HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLORADO

Being 138 years old can be pretty young. If you don’t believe it, ask Colorado.

That is the age our beloved Colorado will celebrate August 1st, 2014, and the party is ON.

Colorado is definitely a special state with character, history and tons of creativity of its own. For example:

•  Colorado was the first state in the union to grant the right to vote to women through a popular election in 1893.

•  Colorado is the only state in history, to turn down the Olympics. In 1976 the Winter Olympics were planned to be held in Denver. 62% of all state voters chose, at almost the last minute, not to host the Olympics; because of the cost, pollution and population boom it would have on the State of Colorado, and the city of Denver. As everyone knows Olympics are bad business for hosting cities, Am I right Sochi?

•  Colorado’s geography is unique. The state owns the world's largest flat-top mountain in Grand Mesa, contains 75% of the land area of the U.S. with an altitude over 10,000 feet, and has in Denver the largest city park system in the nation with 205 parks in city limits and 20,000 Acres of parks in the nearby mountains.

travel.nationalgeographic.com

www.myrockymountainpark.com

But not everything is so serious,

•  Colorado has more microbreweries per capita than any other state and we are investing "green

AN ITALIAN PARTY

When someone is married with an Italian, as it is my case, you learn 2 basics; family is the most important thing in life and food can’t be poorly executed.

My husband is one of those Italians who does not speak Italian, has never been in Italy and knows nothing about wine. But what he knows very well is the perfect recipe for meatballs (sponsored by his mom Diane), the best stuffed artichokes (sponsored by grandma Roslyn) and the best “gravy” which for all of us is tomato sauce (sponsored by grandma Rose) He knows exactly the difference between a good and bad canolli, italian sausage with pepper and onions and penne a la vodka. 

I remember the first time I met the family, it was a thanksgiving week where grandma Roslyn made me chop tones of onions, garlic and parsley for which I did not complaint a bit, because like people say “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” We made an Italian feast that the ladies cooked for 2 days and the gentleman ate in 2 hours. But that is Italian, a great homemade meal in a long table filled with family and infallible olive oil for the bread.

I miss it all.

That is one reason I am very excited about the Festival Italiano at Belmar. An entire weekend where I feel I might have the chance to enjoy all those homemade Italian specialties I usually enjoy with La Famiglia. The festival promises to have great live music, kids activities, like grape stomping (so bad I am not a kid anymore) a bocce tournament 

and much more. 

Don’t miss the chance to have a slight idea of what La Famiglia means to Italians and to try the richness of their cuisine. It is a free event.

Mangiare! ! !

Belmar

408 South Teller Street
Lakewood, CO 80226

For more info click here.

By Loren Escandon

LA SANTA CECILIA, a band with faith in Music.

La Santa Cecilia

La Santa Cecilia, a band with faith in Music.

La Santa Cecilia is a Mexico American band creating music with Latin-American influences. They will be visiting Denver August 23rd as part of a very special fundraising event for the Museo de las Americas.

“Treinta Dias” their most recent album has hits like “Hielo” and “Monedita”. 

La Santa Cecilia, Pepe Carlos (Accordion and Requinto), Alex Bendaña (Bass), Miguel Ramirez (Percussion) and Marisol Hernandez la Marisoul (voice) talked about their beginnings, their music and what is ahead in the future for this band and why the sky is the limit.

How did you meet?

Marisoul: Pepe Carlos and I met during our teen years. We used to play in a street in L.A named Plaza Olvera, we played Boleros individually, we became friends and invited Miguel Hernandez to see our gigs. We always talked about how beautiful it would have been having the chance to create our music, tell people our own stories, that was the way we put together La Santa Cecilia. Later we met Alex who became part of the group.

Santa Cecilia is the patroness of musicians. It is written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord". Is that what La Santa Cecilia wants to do with the audience, sing to our hearts?

Miguel: I think one of the most beautiful things you can create with music is that connection with your own feelings or everyone else feelings. As musicians we aim to connect with people and their faith. In our case that faith is music, however, for them that faith can have roots in a goal, a dream, anything and awaking that faith for them to feel motivated is fundamental to us. Helping people to escape their routines and remind them their feelings, roots, sadness and happiness, how beautiful life is, that is our goal.

