May 4, 2014 · 9:41 pm

Local Love: Tiller’s Kitchen and Bar

Nothing gets by Keri.

Except when it does.

The opening of Tiller’s Kitchen and Bar in Westminster was an example of “when it does.”

Tiller’s opened at the beginning of April in the newly constructed Denver Marriot Westminster, and though there wasn’t much press surrounding the opening, I have NO CLUE how a new spot dedicated to using local ingredients in an approachable yet inventive way could’ve escaped creating a blip on my radar for almost a whole month! Quelle horreur!

Thank goodness their community-minded vision led the restaurant to participate in Project Angel Heart’s Dining Out For Life event on April 24th – I like to do at least 2 meals out that day, and lo-and-behold there was Tiller’s, listed on the website as I plotted the day’s culinary roadmap.

A preliminary Googling let immediately to a picture of their Beer Cheese Fondue (made with 90 Shilling) and toast bites.

Oh. Mah. Gah.

Liquid cheese? The mothership calling Keri home, yo.

TO THE KERI MOBILE!!

Tiller’s space is a lovely-if-fairly-standard version of an upscale hotel restaurant dining area. Good finishes and lots of light; spotless, serene.   It is comfortable and tasteful and allows for a good amount of room (no sitting on top of the next table here – YAY!)

The food?

Oh yeah.

First of all, there’s that Beer Cheese fondue. Broiled crusty on top, gooey and oozey inside, with a nice balemce between cheese and beer. Purrrrrrr-fec-tion.
image

There are MANY choices on this menu I *must* try, (in case you were wondering where to find Keri,) but for this lunch the Lamb BLT couldn’t be passed over.

Fresh, hearty bread piled with butter lettuce, beautiful heirloom tomatoes, rosemary aioli, and one more thing: LAMB BACON.
image

Yes. Bacon made of lamb. Really really REALLY good- salty bacon with an extra little earthy kick.
The sandwich is, no exaggeration, the best BLT I’ve ever had. (When I was pregnant, I ate BLTs at least once day for 4 months without fail. Keri has strong opinions about BLTs.)

If everything coming out of Tiller’s kitchen is this good, then I am really excited to eat my way through every dish they can dish out.

The top of Tiller’s menu says “Thinking Colorado First. Serving Food Less Traveled.”

That in itself is a promising statement, indeed.

———————————
Tiller’s Kitchen And Bar Website
(in the Denver Marriott Westminster)
7000 Church Ranch Blvd
Westminster CO. 80021

5 Comments

Filed under Local Love

April 30, 2014 · 9:08 am

Let’s do the time warp again. Just Sayin’.

This morning I was driving down Main street toward the high school, in a Jeep Cherokee, drinking a Dr. Pepper, tapping a cowboy-boot-clad foot to Echo & The Bunnymen, and running 15 minutes late.  It suddenly occurred to me that the EXACT same description could’ve been 20 years ago.

You can’t outrun the past, Keri.

Just Sayin’.

1 Comment

Filed under Just Sayin'

Tagged as , ,

April 28, 2014 · 5:44 pm

“Clean”

image

This is what “completely clean” looks like in our back living space, looking out from the kitchen over the island.
It involves toy storage, and a booster sticking out of the dining area, and Cozy Coupe parking.
And Elmo. Always Elmo.

Birthday cards and baby monitor and Little People buildings tucked in every corner.

In my kitchen there are sippy cup valves and snack trap lids drying in the rack along side my crystal wine glasses. Finger painted masterpieces and preschool info adorn the front of our refrigerator.

It’s not what “clean” used to be.

Gone are the days of perfectly arranged vignettes of breakable, ripable, pretty little such-and-sos on low tables.

Artfully “chopped” pillows carefully placed on completely straight sofas and chairs are fairly well a thing of the past at this point.

There are families in our life who confine the toys to playrooms and snacking to highchairs. Those who have perfectly coordinated family command centers to tastefully display artwork and schedules and information.
I kind of thought that would be us. The Mr is such a clean freak that for the first year or so of marriage, I took my glass if I left a room, because he would put it in the dishwasher if I left it sitting while I went to the loo. (Not. Kidding.) We have space for a playroom, and I do have frames in my office where I swap Jr’s art projects in and out to show them off.

Here’s the kicker.

I love seeing that “stuff. ” I like the toy cubbies and extra dish drying rack (hello- ours looks like fake grass! Cute!) and the Cozy Coupe parked by my dining table.

I like knowing that the things of our family surround us day-to-day; a place for everything, but it’s ok if things show while in their place.

Soon enough Elmo and plastic Easter eggs and tiny tricycles won’t be needed or wanted anymore.

Soon enough vases and plants can find homes on lower shelves, and protective blankets won’t be needed for sofa snack times.

Soon enough our family things will be very different, indeed.

I hope those things will find their places in our day-to-day decor as well, and reflect each of us to those we welcome into our home. Not gratuitous, but always gracious.

That’s the perfect kind of “clean” in this house.

2 Comments

Filed under musing

Tagged as , ,

April 21, 2014 · 11:21 am

Naming names.

I have a crippling habit of tendency to give names to inanimate objects.

I should probably stop, but Keri gets attached to things, m’kay?

