I receive all kinds of questions from readers. Most of them are about about recipes, Body Pump, and pugs, but others range from career and relationship advice to hip injuries and money matters. They’re typically all over the place, but I’m more than happy to help in anyway that I can!

Recently, I’ve received a number of questions about my skincare routine. I’ve struggled with breakouts for as long as I can remember, so it’s flattering that readers ask me for advice. (Maybe I’m just too critical of myself?)

In the past 6 months or so, I’ve finally gotten control of my skin. (*Knock on wood!*) I’ve made some changes to my routine and diet, which have really improved my skin. I hardly breakout anymore.

Obviously, I’m not a doctor or a skincare expert, so I can only tell you what works for me. We’re all different, so something that works for me, may not work for you. Maybe I “outgrew” my bad skin by turning 30-years-old? I have no idea. But, here’s what works for me and, hopefully,  it’ll work for you, too!

Routine & Products

I wash my face twice a day (morning and night) using Neutrogena’s Oil-Free Acne Wash. It contains little “scrubbies” and salicylic acid to help prevent breakouts as well as aloe and chamomile to sooth and reduce redness. You can find it at most drugstores (CVS, Walgreens, etc.) and Target. It rules.

During the day, I use Neutrogena Ageless Intensives Tone Correcting Moisture SPF 30 all over my face and neck.

At night, I use Hope in a Jar on my face and neck. I like this product, but once it runs out, I’ll probably buy a similar night lotion from Neutrogena. I’ve heard that mixing and matching products from different lines can cause breakouts.

Once a week, I use an exfoliating masque from Arbonne. I lovveeee this masque!! In fact, when I ran out of it a few weeks ago, I used Twitter to find an Arbonne rep to sell me more. I’m obsessed.

As soon as I put this masque on my face, I feel it working. It tingles! When I wash it off, my skin feels soooo soft. I’d even say that it glows!

Another thing I do to prevent breakouts is wash my makeup brushes once a month or so. I never used to wash my brushes until Jenna mentioned it to me. She said washing her brushes keeps her skin clear, so I figured I might as well give it a try. So far, so good!

To wash your makeup brushes, just use a small amount of gentle shampoo and water, and then rub the bristles between your fingers. Do this until the water runs clean. Air dry the brushes.

Nutrition

With regard to the changes that I’ve made in my diet, please take what I say with a grain of salt. I’m not a Registered Dietitian. The information below comes from magazines, the Internet, my dermatologist, and my own opinions.

Breakouts are the result of too much oil and a collection of dead skin cells, which combine to clog pores. What goes into our bodies (as well as our hormones) affect the “health” of our skin. When I realized that certain foods can reduce or contribute to breakouts, I immediately started making changes to my diet. Here’s what I did:

• Ate more whole, high-fiber grains and stayed away from refined carbs (except for the occasional cookie! ): When you eat refined carbs, your pancreas sends out a surge of insulin, which triggers a change in hormones that increases oil production and tells your cells to multiply. This clogs pores and leads to breakouts. Whole grains help your body absorb and burn carbs more slowly, which keeps your blood sugar and insulin levels steady. They’re also filling and keep you regular!
• Incorporated foods rich in vitamin A and zinc into my diet: Vitamin A is kryptonite for acne. It attacks blemishes by reducing inflammation and encouraging cell turnover, which leads to clearer pores and less breakouts. Vitamin A-rich foods include spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. I also try to eat foods that are high in zinc, like pumpkin (pumpkin beer counts, right? ), chickpeas, and peanut butter. Zinc helps regulate oil production, which prevents shiny skin and breakouts.
• Avoided milk. I always thought that the hormones in cow’s milk caused me to breakout, but after years of buying organic milk, my breakouts continued. I even “traded up” to non-fat milk when I started working at NuVal last fall and my skin freaked out. Again, I’m not an expert, but drinking cow’s milk (with or without hormones) makes me breakout.
• Drank lots and lots of water. I’ve always been good about drinking water, but I started to drink more. I definitely notice a difference in the way my skin looks when I am hydrated verses dehydrated.

In addition to the diet tweaks above, I also take a daily fish oil supplement. I started taking the New Harvest capsules once a day after my trip to Philadelphia. About a month ago, I ran out of them and my skin started to act up again. Interesting, right? So, now I’m back on board with the fish oil supplements.

The omega-3′s in the fish oil reduce inflammation and keep your skin balanced and soft. Good sources of omega-3′s include salmon (and other fish), flaxseeds (not whole), chia seeds, and walnuts.

So, that is my healthy skin routine in a nutshell. Again, I’m not an expert. This post is based on my own personal experiences, but if you have specific questions, please let me know!

What’s your healthy skin routine? What are your tips for healthy skin?

