The Food From Devin's Birthday

BBQ BABY BACK RIBS

3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 1/4 c. ketchup
1 3/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth, divided
7 T. soy sauce, divided
6 T. (packed) brown sugar
4 1/2 T. molasses
3 T. red wine vinegar
4 large racks baby back pork ribs

8 T. chili powder, divided

Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Press garlic through garlic press into pan. Stir 30 seconds. Mix in ketchup, 3/4 c. broth, 3 T. soy sauce, brown sugar, molasses, and vinegar. Bring sauce to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until reduced to 3 cups, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle each side of each rib rack with salt, pepper, and 1 T. chili powder. Arrange 2 racks on each of 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Position 1 oven rack in top third of oven and 1 rack in bottom third; preheat to 450 degrees. Pour 1/2 cup of remaining broth and 2 T. of remaining soy sauce around ribs on each sheet cover each with foil. Bake ribs 30 minutes; reverse sheets. Bake ribs until tender, about 45 minutes longer. Uncover, cool slightly. Cut each rib rack between bones into individual ribs. Brush ribs generously with sauce.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Grill ribs until heated through and slightly charred, turning occasionally and brushing with more sauce, about 10 minutes.

BUTTERMILK CHOCOLATE CAKE

3/4 c. cocoa powder
3/4 c. boiling water
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. canola oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Mix cocoa and boiling water. Mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla together. Mix dry ingredients together. mis dry ingredients into buttermilk/oil mixture. Mix in cocoa. Pour into two greased and flowred 9-inch pans. Bake until at 350 degrees approximately 30 min.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1/2 c. butter
2 2/3 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/3 c. milk or cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter. Blend in cocoa powder, vanilla, and sugar, alternately with the cream. Beat with an electric mixer until desired texture is achieved.

Another Teenager

As occasionally happens, Devin's birthday fell on Memorial Day this year. 13 years old! Can you believe it? I want to say that it seems like yesterday but that would be a lie. It's been a rough 13 years for him but he has overcome so much and is such a fantastic guy. Since it was Memorial Day we wanted to have some families over for a BBQ, but Devin is more of a one-on-one type so we invited his good buddy Christian over. Christian is the one looking down or away in every picture. What a funny kid.

It has finally gotten hot (yay) at least for a little while so the kids took advantage of that and spent most of the day in the pool. Hey, don't laugh, it's the closest thing we have to a pool.

And then some BBQ babyback ribs. We loved them. I made enough to feed an army but somehow we managed to eat most of them. Devin and Christian were definitely helpful in that.

I thought Autumn was being anti-social. I had to get a picture of how far away she was from the rest of us. I thought she was just being too cool for us and needed to be alone with her phone. Then Rob pointed out that while the rest of us were roasting under the hot sun, she was feeling just peachy in the shade. Personally, I've been craving a day like that for so long I was happy to roast in the sun.

I really wanted to get a good picture of Devin and me on his birthday. Or even just one of him but he wasn't having that. Today I got smart. I asked him if he was in a good mood. Yes. The I asked "Are you in one of those I-love-my-mom-and-just-want-to-make-her-happy type of places?" He seemed a little suspicious but said he was. That's how I got this cute picture of my boy. Love you Devin. I'm so happy I had you 13 years ago.

Spoon Me

A few weeks ago I was in a situation where we were trying to fit seven grown women in a small car. Why we were doing that is totally unimportant to the story. I didn't pay attention to what kind of car so I'll just say a Camry. It was small like that. To fit four of us in the back we all kind of sat on our hips instead of our butts. You know...spooning. I made some joke about my friendship with Shannon being complete now that we've spooned. One of the other ladies, who will remain nameless, asked what spooning was. We all explained it and she thought it was an inside joke. No, we insisted, it's a real thing that everyone knows about. Well, she didn't believe it.

Later we were driving around and saw this sign.

It's an ice-cream shop. How funny is that? But wait, it gets better.

I'm still not sure that it was enough to convince her. But we all know what spooning is. Right?

