On Saturday afternoon, I headed up to the small mountain town of Nederland, Colorado for their annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival. This event is a celebration for the towns allegedly cryogenically frozen dead guy.  It costs $25 to go see “grandpa” so I cannot actually vouch for his existence. A group of six of us made the hour-long drive up to Nederland, and arrived just as the Parade of Hearses was taking place. We lucked into a couple of parking spots within a block or two of the main street, so we were able to catch most of the parade. After that was over, we explored the few little restaurants and bars in town, before heading down to a little pond for the Polar Plunge.  They had cut a small square out of the frozen surface of the pond, and people took turns jumping into the icy water.  Safety crews were on hand to assist when needed.

After the plunge was over, the Coffin Races began.  In this event, teams of seven people race through an obstacle course as quickly as possible.  Two teams race at a time, with six of the participants carrying a homemade coffin through the course, while another person rides in the coffin.  It was an exciting event to watch.  From there we stopped for some pizza and headed back to the main (perhaps only) street in town.  Here we stumbled upon Ice Turkey Bowling.  For $5 a person, you could take three turns launching an originally frozen turkey toward six bowling pins.  As this even went on it became increasingly disgusting.

Many in our group also attended last years trip to the ski joring event in Leadville.  So for us, this was just another of those crazy events that happen in the various little mountain towns of Colorado.  More information on the Frozen Dead Guy and the festival is available on Wikipedia, for those interested in learning more.  Below are some pictures I took while enjoying the festivities.

Nederland on Dwellable

While starting to write this review, I’ve realized that I’ve eaten out quite a bit recently.  This was especially true over the weekend, where we dined out on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, along with Sunday afternoon.  We made up for it by grilling out on Sunday night, and cooking a bunch early in this week.

Anyway, back to our dining out experience on Saturday night.  We decided late in the evening to go out for dinner and after tossing around some of the usual suspects, I suggested we try India’s Pearl.  I quickly made a reservation at OpenTable and we were on our way down to the restaurant.  It’s a very quick drive from our house, so we arrived just before our scheduled reservation time. The restaurant said that they hadn’t received my reservation, but we were seated right away. I only made the reservation 10 or 15 minutes earlier. We were seated at a table against one of the front windows.

Our server arrived soon enough to take our drink order and to drop off the complimentary appetizer. We also ordered a vegetarian sampler appetizer, as it was our first time there. The Samosa’s (fried dough filled with spicy potatoes and peas) were really good, as were the vegetable Pakora (seasoned vegetables dipped in gram batter, then fried to perfection). The Paneer Pakora was a little bland though, which is the same as the vegetable pakora but with homemade cheese instead of vegetables. For entrees we had the vegetable curry and chicken Tikka Masala. Both were very good, though the curry was a little different than expected, as we are used to Thai curries. Overall, I would definitely go back to taste more of Denver’s best Indian food.

This past Friday night I headed to a new eatery near to our house called The Walnut Room.  They’ve had a location on the north side of downtown for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never been to it.  This is surprising as it combines two of my favorite things: pizza and live music.  The new venue does not have any live entertainment, but the menu is completely the same.  A group of four of us arrived a little late in the evening and immediately found a table.  On first impression, the restaurant is not nearly what I had anticipated.  Food and drink is ordered from the counter, but I was expecting to have wait staff.  They only have one beer on tap, PBR, but they make up for it with a good selection of Great Divide brews.

Three of us split the largest pizza they had, while one of our friends decided he wanted some meat and ordered a meatball sandwich.  The wait for the food wasn’t long, and the pizza arrived hot and fresh from the oven.  Overall I would say that it’s a very good pizza.  It reminded me a little bit of LaRosa’s back in Cincinnati, but that may have just been because of the crust along with the way it was sliced.  Overall, it was a good experience despite our higher expectations.  I believe that they should stay open even later than they already are, as the restaurant could capitalize on all the hungry people emptying from the many neighboring bars.

Please keep Kim and her family in your thoughts and prayers.  Her last surviving grandparent passed away over the weekend at the age of 84.  As Kim often said, I wish I could have met her before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  From what I’ve heard, she lived a wonderful life, which was even evident to me in the few years I knew her.

