Denton’s write up from Ukrops re: his First Place win in the Joe’s Market Recipe Contest.  I think they got his name wrong at least 3 times in there.  Recipes included!

My favorite chef Denton took first place today in the Joe’s Market Recipe Contest through Ukrops!!!!  There were 100 entries from folks throughout the Richmond area and the top 3 finalist were invited to the final judgement.  We were able to sample the other 2 finalists dishes: Salmon Packet Joe and Peppered Crostini Crusted Crab Cakes with with Tropical Remoulade Sauce.  Denton submitted his Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Spicy Chili Dipping Sauce and Gazpacho Verde.  I’ll post the recipe at a later date when Ukrops puts it online.  

A panel of 3 judges decided on the winner, one of them being the Executive Chef for all of Ukrops’ stores.  After the tasting, the judges gave their commentary on each of the dishes and gave RAVE reviews for Denton’s meal, especially the Gazpacho Verde.  He said, “The flavors were so “bright” and everything tasted fresh and of the season.”  Afterwards, he told Denton he should look into making this a career.  Although Denton is OVERLY modest about all this, we’re very proud of him and look forward to eating more of his food!!

Next stop:  Iron Chef, don’t mess. 

I was FINALLY able to go to Girls Camp this year!  Usually I’m pregnant, just birthed, or nursing a little one and can’t go.  But at least I got to make it for one night.  My friend Beth and I took two of our Laurels, Allison and Kelly, up for testimony meeting Friday night.  We ended up getting back around 1 am, but luckily I was able to stay awake driving back thanks to some tunes and car dancing from the girls.

Can I just say that I haven’t laughed THAT HARD in such a long time!!!  My esophagus hurt from laughing so much, totally worth it! We RIGHTEOUSLY confiscated the Golf Cart for most of the night.  But we had a good excuse – my pregnant friend Beth.  I’m telling you, take a pregnant friend w/you wherever you go and you get whatever you want.  But really, she’s 7 1/2 months pregnant and it hasn’t slowed her down a bit, she’s a powerhouse.  In the pics you’ll also see the Crazy Camp Nurse Shanna – she’ll make you laugh so hard you’ll pass out.  The Bishop is in there too – I think he was scared and amused at the same time. Allison and Kelly are gonna die that those pics of them are on the web for the whole world to see! I’m so glad….

But that’s what you do at GC:  eat too much, laugh too much, pray, cry, and be tired and happy for days afterwards. 

The zucchini are in–in a major way.  We’ve picked 2-3 every day, and so far have had zucchini with parmesan, zucchini gratin, marinated zucchini, grilled zucchini with ricotta, and just plain zucchini.  Next stop:  zucchini bread.  This last week we had 3 or 4 days of rain and didn’t make it into the garden to check or pick.  So when I went out yesterday I was greeted by biggest monster zucchini I’ve ever seen.  I was tempted to leave them a little longer just to see how big they’d get.  Here’s a picture of Rocky holding the biggest one–it’s almost as tall as him.

So I’m finally getting the rest of our pics up from our trip to WA and OR…  I’ve been whipped by jet lag this past week and think we’re on our way back to normal.  And since we did SO many fun things (half of which I can’t remember and don’t have pics for) I’ll try to give short highlights: 

Driving back from the Oregon Coast, we stopped by the Portland Temple so the kids could see where “all the magic began” over seven years ago!!  It was great to be back there — if anyone had told me that 7 years later I would have 3 little kids, live in VA, and have a beer gut, I would’ve laughed, and cried. Too bad the security guard at the temple told us to keep our kids from running, well surprise surprise!!!  I love the temple. 

We spent a lot of time in the water – Leo and Fischer asked to go swimming every day.  The kids even rode my sister’s jet skis w/o a lick of fear.  We went to a water park w/another sister and her family and Rocky loved the lazy river.   There was also the backyard water slide, kiddie pools in the driveway, fountains at the park, etc.  Then there was the usual wearing of the swimsuit all day long…. 

Probably the BEST part of my sabbatical was my one-night trip out to UT to pick up Natalie who had just gotten back from Study Abroad in Europe. I flew in for one night and ate at Cafe Rio w/Jarron & Dani and their two hilarious boys. I have MISSED Cafe Rio and their fabulous Diet Coke. Then we hoofed it to Alpine see my ALL-TIME FAVORITE AMERICAN IDOL GINA COCHINA HML!!!!

