A Gourmet of Babies

24. Take a walking tour of Denver

Last year I bought a Groupon for Denver Gourmet Tours with this list item in mind. After procrastinating for a whole year and waiting until the Groupon was set to expire, I finally booked E and I our tour. At 9 months pregnant. And it was freezing and snowing and icy. Maybe that will teach me to procrastinate! We chose to do the Gourmet Taste of Denver tour (mostly because our options were limited due to me waiting too long to schedule us). That morning I realized I couldn't have picked a better one since I was sure to find new restaurants really close to work that I could tell my coworkers about. Naturally, I had been to 2 of the 5 places already, but I still got to try new menu items so I'm glad they were on the list.

You may remember that I did a blog post about a new and interesting food item that I tried at Biker Jim's Gourmet Hot Dogs: rattlesnake and pheasant hot dogs. Biker Jim's was the first stop on our tour. They brought out four different gourmet dogs for us to try so this was a great opportunity for me to try new flavors without committing to a whole dog and for E to finally see what all the fuss is about since I always talk about the place.

The second stop on our tour was Ignite Bar and Restaurant. We sampled their Jalapeno Deviled Eggs and their Man Candy. What is Man Candy? Man Candy is molasses and brown sugar glazed bacon that is spiced with cayenne and I'm sure other spicy seasonings. It really was like bacon candy. Except better. If you know me, you know that I don't like bacon and even I kind of liked the man candy.

We also visited Buenos Aires Pizzeria where we sampled their empanadas (E had a peppercorn steak empanada while I chose the Margherita emapanada) then went next door to their gelato shop. Mmmmmmmm, gelato.... E couldn't have the gelato, obviously, so he chose strawberry sorbet. That was by far the best sorbet I think I've ever had!

We finished our tour at Hi Rise Bakery. This was my favorite part of the tour because the owner was so freaking enthusiastic about what he does. Hi Rise serves breakfast and lunch but they mostly specialize in their bagels. The owner gave us a sampling of bagels, pesto chicken panini, and cookies. While we ate he talked about how they make their bagels, how they make their breads, what he loves about yeast ...and the list goes on. It was the way that he talked about bread rising and all of that that made it so fun to talk to him. You can tell he genuinely loves what he does and I really just wish more people could love what they do as much as he does.

94. Buy flowers once a month for the house (20/33)

I picked these up in an attempt to brighten my mood one day when I was throwing myself a pity party since all of my friends were having their January babies while I was very much NOT having mine.

Doesn't the baby's blanket just look lonely there sitting on the table with no baby to keep warm???

57. Give a gift a month (16/29)
61. Dinner/lunch date with friends once a month (16/29)

As I just mentioned above, we have several friends that were also having January babies. Our good friends S and J were one of those couples and they welcomed their little baby boy into the world on Friday bright and early in the morning. They invited us over to meet the little one so on Saturday we decided to pick up some lunch and treat them to sushi! Their little man is absolutely adorable and perfect and even let them enjoy the whole meal while he napped! What a good baby! :)

65. Go to the zoo once a month (19/33)

This morning we made our way to the zoo with our friend and her kiddos. It was a little bit busy for first thing in the morning since today is a holiday, but not actually too bad. The boys had a good time and only had a few meltdowns, mostly toward the end when they were getting tired. We actually made it about 3 hours, which may be a new record for us.