A New Utah Holiday

So, the new unofficial holiday in Utah is May 23rd. What's May 23rd, you ask? May 23rd is the day that the first IKEA in the Intermountain West opens in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, namely Draper, Utah.

Of course, I'll be taking the holiday off from work to attend the rites associated with the grand opening of this wonderful Swedish, iconic store.

I felt the need to post the grand opening date as the majority of the hits to my blog lately seem to be coming from people searching for the grand opening date of this store, as I've commented on IKEA here in the past.

Music: Pain (My Love Is In Vain)

I thought someone out there reading this blog might like a musical interlude. This is one of the greatest rock bands ever, The September When, of Norway, fronted by Morten Abel who is still recording solo albums although TSW is unfortunately broken up long since. Here's some live concert footage from 1991 featuring one of my favorite songs "Pain" and "The Beauty Of It Is."

Mitt Welcomes Romney

I was reading the newspaper the other day and saw a photo of Mitt Romney at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire. In huge letters, the banner behind him said "New Hampshire Welcomes Mitt Romney." But in small letters at the bottom it said, "Paid for by the Romney for President Exploratory Committee, Inc." So really, Mitt Romney was welcoming himself to New Hampshire.
This reminds me of how Mitt takes all the credit for rescuing the Salt Lake Olympics. Friends who worked on the staff at the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee tell me leaders there had already formulated a plan to "rescue" the olympics, but they needed an outside figurehead to make it appear as though everything was cleaned up by getting rid of the old leaders. Mitt didn't rescue the olympics. He didn't even come up with the plan. But he sure welcomed himself to all the credit.

Norwegian "Rice Cream" Pudding with Raspberry Fruit Sauce

Someone recently requested this recipe after I mentioned it on another entry of my blog. So, I thought I would share it here in case anyone else wants it.

Norsk Riskrem
Serves eight
Ingredients:
4 cups Whole Milk*
8 Tbs. (1 stick) Butter or Margarine
1 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup Pearl Rice**
1 pint Heavy Cream
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
4 Tbs. Sugar
1. Put milk, butter and salt into large pan. Bring to a boil, watch carefully as it begins to boil and remove from heat before milk boils over.
2. Add rice. Turn stove down to low and simmer approximately one hour covered with a lid until rice is tender and has thick consistency.
4. Stir approximately every fifteen minutes during this time period.
5. Whisk cream, vanilla and sugar together.
6. After rice cooks approximately one hour, stir in cream mixture.

Raspberry Fruit Sauce:
1. Use Danish Dessert, Raspberry flavor (available on the baking aisle of most grocery stores).
2. Follow directions on box for Fruit Sauce.
3. Serve rice warm or chilled with warm Raspberry sauce poured over the top of Rice Cream.

Notes:
*You may adjust the amounts in this recipe, but maintain a 5:1 ratio for milk and rice—5 parts milk to one part rice.
**NEVER use long grain rice. You may substitute medium grain rice if you are unable to find pearl rice.