Outstanding in the Field Farm Dinner (Dallas) - Oct 2014

Outstanding in the Field

Chef Graham (GD) Dodds

Keith's brother Graham was invited to be the feature chef at the Dallas leg of Outstanding in the Field.  While in Texas only 3 weeks earlier fro FUCAT, we decided to fly back and join the family for the dinner.  Our flight got in late on the Friday night due to thunderstorms in the area - we almost didn't land as the pilot said we may have to land in Austin.  As a result, we did not get to Chez Dodds until quite late and thus went straight to bed.

Jen, Keith, Peter and Margaret

Jean and Graham

With the blackout curtains at the house, we really slept in - Shawna did not rise until 10am!  With no time to got to the gym, we just went for an hour walk around the neighborhood, ending up on the Cotton Belt Trail which is a nicer walk than just walking Glade.  It took about 1.5 hours so we had a quick shower before heading to Dallas.  The event was held at Spiceman's FM 410, an urban farm in East Dallas.  Before going to the farm we stopped by Jimmy's Food Store, an Italian grocery store just a couple of doors down and picked up a few bottles of wine.

Peter and Jen

Shawna and Keith

The farm is a 11,000 sq ft lot behind the retail space for the store which distributes local organic produce.  There was a single long table set up in the field for all 100 of us to sit.  Peter and Jen had arrived 10 minutes prior and snagged the 7 seats at the end - so we were set with a place to sit.  Margaret showed up shortly after we did - Owen's soccer game was rained out so she was able to join us on time.  The afternoon started out with Duchman Family local wine as well as appetizers including manchego with chorizo and apple, burrata with fig, rabbit pate and scotch eggs.  We chatted with each other until the owners of Outstanding in the Field gave a short speech - then we all sat down for dinner.  The dinner was served family style, with kale and watermelon salad, crispy okra, roasted beets, eggplant puree, herb and mushroom ravioli, short ribs with squash and finally "mum's" mince pies for dessert.  We ate and chatted until about 6pm when the dinner wrapped up.  After dinner, we joined my parents and sister for Gone Girl at a movie theater across from Keith's old Steak and Ale.  The movie was nowhere near as good as the book.

Food from the Event

Sunday was another sleep-in (lazy!) - Keith did a bit of work in the morning and then we joined Keith's parents for a walk around the Dallas Arboretum which was decorated for the Fall.  We saw the new Children's Garden for the first time - it was really well done.  Following that, we had lunch at Toulouse where we had a bottle of wine and mussels all around.  Following lunch, we headed over to the George W Bush library.  It was really well done so we spent about an hour looking around.  We then drove home, had a needed nap, then headed to Margaret's for some BBQ ribs that Damon had been smoking all day - they were just fantastic.  Margaret took us to the airport which then ended a great weekend.

Dallas Arboretum 

Madam President and Mr. Vice President - Bush Library

Jennifer Rapp Visit - Sept 2014

 

Jennifer and Todd

Jennifer (a colleague of Shawna's) and Todd (Jennifer's boyfriend) came to visit us for the weekend.  They arrived in Denver on Friday night and stayed at a hotel downtown and then joined us at our house on Saturday.  After giving them the tour of the house and unloading the gazillion pieces of luggage that Jennifer had, we went over to Tap and Dough near our house for lunch where we had salad and beer.  We then went to see the Chihuly Exhibit at the Botanic Gardens.  Keith and Shawna had seen the exhibit on opening night so was cool to see it with less people around. 

Chihuly Exhibit

On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Linger where we shared a number of yummy dishes after having a few drinks at the outside bar.  After dinner, we attempted to get Little Man ice cream but the line was crazy long so we opted to get a few more beers at The Ale House.  By this time, the line died down somewhat so we went back for ice cream.  Quite full at this point, we returned home to crash for the evening.

Shawna and Jennifer at the Chihuly Exhibit

On Sunday, we went for a walk in the park and then drove up to Boulder to the Avery Brewing Company for the release of the Rumpkin beer.  Shawna stuck to wheat beer (which Keith sipped as well) while Jennifer and Todd tried all of the beers they had on tap.  We then drove to Longmont and grabbed a late lunch at Oskar Blues, followed by a visit to the Oskar Blues Brewery where we tasted more beer.  This brewery was pretty cool with large tables both in and outside with large garage doors that opened to the outside.  There was also a bluegrass band playing which was quite good.  We returned home and just relaxed for the evening, snacking on tomato salad and hummus with pita (we were quite full from the day) and watching TV. 

Shawna and Jennifer at Avery Brewing Company

Jenn and Todd left for Vail on Monday morning where they were going to spend a few nights in the mountains.  It was great to have them over and fun to venture out to breweries we had not yet been to!