The Last Days of Summer

No one got my permission to end summer earlier than ever and I'm not happy about it. This morning was a run-through at the Jr. High and sophomore orientation at the high school. Tomorrow is the first official day of school. Sad how time is a dam breaking and the water just keeps flowing faster and faster.

As a last hurrah to summer, we drove to Denver to the Chipotle Cultivate Festival. It was free and fun. There were great food demonstrations from well-known chefs, good bands, an artisan food tent and a free kids zone that I didn't need, but that others were enjoying. 

I got to watch Amanda Freitag prep for her segment. Sadly, she and Richard Blais, who I REALLY wanted to see, were the last two chefs of the day and a kidney stone that hates my guts forced me to leave and go to the hotel where I wrapped up in my electric blanket (yes, I took it with me) for several hours until the pain subsided. Just watching her prep was fun. She seems SO nice. It made me glad I cheered for her on Next Iron Chef.

There was a good turnout at the festival, but it wasn't so crowded as to be miserable. My family was on the front row for all three bands they wanted to see.

Our first night in Denver, we went to a Taiwanese restaurant and had delicious food. The highlight were the potstickers. BEST EVER!!! They were so good that we ordered second plate of them. It was fun to hear Bruce speaking Chinese with the owners.

One of the chef demos I attended was the owner Pizzaria Locale, in Denver. They handed out coupons so that's where we went for dinner. He went to pizza school in Naples for six months where he learned the skill of making pizza. He showed us how to make the dough and taught us about tomatoes and mozzarella. At his pizzaria, we enjoyed our own pizzas. Mine was called a white pizza (mozzarella and olive oil) with the toppings of my choice (zucchini, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes). It was cooked in a super-hot oven for only two minutes and this is what I got. It was absolutely scrumptious!

And now we're home. The festival was fun in spite of my disappointing kidney stone flair up. The kids are ready for school and I've stocked the kitchen with good lunchbox food.