Long Crazy Night

Saturday night was the Relief Society Broadcast. Tiffany got tickets to the conference center so we decided to meet our friends and take TRAX down and then go to dinner afterward. We wanted to try something from Salt Lake's Dine O' Round and decided on Cedars of Lebanon.

As we left the peaceful and uplifting spirit of the Conference Center, we noticed quite a different atmosphere downtown . As we walked we saw a few rather rowdy and scantily clad groups. The further we walked, we saw more and more of them. In fact, people all over were running around in their underwear!

We got to the restaurant as quickly as we could and tried to ignore the skivvies passing by the window. Cedars is a Lebanese/Moroccan restaurant. The setting is very exotic. They also have live bellydancers, which made me pretty uncomfortable for the guys who met us there. The meal was delicious- especially the lentil soup, lemon chicken, and hummus. However, the service was VERY slow. We finally got out at about 10:30.

We were relieved to get on a crowded train and away from the undie crowds shouting profanities about BYU and the angry street preacher man. Just when we thought we were out of it, a group of particularly skimpy undie wearers jumped in next to us and said they had to "get away from that weirdo." When I heard that and saw Tiffany's expression, I had to laugh.

To top things off, we soon realized that our train stops running to Daybreak after 10:30 and we would only be able to get to the Sandy station. Our friend's brother kindly picked us up and took us back to our cars- which were at two different stations- due to a miscommunication at the start of the night. Ha ha.

Crawling into bed just after midnight... I was grateful...to Eric for rescuing us, to Trisha for asking him to come, to Amy for being such a trooper when she wasn't feeling well, to Tiffany for keeping things light, and to Heavenly Father for the message given by Elder Uchtdorf and for helping us to have a safe and enjoyable evening despite all the craziness.

Local Harvest

On Monday night I went to a cooking class with my friend Laura Dawn. You can see pictures of the school's beautiful kitchen and read more about the class on her site. (Warning: May cause kitchen envy.) The classes at Viking Cooking school are normally $80-$90, but this was only $20 through Wasatch Gardens.

Wasatch Gardens is a local nonprofit group whose mission is "to empower people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food." Living here in Utah, we are blessed to have many local farms and farmer's markets close by. Someday I will have my own garden and maybe my own chicken coop. For now I get my eggs from a couple of chicken farmers near work, and I get most of my produce at nearby farms or through a food coop. I love the challenge of using all of the fruits and veggies in the coop basket. This week we got broccoli, sweet potatoes, avocados, cucumbers, apples, apple pears, bananas, grapes, figs, and plums. Yum!!! I am planning to share recipes from the cooking classes on my food blog. For now here is one of my favorite recipes from the summer cooking school:

STRAWBERRY SALSA

2 1-pint baskets of fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Stir the strawberries and honey in a large bowl. Let stand until berries release their juices, about 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and thyme. Chill at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours. Serve with vanilla ice cream

Note: This is for all you Californians. We may have lots of fresh produce here, but we still get our strawberries from your fields. :)

L'Orage by William Adolphe Bouguereau

I entered a beautiful home on Friday night where this painting hung over the mantelpiece. It was the first thing you noticed when you walked in, and I was intrigued. I wanted to know the story. I thought that it had to come from something in literature. My friend thought it was just about a couple of girls by the sea- turns out he was right. It is simply titled, "The Storm." There is no story other than the one you imagine. What do you think? Would you have given a more descriptive title? What story do you imagine?