Your song El Hielo or Ice has caused a little commotion because of the lyrics and the video. Where did you get the inspiration for the song?

Pepe Carlos: Hielo was written by the band in collaboration with the writer and composer Claudia Brant.

BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS

Have you seen all of these colorful pendants around the city that read “The Americas are coming”?

Is it funny or embarrassing, I am not sure. Whatever you want to call it, the first time I read one of those I thought... Biennials are created for cities like Paris, Rome or London, what is a Biennial publicity doing here?. For some reason the word biennial sounds too sophisticated for an outdoorsy city like Denver.

However, we have a Biennial of the Americas in our very own Denver. 

This Biennial of the Americas is an amazing accomplishment that was developed for the first time in 2010 during the government of then Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, as proposal to celebrate the Americas in Denver.

A UNIQUE DATE NIGHT

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The idea of the perfect date varies from person to person, and from relationship to relationship. Sometimes we run out of ideas to make our loved one feel special. The movie-dinner combo gets old, the nightclub is too loud, and the cooking at home can become a total romance killer if you are not the chef the counterpart expects you to be.

However, the date I am about to describe is as good of a first date as it is for a 20th year anniversary.

Imagine a picnic bag/basket full of your favorites goodies, that you don’t need to cook because this city has plenty of options for takeout, like The Chicken-curry sandwich at Vert Kitchen Denver, a bottle of bubbly cold Champagne, wine, beer or Ice tea if that is what you like; the most beautiful gardens surrounding you,  the jazzy sounds of Swing Je T’aime throughout the evening and a free swing dance one hour lesson, this is just in case you want to learn, but it is optional.

PRIDE PARADE 2013

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I am not sure about you but in my opinion no one knows how to throw a party better than my gay, transgender and bisexual friends. They just know exactly what people expect in a party, from the beginning to the end. The best music to dance, the food is usually impeccable, the champagne does not ever run out and the host or hostess are not afraid to use their best finery to impress their audience. 

If you have never been in a celebration of love, equality, and heritage where the community gets together to simply have FUN, the Denver PrideFest 2013 is your opportunity to catch up with the fun you have missed out on. 

True food Kitchen

Piles of raw vegetable dancing through the dinning room, green juices displayed on people's tables and yoga pants. No, you didn't just enter a spa in California, you are in True Food Kitchen.
Located in the heart of Cherry Creek (2800 E 2nd Ave #101  Denver, CO 80206), this restaurants has been taunting me for quite sometime. I have tried to go in before, but it was always too busy and at lunch time I am really not into waiting for 1 hour to get a table. If you have a group of 8 or more feel free to make reservations other wise be ready to wait.

WATER FOR THE WORLD

I know the average human body is around 50% to 65% water. I know life as it is wouldn’t exist without water. Moreover, I know billions, yes, billions of people have no access to water or get contaminated water, some have to walk miles under the sun to get the vital liquid or have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to be able to drink potable water, and when I take showers until my fingers are wrinkle like  grandma hands or when I open the faucet and let the water run while washing the dishes I feel guilty taking for grated such a precious treasure, however I still do it. How is that possible?

For all these reasons and because I want to change my approach to this problem I can't wait to enjoy the FESTIVAL FOR THE WATER.

This amazing WATER celebration and awareness festival presented by Water for the People and the AWWA (American Water Works Association) will not just bring tons of fantastic music but will help all of us to find a way to be conscious about the water crisis and how to take action to help the planet to surpass this difficult situation.

On June 9th the Civic Center Park will become a Nationwide focal point on this issue. Local bands The Motet and Broken Tongues, as well as New Orleans Brass Funk Rock band Bonerama will be performing while some of the most recognizable Food Trucks in town will delight everyone with their delicacies donating 10% of all sales to the cause.

MICHELANGELO IS IN TOWN.

 

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If all you know about Michelangelo is that he was the most important Italian renaissance painter and sculptor of all times; with an impressive list of creations from the naked, vulnerable David to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which by the way took 4 years to be painted in very uncomfortable positions for any human body... then you are not doing to bad.

