Hot Rocks

Hot Rocks was a few weeks ago, you should have come. 16 of Denver's best chefs compete in a slider competition that is decided by the popular vote of the patrons. As usual, Candice made this into one of the best events ever.

Here were your options, I omitted the sides because I'm too lazy to type them in. The watermelon jicama salad with goat cheese was the best though.

Sketch- cascabel braised beef brisket with rajas queso enchilada and tomatillo chuney

Solera- Mcdonald ranch buffalo with chorizo aioli & Jumpin' Good Goat cheddar cheese

Elways- (downtown) Chicken and waffle

Panzano- Chicken leek sausage with rasberry preserves & creme faiche on a potato bun

Encore- North African lamb sausage with harissa and cilantro cucumber yogurt on a za'atar bun

Steuben's and Vesta dipping Grill- Lobster roll

Steve's snappin' dogs- Hot dog with ketchup/mustard

Elways- Crispy pork bahn mi with shrimp cilantro slaw

Lola- Pork albondigas with grilled tomato bacon jam & pineapple de arbol chile kimchee

Rioja-Achiote rubbed Colorado lamb on rosemary goat cheese biscuit

The squeaky bean- Grilled mortadella with spicy giardiniera chicken livers and mostarda

TAG-Kangaroo with piquillo pepper remoulade spinach and pickled cipollini onions

Barolo Grill-Pulled pork with tomato basil pesto, pickled red cipollini onions on brioche bun

The kangaroo won but most likely because the chef's father-in-law paid a lot of money to ensure his victory. I tried 9 sliders (wasn't too hungry) and my favs were the chicken and waffles, bahn mi and the braised beef brisket. Very talented cooks represented across the board.

My role was to coax, humiliate and prod elite businessmen and drunken cougars into playing hoops. The highest scoring man and woman each won these sweet watches. You could also hire former Denver Nugget Ervin Johnson to shoot for you. He is a really cool guy.

There was live music, silent auctions and other fun stuff going on all night. Awesome time had by all.

We also decided to hike our first 14,000 ft. mountain a few weeks ago. Colorado has 53 14ers, so you have quite the selection. We chose one of the "easier" hikes in Mt. Bierstadt. I was super tired hiking that beast. It took us 5 hours round trip but as expected, the air is so thin.

Sinking into snow up to your waist was pleasant. I ran out of sunscreen, that's why I look like more of a tool than is usual in this pic.

As you can see from the pics, our little Rocco loves the mountains. For being a big strong guy, he has awesome endurance. He climbed many boulders on his way to the summit. He's such a great athlete.

Rocco is less of a man now than he used to be. It was time to see if we could make him less dominant. He has fought a bulldog, a boxer and a mutt-dog since that time. So much for that theory. He will always be a dog killer.

He still loves people and cuddling. I pretty much make-out with him all the time. Yes, his head is huge.

We went to the Polo classic last weekend. Good food again and fun to see the beautiful horses in action.

what we've been up to

Be sure to pre-order Sins of Angels and sequels to follow. Candice looks so hot brandishing weaponry.

She also ran the Bolder Boulder this last memorial day. She decided to run it like 4 days in advance, so didn't have time to train apart from her usual workouts. She rocked the 10k in 59:35, beating pretty much everyone that we know who ran it. Way to go girl.

Fun with the guns

After a long battle with cancer, Candice's grandma Cornwall finally passed away. We went to Utah for the funeral. It was the best funeral we've ever been to, just how she would have wanted it.

While it Utah, we did some rock climbing with the family. I'd like to say that Candice and I represented but in reality, we sucked.

Juanito, showing off his timbers

Ryan is an amazing climber, that guy is all sorts of spidey.

We also saw Thor, entertaining as it featured battles between ice giants and hammer wielding vikings. It was also kinda cheesy and formulaic which is surprising for a summer blockbuster.

In other news, our neighbor took us for a ride in his client's lamborghini. I'm pretty sure we were going over a hundred miles an hour within the distance of a city block. I'm not really a car guy but after experiencing what a car could be, I was a little sad that I don't own such a fine Italian automobile. Italians are the best designers.

Speaking of Italians, Rocco, continues to fight like a prizefighter every chance he gets. While we were climbing, he roughed up a boxer that came too close to our wall. It was awkward, the owner came back after a few minutes to exchange information as his dog had a messed up ear and a few puncture wounds.

How could something be this cute and also so evil at the same time? Hopefully, getting him fixed will curb his "one dog to rule them all" mentality.

Also, while in Utah we went mini golfing with the family. Candice and I continued the tradition of sucking wholeheartedly. It was ugly. At one point Denise tried to cheer me up by telling me that I was too strong for mini golf, she's so sweet. I unintentionally snapped the golf club in half, my frustration was palpable.

It was great spending time with the family, we don't get to see them enough. Much love to our Utah brethren.