OK, story goes… I hadn’t told Gina (really it’s Carrie Anne, but her FO REALZ her name is GINA) I was coming out to UT cuz I wanted to surprise her. Gina had just had her 3rd baby 5 weeks early and I wanted to bring her the best “baby present” – ME! (I know, a touch prideful) So I had been planning this surprise for months. I was SO looking forward to jumping on her head and was SO excited that I was literally shaking at Cafe Rio and asked Natalie why my arm kept shaking, I thought I had vertigo for one second.

So FINALLY when we got to Gina’s house (the second time that night) it was like 10pm and I told Natalie that we needed to be quiet… well JK! Cuz as soon as Gina heard my voice thru the window it was all SCREAMFEST 2008!! When I jumped on her head, it was like a big ball of hair, snot, tears, laughing, Diet Coke, chocolate, probably some cuss words, and our testimony all rolled in one! I loved it, and I die over her. Gina is my hero.

The next day, after NO sleep, Nat and I got new tires on her car (the others were literally BARE!) and set off on our 9-hour road trip to WA.  We had the essentials:  Diet Coke, Granny B’s Pink Cookies, Hostess cupcakes, Elle Magazine, and Natalie’s car-dance mix.  For the first two hours I laughed while Natalie car-danced — I have NEVER seen anyone car dance to Mozart, and she can totally pull it off!!!  I did not post pics of our road trip due to adult content… and also that my mother and in-laws read my blog.  But YOU know what I’m talking about Nat!

All in all, we had a great time just hanging out w/everyone.  Although all 34+ of us Mitchell’s weren’t all together at one time over the 3 weeks, we did get to see everyone during our stay.  We also got to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday, she doesn’t look a day over 13!!! We also had a picnic and fed the baby ducks at Hat Rock – Natalie tried to get the geese to eat mom by putting bread on her back when mom wasn’t looking. I had to make sure and document that.

Thanks to my family for all your help while I had my “single parent” stresses:  for letting us use your car, basement, laundry, beds, pack n play, high chair, for making us dinner, for being my kids pseudo-father, for watching my kids, and for filling me in on all the drama, I loved it.  

Aaaaahhh the Oregon Coast – my family has been visiting the coast for 30 years and these are the best pics I’ve ever seen of Hat Rock.  This is the view right outside our cabin.  Story goes…  Denton flew into Portland from Richmond around midnight, five hours later then originally planned. I begged him to get a hotel, but he does whatever he wants so he drove the three hours to the coast and slept in the car outside the cabin cuz he didn’t want to wake up anyone at 3am to let him in.  Then he woke up around 6am and took these awesome pics on the beach, guess it was worth it.

Of course, we hit the Tillamook Cheese Factory and ate our weight’s worth in cheese curds, ice cream and fudge. We also went to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company and got to feed the animals there.  Leo fed the goats her plastic bag and I thought for sure they were gonna die. The llama tried to lick Rocky, and he tried to lick the llama.  

Just FYI:  I’m allotted two breakdowns whenever I head out west to visit.  I had only ONE breakdown this whole trip, and sadly it was at the beach, sorry mom! But at least I only had one!  Does that mean I get three next time I visit? 

There’s a great Air Museum right by the cheese factory – it use to house huge blimps used in WWII. I didn’t get a picture of it, but they had a small blimp there that some dad built in his backyard for his kids!!! It was really cool, he had painted aliens on the side of it cuz his kids wanted it to look like a UFO. I’m hoping Denton will build a blimp for us now.

We did so many other things at the coast:  a 3-mile hike through the forest, Fischer wet his pants with only a mile to go, pretty good.  The Octopus Tree, sea lions and taffy pulling at Depoe Bay, Lincoln City, tide pools which I love, running up and rolling down the HUGE sand dune by our cabin, getting Tillamook ice cream every day, playing with cousins in the sand, flying kites – it was great.  And with 30 members of our family in two cabins, I give it an 8 out of 10 on the Crazy Scale. 

and it feels so good.

Marissa and the kids got back this weekend.  I’m glad that they were able to go and spend so much time with Marissa’s family, but I’m glad they’re back.  And my long nightmare of singledom is over (ok, so I didn’t mind getting a good, full night sleep or being able to read without interruption, but even that gets old). This has actually been one of the easiest transitions of them coming home.

I was out there for one week, and from that alone there are like 150 pictures, so we’ll putting up pictures from the trip in the next week.

Welcome back!