The Flagstaff House!

so for dinner we went to the Flagstaff House Restaurant which is on top of the mountains 

and has this absolutely amazing view...and we ordered everything ;)

first the chef brought us out these little squares of toasts, one with this tomato olive paste mixture and one with the sweetest goat cheese I've ever had with a tiny sliced peach on top. I didn't get to take a picture of them because they were so good we ate them before I remembered to haha

then again from the chef we had a salmon and scallop pie slice. The salmon and scallop were blended together with this sweet corn on the side that paired it perfectly. It was delicious.

then they gave us bread. I chose cinnamon walnut. To the left is little personal butters with pink salt crystals on top :) 

then we shared an arugula salad with prosciutto, shaves of parmesan and figs. 

We then had this, a twelve hour braised kurobuta 'bacon' (kurobuta is the name of a special black pig that is prized for its tenderness and high fat content. Because of this it's great for long cooking, hence 12 hour braised. It was accompanied by seared crisp green frisee, thinly sliced blood orange, all sitting in a maple sherry reduction. 

then we were looking to get another appetizer before our cheese plate arrived and I thought we should get the foie gras and sweet breads but everyone was hesitant so while I was still looking for something else, the waiter comes over and is like here you, go your foie gras and sweetbreads and we were all confused and then he told me that my mother had sent it, and I thought of course, even though she's not physically here, she still managed to attend the dinner haha by of course ordering the appetizer I would have ordered as well :). So this is a new york state foie gras sautéed with crispy seared sweetbreads sitting on brioche toast in a port reduction and bing cherries on the side.

then we our cheese plate arrived. I'm not exactly sure of every single one but the blue cheese and the triple cream brie were definitely my favorites. The plate also came with rasin walnut toast and medjool dates.

then came one of my favorite things of the night. Before our entrees   we were served this mango sorbet which was amazing to start with. But then the chef came out and put a tiny bit of beluga vodka into each cup, the sweetest vodka I have ever tried. It was absolutely spectacular, and especially paired with the mango sorbet it was amazing :). I definitely recommend everyone going out and buying a bottle of it :)

then our entrees came out. We had seared red snapper which was delicious..

Colorado rack of lamb, lamb loin and braised lamb shank which was absolutely amazing. (The lamb loin was my favorite part). It was sitting on top of an italian heirloom polenta, ratatouille vegetables, goat cheese and lamb jus. When you mixed the goat cheese with the mashed potatoes and the lamb loin, oh my goodness that was delicious.

and an all natural ribeye cap with mashed potatoes, crispy fried onions all held together by a potato ring...soo yummy :)

then we took a little break from eating and I took some pictures of the amazing view :)

 

and 

of us

and then our tea came out with the sweetest tea pot

and a whole tray of goodies for it. Left to right, homemade cream, brown sugar in the raw, lemon and lime slices, chocolate and white chocolate chips, mints, white sugar in the raw, sugar cubes, granulated white and brown sugar and then more homemade cream :)

and I couldn't get over how cool the tea bags were

and while we were drinking tea this little pot of amazingness came out. Probably my favorite dish of the entire night...I'm not exactly sure what it was but it tasted like a strawberry meringue creamy pudding. It was soo soo sooooo good

and if we weren't full enough we got an assorted plate of ice cream. The yellow was a salted caramel which was amazing, going to the right, vanilla, black cherry and chocolate, all of which were soo good.

and then the chef sent us out these little morsels of goodness. I tried the one with the strawberry on top and it was delicious. It was a lemony cream on top of short bread with a slice of strawberry.

and then we got this, Valrhona liquid chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. We had to order it in the beginning of the meal because they baked it right then and there. It was very very rich as you could imagine but it was very very delicious 

and after Jacob made a yin yang in his tea

they gave us each a loaf of poppy seed blueberry bread to take home :). This place was absolutely amazing, and I recommend anyone stopping by the boulder area to definitely go and check it out. It is not something you want to miss out on :)

seeing Death Cab for Cutie at Red Rocks!

so on the last week before school, I flew across to Boulder again for one last thing...1. a piece of this delicious cinnamon bread ;)

but 2. to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Red Rocks Amphitheater!! 

which is absolutely beautifully built into the rocks 

and so awesome

we were so excited :)

and then we walked up to the top and looked out at the amazing view it had

and checked out how awesome the rocks were

and then Death Cab went on

and they really were

spectacular

visiting my brother in CT!

so I went to visit my brother at his house in Connecticut

first we stopped by his garden to see his ridiculously tall sunflowers

like this 

then I gave him this cookbook that I knew only he would enjoy haha

then we went to his bandmates Chris's house to pack up the car for the show

but first we had to jump the car 

but then we were on our way!

and the back was all packed up

oh I forgot to mention that we were driving a boat not a car

but anyyyway

they were playing at the arch street tavern in hartford, ct

and they were really good

and

the space was really neat

and they rocked out

and played really well :)

http://theproudflesh.bandcamp.com/

the next morning we drove up to the top of a mountain behind my brothers house

which has an awesome view from the top

and we saw this pretty butterfly 

and then one landed on my shoulder and hung out for a while

and then we walked around Yale

or should I say Hogwarts 

or should I say Gringotts, the bank of the wizarding word ;)

but then he took me to the beinecke, a (very large) rare book collection located on Yale's campus 

and the whole building is made out of marble, but it's cut so thinly that natural light can shine in without damaging the books, how cool is that?

and all the books are in this massive glass case that would be awesome for a music video or something and all around it is famous books and manuscripts. Like for example, there's The Great Gatsby original manuscript with all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's original notes 

like really? it's pretty amazing

oh yea and there's the Gutenberg Bible, no big deal, just the first major book printed with a movable type press, it just changed the entire world forever ya know nothing too special. Oh and did I forget to mention it's one out of only 21 surviving copies in the world?

then of course we went to Miya's sushi restaurant, something which no one should skip when coming to New Haven. This one is called the best crunchy roll ever. Yes, it does sound like something I would call it, but it really is called that! And the name definitely is true, I didn't even want to finish it because I didn't want it to be over. It was tuna and avocado inside rice with crunchy chili and herb crusted tempera crumbs on top  

and this is what my brother got, haha it might look like a lot but each of those rolls are like 2 bucks so why not? I can't remember them all but the one all the way in the back left is sweet potato and the one in the far right is spicy brocoli 

and then we went into this crazy cluttered shop which you weren't meant to take pictures in but 1. it's me and 2. how could anyone resist?!