How I’ve Been Living, Laughing, and Loving Lately

Jul 13

Hi hi! Back with an update instead of a list, if you even care. Check out what I’ve been up to! Hehe.

New Fave MAKfam

MAKfam…let me just say I thought this place was fantastic. Yes, I’m so late to getting here, but now I am and I’m ready to go back. MAKfam is a Michelin Bib Gourmand Chinese restaurant, which means it’s incredible food, but at a lower price than your usual Michelin-starred restaurants (high quality, high value). This makes it so easy to try a bunch of plates of incredible food at a price that literally blew my mind. It is walk-in only, no reservations, and it fills up, so plan accordingly! My husband and I ordered: the crab and cheese rangoons. 10/10, incredible, I LOVED! The sauce is almost apple-pie-ish and it mixed perfectly with the fried outside of the rangoon and the cheeeeesy amazing inside. For entrees we got the Beef Stir Fry Noodles which were so tasty, with the beef, veggies, and super-skinny noodles. We also grabbed the Hong Kong-Style Curry, which came with rice on the side. The flavor!! It was like this chicken soup but better? Highly recommend the dishes we got, but we need to go back for more dishes as well because I have a feeling it’s ALL. GOOD! On Broadway, can be tough for parking, just take a few blocks. It’s not like you have a reservation! Ha!

the sunset the other way, while we waited

Cars and Coffee at High Plains Raceway

We headed out east to High Plains Raceway for an event they held over the weekend, Cars and Coffee! It’s a free event that anyone can bring their cars to to show off, or to go and look at the cars being shown off, but usually both. We tried to go early since it’s been HOT and there’s not really any shade out at the Raceway, but it was still pretty dang sweltering. There was also a Corvette lapping event happening, so we watched some of them around the track, which is always fun. My husband restores old, cool cars and brought out his current project, a Saab named Astrid. It was SO fun to see people taking pictures and looking at his car!! I love seeing some different Subarus, BMWs, Civics, let me not go on. We also had some great coffee from the two coffee trucks there; I forget how much that helps cool a person down. I grabbed an iced Cookie Butter Latte from The Golden Espresso and it was, hand on heart, one of the best fun lattes I’ve had in a long time. So good. Ryder got a frozen Hot Chocolate from the other coffee truck, Cattle Grounds, and shit that was GOOD. We had a great time and left real sweaty. Follow along on Ryder’s project cars on Instagram @RyderSpeedShop !

Liks Night!!

Liks is my favorite ice cream in town and we had to head over the other night because it was calling me. I got 2 scoops in a cup - Smore’s (they have the #1 best smore’s ice cream in town and if you disagree you are wrong!) and Rocky Road, and Ryder got two sherberts, a cherry one and I don’t remember the flavor of the other one but it was orange and tasty. We love to sit outside and eat our ice cream and people watch and dog watch and chill. I miss the Billionaires flavor, lately it’s been gone.

Peachza at Cart Driver

Oooooo one thing I look forward to is peach things in the summer, and Cart Driverhas one of my faves: their Peachza. It’s perfect and delicious and this year was no different. We headed over midday to miss any rushes and got our pizza and demolished that thing. The brie on it is so good. Mmmm one of my faves. We went to the RiNo location but I believe they have it in LoHi too!

Velvet Lasso <3

The new bombshell in the villa, Velvet Lasso is a newer coffee shop and cutie cafe/lounge that opened in LoHi. It’s sooo dang cute, with a bunch of little trinkets and pretty things with a cozy vibe inside. They do some breakfast pastries and foods and then of course coffee, which I was there for. They had this Flaky Behavior undertow (a layered coffee drink with milk/flavor on the bottom and espresso on top, and you drink it in one go) that I really wanted to try, and it didn’t disappoint! I loved it! I also got a chocolate chip cookie and DANG that thing was good. Perfectly chocolate chippy and salty. Ryder got an iced chai and it was perfect too!! Spicy, not too sweet, ugh. Wow. Color me impressed! They do cafe hours and lounge hours so check before you go!

I Made a Kuchen

I grew up German in North Dakota and kuchen was a staple on both sides of my family. I was craving some and we had some right nectarines, so I looked up a recipe online while I was at the grocery store and got to work. It turned out soooo so fabulous, but not like I remembered. This was a different version, so when I got home I opened my First Lutheran Church Cookbook from the 1960s, and sure enough there’s a recipe in there for kuchen that looks closer to what I used to eat. I’ll try that and report back. Either way you can’t make a bad one, I found out.

Fourth of July + Magna Kainan

We spent the fourth of July with our friends that have a pool, yes, we’re blessed and lucky and grateful. It was awesome. It was a hot as hell day and we all had snacks, but that didn’t matter because Magna Kainan, a Filipino restaurant in RiNo, catered to the pool! Y’all. They grilled ribs and meat, had salad and sliders, and my favorite part…the potato salad. It was incredible. Now we just have to get to the restaurant! Haha. We also got to watch a hotdog contest which was…interesting. It was fab to be able to get in and out of the pool because it was a dang hot day! I think we all did like 4 layers of sunscreen, and that’s how you know we’re out of our twenties. Not a burn in sight!

New Clothes

You all know I’m picky about my clothes and I don’t just buy something, it has to fit into my wardrobe. Welllll I went to the mall (Nordstrom’s) to look at these Steve Madden jellies I’d been wanting and ended up with those and a new Free People tank top! The tank top is asymmetrical and brown (online it looks more red - can confirm in person it is definitely brown with no red tones) and I love it. The jellies are tortoise which I also love. Love love love. I also found an asymmetrical (theme? me? never.) black skirt on Depop that I have yet to get! I always try to find things on Depop or Poshmark first because truly I just don’t want to buy a ton of new shit and contribute to so much trash etc etc and because I like to have a mix of trendy and classic pieces. Anyway.

Rollerblading at Crown Hill Park

If you’re looking for a superb place to skate in a circle with a nice paved trail, Crown Hill Park is it! I found this through searching Reddit…because we needed some new trails and spots to do some fast skating, some laps you know. I love it over here! So it’s a circular paved trail that goes around a pond and has a great view of the mountains. I really like how wide the trail is, no worries in passing people like at Sloan’s Lake. There’s also ample parking with its own 2 parking lots. There’s a bit of shade as well which is great!

Cool sweet awesome yay! You made it to the end. Thanks for reading! I love ya! Don’t forget to give people the energy they give you right back! <3 Anna