An Unprocessed October

This month, we're cracking down in the kitchen with October Unprocessed. I'm thrilled and excited. We currently eat a fairly balanced and healthy diet, but the weekly pizza and ice cream are being thrown out the window! It's going to take some serious fortitude on my behalf to nix out the candy corn, but I'm going for it!

I find October Unprocessed to be such an exciting event, because of my love for nutrition, healthy living and food! Many of us want to change our food habits, but it can feel daunting and overwhelming. Starting a healthy habit of eating unprocessed foods is the perfect way to start! It's easy, inexpensive and anyone can do it!

As we make our way through the crispy cool month of October, I'm going to post some of my favorite unprocessed products, recipes, snacks and alternatives to eating junk food. It's going to be really fun and I encourage anyone who is looking to turn over a new (Autumn) leaf, to check out October Unprocessed.

Coffee Tasting

One of the highlights of my weekend was a coffee tasting with Becky at Vintage Mixer and Nobrow Coffee and Tea. I had the pleasure of an invitation from the hostess herself and I found myself thoroughly impressed with the presentation, content and social atmosphere. Becky outdid herself.

Nobrow is a locally owned and operated establishment in the downtown area of Salt Lake City. Both owners provided extensive and thorough discussion regarding coffee growing, roasting and brewing. In addition, we had a wonderful opportunity to taste three varieties of coffee and do our own comparing based on personal preference and mood.

Coffee is a huge part of our culture. It plays into every part of our lives; from economy all the way into the heart of our home life and routine. For some it's a staple... something necessary to the survival of a day. For others it's a ritual... therapeutic and holistic. Whatever coffee has been in my own life, it now has a new face and I find myself wanting to take an ethically responsible stance on my enjoyment of coffee.

Thank you to Nobrow and to Becky for providing a wonderful afternoon of delicious food, rich coffee and light social interaction.



Nothing Quite Like Homemade

We canned a batch of apricots last night! And by we... I mean Matt. He did most of the work... the heavy work, at least. And now we have eleven pretty jars of apricot jam. Deeelish!

This was just apricots... not the sugar. The sugar nearly doubled the volume of our batch!

Pretty!

If you look closely... you can see the fruit settling on the top of the jars. Any ideas how we can prevent this from happening next time?

Hires Big H

Saturday night was a good night for burgers (if you don't already know this... we like burgers...a lot) and it seemed appropriate that we continue to learn more about Salt Lake City by trying Hires Big H.

 Hires is a local drive-in burger joint that serves traditional drive-in food, such as burgers, shakes and frosty root beer (for those who wish to dine-in). It's a low-profile joint that offers run-of-the-mill service and amazingly delicious burgers. I had a bacon, Roquefort burger and the bacon was heavenly (thick and crunchy). In addition, the burger came with a garlic butter sauce/spread that I originally thought was mayo, but after a few bites found myself enjoying (in spite of the fact that my cholesterol went up by 30 points!).

Servers know to come and take your order after you turn your lights on. Crafty.

Hires Big H was opened by Don Hale in 1959. He specialized in meat and fresh produce and felt that everyone needed delicious food made with fresh ingredients. To this day the meat is cut, ground and cooked on site. Every ingredient is prepared as if it were an old-fashioned kitchen. Impressive.

Needless to say, I'm sure we'll go back (wink-wink)... and I'm still not sure what the big "H" means.