Just back from a really fun – and cold – afternoon at Invesco Field at Mile High.  The Broncos continued to surprise the skeptical pundits – this time with an overtime wins against the “Boston” Patriots.  Wearing their throw-back yellow and brown uniforms with the striped socks (cheerleaders even wore their 1960s cheerleading attire – reminding many of us old folks of their high school cheerleaders), the Broncos came back from a 10 point halftime deficit.

The defense was fantastic, shutting down – and shutting out – the Patriots high powered offense in the second half.  Although they gave up a season high 17 points in the first half, as has been the case all season, they righted the ship at half-time and took control.

Kyle Orton looked like the quarterback that Coach McDaniel wanted when he traded away Jay Cutler over the summer.  He threw for two touchdowns (two eleven yard strikes to Brandon Marshall) and over 300 yards.  He spread the ball to all of his receivers – including Eddie Royal who came up with a number of first down receptions, Marshall, Gaffney, Moreno (who generated a lot of yardage both rushing and receiving) and his two tight ends – Daniel Graham and Tony Scheffler).

Even two untimely penalties against the Broncos punt receiving team late in the fourth quarter, which gave the Patriots life, weren’t enough to put the Broncos away.  The whole stadium held its breath wondering if the Broncos were going to fall to one of Tom Brady’s patented game-winning drives, but the Broncos just won’t quit.   This team just keeps on fighting.

We all left the stadium horse from shouting and cheering after Prater’s overtime game winner.  And many of in the crowd stopped over at a local bar while waiting to go cheer for the Rockies – another team that doesn’t know the meaning of quit.

Go Broncos!

Go Rockies!

This weekend is jam packed with things to do in Denver that are cheap or free! Get out, enjoy the community, the weather and your local activities!

First Friday –

Santa Fe, RINO and Golden Triangle – I love first friday! A bunch of people get together and look at some really cool art!

I’ve only partaken of Santa Fe – mainly because my favorite Ethiopian Restaurant Arada is there! It makes a good excuse! We have found some fabulous artists that hang in our home during out outings here! Support local art, get some fresh air walking, biking etc between the galleries, and some locals even have beverages and snacks for the visitors!  Check it out!

The People’s Fair –

It has been on my calendar to check this fair out for years. I intend to get there this weekend, will you be there?

Chalk Art At Larimer –

I have been to this even every year since we moved to Colorado! I love it! It is so cool to see all the pictures come to life. Luckily I live downtown so i can pop by a couple times to see the work in progress! The event has grown and grown over the years! There is now a wine booth, and art booth and the chalk art extends past 14th on Larimer and both ways on 14th! Last year it rained Saturday night and I felt terrible for all the hard word washed down the drain. Ugh! Fingers crossed the clouds stay away!

“Standards of Ethical Conduct” –

movie premeir! Can’t wait- chuck roy!

Bronco’s Fan Fair –

I”m not a sports fan – yes I know, sacrilege to even speak those words here in Dever!

For the rest of the population – go see your favorite team!

City Park Jazz –

I have never been to this fabulous musical evening, but have friends that keep bugging me to attend. Soon!

Cherry Creek Farmer’s Market –

see previous post!

Belmar Farmer’s Market –

Opening day Sunday!  This is a really cute farmers market. I went a couple times last year. It starts later than most, and think that is mainly due to the fact that Belmar is dual purpose buildings and people live over the street where the market is! Veggies, flowers, roasted chili peppers, reusable bags and more!

Kindle meet up –

gotta give some love to the geeks!  :)  There is a kindle meetup saturday morning at the Starbucks on the corner of 16th and Blake. If you keep all your books in one slim 8X5 rectangle, meet some others that do the same! Exchange reading tips or just find some new people that share the love of the kindle.

What will you be doing this weekend?

