Utah Valley Magazine Holiday Meal Photo Shoot

I was asked to contribute a drink recipe to Utah Valley Magazine. The younguns and I spent an evening concocting all sorts of holiday punches. Some were so bitter we could hardly see and others were so sweet our teeth ached.

Finally, we had three we all liked and couldn't agree on which one was better so we performed a blind taste test. The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever! I'm not kidding. We may have to stage blind taste tests more often. I think I could get them to eat all sorts of things that way. Who knew?

The day of the photo shoot dawned sunny and bright. I got the kids off to school and headed up to the studio. I must say, the people at Utah Valley Magazine are super nice! They were all very excited about the different dishes coming in. (If you'd like to see a picture of the entire meal, including the holiday punch that made the cut, click here.)

It's not all glitz and glam at a photo shoot. There are a lot of details than need to be taken care of. Here are the photographer and editors setting up all the different dishes.

This is Sydney Cline, author of Feeding the Masses, plating her delicious eclair cake. I know it was delicious because she let me taste it! Wonderful lady! Wonderful book that she put together after years of planning ward Christmas parties and other activities. If you have a calling that involves planning food - it is a fantastic resource.

All in all, we had two food bloggers, two authors and one food critic who contributed to creating this holiday feast. All of them are super talented and super nice people. (I didn't realize until I put this picture in that we all coordinated. No, we didn't plan that - we just rock!)

Here is a link to the Utah Valley Magazine Blog. If you'd like to purchase a hard copy, they should be on the shelf in two weeks. You can get the on-line version today. Happy reading and Happy Holidays!!! (Let the madness begin.)