What you might not know is that his success in sculpting human figures with so much muscular precision and sublime beauty came from the studies he made on cadavers with a special permit he got from the Catholic Church. Or that he was a very accomplished poet, yes poet, with more than 300 poems and sonnets, most of them written to a pious widow he was apparently in love with. If you don’t know that he was one of the few artists of his time that had the chance of living to enjoy his fame and wealth and see the publication of two biographies about his life... if you did not know all of that then you need to go to this exhibition Michelangelo at Denver Pavilions. 

The Pork and I

Last weekend was the opening of the summer Farmers market at Old south Pearl and as you should know I simply love going to this market every week.
As I was perusing around I encountered a new vendor Four Sisters Farm, from Hotchkiss CO, these ladies have the goods...Pork! Well, they also have beef, chicken and eggs, but I was pretty stoked to have found a local vendor with organically raised piggy.  
Chatting with them you can sense how well their animals are raised, they explained to me that their pork is not the leaner kind you will find at the grocery store because it has not been genetically altered to be learner, as they said "Our pork is not your other white meat", fine by me!
I dove in head first into their Country Style Ribs, which aren't technically ribs as they come from the top end of the ribs closest to the shoulder or Boston butt. These are bone-in, but many times you will also find them boneless at the store. I personally prefer the bone in because the bone imparts a good amount of flavor.
Another confession is that I am not a grill master, in fact, I never grill! That is "husband territory" and he wasn't around when I was testing the recipe, so I did what I do best, used the oven!
Long ago I had seen Alton Brown make some baby back ribs that looked spectacular and have been wanting to use his techniques as it involves the oven. 
So I did and this is what we had for dinner that night, enjoy!

Country style Pork Ribs

Pink Party

Ahh Rosé! Memories spark every time I have a glass of a perfectly chilled, dry rosé. A wine that has been highly misunderstood due to the popularity of sweet "blush wines" like the unfortunate white zinfandel, which have no resemblance whatsoever with the decidedly dry European rosés.
Walking through the streets of Paris and stopping at one of the multiple cafes for a glass of rosé is a part of every season. I was a bit hesitant to have a cold beverage when I was pretty chilled myself, but to my surprise the very chilly wine became part of the charm of being cold like I have never been before.
Ever since, regardless of the season, I scavenge the wine list of every restaurant for a glass, whether still wine or bubbly.

http://notdrinkingpoison.blogspot.com/2011/08/righteous-following-au-passage-75011.html

Rosé wine is made, mostly,  from red grapes such as Syrah, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Zinfandel and other, each of these grapes can be either used alone or in a blend based on their region. Champagne rosé can be made from a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The color is developed by allowing the juice to sit on the skins for a few hours, or sometimes longer, to draw out the amount of color and flavor desire for the specific style of the region or the wine maker. There is also a blending method, red into white, commonly used in champagne.

If you are looking for a versatile food paring wine, you can't go wrong here. This very food friendly wine will set well on a table with guests enjoying fish, steak and a vegetarian meal. Perfect for a hot summer evening, a picnic or barbeque, or even a cold night with a warm bowl of soup.

Summer fun in Denver

White blanket of sparkly snow see you next winter, now it is time to enjoy the blistering heat of the summer season and with it the fabulous events popping up all over town.
Patio parties, street fairs, Art walks, Films on the Rocks, you name it most likely Denver has it.

Here is a list of link to fun things to do this summer:

  Downtown Denver Arts Festival: Come see a big display of local artist in the heart of Downtown Denver - May 24-26

 Old South Gaylord Annual Festival: Music, food, a fun way to celebrate Memorial day weekend - May 26-27

 The Big Eat: an amazing event with 40 restaurants, 4 breweries,
wine and music. A great way to start the summer - May 26

Warm vegetable and Quinoa Salad

An ancient grain forgotten in the Andes mountains for a long time gets a makeover and it is now in almost every restaurant's menu, Quinoa. I first encountered this tiny round goodness in culinary school when taking a Nutritional cooking class years ago, that sentence made me feel old.

Back to the quinoa, we were learning how to create delicious, nutritionally balanced meals and this mysterious grain was one of our go to ingredients. It is very pleasing to see it become part of the shopping list in many households. A great gluten free substitution with a heavy dose of protein for the vegetarian in your life.

Easy to cook and dress, this nutty little treat is great in salads, warm or cold, soups and even cereals.

This recipe is quick, easy and delicious and I hope it gives you an introduction to a long and loving relationship with Quinoa. Enjoy!