"in-laws" news and stories

I recently returned from a four day trip to Utah. My man, Matt, the children and I travel there about four times a year to visit the in-laws. Most of Matt's relatives are Mormon and they embrace just about everything that goes with that status.

Having grown up as a Catholic, these sojourns are always a fascinating cultural study for me. One of my favorite aspects of these studies involves food. Somebody is always cooking at a Mormon get together. There are always zillions of aunts, uncles, cousins and crawling babies and ordering out for pizza will just not suffice. Every function I have attended involves salads, both leafy and Jell-O,  white rolls, casseroles, meats, sauces, plenty of fruit juice and an array of desserts. In the past the kitchens have always intimidated me and I have stuck closely to the buffet line.  However, since I am now deeply entrenched in food research I decided to ask the various women, not be sexist but I have found the kitchens to contain only women at these gatherings, about their cooking secrets. I did not divulge to them that I would be blabbing their tips to the blogosphere, but I believe their knowledge just might benefit one or two readers. Following, in no particular order, are a few of the tidbits I learned this past weekend: