For years I've wanted to find my way to Napa, despite being a teetotaler, so I could eat at the wonderful restaurants there. Mustards Grill is one of my favorite cookbooks, but unquestionably Thomas Keller's French Laundry is where I'd want to eat my last supper. Through happenstance I am staying this week five floors from another one of his restaurants, Bouchon. For less than the price of room service I ate this magnificent french toast for breakfast. To call this french toast would be like calling his creme brulee instant pudding. In all honesty, this was a rich, creamy, challah-based apple bread pudding for breakfast. Combine this with this hotel's ridiculous fitness center that costs $40 to go for a run on the treadmill and I should have packed my fat pants...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thomas Keller is my MJ
For years I've wanted to find my way to Napa, despite being a teetotaler, so I could eat at the wonderful restaurants there. Mustards Grill is one of my favorite cookbooks, but unquestionably Thomas Keller's French Laundry is where I'd want to eat my last supper. Through happenstance I am staying this week five floors from another one of his restaurants, Bouchon. For less than the price of room service I ate this magnificent french toast for breakfast. To call this french toast would be like calling his creme brulee instant pudding. In all honesty, this was a rich, creamy, challah-based apple bread pudding for breakfast. Combine this with this hotel's ridiculous fitness center that costs $40 to go for a run on the treadmill and I should have packed my fat pants...
Richard Bushman Strikes Again
I really enjoyed Rough Stone Rolling and somehow missed Bushman's publication last year that briefly summarizes Mormonism. I appreciate Bushman's blend of honesty, scholarship and sympathy. We'll see if his approach extends well to this work. I'll be picking it up on the Kindle. Very excited to see it is available in that format. Bad news is you'll have to get your own copy. Why hasn't Amazon figured out the value of sharing?
Monday, September 28, 2009
April 2009 Recalled
Another six months have passed. My five favorite discourses from April conference:
5) Christofferson, The Power of Covenants
We need strong Christians who can persevere against hardship, who can sustain hope through tragedy, who can lift others by their example and their compassion, and who can consistently overcome temptations. We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith and who can defend the truth of Jesus Christ against moral relativism and militant atheism.
4) Eyring, Adversity
[T]he disciple who accepts a trial as an invitation to grow and therefore qualify for eternal life can find peace in the midst of the struggle.
That may seem much to ask of people in such great need themselves. But I know one young man who was inspired to do that very thing early in his marriage. He and his wife were barely getting by on a tiny budget. But he saw another couple even poorer than they were. To the surprise of his wife, he gave help to them from their scanty finances. A promised blessing of peace came while they were still in their poverty. The blessing of prosperity beyond their fondest dreams came later. And the pattern of seeing someone in need, someone with less or in pain, has never ceased."
3) Hales, Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually
In seeking to overcome debt and addictive behaviors, we should remember that addiction is the craving of the natural man, and it can never be satisfied. It is an insatiable appetite. When we are addicted, we seek those worldly possessions or physical pleasures that seem to entice us. But as children of God, our deepest hunger and what we should be seeking is what the Lord alone can provide—His love, His sense of worth, His security, His confidence, His hope in the future, and assurance of His love, which brings us eternal joy.
2) Uchtdorf, We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down
It is easy to become distracted—to become focused on one burned-out lightbulb or the impolite acts of unkind people, whatever their motive may be. But think of the power we would have as individuals and as a body of the priesthood if, in response to every temptation to lose focus or lower our standards—the standards of God, we responded, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."
1) Oaks, Unselfish Service
C. S. Lewis explained this teaching of the Savior: “The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the centre—wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake. . . . What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come . . . the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
5) Christofferson, The Power of Covenants
We need strong Christians who can persevere against hardship, who can sustain hope through tragedy, who can lift others by their example and their compassion, and who can consistently overcome temptations. We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith and who can defend the truth of Jesus Christ against moral relativism and militant atheism.
4) Eyring, Adversity
[T]he disciple who accepts a trial as an invitation to grow and therefore qualify for eternal life can find peace in the midst of the struggle.
That may seem much to ask of people in such great need themselves. But I know one young man who was inspired to do that very thing early in his marriage. He and his wife were barely getting by on a tiny budget. But he saw another couple even poorer than they were. To the surprise of his wife, he gave help to them from their scanty finances. A promised blessing of peace came while they were still in their poverty. The blessing of prosperity beyond their fondest dreams came later. And the pattern of seeing someone in need, someone with less or in pain, has never ceased."
3) Hales, Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually
In seeking to overcome debt and addictive behaviors, we should remember that addiction is the craving of the natural man, and it can never be satisfied. It is an insatiable appetite. When we are addicted, we seek those worldly possessions or physical pleasures that seem to entice us. But as children of God, our deepest hunger and what we should be seeking is what the Lord alone can provide—His love, His sense of worth, His security, His confidence, His hope in the future, and assurance of His love, which brings us eternal joy.
2) Uchtdorf, We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down
It is easy to become distracted—to become focused on one burned-out lightbulb or the impolite acts of unkind people, whatever their motive may be. But think of the power we would have as individuals and as a body of the priesthood if, in response to every temptation to lose focus or lower our standards—the standards of God, we responded, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down."
1) Oaks, Unselfish Service
C. S. Lewis explained this teaching of the Savior: “The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the centre—wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake. . . . What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come . . . the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
Monday, September 21, 2009
Executive Compensation
Does anyone know of evidence that executive compensation contributed to the financial meltdown? Strong evidence here that it did not. I say we blame it anyway. Off with their heads.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
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