So a little over a week ago when GiGi, my beloved Samsung Galaxy S3 started having serious issues functioning, I couldn’t contain my concern. (I’m not pointing any fingers at what caused her illness, but I’m pretty sure it rhymes with “smelly jean sore point tree.” If that means nothing to you, it’s ok… not the point anyway.)

She was fading fast, and no amount of the phone version of using Doctor Google was really helping.

I had to stop the powercycling madness.

So, after one last night with her sleeping on my chest, I took her down to the Sprint store and had her put down. There were tears, I can’t lie. (Mostly because there were also witnesses. Lots of witnesses.)

I suppose it is best not to acknowledge the depth of my phone obsession by giving the device a name. Lesson learned?

HELL NO.

I emerged from the Sprint store with Samy the S4 all activated and full of GiGi’s information essence, beginning the story anew. (Mommy loves you Samy. )
THE QUEEN IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

It isn’t a new story. Not even close. In 1981 my family got a brand spanking new Ford Courier pick up truck which we promptly dubbed “Freddie Ford.” Freddie was a good little truck and when I got my license over 10 years later, he was my first car.

But teenage Keri was wildly mildly unprepared for the responsibility of driving, and so both Freddie and I ended up rolling into a cow pasture outside of Boulder just a few weeks before the start of my sophomore year of high school.   He wasn’t really totaled, but he wasn’t drivable either. So he sat on one side of the family garage for months, his various engine liquids leaked out from around his headlamps and made it look like he was crying.  I would pass him each day, and the guilt regarding his condition would be refreshed.  Oh Freddie, I am so sorry for what I did to you. You were a good family member and I took you down.

:::pausing to look for tissue:::

Years later I got my first Ford Escape, and in honor of Freddie, I named him (or rather my cousin did, I believe, because freak runs in the family,) “Frederico Escapé. ”

Now, after years of driving Escapes, my time with Frederico Escapé III grows short. Alas, Ford went and jacked up the body style of the Escape so much that Frederico Three’s name will retire with him as I move into a new era of vehicle choice.

Which makes me feel guilty about this Frederico, and those that came before, and even for the incident in the cow pasture all those years ago with Freddie the Family Ford.

I am forsaking them. I just know it.

It is this thought process that confirms that I probably shouldn’t name inanimate objects. Things aren’t people. That car does not feel bad because you are heartlessly throwing it over trading it in, Keri.

Really.

Hmmm….

What’s a good name for a Jeep?

2 Comments

Filed under musing

Tagged as , ,

April 14, 2014 · 12:47 pm

Last Week I Lost My Notebook.

Last week I lost my notebook.

Just a cheapy, typical , one-subject, wide-ruled situation – totally unassuming and nondescript.

“BFD, Keri – hit up the Walgreens for another. Problem solved for 50 cents. Talk about something interesting, m’kay?”

Yeah…

No.

(To the replacement part, not the interesting topic part – I am consumed by the loss, so it MUST be important, get on board with me here, people.)

What I should really say is “I lost my ability to navigate though life, in written form, and now I am completely hosed and lost and not sure where to start to pick up the pieces. Excuse my while I cower under my desk.”

I write shit down.

If I don’t write shit down, I don’t remember it.  Like AT. ALL.

If our house was the United States of America, that notebook would be the Nuclear Football.  (I also like this analogy because that makes me “The President”.  Hell yes.)

In the days since it disappeared into thin air, I keep stumbling into the many ways I am dependent on the information it contains.

Last Thursday when I got home and couldn’t find it, I convinced myself it must’ve been left at the office. (It wasn’t, it isn’t, it is just gone. GONE!)

“What’s for dinner?” inquired The Mr.

“Oh I…..”   (DEAR GOD) “I. Don’t. Know.”

Because my menu plan is in the notebook.

Now I realize that sounds crazy.   It is dinner, right? Open fridge, take out ingredients, make food, feed family. Done.

Oh, ho ho – not even close.

Ingredients for dinners get pulled from the freezer, having undergone various stages of prep prior to storage, days before their appointed meal.  Use the right protein in the wrong way, and the ripple effect for other planned meals could mean chaos!

Reaching in and randomly grabbing things to cook with no plan? We’re not animals, folks, come on!

Also, I have found that this kind of haphazard culinary roulette frequently results in a situation where the cook is standing in a kitchen FULL of ingredients and thinking “there is NOTHING for dinner!”   You just can’t see the forest through the trees sometimes.

This ties into another major hole the notebook’s disappearance has ripped open in my world: that of the grocery price list/kitchen inventory.

A running tally of what I currently have in my very full freezer and pantry; along with a grid of all of the staple items I have to buy on a regular basis to keep Jr, The Mr, and yours truly all chug-chugging along every day, and how much those items cost at 4 different stores.

All of that information gets used along with the weekly circulars from the stores to create the shopping list and menu for the next week (also all “safely” contained in the notebook.)

Yep – I am THAT crazy. That kind of crazy works really well for me.

Here’s the thing – I also have to write down things like “start laundry before conference call,” and “extra snack to school for Jr,” and ANYTHING else I actually want to accomplish, because Keri forgets.

Keri forgets EVERYTHING.

The notebook never forgets.

The notebook is gone. The EVERYTHING is forgotten.

I am reborn a notebookless, clueless, forgetful mess. One who has NO idea what is in her freezer and no hope of remembering to buy a new notebook.

Because really – where the hell am I supposed to write that down?

 

 

11 Comments

Filed under musing

Tagged as