Lunch

I packed lunch to take to NuVal with me this afternoon. I had Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt with sliced strawberries and Kashi 7 Grain cereal and a blueberry Soyjoy bar. In the afternoon, I also munched on some caramel popcorn.

Still no word from the sellers about the house. I’m getting antsy!!!

P.S. I’m hosting an end of the summer giveaway on Trading Up Downtown today!

I love my husband. But, this morning, when he told me that he ran 4 miles in 30:22, I sort of hated him. That’s a 7:35 pace! Who is this freak of nature!?! He doesn’t even like running!! Not fair.

Mal headed out the door for his run as soon as he woke up, but I dilly-dallied around the house and took Murphy for a walk before I went for my run. I finished in 36:16, which is a 9:04 pace. It’s no 7:35 pace, but it’s pretty good for me!

When I returned home, Murphy licked me to death. He loves my salty sweat!

He proceeded to follow me all over the house while I stretched, Tiger Tailed, and rehydrated. He wouldn’t stop licking me!! Murphy is a freak of nature, too!

Isn’t he sweet?

Breakfast

For breakfast, I made a Van’s waffle with peanut butter and chia seeds on top.

On the side, I had a pink grapefruit.

And, of course, iced coffee with soy milk.

I’m heading to NuVal later this morning. (Yes, I still work there!) I mostly work from home now, but I go into the office once a week or so. I just haven’t been there in awhile this time. I hope everyone remembers me!

Question of the Day

What is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to you?

P.S. Don’t forget about our raffle to support TNT and win a custom banner for your blog or website. You could win a whole new look for just $5!

House update!!! We heard back from the sellers. It’s not good news or bad news; we received a counteroffer. Now we’re playing the game!

To get the ball rolling, Mal and I put in a pretty low offer, so, not surprisingly, the sellers made a counteroffer. It’s not the end of the world, but they only went down $4,000 from their asking price. Isn’t it a buyer’s market?!  We really love the house, so we increased our offer and basically met in the middle. Hopefully, the sellers like this one better. Stay tuned.

Dinner

Goooooooood dinner tonight!! It was perfect for 95 degree weather!

Don’t ya love it when you just throw some ingredients together and the meal turns out much better than expected? Tonight was definitely one of those nights!

I didn’t measure the ingredients exactly, so I did my best to estimate how much I used of each one. Feel free to do your own thing and experiment with the recipe below!

Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Arugula and Feta

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces uncooked whole wheat penne
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 3 ounces crumbled feta
• 1 big handful of arugula

Directions:

• Cook pasta according to directions on package.
• Combine all ingredients, except for arugula and feta, in a large mixing bowl.
• Once cooked, drain, and transfer pasta to large mixing bowl; toss well.
• Cool pasta in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or overnight.
• Add arugula and feta just before serving.

Doesn’t this dish look so fresh and delicious!?! This recipe is a keeper!

TNT Training Schedule

Ever since I started training for the Honolulu Marathon, I’ve received a number of questions about the Team In Training milage schedule. I’ve answered a bunch of questions on an individual basis, but I thought it would be helpful to share my responses with everyone.

Here’s what the various workouts are all about:

Long runs: Long runs are done once a week on Saturday mornings with our TNT team. Of course, I would love to run 26.2 miles without stopping, but I really don’t think it’s in my future. Thankfully, the marathon can be completed in a run/walk method. This method uses a technique where you run for a specified time (10 minutes, 9 minutes, etc.) and then walk for 1 minute and complete throughout the entire race. Once I get up to the longer distances, I’m going to give this method a try.

Here are a few links that further explain the run/walk method:

• Jeff Galloway’s Walk Breaks
• The Run/Walk Plan from Runner’s World
• Run-Walk-Run to Faster Times, Faster Recovery

Track workouts: Track workouts help increase your speed. Basically, running faster than normal helps your body get “used to” running faster. Your body learns to work more efficiently and makes you able to run faster over a given (race) distance. Essentially, running becomes easier for you because your body becomes conditioned by the stress of a track workout. Over time, you will be able to run faster with less effort.

Each week, the TNT training schedule has us doing one of three rotating Track Workouts:

• Track Workout 1
• Track Workout 2
• Track Workout 3 (coming soon)

Cross training: The TNT program has us crossing training 3 times per week. This is to avoid injury and overuse. On my cross training days, I will do activities like Body Pump, elliptical, spinning, and yoga.

As you know, I believe that strength training is very important to a healthy, fit body. For one, it helps keep your core strong, which is essential for running. Even still, I plan to reduce my usual twice per week Body Pump routine to once a week until the marathon. The TNT folks recommended not doing strengthen training the day before or after a long run or on the same day as running (as your body needs to rest). There’s only seven days in a week, so I really can’t fit in two Body Pump classes each week. Hopefully, doing yoga once a week will help keep me strong.

