Brigham Young, Joseph Smith III and fry sauce

By Greg:

In 1994 we ventured off the reservation and built a business in Layton, Utah.  We called it The Burger Bar of Layton, to distinguish it from THE Burger Bar (located in Roy, and featured on the Food Channel in Diners, Drive-ins, Dives ETC).  For 15 years this was our life, and a big part of the life of all our family.  We sold it and retired, ha ha! Oh, the buyer turned it into a Starbucks.

This was a happy day for me

We did not give our children a vote when we decided to sell

We fed the missionaries for free-even on our last day they came (The family is our Daughter's family-the Eardleys)

One of the claims the Fowler family (Debi's family and the founders of THE Burger Bar) makes with the Burger Bar is that they invented fry sauce. Now I fully understand that Arctic Circle makes the same claim, but this is my story and I am sticking to it. This is like some other claims that are in dispute.

After the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, many in the Church wandered in the wilderness, like sheep without a shepherd.  The largest group followed Brigham Young to the Rocky Mountains.  Others were lost until the Prophet's oldest surviving son came of age and the "reorganization" occurred, gathering up many of the lost sheep in western Iowa (Winter Quarters), Illinois, and various locations throughout the United States.  The question became, "Who really invented fry sauce?" Oh, I mean, "Which group is the rightful heir to the Prophet Joseph.

Brigham Young

Joseph Smith III

In the the 1890s, the RLDS Church went to court with the Church of Christ Temple Lot folks to try to reclaim the temple lot in Independence,  After appeal, they lost the claim to the land, but the Judge declared that they were the Church that was the true successor to the Church Joseph Smith established.  They were very proud of this and even went so far as to carve the following words on the Kirtland Temple:"HOUSE OF THE LORD, REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS IN SUCCESSION BY ORDER OF COURT FEBRUARY, 1880.

Well, the "proof is in the pudding" as they say. I have not seen Arctic Circle on the Food Channel!  Also, In the year 1900, the RLDS reported 43,824 members while The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 283,765 members. They say today they have about 250,000 members while we are over 15 million. They have one temple and we have more than that.

They did not get the "Temple Lot"but today they have it surrounded

There is a vast difference in the use and purpose of our temples, however

OK, lets get back to fry sauce, and onion rings.



By Debi:

If you just understood Greg's entry, you are amazing or weird.

The Young Single Adult Branch had a great swimming social last week at President Thorne's home. He is the Branch President of the Liberty Young Single Adults branch and has a very lovely home and yard.

This is the pool and pool house-in the back yard behind their house

We have told the branch leaders about the Burger Bar and the homemade onion rings and fry sauce.  They begged us to make some for them so we decided that the first cook-out of the summer would be the perfect time. They do not have fry sauce out here, but many are either from Utah or have lived there (going to school etc).

We decided to slice the onions outside so we did not mess up the apartments with the smell-we should have done this at the BBL

To you BBL veterans, you will know that the only way to make the sauce is with a drill

My wonderful brother Dave sent us the secret ingredients for the fry sauce and onion rings all the way from Utah.  He even donated the supplies to the event. A senior missionary couple from Hooper, our dear friends the Flints, were driving out to their mission so they brought all of the supplies for us. We bought the onions at Costco, however.

Greg and I worked hard cutting 30 pounds of onions by hand (at the restaurant we would have used our lovely slicer). We then divided the rings and put them in cold water in the fridge to wait for the next process.

Onion rings take three days to make if you do them right.  We had our fridge packed with onions and we even used the fridge at the office to hold all of the sauce we made.

We used all the ketchup bottles for the extra sauce that we gave to some of the most loyal fans

On Monday morning we coated all of the onions with buttermilk and cracker meal and we made 5 gallons of fry sauce.

This is the kitchen in the Thorne's pool house-we made 4 big tubs and 6 small tubs of rings

I was a little nervous because I had never made onions to cook in someone's home fryers in their backyard but we decided that we would give it our best shot.

This our dear friend Brother Jury, 1st Counselor and the fryers

President and Sister Thorne have a beautiful home, yard and pool area.

The kitchen we used is not the kitchen in their house.  It is the kitchen for their outdoor pool area.  They have a full kitchen, beautiful dressing rooms, and a lovely entertainment area with a huge screen TV and seating area.

The onion rings turned out beautiful and everyone went crazy over them.

A lot of the YSAs had never had fry sauce before.  At first they just tasted it and then they started dipping their onion rings deep and long into the "pink stuff". They are now converts to Utah fry sauce.

We had a great time and it was a big success. The first week we attended the Branch last September there were about 20 YSAs in Sacrament Meeting.  Last week we had well over 80 YSAs at Church and again at our Summer Swim Party.  We are so thrilled to have had the blessing of being part of the YSA Branch.  It truly has been the highlight of our time here in Missouri.  

We enjoyed the evening with the YSAs and with the Branch Presidency and their wives.

We love them all and we have grown very close to them.  They feel like family.

Isn't that what it is all about?  President Monson said  "Love is the Essence of the Gospel".