Cocktail, Nawlins & Beer Fest #2

To start, I must mention that I found the best summer/spring cocktail ever. I'm a big fan of Hendrick's Gin (infused with cucumber and rose, mmm) and after passing the boards I treated myself to a bottle. Looking around Hendrick's website, which is really cute, I found some awesome cocktails. My favorite so far is the Cucumber Cooler:

1.5 parts Hendricks Gin
3/4 parts St. Germain (Elderflower liquor, soo yummy!)
half of a lime, juiced
a few slices of cucumber
topped with soda water
Stir and enjoy!

Now to find a new fall/winter cocktail!

As I mentioned in the last post, Collin's friend from CU stayed over on Friday night. His wife is a serious runner and was in a race up in Denver this weekend. Since she was staying with the rest of her running team, Frank decided to pay us a visit! We planned to go downtown but (once again it fell through) changed our minds and decided to go somewhere closer to our place. We ended up going to a bar/restaurant called Nawlins BBQ (phonetically spelled form of how some say New Orleans--get it?!) that was pretty good. We've been on a mission to find the best wings in the Springs and as of Friday night, Nawlins is winning! The wings were smoked first and then doused in yummy sauce, SO good! I don't like sweet wings at all but these were more of a smokey/tangy/sweet and very spicy. We're definitely going back for more!

Saturday after Frank left for Denver, Christian and Colleen came down from Denver. We got tickets for the All Colorado Beer Festival and were glad that they could join us. Colleen made buffalo chicken dip (Collin's favorite!) and I made crab wontons and artichoke dip which we all dug into before our cab arrived. 

When we got to the convention center (40 minutes early) it was pretty much dead. No one was waiting in line (as was the case with the Great American Beer Festival) and the groups of people standing around slowly disappeared as cabs and rides came to pick them up from the noon session. We were getting nervous that this was going to be a huge bust (well, I was anyway. The guys were pretty sure that if no one else came they would have all of the beer to themselves!) Slowly, people started showing up and it ended up being completely packed. 

The festival goers:

It was a fraction of the size of the GABF but we still had fun! One beer in particular reminded me to pull out my camera. It was called Ghostface Killah...didn't sound good to me. It is infused with six kinds of hot pepper and wow was it hot! Collin got about half an ounce an drank half of that. Then my cousin finished it and I drank the one drop that was left. My throat burned all the way down. Definitely not a good idea in my book. 

Here are Collin and Christian's reactions!

That was close to our last beer besides the ones we drank to flush our throats of the pepper beer! Colleen and I were getting a little bored and decided to get a free 5 minute massage that they were offering. I think mine was only 3 minutes but hey, I'll take it! 

Colleen in the front and me getting situated in the back

HA!

Ahhh...

Collin thought this picture was hilarious

I could get used to this.

We left the fest after about three hours which was plenty of time. After we got home we dove right back into our appetizers and also ordered a pizza! We crashed pretty hard and the next morning we all went to breakfast at the only diner we could find. It ended up being a great breakfast actually. Colleen and Christian left for Denver after breakfast and Collin and I went home for some Sunday football. 

The beautiful sunsets are not getting old!

Hope everyone has a great week!