Old Major

Oh hey there, world. It’s been a while. A lot has changed since my last post, and yet nothing has. I still like eating the most, I’m just doing it out in Denver now.

I’ve been to a surprising amount of restaurants in the city so far considering I’ve only been here for three weeks. I’ve enjoyed most of them - a place called Humboldt is wonderful, Euclid Hall is everything you could want in a sausage, and we crashed Linger’s industry night one Monday and couldn’t have been luckier.  However, Monday night’s meal at Old Major was the closest I’ve come to feeling “home” since I’ve been out here.

Having the privilege to work at Tony Maw’s masterpiece, Craigie on Main, was one of the most humbling, difficult, and developmental experiences I’ve had in a workplace.  Physically and mentally, it was the most challenging position I’ve held to date, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it. I respect the men and women who are still there immensely, and will continue to send everyone I know in that direction.

Tangent aside, the point is that Old Major is the first place that I’ve been out in Denver that reminds me of the Craigie mentality and lifestyle. Even the websites and pig logos are similar. These places have a profound respect for food, and it shows in everything they do.  Old Major’s “seafood, swine, and wine” mantra translates into spectacular squid with sundried tomatoes and sausage, a venison tartare with brioche and a poached egg that actually made me flush with pleasure, and pork-fat French fries. Yeah, you heard me.

I have a feeling that I will be back there often, especially when I’m missing my fine friends way out in Cambridge, MA. And I know that when they come to visit, this is the first place we’ll go.

Old Major is located at 3316 Tejon St, Denver, CO 80211.

Lemon Goat Cheese Pasta

Today was one of those days. I just needed carbs. Not a piece of toast, not a cracker, but a massive bowl of pasta. This could in part have corresponded to the fact that I was slightly hungover, but I’d like to think it was more due to the kickass workout I had at the gym earlier. Either way, pasta was needed.

I fooled around with some inspiration I’d seen online and what I had in the fridge, and came up with this lovely dish. Super easy and really fast. The goat cheese adds a little comfort, while the lemon really brightens things up. I think adding chickpeas actually would have made it infinitely better and will be doing that with my leftovers. Or maybe even sundried tomatoes.

All it takes is some pasta boiled in salted water (I used quinoa pasta) and after its done, put about a cup of the water in a large saucepan, add in about 4 oz goat cheese, a bag of spinach, the juice of half a lemon and some zest from it, and stir to combine over medium heat until the spinach is wilted. Throw in the pasta, top with finely chopped walnuts for some added protein, and maybe a sprinkle of Parmesan, and voila! Carb craving satisfied.

Lent

Lent is always a selfish time for me. I know that Lent is supposed to be a time of contemplation – sacrificing something for 40 days is supposed to mirror the suffering of Jesus and the fact that he gave up his life, etc. My issues with this are that a. nothing I give up will ever be as severe as what Jesus did and b. I like to use Lent as a much heavier-guilt ridden diet.

So due to my recent bout of food poisoning that coincided nicely with the start of Lent, I am giving up meat. (Apparently said food poisoning was caused by raw or undercooked chicken. Considering I haven't eaten chicken in months, this is alarming). Since I also didn’t eat or drink anything for five days, I am continuing to not drink coffee, and I really am not going to eat gluten. For real this time. Except for the pizza I split with Katherine last night.

Regardless, there will be quite a few recipes showing up that are meatless. Meatless doesn’t have to mean bad though, as my dinner this evening proved. I should be embarrassed to say that I based my meal off of a recipe I found in Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, but whatever. The lady makes some good eats. I decided to put a spin on her side dish recipe for “Green Rice” – brown rice with kale and scallions and soy sauce. I one-upped it by adding crumbled goat cheese and a fried egg – voila! Dinner. The nice thing about this one too is that it’s pretty versatile. I might scramble an egg tomorrow and throw in some black beans and use the rice for a breakfast burrito. Yum.

2013

I just spent a solid hour in Whole Foods. Not even a casual, ADD hour but one that was focused and intent (except for the detour provided by the spicy food sample marathon that was occurring). All because on my day off, in the sleet, all I wanted to do was eat my feelings. I don’t even really have any feelings worth eating right now, but I found a brownie recipe that was sure to be life altering and so happened to be gluten and sugar free so I could pretend like I was making healthy life choices.

Do you know what possibly the WORST thing ever is? Getting home after dislocating your shoulder from cramming everything into one plastic reusable Whole Foods bag and trudging up a sleet covered brick hill, deciding that the lack of a pan to bake the brownies in can be substituted with a skillet, and a pot can become a mixing bowl, to realize THAT YOU FORGOT THE BAKING POWDER. I think that feeling might be even worse than the last breakup I had. It’s about four and a half punches to the stomach. Because no matter what, you can’t substitute baking powder with something else. Baking powder is the substitute for baking soda. Which I also don’t have. And we all know I’m not going back outside. Ugh. So now I’m eating my feelings with cheddar cheese and sesame rice crackers and debating wine while I make real food.

It’s nice to be back in the kitchen. To me, cooking feels like that scene in Bridesmaids where she’s all by herself and makes that one cupcake with such care. So basically it feels nothing like that except it brings me peace. Kind of like a calorie ridden yoga. It also feels lovely to be back to blogging about things I care about. No offense Bus2alps, it was real, but I would never blog about “we are all just people” if I didn’t have a once a week blog commitment. Blehhh. I’m embarrassed for myself. The only reason I’m not deleting them is because it would take away page views.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I’ve decided this is going to be a good year. 2013; the year of blogging, the year of Boston, the year of the hot Bod, and so forth.  I’m going to try and hold myself more accountable by making it public – I know, I know, how original, but whatever. So bring it on 2013. Let’s do this.