Gifts from the Hurricane

 When hurricane winds hit Salt Lake City earlier this year, thousands of trees were knocked down.  On September 26, 2020, Dave joined with other Emigration Stake members to load several tons of firewood, from those downed trees, into trucks headed for the Navaho Nation.

The pandemic has hit the Navaho reservation especially hard.  Many families are sick or quarantined, with wood-burning stoves and no ability to buy wood.  Salt Lakers will deliver firewood to the reservation, where it will be distributed to needy families.  As a bishop, David has a heightened knowledge of people in need, and also people who are generously helping.

Sicilia Mia and Trio

Jonny was in town on September 22, 2020, to attend a demonstration of excavators.  Mike had helped Jonny buy a rental property in Holladay, and Jonny offered to treat Heidi and Mike to dinner at Sicilia Mia, one of Jonny's favorite Salt Lake City restaurants.  Dave and I asked if we could tag along, and Camille asked to join us, as well.  
 

It was a happy family gathering, with really good Italian food.  We started with a communal antipasto, and then Jonny had the house specialty, spaghetti carbonara, made at the table with cheese carved off a huge wheel.

Later that week, we asked Jonny if we could meet him for dinner again.  "I like Italian food the best," he said, so we enjoyed another favorite Italian spot, Trio.  I reminded Jonny that this was where I had met his mother-in-law, Shelly Leatham, for the first time, to talk about Jonny's and Jenny's marriage and receptions.  Jonny and I ordered more spaghetti, and Dave ordered scampi.

Snowbird

We have spent a week at our Snowbird timeshare every year since 2005.  We moved into Room 618 on September 15, 2020, and spent a very different kind of vacation.  Oktoberfest, with its exhuberant crowds, music, and food, was canceled because of the pandemic.  Our favorite restaurant, The Aerie, was closed, and we had to make a reservation to check into our room!  Usually, we invite the whole family to Sunday dinner at our condo, but we canceled that, as well, since large indoor crowds easily become "super-spreader events." Nevertheless, we had a great time.
 

We discovered a new restaurant, SeventyOne, named after 1971, the year Snowbird opened.  It had a fun,1970s ambience, with teal and orange naugahyde chairs.  The decor reminded us of the way things looked when we got married in 1970.  The barbecued brisket at SeventyOne was so tender we cut it with a fork, and the apple crisp was divine.

Simply gazing out at the rugged mountains from restaurant windows and from our condo was reward enough for our visit.  We love watching darkness fall over the mountain, and we love driving back to the city in the early morning,  as we emerge from the dark canyon and dawn breaks over the valley.

Kirsten Comes Home

 On September 4. 2020, Kirsten Flindt arrived home from the Independence Missouri Mission.  Kirsten's mom had decorated her bedroom in the apartment where Kirsten will live as she finishes her degree at BYU.  A big "Welcome Home" sign was part of the decorations.  Kirsten is majoring in lab science and may do graduate work in microbiology.  Her first challenge, though, will be making new friends in a time when even young students are "sheltering."

Audrey's First Wedding

On September 5, 2020, Audrey's Uncle Ben Bastian married Maddy in Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas.  It was Audrey's first wedding.  She wore a flower girl dress and was included in the family wedding picture (fifth from left, held in her daddy's arms).  

Audrey stayed with her dad at Maddy's house while her mom went to the Las Vegas Temple to see Ben and Maddy married.  Before Audrey's mom left, she introduced Audrey to Joy, Maddy's dog.  Joy wore a pink rhinestone collar around her neck and was just Audrey's size.  It was love at first sight!
 

Audrey's Uncle Taylor held Baby Charles in a football grip.  Dads make creative babysitters!

Audrey's grandpas discussed the world while they waited for the reception to begin.

The reception was an extra-fun, Las Vegas-style party--dinner, toasts, a master of ceremonies and DJ, gold charger plates on the table, dancing.  Audrey matched the wedding party in her silky maroon dress.  Wide-eyed, Audrey took in all the glitz.

