I can't believe it's not butter!

When we first began the conference tradition of a vegetable tray (back in our Durham days), it felt like a real splurge. But the kids loved it and begged for a vegetable tray every conference after.

And how do you say no to children begging for vegetables?

Our conference spread has...expanded over the years. Charcuterie boards came into vogue and we jumped on the band wagon and now the kids expect one of those every year—meat and cheese and crackers. You can see this year's charcuterie (courtesy of Benjamin) behind this beautiful bowl of hummus (courtesy of Andrew):

As the children have gotten into baking we've included more homemade treats, like cinnamon buns, though we didn't do those this year. I did bake some pumpkin bread, however! And Andrew picked up many different treats at Costco that we only get but twice a year (at conference), like Danishes and things like that. 

Oh, and we discovered a divine fruit dip a few years ago that we like to prepare to have with apples and other fruit. Sometimes we'll also make caramel (and then cry about it and eat it out of the garbage can). Since Rachel wasn't around to make the fruit dip, I made it. It's super easy. 

1. Combine 1 large container of vanilla yogurt (I think 32 oz) and 1 large package of instant vanilla pudding (not the small size).

2. Stir in 1 standard container of Cool Whip (we're going to need modify a lot of recipes if all these other places follow Betty Crocker's playbook).

That's it. It's a pretty forgiving recipe. 

Andrew picked up no-fat Cool Whip at the store by mistake, but said it would even out because he got full-fat yogurt by accident, too. I'm sure it was fine. In fact, I know it was fine because it was really pretty yummy. Here's another view of our spread with the fruit dip in it:

To encourage portion control (and ensure that we would have enough to last us through multiple conference sessions, which all happen during meal times here: 12–2 pm and 4–6 pm) I only put out some of the fruit dip and put the rest in multiple containers in the fridge, labeled for their assigned session.

We're a reduce, reuse, recycle household over here (or at least try our best), so the container that I put Saturday afternoon session's fruit dip in was...a Land O'Lakes butter container. 

When Andrew saw it sitting out on the table—by the bread, because the second, third, fourth, and fifth sessions of general conference never see the same kind of presentation as the first session, meal-wise—he assumed it was butter...and was going to get after the kids for leaving the butter out (again) and letting it get all soft and gloopy (again).

And then I grabbed my spoon, scraped some out onto my plate, dipped my finger into the yellow goo...and licked it.

"Mmmmmm!"

"Whaaaaaat are you dooooing?!" Andrew gasped.

"I'm...licking my finger?" 

"Whhhhhy?"

"Because...it's yummy?"

"It's...butter!"

"It's fruit dip."

"We still have fruit dip?!" he exclaimed. "Pass it here!"

I have to admit that if I didn't know it wasn't butter, I might have also thought it was butter. 

Rachel was on a video call with us at that moment (we actually pulled food out after the second session) and talked with us for nearly 2 full hours, so she got to catch this interaction (and made the quip about "I can't believe it's not butter!"). All her roommates went off to do conference things without her, so she went to the Relief Society president's apartment...just a few doors down from her own. Rachel is the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency (which was a surprising call for her, but I'm sure she's doing a fine job, even if she doesn't love having early morning meetings on Sundays).