I have often heard Lee say that girls get to change their look with their makeup. Lee, on the other hand, changes things up with his facial and head hair. This is why I've decided to document the many hair styles of Lee.
This first look--the Euro Mohawk--was created in honor of the FIFA World Cup. And I think it made Lee run faster when he was playing with his indoor soccer league last night!
What would YOU like to see Lee do with his hair? Post a comment and you just might see Lee walking around with your suggestion on his head!
Most of you know that one of our big summer parties is the Annual Cheese and Italian Soda party. It started over 7 years ago in my little apartment and has really gained speed. We ask all the attendees to bring a little hunk of cheese that starts with the first letter of their first name (or middle or last, depending on the year). We've tried all sorts of cheese--the soft, the stinky, the hard, the aged! Needless to say, we love cheese!
So, when City Weekly's Club Fed offered a free tour at the Beehive Cheese Company, we were all over it! Then, I found out that the tour was the exact same time as the FIFA World Cup USA vs UK match--I just couldn't let Lee not watch it! He went off with friends to watch the match, and I invited my good friend and fellow foodie, Sharon, to come with me.
We drove up the beautiful canyon tucked away at the mouth of Weber canyon, where the Beehive Cheese Company is located. When we arrived, we found ourselves in the company of other food lovers nibbling on some appetizers before the tour. I got to sample the creamy, piney Rosemary Promontory and the dry, flaky Aggiano Parmesan which had a tangy flavor. The Bandaged Cajun Rubbed Promontory had an initial creaminess with a delayed kick at the back of the throat.
Then, we met Tim Welsh, the co-founder of the Beehive Cheese Company. He started making cheese with his brother-in-law, Pat Ford, in 2005 after selling their dotcom business.
Tim is a foodie, so he thought it would be "cool" to start making cheese (the family thought it was crazy!). Tim and Pat collaborated with Utah State University to learn how to make cheese and wrote up a business plan. And that was it! Tim calls Beehive Cheese a "microcreamery"--small and local, employing only 16 people, mostly family.
Beehive Cheese employees--Alicia and Ollie (Tim's nephew)
We started the tour in the cheese-making room, a sanitary room filled with stainless steel vats and piping. Tim poetically juxtaposes the hectic dotcom software company to the quiet calm of making cheese at 2 am. He calls making cheese in the early morning "romantic and cool".
We then went into the cold room where the cheese was stored. It was amazing to see all that artisan cheese! Did you know that to make it an artisan cheese, it needs:
To be made by hand,
To be made in small batches,
To come from milk from a single herd (Gossner Milk in Logan, UT), and
The milk isn't standardized from season to season?
The last room we went to was the cheese-curing room, where Tim introduced us to one of their new cheeses, Butterbound. These wheels are bound in linen bandages and are covered in cultured butter and allowed to cure. The room smelled moist. Funky. Wild.
I had to have my picture taken with all this lovely cheese! The guy who took my picture, of course, said "Say cheese." Snap!
The tour ended appropriately with a few purchases for later snacking with Lee.
If you're looking for Beehive Cheese cheese, you can find it at specialty markets, like Liberty Heights and Emigration Market, and the Downtown Farmer's Market. And you can always check them out online! I think you just might enjoy this local food artisan for yourself!
P.S. We'll be having the 8th Annual Cheese and Italian Soda Party in August. If you want to come, let me or Lee know your email address so we can send you an invitation!
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UPDATE:
Here's the video City Weekly posted online. And here's a short article about the event here.
This last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the wedding of one of my awesomest friends ever, Christina. She married an amazing guy, Sean, whom she met in Boston--they're truly perfect for each other!
I have been friends with Christina for over 18 years. We went to high school together and both played the clarinet in the band and orchestra. We also took Russian and both ended going on missions to the "motherland". But the most distinctive thing I remember about Christina is her family.
She is one of 20 children. Twenty!! Holy cannoli! Okay, here's the breakdown: 13 kids were born to Christina's parents, Steve and Marilyn. Then, Steve and Marilyn decided to start adopting! They went on to adopt 7 more kids from different countries and all with some sort of special need (blindness/visual impairment, Down Syndrome, etc). They were adopted during our high school years and I treasure all the time I spent over at her home with her family--all the love, craziness, and fun.
If you have a minute, watch this quick movie about Steve's and Marilyn's family here for an award they won in 2007 for being so fabulous! Needless to say, the apples don't fall far from this tree--the entire family is amazing and I have always always admired them.
(This is Mei modeling her new pink purse at the wedding.)
It was truly a pleasure to see and spend time with the entire family (fully expanded with spouses and kids!) again this weekend and share in the wedding celebration.