Flight of the Flindts

There were lots of important events drawing Lisa and her family to Salt Lake City in early September.  Spencer and Naomi welcomed their baby, Ellie, born on August 27, 2020.  Kirsten came home from her mission the first week of September.  And Grant and Meg got engaged and were planning their marriage over Thanksgiving week.
 

We ate dinner together in the garden on September 3, 2020, with the whole Flindt family, except for Spencer and Naomi, who were home with their new baby.  I fixed my greatest and best recipe for lasagna.

Tending Audrey

Dave and I tended Heidi and Mike's daughter, Audrey, while they ate at one of their favorite restaurants, Valter's Osteria.  Audrey was adorable, but still a bit wary of us as caretakers.  Dave and I took turns, spending 30 minutes reading to Audrey or playing games with her.  I gave Audrey a bath, with her rubber ducky, and put her into pink sleepers.

She made a sweet, soft bundle for Dave to hug.

World Travel--Dinner by Dinner

All week, I plan Sunday dinner.  As a hobby, I try to perfect a gourmet menu for each of some 30 different nationalities and ethnicities.  Jonny urges me, only half in jest, to stick to Italian and Mexican, but my tastes and imagination range world-wide.  On August 2, 2020, we ate Cambodian food, and Dave said it was one of the best meals I had ever fixed.  We dined on pineapple lemonade, barbecued flank steak and shrimp in a cilantro lime marinade, white pepper coconut chicken curry, rice, salad, a bowl of sliced tropical fruit, and coconut ice cream with banana pudding for dessert.   How appalled my dear father would have been, if he were my guest!  When I traveled abroad as a child, my dad searched out US military bases wherever he could, to avoid having to eat the local food.  He was a retired Naval officer, and preferred eating hamburgers at the base snack bar to any French bistro.  When we traveled for two weeks through Russia, Dad ate the same, safe meal every single night--steak and plum ice cream.
 

Michael loves food from exotic lands, just like I do.  I appreciate his encouragement!

Audrey is more beautiful each time we see her, raised by her great mom, Heidi.

We had just one table of guests for the Cambodian meal, rather than our usual two or three tables.  Grant and Meg said they liked the small group.  It was easier to get to know each guest better.

Alan prefers food he can identify, but he is a good sport about trying out strange things at my house.

On August 9, 2020, we had an English dinner.  We began with mulligatawny soup, the English version of curry which the colonists brought home from India.  Our entree was beef Wellington, the fanciest entree on traditional English menus.  It is a beef tenderloin smeared with mustard,  then wrapped in prosciutto and sauteed mushrooms, and finally encased in puff pasty.  It is served with a cream sauce flavored with brandy.  For dessert we ate sticky toffee pudding, another classic English dessert.

I used my fancy lace tablecloths for this elegant meal.  "If you're English aristocracy, you eat beef Wellington.  If you're an English common worker, you eat fish'n'chips."  I assume some of the crowd might have preferred the fish'n'chips!

On August 16, 2020, we ate food from Portugal.  We started with pineapple-peach sangria and bacon-wrapped dates.  The entrée was paella accompanied by salad, fruit, and my Portuguese sweet bread, made in big round loaves brushed with egg whites to make the crust extra-crispy.  Alan also brings a loaf of his homemade bread to add to the luxury of the meal.

Again, we were a small group, fitting snugly around one big table.

Our last Sunday dinner of the month, on August 23, 2020, was from Ireland.  I collect traditional ethnic cookbooks, and also books written by contemporary authors, showing how to adapt traditional recipes for modern tastes.  Much of my meal came from a recipe book by "Clodagh," a TV chef in Ireland.

Oatcakes are traditional in both Ireland and Scotland.

I served both baked salmon and corned beef and cabbage.

It is so fun to have Michael K and Rebekah join us more often, now that Rebekah works in Salt Lake City!