You are what you eat

Thanks to a very generous soon to be brother-in-law, Jaren and I scored tickets to the annual Park City Food and Wine Classic yesterday. It is a great event with hundreds of vendors offering tastes of wine, spirits, food, and treats. We indulged, and indulged some more, and had a fabulous time.

I came away boggled by the bounty and sophistication of tastes and the intensity of food culture these days. I feel really proud of the awakened state of our country's food culture. Living in a city a bit off the beaten track, I pretty much know that if the buying/eating local thing is happening here on every corner, then it is happening every where across the country. Careful consideration of what we eat and where it comes from has moved into the mainstream consciousness. It's wonderful to feel like something in our culture is heading in the right direction. Hallelujah! I wanted to give a plug for an awesome new publication here in Salt Lake City focused on the local food scene called Edible Wasatch . I was impressed with the magazine and thought it had a lot of great information about businesses, farmers, and citizens doing their part to promote healthy, sustainable food--all in all a venture very worth supporting.

In celebration of food and drink, I thought it would be fun to share a few inspirational sites I love that have food at their core.

I have to confess to a serious weakness for food styling. I love love love the blog Sunday Suppers which showcases cool chefs throwing awesome dinner parties. The photography and styling are always pitch perfect and the recipes consistently make me drool. It also entices me to want to throw a zillion parties. Dangerous!

Whenever I need a pick me up, I like to listen to a killer podcast my sister turned me on to called Good Food, a weekly radio program out of KCRW in Los Angeles hosted by the wonderful Evan Kleiman. (I'm telling you just her voice alone will cheer you. It's so snappy and happy and real.) The show is a true foodie mecca: restaurant reviews, farmer's market reports, interviews with street vendors and food purveyors of all stripes. I also really appreciate that they talk about the politics of food-the true cost of farm labor, environmental impact of what we eat and when, etc. It's a well rounded show and definitely entertaining. And downloading the podcast is FREE!

And lastly, I have never been a huge rum fan, but I am so in awe of the graphics and ad campaign behind the new spiced rum brand The Kraken that I've become a convert. It's actually super delicious stuff and the bottle label alone is reason enough to buy it and imbibe.

Cheers to mindful food and drink! Enjoy the bounty of summertime.....

p.s. photos above are from a talented food stylist named Linda Lundgren.