...and a Horn a Plenty

Every Thanksgiving Karl makes rolls. They are always a huge production and an even bigger hit. We jokingly called them Midnight Rolls, because that is when he makes them.

My sister hosted and like always, the spread was beautiful. I made the salad (the layered salad has been our tradition for as long as I can remember) veggies and dip, and pecan honey butter. Not shown but not to be forgotten, the chocolate and pumpkin Nothing Bundt Cakes.

The tables were beautiful. She got the chocolate turkeys thinking that the kids would treasure them. Instead, we had kids begging to eat them the whole meal. I had just barely sat down to eat and Samuel came running up and said, "Can I be done?" Knowing Samuel, I knew he had not eaten anything yet so I said, "Go eat your turkey." He came back with chocolate all over his mouth and asked again, "Can I be done?" I checked his plate and his meat was still sitting there. He ate the chocolate turkey. He is such a monkey, and, well, I guess I need to be more clear next time.

Good Better Best... Man Food

Man food in my definition is where there is a ton of meat. Sometimes you eat it with your fingers. The biggest thing is that the vegetables are either non existent, unrecognizable, deep fried, saturated in butter or coated in mayo.

Good: Rib City in Sandy

It was just okay. I actually appreciate good barbeque but this place left me wanting for sure. Kind of boring, and my turkey just looked and tasted like the sandwich stuff you get at the deli counter.

Better: Moochies in Salt Lake

I was so excited to go there because it looked so good on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. We tried the deep fried pickles, deep fried ravioli, meatball sandwich, and the Philly Cheesesteak. I wanted to the love the "authentic" Philly Cheesesteak but the processed cheese was just to strong and, well, gross. The meatball sandwich as pretty good but it was so stinkin' messy. I was kind of bored with it, though. The kids LOVED the meatballs. They ate them out of our sandwiches and then we went back, get this, THREE times to get an order of meatballs. It was ridiculous and funny. Here is what I didn't love, how I FELT after I ate there. Gross. Not worth it. Here is what I was grateful for, that the casual atmosphere was perfect for housing the kind of people that didn't mind when Samuel let the whole restuarant know that he had to "Go poop really bad."

See Samuel hiding? Yep, I would embarassed if I was eating that many meatballs, too. Actually I started to get really embarrased that they were yelling, "More meatballs!" every few minutes. I overheard the ladies at the table next to us saying something like, "It's going to make them sick." I am pretty sure they were talking about us.

Best: Siegfried's Deli in Salt Lake

We stopped here on the way to the circus and were in a huge hurry so I didn't get a chance to take photos and relax and enjoy the food. I did like it, though. But I didn't love it. They had a few recognizable vegetables and I think I just liked the novelty of eating German food. We loaded up on chocolate because isn't German chocolate supposed to be great? I devoured the Ritter with almonds, I already knew I love those, though. Guess what, I think the rest of it is sitting in our cupboard.

So, maybe I just don't love man food. Karl liked Moochies and plans to go back. He goes to Siegfried's all the time. Neither one of us will go back to Rib City. I will probably not go back to any of these places... unless I am being a good sport.

I love cake stands right now

These are my favorite. They make me happy just to see them.

As you can see I don't use them just for cakes. I got this cookie recipe from my friend Heather and I feel like I am being healthy because they are made with whole wheat and oatmeal. This cake stand makes me happy because Courtney gave it to me after I told her of my love for cake stands. I love it when people listen as much as I love cake stands.

This was my first cake stand. Inside are chocolate mint sandwich cookies. Super easy to make with a cake mix for the cookies and mint chips for the filling.

This isn't a real cake stand but it is holding cupcakes so it makes me happy. I don't really know what it is called but I use it to hold fruit, too. The "frosting" for these is super easy and not like regular frosting... which is good if you are not a frosting fan like me.

Let me know if you want any of these recipes.

What do Volcano Chocolate Cake, Tech Stain Remover, and a Clove of Garlic All Have in Common?

These are the things I came home with when I went to a cooking class at a Bosch Kitchen inside an Ace Hardware store.

It was a really good class, they had lettuce wraps, roasted tomato basil soup, pear and pecan salad, and of course, chocolate volcano cake. The "cake" recipe seriously used 16 eggs, a pound of butter, a ton of sugar and only 2 T. of flour. So, if one were to rank unhealthy things, this would be at the bottom of the list. The garlic is because the lady wanted us to take one because she had so many left over (even though the lettuce wraps used 1/4 cup!). The Tech is because they gave us a coupon for 10% off a purchase and I was determined to use it before we went home.

I went to this class with a super good friend, Kristi. To let you know how long we have been friends, she was grounded the first time that I met her. We sat down at this class and I said, "I forgot I don't like to listen to the teacher when I am with you." That is because I realized that some of my favorite memories with Kristi are sitting in classes not listening to the teacher. We could even somehow communicate and make eachother laugh when the teacher put us as far away from eachother as she possibly could. How did we do that?