Sister Trip to Vegas

In January (or February, who can remember that long?) we got the call. My cousin Barbara was getting married. This was cause for much rejoicing for Aunt Helen because, well, it's Barbara's turn. I talked to my sisters and we decided that this wedding was one we needed to support. It didn't hurt that it was in Las Vegas. So Mother's Day weekend we all met up together. It was soooooooo much fun. I love hanging out with my sisters! We walked around doing the tourist thing, had a spa day, layed out by the pool and did all the "normal" things but we also had to do some things that are more typical for the Holzendorf girls. Yep. I'm talkin about FOOD. We spent hours wandering around a fantastic International Market checking out foods from different countries. We had all left our suitcases half empty so we could bring back foods from the market. So much fun. The other main activity was Buffet Challenge 2009, which I'm sorry (or maybe glad) to say I lost miserably. What is that you ask? Just what it sounds like. 3 hours a night at the buffet and the first one to cry uncle looses. UNCLE!

This was us at the wedding reception. That is, after all, the reason for the trip (wink, wink). It was about 98 degrees which caused a lot of complaints - but not from me. I loved every minute.

I don't know these people at all but I thought it was funny. The mom told the kid to go put his feet in the pool. So he did. She never said to take off his shoes. Maybe it's not funny to anyone else but I was cracking up.

Here are the cousins. Well, the ones that made it. From left to right: Me, Barbara - she's the one in white :) - David, Stan, Bonnie, Kirstin, and Kathy. David is Barbara's brother and walked her down the aisle. He kind of got the worse hot weather outfit. It's even warmer than the wedding dress. The things we do for the people we love.


I don't know these people either. We were leaving Serendipity where we had just had a fantastic lunch of Black and Blue Burger (black pepper bacon and blue cheese YUMMO!) and sweet potato fries when we saw this LOVELY wedding party on the street. We were laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. I wish you could see it better. It's not just hot pink, it's hot pink and green. That's Vegas for ya.

2009 BYU Women's Conference

Well, we did it again. For the third year in a row a group of us went to BYU Women's Conference. It's great fun. So far Shannon, Stefani, JaNae and I have gone every year. This year we had a welcome addition in Sarah.

These are the ladies I went with from left to right is Shannon Van Horn, Sarah Moody, Stefani Hansen, and JaNae Briggs.

The first day of classes we went to some random class first so we would be in the room for the second class. It was on valuing yourself for other than looks. At least that was the gist. I don't remember the exact title. One of the teachers was Pamela Hansen, author of Running with Angels. Stefani (no relation, just the same last name) is a huge fan of the book and of Pamela. She was excited to get to meet her. They spoke together for quite a while so that was fun.

The second day of classes some of us skipped the opening session and just hung out in the Smith Field House. There were 2 classes we wanted to go to there that day so we wanted good seats. The first session had John Bytheway. He spoke about using technology to better communicate with our kids. I loved it because instead of telling us to unplug, he told us to plug in because our kids are plugged it. We were even told to get a facebook account. I'm not lying. He said it. How can we monitor them online etc if we aren't there? I AGREE! The main reason I wanted to go to that was because Devin is a huge fan. He wanted at picture and autograph and I was determined to get them for him. I look quite goofy in the picture but here it is. I think it's from sitting so long in the field house but that's probably just an excuse.

Here's Sarah talking on the phone. I can only imagine she's so happy because after all those hours in the field house she was happy for the diversion.


On Saturday we braved the swine flu to go to Park City. Park City was in the plan from the beginning. Then we got to Utah and heard on the news that there were suspected cases up there. They cancelled school and church. Remember that one week when we first heard about the swine flu and everyone was a little hyper about it? It was that week. But, we figured (or at least I did) that if we were going to be exposed it would have happened at the conference. We spent most of the day at the outlet mall. Shannon and I had never seen an M&M machine. Maybe they're a common sight and we're just lame but really, it's a good idea. What's better than M&M's?
This is the haul for the day. See that teeny tiny bag up front? That's mine. Ha Ha.


Can't be in Park City without going to the Olympic park. As you can see I was victorious. What can I say? I have skills.

HURRAY!!!!