Dinner at La Caille

Every year I am invited to a dinner at La Caille, a beautiful French restaurant at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It is quite extravagant, but every once in a while it is nice to get all dressed up for a lovely evening!

As you drive through the gates and up the tree-lined brick road, it is like you are entering another world.  The grounds are incredibly beautiful and I always like to get there early so I can stroll through the gardens and the vineyard.

You might meet one of the many peacocks who roam freely!  Be careful, though, because they are kind of mean.

The restaurant is located inside a French-style chateau.

Once inside the chateau, you are escorted to one of several intimate dining rooms on three levels.  In each dining room there are alcoves and nooks which give you the feeling of separation from other diners.

My dinner had a fixed menu (on fancy menu cards) which included Escargot with Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter, Raspberry Sorbet, Fresh Romaine Salad with Champagne Dressing, Vegetable Ravioli, and Crepe Maison with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce.  I do feel that the food is a little bit pricey (most entrees are between $28 and $56) but the atmosphere and ambiance are definitely worth it!  La Caille is the perfect spot for a special occasion dinner, such as an anniversary.  Go here for more information.

Note:  A friend of mine teaches French and he takes his classes to La Caille every year.  One year he asked me to come along as a chaperon and I ended up at a table of restless boys.  I started quizzing them on their French vocabulary and, because I was in a silly mood, I taught them the word decolletage (because the waitresses wore very low-cut uniforms).  When our waitress came back to the table to fill our water glasses, one of the boys yelled out, "Miss Johnson, what was the French word for boobs?"  Yeah.  What's the French word for embarrassed?

Pumpkin Carving 2014

Traditions are very important to Sean and Tashena.  Everything Marilyn and I did with Tashena the first year she joined our family automatically became a tradition to be repeated every year.  She immediately informed Sean of these important rituals when he joined the family.  They look forward to each of them with much anticipation and remind us of upcoming ones often.  One such tradition is carving pumpkins and we usually do this the Sunday before Halloween.  The ones they got from the pumpkin patch were deemed much too small so we took them to the grocery store to get more. Of course, Sean and Tashena picked the biggest pumpkins they could find (so did I).

The scale at the grocery store maxes out at 30 pounds.  Every one of our pumpkins maxed out the scale.  It was pretty funny!

As you can see, we had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins.  Sean is fascinated by the "guts" and always wants me to take a picture of him pretending to eat them.  While we carved the pumpkins, Kristine roasted the seeds.  They are delicious!

Sean with his Spooky Bat.

Tashena with The Raven.  It was such a fun night.  I think I look forward to all of our traditions as much as Sean and Tashena do!

The Rocky Horror Show at PTC

It's just a jump to the left...and I was transported back in time to my high school theatre days when we were all collectively obsessed with the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I remember one late night play rehearsal when we all climbed up to the catwalk and performed "Time Warp."  Good times!  It was a time warp, indeed, last night when I saw the concert version of The Rocky Horror Show at Pioneer Theatre.  PTC has started including limited-engagement concert versions of musicals as add-ons to season tickets and I have been waiting for this show with much ANTICI.....say it.....PATION since the 2014-2015 season was announced!  The production was scaled back with a minimal set and the cast performed the musical numbers as a concert (they even held their scripts) with a bit of  dazzling choreography.   The band on stage was absolutely amazing and the cast was fabulous!  Frank 'N' Furter was played by Tony Vincent (of The Voice) and he was absolutely perfect as the sweet transvestite.  I loved watching his facial expressions!  The narrator was played by Jim Dabakis, a Utah state senator.  He got some of the biggest laughs of the night with the line: "Oh, I see there are a lot of Republicans here tonight!"  (Many people were dressed rather outrageously).  Speaking of outrageous,  I loved the naughty costumes! Frank 'N' Furter's boots were epic.  I remembered the words to all of the songs, when to use each prop (prop bags were available for $5.00), and many of the talk back lines.  It was so much fun...maybe not as rowdy as the screenings at the Blue Mouse back in the day but it was a strange journey, nonetheless!  I loved reliving a bit of my misspent youth!

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7

It has been a long week!  The end of the term is sometimes hard because there are lots of tests and final projects to grade and lots of students who are suddenly concerned about their grade to deal with.   Luckily, I had a Utah Symphony concert to look forward to.  Every time a student asked me what he or she could do to pass, I imagined sitting in Abravanel Hall listening to amazing music.  I love it when the concertmaster comes on stage and plays a note for the orchestra to tune their instruments.  There is such a sense of expectation followed by a hush in the audience as the conductor takes the podium.  I felt all of the tension leave my body as I sat in anticipation of the lovely concert to follow.  Last night's guest conductor (and soloist) was Ignat Solzhenitsyn.  Yes, that Solzhenitsyn!  His father is the Nobel Prize winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn!  Ignat is a very sought-after conductor and I admit to being the tiniest bit star-struck.  The concert began with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 featuring Ignat as the solo pianist and conductor.  It was quite impressive to watch because, at times, he would be conducting the orchestra with one hand while playing some intricate melody with the other.  I love the music of Mozart because I think it is light, airy, and beautiful.  I particularly like the second movement of this piece because it is so romantic.  I closed my eyes and imagined myself in Vienna.  After the intermission, the orchestra played Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7.  I always think that Russian music sounds so much better with a Russian conductor because they are so passionate!  Oh how I loved this piece!  It is melancholy and mournful but so beautiful.  I had goosebumps through all of it!  The concert concluded with Symphonic Metomorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber by  Paul Hindemith.  I was not at all familiar with Hindemith but I really enjoyed this piece.  I thought it was very playful and I particularly liked all of the percussion, especially the chimes.  I have a thing for the chimes.  I really can't say enough about the Utah Symphony!  We are so lucky to have a world-class orchestra in SLC and I think there is something for everyone this season.  I definitely recommend this concert which will be performed again tonight.  Go here for tickets and information.

Alpine Loop

Last week, when I had two days off, all I wanted to do was read and nap.  Now, when I have sophomore essays and Beowulf tests to grade, all I want to do is go to the mountains!  In this particular tug-of-war, the mountains won so yesterday I drove out of the city to American Fork Canyon for one of my very favorite fall drives.  I think it was a good decision!

This lovely drive along the Alpine Loop was just what I needed to recharge my batteries.  The sky was a perfect cerulean blue, the temperature was brisk, and the smell of decomposing leaves was nearly intoxicating.  Much of the foliage was gone but there was just enough to make me happy as I drove the switchbacks with the windows down listening to Eddie Vedder.  Is there anything better?  I love being in the mountains and I love living in Utah, where I can be in any number of mountains in less than 30 minutes whenever I have a bad day!  I need to do this more often!  Essays can wait a few days.