By Stephanie Tanner-Brown
Deseret Morning News

      Hey, what's up with this weather? Each day this week I couldn't decide if I should have the heater on or the AC. At least I didn't have to water my lawn — the rain has been fantastic.
      I took a drive up Emigration Canyon to get a smell of the distinctly sweet clean air earlier this week. Oh, to have a front porch in that canyon! That would be something.
      For one thing, if I did, I'd hang out on it after every summer rain and just sniff into bliss. For another thing, I'd buy food from Ruth's Diner and present it as my own so often my kids would never know my real cooking. My cooking's fine, but Ruth's is so good at everything. And the staff takes the trouble to make things from scratch that I've long since relegated to a pre-mixed package.
      Ruth's reminds me of my grandma's cooking. The menu reads like her repertoire: pork chops, chicken and dumplings, hot-turkey sandwiches, lasagne, and grilled liver and onions. Plus it also has a few extra-sassy things my grandma would like: jerk chicken skewers, coconut curry shrimp, crusted chicken Romano.
      I think Ruth's is the best diner in town because of the emphasis it puts on quality and homemade recipes. Desserts, breads, sauces, gravies, dressings. They make 'em right there. And that counts for a lot.
      There are so many places you could spend the same amount of money, but why do it when Ruth's will cook it right and it will taste so much better?
      After a long day of work, my husband and I arrived at Ruth's, grabbed menus, chose our own table and sat down for dinner. We ordered sauteed mushrooms and crab cakes for starters. Great stuff. Could've eaten everything in the appetizer section. The crab cakes were tender, and the mushrooms — smothered in cheeses and herbs — were gooey and decadent.
      We also snacked on fresh-baked focaccia while we waited for more food. Next round was cream of spinach soup for me and a basic dinner salad for him. My soup was so great. The creamy broth was the lightest ever, not pasty or gloppy, but just as it should be, with plenty of bits of spinach and mushrooms.
      Those came as part of our dinner entrees, which, for me, was home-style meatloaf with brown gravy, cheesy mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. I loved my plate — from the savory, light gravy to the lightly herbed veggies cooked just right — and the generous serving (two large slices from the loaf) was perfect as leftovers the next day.
      For Gary, dinner was a plate full of fettucine and grilled salmon in a super spicy red sauce with bits of andouille sausage, peppers and basil. It was almost too spicy to taste the flavors for me, but Gary ate nearly the whole thing.
      How could we fit dessert in after a meal like this? Simple. Order it for takeout. We got the mixed fruit cobbler and the chocolate pudding. Homemade tastes good when it's dessert, and Ruth's sure does a fine job. Though I wanted more "cobble" in my cobbler, the great thing about it was that it wasn't too sweet . . . it let the fruit do the talking.
      And the pudding, well, if it's been a while since you loaded up your spoon to overflowing with the rich creamy treat, you'd better head up the canyon. Ruth's is the old-fashioned kind and it's the best.
      Man, what a great home-cooked meal we had at Ruth's. I've got to get back on the weekend for breakfast. It's probably not going to rain much again for a while, but it's still incredible up in the canyons, if for no other reason than really great homestyle food: the kind they make at Ruth's Diner.
      Prices for appetizers range from $1.75-7.95, salads $2.95-9.95, entrees $8.95-15.95, burgers and sandwiches $6.25-7.95, desserts $3.75