I made some delicious chicken enchiladas last night, loosely following this recipe. Typically I just take a can of enchilada sauce, combine it with some chicken and cheese and call it a meal. This time I wanted to find something to add to the sauce to make it even better. This recipe definitely did the trick.

Instead of using ground chicken, I baked a chicken breast and then shredded it. I didn’t have any jalapeños, but I did have the diced tomatoes with green chile peppers. I’m not sure it was exactly 10 ounces, as I had used one cup from a 14.5 ounce can earlier in the week for an Indian dish. Other than that I tried to stick to the recipe, although I did add extra onion, both to the inside mixture and on top of the enchiladas once they were rolled into the dish. Once they were done I topped them with some hot sauce and sour cream and they were fantastic! I’ll definitely be making these again.

I apologize for the delay, but I’ve been busy entertaining a couple of friends from high school who are visiting through this coming Sunday. We’ve been eating good so far, including dinner last night at CityGrille and lunch today from Breckenridge Brewery. It was the first time for all of us at CityGrille. I chose it after my friend Ken had his heart stuck on a buffalo burger, which I’m told was very good. Everyone else was also satisfied with their order, so I’ll add this to my list of great places in Denver. Breckenridge Brewery has always been on my list, and was delicious as usual. Ken and Jon should be finishing up their tour of Coors Field shortly, so I better wrap up some work and get back downtown. I’m off the rest of the week and should be busy, so I’ll write more next week.

We found another great Denver area pizza shop over the weekend called Nicolo’s. Kim was in the mood for pizza of the thicker variety, and what better style to look for than Chicago style pie. After searching online, I found that Nicolo’s was in fact Chicago style and had good reviews, so we took a chance and placed an order for delivery. We had the ultimate veggie stuffed pizza and I must say that it was delicious! Most of the time I prefer New York style, but this pizza was loaded with tons of fresh veggies and definitely hit the spot. I wasn’t too impressed with the garlic bread we ordered, to get our purchase up to the minimum needed for delivery, but the pizza easily made up for it.

There are multi locations in the Denver area, including the one we ordered from at 1205 East 13th Avenue.

Last night I made a pasta dish that I’ve made many times before and is still on the top of my list. If spicy sauce is okay with you, I would definitely recommend trying this out sometime. I like it so much that I just had it again for lunch today, minus the wine that we had with it last night. After we ate last night Kim gave me a gift for Christmas. I had been wanting a big pot to cook with, and that’s just what I got, along with a bunch of other new pots and pans. It’s a full set of hard anodized cookware from Kitchenaid. I can’t wait to cook again!

We started off the weekend by going to see SoundRabbit at the D Note in Arvada. We got there early so we could try their pizza that we had heard good things about. It turns out that the pizza is delicious and they have quite an array a vegetarian pizzas. We would definitely head back there often, if it wasn’t a fifteen or twenty minute drive from our house.

The room itself is definitely better suited as a restaurant than a concert venue, although I do appreciate the effort in doing both. The stage is oriented in the center of the long narrow room, so that there aren’t many tables directly in front. The only available table when we arrived was on the far side and directly on the side of the stage. This didn’t make for the best acoustics, but I always enjoy watching drummers closeup when presented the opportunity. As always, the music was great and it was a perfect way to kick off the weekend.

Also, I’d like to point out that SoundRabbit is donating 100% of online album sales in December via SoundRabbit.com to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. So, pick up their latest disc, and support a great cause all at the same time.

After several visits to the Wynkoop Brewery (1536 Wynkoop St), I must say that I am overly unimpressed. Typically a brewpub is right up my alley, but this particular restaurant doesn’t do it for me. First of all, their beers are very average. I’ve sampled a pretty wide variety of their offerings, and I don’t think I’d rank any of them above a seven. I do enjoy some of their food, but their menu is very short and limited. The appetizers are probably the highlight of the menu, and there are only a few dinners that I would (or have had) multiple times. I would much rather head down the street to the Breckenridge Brewery, if searching for a downtown brewpub.

Tonight Kim and I are heading to the holy land, also known as the Great American Beer Festival. We attended this party, I mean event, a couple of years ago, and I must say that it is a must see. There will be 408 breweries on the tasting floor with 1884 different beers available. I have done my research and have put together a plan to hit 43 of these breweries. I figure somewhere around 50 will be the magic number, so I still have some room for suggestions. Here’s the list of participating breweries. Cheers!

I thought I was losing my mind after a recent visit to the nearby Chipotle, but my questions were answered last night. First, a little background. I had a delicious burrito from Chipotle on Monday evening, as I normally do when Kim is out of town for work. Even though I ate the entire thing, I noticed that the rice was a little different than normal. I actually noticed this a week prior, but I just figured it was a one time deal. In both visits, the rice was a darker color than normal, and had a slight crunch to it, almost like a brown rice.

Back to last night, we participated in the Light The Night walk benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Before the actual walk, we were treated to various food items from some of the sponsors, one of which was Chipotle. I grabbed a burrito from the booth and dug right in. To my surprise, the rice was back to the normal white color and tasted just like I always remembered it. I wonder what is going on with the Chiptole on Alameda Ave.

Over the weekend, Kim and I participated in a pub crawl along Colfax Avenue, aka Crawling Colfax For a Cause. Some friends of ours put this event together as a benefit for Spinal Cord Injury Patients, and with the help of everyone participating, raised $1300! So we had a great time and helped out a great cause.

The list of bars we hit included the PS Lounge, Goosetown, Atomic Cowboy, Sengers On The Fax, and Rock Bar. It was a great outing as all of the bars were just a few blocks away, and some were even across the street from each other. I think I enjoyed the Atomic Cowboy the most. This bar included a stack of board games as you walked inside that you could pickup and play all around the bar. I really enjoyed watching people throw back a few beers while playing Connect Four or Guess Who.

Call off the search, we have found a great Mexican restaurant in Denver! With little going on this past Friday, Kim and I decided to head out for dinner after work. I consulted my 5280 magazine from July, which featured the Top Of The Town article, and decided to try the readers’ choice for best Mexican restaurant, Benny’s Restaurante y Tequila Bar (301 E 7th Ave).

I had a combination plate consisting of a cheese enchilada, smothered bean burrito, and a guacamole tostada. I think my favorite thing on the plate was the guacamole. I would highly recommend having their guacamole in some form or another. The rest of my food was delicious as well. Kim ordered a chicken rellenos, which she really seemed to enjoy. I did not try more than a little bite of it, since I had enough food of my own. We also split a liter of margaritas on the rocks, another thing that I would highly recommend. Overall, the food was great and we will definitely be back sometime in the near future.