SO MUCH FOR RESOLVE...

Christmas is a time filled with all kinds of delicious 'things and stuff" to eat-- probably the "most wonderful time of the year" when it comes to food! However, I had decided I had eaten enough sugar cookies this season. I wasn't going to eat another sugar cookie..... until we stopped at our friends home on Christmas eve. Suzanne, who is an excellent cook had made us a platter (actually three platters but not all for me!) of her delicious sugar cookies baked from her secret recipe. When it comes to home made sugar cookies, in my opinion, there is a tie for the very best! One is made by someone who knows who they are and wishes to remain anonymous and the other is made by Suzanne! SO GOOD! Actually. as good as it gets! Do I dare to say "to die for"?

Ok, to die for!

I still didn't share with Santa (see the next post) because he is on a diet and I wanted the cookies all to myself! So much for resolve.

WHEN SANTA IS ON A DIET......

Interesting and so sad..... NO sugar cookies for Santa this year at the Draper house! Santa did too much research looking for the best sugar cookie around and now he has to pay the price. I don't know if apples and crystal light will make a difference when you think about all the "things and stuff" Santa ate on Christmas Eve but I have heard that drinking a zero calorie drink wipes out the calories in at least one sugar cookie.... It doesn't? Well it doesn't hurt to dream does it?

Oh, and if your are still curious about the "GREAT SUGAR COOKIE SEARCH", the results are coming very soon. I had to make sure I had all the facts together before I posted the results!

Keep watching...................

I MISS BEN-YEAH!!

So, when we were in Houston last week we were just checking out some 'things and stuff' and doing a little exploring on our way to the rehearsal dinner. Actually, we were just trying to find the rehearsal dinner... thank goodness for GPS. We were driving east (I think) from our hotel on Westheimer Road looking for River Oaks Drive on our way to the River Oaks Country Club. The shopping is amazing along that section of Westheimer with stores like Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, The Paper Source and a million (not really, but a lot) other great stores. The traffic was really bad at that time of day and our GPS was running just a little slow... like we just passed our turn slow. Turns out that there is not a road sign on River Oaks Drive. I guess if you are going there you should know where it is. Anyway... I made a quick left into a strip mall parking lot to turn around. I glanced up as we went through the lot and saw...

...THIS!!!

There used to be a Crescent City not far from us on Highland Drive in the Canyon Cove plaza and we used to love to go there for breakfast on Saturday morning. Eggs Nola and a fresh beignet! SO GOOD!

I knew where we were going for breakfast the next day... maybe lunch also. Just kidding... kind of!

There is nothing quite as great as sitting at a table on the sidewalk at the Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street in New Orleans. Listening to some great Jazz music, enjoying the view of Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral and eating fresh beignets heaped with powdered sugar, but Crescent City is a close second!

What is a 'BEIGNET'? Pronounced 'ben-yey' it is basically a square, deep-fried pastry served hot and sprinkled with icing (powdered) sugar. Kind of like a scone or a sopapilla (like the ones at the Plaza Cafe in Santa Fe) only not as sweet. The Cafe Du Monde heaps on the powdered sugar so when you leave you usually have sugar all over you. If there is a breeze blowing you end up sharing your sugar with your neighbors also!!!

Suzie's favorite are the strips with cinnamon and sugar...

My favorite are the strips drizzled with chocolate and vanilla icing topped with a little powdered sugar.

So good! I guess it is good that the Crescent by us closed... I could eat these 'things' every day. Not very healthy and I would be as big as a house! But I must admit, I would enjoy every bite!

Is there any place in Salt Lake to get beignets? Let me know, I will try to stay away!

THE OTHER HALF OF WHAT?

You know how sometimes, jokingly, you say something like "I would love to see how the other half lives..."? I said that the other day and someone said, "the other half of what"? Well, last week we had an invitation to attend an event in Houston that showed us exactly that; how the other half lives and WOW! What an experience! I won't divulge the names of the parties involved, I will just say that the son of some good friends married very well! It started with a fully engraved invitation (including the envelopes) that required four dollars in postage. The invitations for our wedding were engraved but that was twenty seven years ago. I didn't realize that people still did 'things and stuff' like that.

The 'celebration' was held at the Bayou Club which is the most exclusive club in Houston. You don't buy a membership to the club... they are only passed down or inherited. Anyway, this was the entrance to the tent which was the largest tent erected for a private function in Houston. The floor was built over the swimming pool out the back of the club. The chairs are set up for 300 of their closest friends and family... The low curtains down the side and the large panel at the end of the tent were just the backdrops for the ring ceremony. The couple was actually married in Salt Lake City on Thursday then flew in their private jet to Houston for the 'ring ceremony and celebration' on Saturday.

The groomsmen in white tie and tails! And there were more bridesmaids.....

This is just to give an idea of the scale. The flowers were absolutely spectacular!!! White hydrangeas, Casablanca lilies, pale pink Colombian roses. The bridesmaids all had bouquets like the Maid of Honor. The arrangements at the entrance to the club were similar to the one behind the bride but even larger! Spectacular!

Scale again! There were ten chandeliers like this one. When the backdrop came down, there was a sixteen piece orchestra with four jazz singers providing music for dancing and entertainment.

Following the ring ceremony they invited us to go back into the club house for cocktails and hor' devours while they transformed the tent into this! Really, spectacular! They had four food stations with a variety of delicious treats including prime rib, seared scallops, shrimp and seafood gumbo. The cake had seven tiers and the flavor was, (drum roll.....) wedding cake! My favorite! I am still looking for the secret to what makes wedding cake wedding cake!

Beautiful!

With our friends, the Williams-- Father and Mother of the groom.

I do clean up occasionally, and my hair is finally growing in from Halloween! Oh, the arrow over Suzie's shoulder is pointing to Mike Leavitt, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the former Governor of the great state of Utah. The senior Bushes were also on the guest list but they decided the Secret Service security issues were too complex so they canceled.

This was one of the place cards for the rehearsal dinner held the night before the celebration at the River Oaks Country Club, and yes, Mitt was there.

I have been to a lot of big events in my life but this one was truly amazing. It was fun to be invited and it was fun to be able to attend. Every once in a while you have to break out of your comfort zone and do something new and different. It is good to see all of the 'things and stuff' that happens outside of our everyday life, but it is also good to come home to our cozy, comfortable life.

Thanks, Lana, for the invitation! It was wonderful!