Because if you wanted crawfish in the spring, that’s easy. You call up my buddy Brian Brewster at NoNo’s Cafe (that’s a map and review site; official website is currently unavailable) and you reserve yourself a spot for the next weekend boil. The Metairie native has ’em flown in from the Gulf Coast and serves ’em boiled hot-n-spicy along with potatoes, corn, and sausage at his Littleton restaurant, which is decorated with memorabilia from every southern Louisiana sports and educational institution you can think of: the New Orleans Saints, the LSU Tigers, the Bonnabel Bruins, Brian’s own Rummel Raiders, you name it.

Which experience we’ll explore in more detail at a later time. Right now I’m talking about summer crawfish. Or “crayfish” as I’m told y’all Colorado natives say.

crawfish climbing Mt. Corn

Apparently crawfish season along the Front Range runs exactly opposite the time of year as the Gulf Coast: April to Octoberish, if I remember correctly. During that time, Golden-located Cowboy Crawfish, harvests All Natural Wild-Caught Crawfish and sells ’em throughout the region. I bought four pounds of live mudbugs from him Saturday morning ($20 @ $5/lb, feeds 2) at the Boulder Farmer’s Market, followed his advice to keep them alive overnight, and cooked ’em Sunday in time to pull the tails and suck the heads during the Saints game (what you’d probably call the Broncos game, right? Congrats on your win, by the way. Sweating a bit during the 4th quarter, weren’t you?). The crawdads wuz delish.

You gotta keep ’em alive because you gotta boil ’em live. Sorry. It’s not that we’re in favor of excess cruelty; it’s that, as with most other shellfish, the meat becomes inedible very quickly after the critter’s demise. So here’s the advice I followed:

1. Put crawfish in large, smooth-sided container; I used a soup pot. Why smooth-sided? Because the crawfish will find any irregularities in the surface and use ’em as a staircase out of captivity, and then they’ll be crawling all over your fridge.
2. Cover this container with a damp (not soaking) cloth.
3. Place shards of crushed ice on top this cloth.
4. Stretch plastic wrap over the whole thing. Perforate for breathing holes.
5. Place container in the back of your refrigerator, wherever the temperature is coldest and most stable.

The point is to try to keep the crawfish at around 34 degrees F, just above freezing, so that they go sorta dormant. Supposedly it’s possible to keep ’em alive for up to two weeks like this. I can vouch for the efficacy of this overnight, in any case; out of those 4 pounds, only 3 of the critters died.

crawlin with crawfish

So Sunday morning I put the drain trap in the sink and poured the bugs in. (If you haven’t had your sink full of live, crawling crustaceans, you haven’t lived.) Then I used the sink’s spray extension on them to wake ’em up so I could cull the dead ones out. Meanwhile the soup pot, freshly rinsed, was being brought to a boil with about a third of a can of Cajun Land Complete Seafood Boil in it. A full can should season 12 lbs, so I thought a third can could season 4. It was a tad mild, as it turned out; next time I’ll use half.

Bringing the pot to boil

Here’s what I’d do about timing next time; I got this a little wrong yesterday:

1. Once water comes to a rolling boil, dump in your little red potatoes. Let cook 5 minutes.
2. Add corn cobs cut in halves or thirds. Let cook another 5 minutes.
3. Dump in live crawfish. (Sorry, little dudes.) Let cook another 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and add a tray of ice. Let entire pot sit for 30 minutes to soak up flavor.

During the soaking time, set the table thusly: Stretch a paint tarp over your eating surface and cover with a good layer of newspaper. Put out one roll of paper towels per 4 or 5 guests. Have cans of soda and beer ice cold and ready to pop open. Put out some butter and spreading knives if you like that on your veggies.

Sample the crawfish periodically to see if they’re seasoned enough yet. When they are, drain ’em and bring ’em to the table. Enjoy.

The wreckage

And that’s how to have a crawfish boil in the Denver area in September. If you wanna try it, you can call Cowboy Crawfish at (303) 948-4993. Or, if you want all the yummy and none of the work, check out Highland Pacific Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 3934 W 32nd Ave. in Denver, who buy Cowboy Crawfish and host crawfish boils in much the same way Nono’s Cafe does. Or so I’m told. Call them at (303) 477-6644.