We enjoyed our trip to Utah for Richard's wedding, even though it was lots of driving for a short visit. As always, the best part was being with family. I just wanted to share a few pictures of the trip. Oh, by the way, Janet is fully invested in every sport at BYU, not just basketball!

Culination

I don't think "culination" is a real word, but I like it. I know that culinarian is a real word. So to me, culination is what a culinarian does. I guess the root word would be "culinary"--having to do with or relating to cookery or the kitchen. So, this is a picture of the cheesecake I made last night when we had the missionaries over for dinner. It comes from the Libby's pumpkin company and is called Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake. I have to admit, it was pretty darn good. Rene said I need to add it to my Best Recipes. In the description, it was listed as challenging. It was a little time consuming, but there really was nothing hard about it--no special cooking techniques or fancy terms. I was happy with it.

I don't know when cooking came to be something I enjoy. I remember well that I didn't really enjoy it as a child or teen. Miriam was always the chef at our house (besides Grandma, whom I have always considered a great cook). I remember that it was a challenge to cook decent meals on a graduate school budget. One year, Joe Giles, a professor at NDSU and a member of the stake presidency, brought us two 50 lb bags of potatoes, so we had potatoes cooked in every imaginable way. Actually, I think he did that more than once.

I guess as I had more time and more opportunity, cooking become more enjoyable. When the kids were all little, it was easy to make bread in between taking care of them. Little by little, I started to collect recipes that we liked and that fit our budget and lifestyle. Along with that came the enjoyment of reading cookbooks. I'll admit, I have looked at lots of cookbooks without cooking a thing from them. But it's fun to imagine what I could do if I felt like it. And some things that I tried, we liked and still cook them today.

I think different people react differently to different types of food. For example, Glazed Apple Pie Bars, which were such a huge hit in Ohio and requested for every potluck, have not gone over well at potlucks here. The original recipe came from Miriam. I don't know if she ever used it, but I passed it along to Mary Ann and she made them to great acclaim in Cincinnati. I don't know if she's tried them in their new home in Minneapolis.

So, I guess culination and the enjoyment of what it produces has become a part of our family synergy. And it's not just us. At the family reunion, I enjoyed a conversation with Matthew Pitts about Alton Brown's pizza dough. What's can I say? It's all GOOD EATS!

Since Janet and Emily started a trend with their posts of lists, I've decided that I will post a list too. Mine is limited, however. This is a list of the books (and genres) of books I like to read.

1. The scriptures--today was parents day at seminary and I really enjoyed reviewing the stories and scripture masteries from the Old Testament. I have to confess that it is one of my favorites in the canon of scripture. Besides that, I dominated at the game we played today.

2. Mysteries--I've read and enjoyed many different mysteries, but my favorites are the cozy English mysteries. I recently finished Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary, one of the early Tommy and Tuppence novels. I highly recommend it. I'm not quite as thrilled by Poirot and Miss Marple, but they'll do in a pinch. I also highly recommend Josephine Tey and Ngaio Marsh. Also, believe it or not, Georgette Heyer also wrote some mysteries that I like very much. Some of them are hard to get your hands on, so I try to read them when I can find them.

3. Okay, Georgette Heyer. I started reading her many years ago. For those who don't know, she writes romances set in the Regency period in England. Many people abhor these, but I love them. The plainer, but more intelligent, girl always gets her man and there is a great deal of humor. When we lived in Fargo, I saw a complete set of Georgette Heyer romances at the Salvation Army. Since we were poor students, I only bought half of them. Now I wish I had bought them all. I've added to my collection over the years, but a few of them are pretty obscure, so I do have a few gaps in my collection. I haven't read any lately--I've read them so often that I remember all of them--but they're always good to come back to.

4. There is a certain type of novel that I call "midwestern" American novels that I enjoy. I really like Bess Streeter Aldrich and Booth Tarkington. I recently reread The Magnificent Ambersons and liked it. If you've not read Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, you ought to. I would probably include Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in this group, although she is from New York. Her Joy in the Morning, which is also set in the Midwest, is one of my long-time favorites. Perhaps it shouldn't be called "Midwest" but "Turn of the Century."

5. Sorry to all you sci-fi fans, but I heartily dislike science fiction and fantasy. I've never read any Harry Potter, nor do I want to. There are two exceptions to this: I read and very much enjoyed Isaac Asimov's The Foundation trilogy and Susan Cooper's children's series The Dark is Rising. I see that they are now making a movie out of the Susan Cooper series.

6. I have been trying to read some Shakespeare, specifically Twelfth Night, but it's a struggle. I don't think I do well with the dramatic format. If it were written in novel form, I think I would find it easier. My favorite Shakespeare at this point is still The Taming of the Shrew. The Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor movie version of it is very, very good.

7. Like Emily, I like children's literature. I have read some very good ones. Here again, I like many different kinds, but that does include many older books. Sorry, Sarah--I've never really gotten into the Anne of Green Gables books. Does anyone remember the books we read aloud when you were all little? I remember that Dad even came in and listened to Farmer Boy.

8. I also like poetry. One of my favorites is Robert Browning's Home Thoughts from Abroad. I helped Janet with some literary analysis of this poem by Ronsard this week and like it:
Sonnets Pour Helene Book II: XLIII

When you are truly old, beside the evening candle,
Sitting by the fire, winding wool and spinning,
Murmuring my verses, you’ll marvel then, in saying,
‘Long ago, Ronsard sang me, when I was beautiful.’

There’ll be no serving-girl of yours, who hears it all,
Even if, tired from toil, she’s already drowsing,
Fails to rouse at the sound of my name’s echoing,
And blesses your name, then, with praise immortal.

I’ll be under the earth, a boneless phantom,
At rest in the myrtle groves of the dark kingdom:
You’ll be an old woman hunched over the fire,

Regretting my love for you, your fierce disdain,
So live, believe me: don’t wait for another day,
Gather them now the roses of life, and desire.

There's much, much more in the world of literature that I enjoy. I'm thankful for parents who passed on to me the desire to read and to learn of what is "of good report" in our world.

Friday was Grandpa Allred's birthday. He would have been 79 years old. It's hard to believe that he has been gone for 7 years. We are luckier than many families, however. We have access to lots of things to remind us of Grandpa--letters, photos, the Bugle, etc. Each of you have scriptures with a personal message from Grandpa to you. I hope that all of us will remember Grandpa (and all of our grandparents) with love and try to honor the heritage he left us. His overriding concern all of his life was that he and his family would be faithful to the Lord.

Here is a copy of one of Granpa's slides. It was taken the weekend that Ben was blessed in Fargo, ND.

Okay, while our mailing address is Mosinee, we actually live in the "village" of Kronenwetter. Contrary to popular belief, the name does not mean "water kettle", but is the name of an early lumberman and state legislator, Sebastian Kronenwetter. It was just a township until 2002, when encroachment by surrounding municipalities motivated citizens to vote to incorporate the Village of Kronenwetter. This immediately raised taxes about a million dollars. Besides the fact that we live here, the other notable fact about Kronenwetter is that it is the largest village in Wisconsin, with a population of about 10,000. Actually, to me the term "village" is a misnomer because there is really no organized villageness--it's just a collection of neighborhoods with businesses scattered here and there.

For those of you who don't get to enjoy the progression of the seasons, I thought I'd let you see autumn in lovely Kronenwetter.