desserts to try, but we were already starting to get full from all of the wonderful food.  These were peanut butter - chocolate and snicker doodle cupcakes.



They had seating areas set up everywhere, ranging from comfy couches to tables with umbrellas.  They had plenty of shade, and the service was impeccable, as they came around and cleared our dishes so we could make our way back to the tables for more tastings. 

When we finally left the VIP tent, and headed out into the rest of the festival, we came across the Colorado Fire Fighter's, who were selling their 2016 calendar.  

Steve said he would have been much to jealous if I had purchased a calendar, so I had to settle for a picture with the fire-fighter themselves.......NOT!  And of course, Steve left them a very nice donation for the opportunity!  That was money well spent, don't you agree?

OK, the calendar wouldn't have been too bad either!

The quick stop with the firefighters gave us a chance to digest a little bit before we continued on to the other thousand restaurants that had booths at the festival.  OK, that might have been a slight exaggeration, but I really don't think so!

Since Colorado now seems to be known only for it's marijuana, and the marijuana stores are all called dispensaries, the name of this doughnut shop cracked us up.  



And we have to admit that their doughnuts were quite addicting! The chef poured Grand Marnier in the pan, and then caramelized hot, fresh doughnuts in it.  Oh my!  I could have eaten 20 of them if wasn't already so full!

After our doughnuts, we continued on through all of the vendors. Patron Tequila had a very nice stand where they were serving three different types of margaritas, one with mango, one called a Mexican mule, and one with their coffee tequila.  All three were very good.....yes we tried them all!

The event was huge as you can see!

After awhile we were hot and tired, and looking for a place to sit down and cool off.  We noticed that Weber grills had a nice indoor space, so we went in and made ourselves comfortable.  This indoor space was incredible!  It was a fold-out semi trailer, hooked to a semi truck.  It would fold down to the size of a semi, or when they were at an event, it folded out to a 24' x 48' room with big beautiful windows.  I think I want to live there!

And for just $2.00 each, we got those great wine glass harnesses. Hands free drinking, it doesn't get any better than that!

What a crazy wonderful day, thanks to my friend Claudette!  We ate, we drank, and we had a great time!