DIERSING Lucille (nee Vetter), beloved wife of the late Elmer Diersing, dear mother of Jim (Susan) Diersing, John (Diane) Diersing, Mary (Chuck) Hais, Jerry Diersing, Carol (Joe) Ransick, Joe Diersing, Jay (Denice) Diersing, Betty (Mike) Tepe and Jeff (Sarah) Diersing, dear friend of Maury Drummey, grandmother of 27, great-grandmother of 7, sister of the late John Vetter and Betty Nolte. Died Saturday, March 06, 2010 age 84 years. Visitation will be held at Bayley Place Wednesday 12 noon until time for the Mass of Christian Burial at 1 PM. Burial St. Joseph Old Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 4420 Carver Woods Drive (45242) or to Bayley Place, 990 Bayley Place (45233). Condolences may also be expressed to the family online at www.rebold.com.

Thank goodness! It’s been a busy week. Fortunately it was fast as well. Hope everyone has a good weekend. More from me next week.

I prepared this recipe the other night and must say it was really delicious.  I wanted to not only share it but also get it up online in-case I ever lost it.  It comes from a recent issue of 5280 Magazine from Holly Hartnett owner of Venue.

• olive oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 6 cloves garlic, slivered (I used minced)
• 1 cup light cream (I used heavy whipping cream)
• 6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
• 16 ounces frozen young peas, blanched
• 2 jars marinated artichoke hearts (I used 1 regular size can)
• lemon juice to taste (I didn’t use any)
• salt and pepper to taste
• cayenne to taste
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1 pound fettuccine, cooked and strained

In a deep saute pan, heat three tablespoons of olive oil and add chicken.  Sear until golden; remove from pan.  Once you are able to handle the chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces.  Lower heat and add more olive oil if necessary.  Add garlic and cook until lightly golden.

Add chicken, cream, and goat cheese to the pan and simmer until chicken is cooked through.  Add peas, artichoke hearts, lemon juice to taste, sale, pepper, and cayenne.  Add Parmesan to desired consistency.  Add cooked pasta to the pot and combine all ingredients.  Serve additional cheese on top.

Friday night I decided to order in some pizza for dinner.  After scoping out the coupons online, I decided to order from Domino’s.  They had a coupon for two medium pizzas for $5.99 each, and I wanted to try their new pizza anyway.  So I placed my order using only vegetable toppings (such a good Catholic) and noticed that they had a sauce called Hearty Marinara Sauce in addition to their New Robust Tomato Sauce.  I decided to try each of the sauces on separate pizzas since my coupon was for two anyway.

When they arrived, I immediately noticed that the one that had the Hearty Marinara Sauce actually said Original Sauce on the box.  I was thinking that both sauces would be new, and was therefore disappointed.  But I decided to turn the situation into my own taste test.  I started on the pizza with the New Robust Tomato Sauce and immediately thought that it tasted just as I had remembered Domino’s to taste, rather bland.  After a slice from the new I moved to the Original Sauce and immediately was struck by how awful it was.  So they have managed to improve their pizza, though I still don’t think it’s as good as the other chains.  The one thing that I did like was the new garlic butter that is brushed on the crust edges.  It helps enhance the flavor of the rather boring crust, though it can be a little messy.

So far this week I’ve split my time between my old and new projects at work.  Mornings have been spent with the old, and afternoons are spent with the new.  It’s actually a pretty nice divider for the day, especially since I’ve worked my mornings from home and then coming into the office for the afternoon.  As of now, I can’t really work from home on the new project, so this is a good way to do it for the next month or so.  After that point I’m supposed to be dedicating more time to the new project, so I’m not sure what I’ll be doing then.  I’m enjoying the new work so far, even though it’s mostly been meeting thus far.  I’m sure that will all start changing really soon though.

I’m happy to report that the conditions at Keystone have greatly improved since the beginning of the season.  I’m still not sure that they are operating at 100% open, but it’s close.  I headed up on Saturday morning with my friend Rob.  We arrived plenty early, and were one of the first few out on the slopes.  We immediately headed out to the Outback and eventually found ourselves hiking out to the North and South bowls.  On our second run out there we hit some nice powder that was nearly knee-deep.  By the time we made it out there again, others had found the stash as well, so it wasn’t as good.  Rob is a good skier and we were quickly able to move through the runs and beat many of the crowds.  Once the Outback became too crowded, we headed back toward the other mountains.  We hiked out to The Windows area, which I had never been on before.  We were able to find lots of snow, but the run we picked was too filled with trees to truly enjoy all the snow.  After that exhausting run, we were ready to head out and beat the traffic back home to Denver, besides we had already got in about ten solid runs.