—

For dessert, Mal and I are going to Starbucks for iced lattes (decaf) and then we’re chilling with Murphy on the couch. It’s too hot to do anything, so we’re watching a movie from Netflix.

Enjoy the evening, folks!

Woah, it’s September 1st already? Where did this summer go!?! Summer 2010 was easily the best summer of my life!

In no particular order, here are just some of the highlights from the last few months:

I helped host the 2nd Annual Healthy Living Summit in Chicago.

I met some fabulous bloggers and supported Caitlin at the TODAY show.

I had a blast with my blog buddies in Philadelphia.

I ate my way through Orlando.

I made some exercise videos with Fitness Magazine.

I went to a couple of fun summer concerts: Ray LaMontagne + David Gray and OAR.

I crossed off #41 from my Life’s To Do List!

Learned how to cook French food with my hubby.

I attended some great events in New York City, including Silver Spoons and The Kitchen of the Year.

I learned all about organics, farming, and cows on the Stonyfield Barnstorming Tour.

Mal and I started house hunting again.

I met some wonderful bloggers in Scottsdale, Arizona and learned all about steam cooking.

I went to my first ever BlogHer in New York City.

I spent a nice, relaxing weekend in Burlington, Vermont with my husband and our friends.

I celebrated Dave and Marie’s big day!

As well as our two-year wedding anniversary.

I ate lunch with Gary Hirshberg, the CE-YO of Stonyfield.

I turned 30!!!

I signed up to run a marathon with Team In Training!

Wow, what a summer!! I’m exhausted just blogging about it. Let’s hope the fall is just as fun!

What are you going to miss most about summer?

My morning started bright and early at 5:01 AM, and I’ve been going non-stop ever since.

My first stop of the day was at the gym for a Baptiste Power Yoga class. Baptiste Power Yoga is a challenging and flowing form of yoga that is done in a hot room. It’s very much like the hot yoga that I tried in Chicago, but without music.

Baptiste Power Yoga offers stretch-seeking visitors an opportunity to practice limbering postures in a sudorific environment without rolling out a mat in a steamy submarine engine room. Within stretch-inducing, 90-degree confines, participants will downward dog their way to core-tightening and silhouette-slimming fitness under the supervision of experienced instructors. Just like jogging through the jungle in a gorilla suit, Baptiste’s power Vinyasa yoga sheds stress and buckets of calories while motivating participants in a friendly, anaconda-free atmosphere.

I never thought I was a yoga person, but I really love “hot” yoga. In other yoga classes (mostly the slow-paced ones), I get bored within 15 minutes and then check the clock a million times wishing the class would end. Hot yoga is totally different for me. My mind stays focused and I rarely ever look at the clock. Maybe it’s the heat and sweat that makes it feel like a “real” workout and I’m not just wasting my time? I dunno. Hot yoga is more my style, I guess.

After class, I grabbed an iced soy latte from Starbucks. I parked my car right out front, so I figured why not?

Then, I hit the grocery store to do our shopping for the week. Grocery shopping at 7:00 AM on a Wednesday is amazing! The store was empty! No crowds, no lines. I was in and out in 25 minutes and I managed to save $17 off my bill!

You can see what I purchased over on Trading Up Downtown!

Breakfast

After running around all morning, I was more than ready to eat when I walked through the door. I threw together a quick peanut butter and banana wrap with raisins and chia seeds inside.

House Update

So, it’s official! Late last night, Mal and I made an offer on another house!

Even though house hunting can be really stressful, I’ve throughly enjoyed the process. I was bummed about the previous house, but I knew it just wasn’t the one for us. We’ve also had an amazing realtor, who has helped make finding a new home less stressful and even fun. She’s very responsive and totally has her act together. She even offered us freshly baked chocolate chip cookies while we signed our offer last night!

Our realtor also sent us home with a big zucchini and a squash. Murphy didn’t know what to think!

Feel Great Weight

I’m not an expert runner, but I started running just like everyone else. Check out this week’s FGW post: How to Start Running: 5 Tips for Beginners.

Question of the Day

Do you run? What are your running tips?

P.S. Don’t forget about our raffle to support TNT and win a custom banner for your blog or website!

We’re back in the house hunting game!!

This afternoon, Mal and I saw three more houses AND we’ve decided to make another offer on one of them! Ahh!!! The new house is BETTER than the one we lost, so we’re pretty excited– although I’m not getting my hopes up just in case it doesn’t work out. We still need to have our offer accepted and the house inspection go well.

Snack

Before Mal and I headed out to look at houses, I snacked on a piece of toasted Banana Walnut Hemp Manna Bread with Barney Butter smeared on top. Mmm!

Dinner

After house hunting, Mal and I headed straight home to make dinner. We were both famished, so we threw together a couple of tuna melts while we snacked on some chips. On the side, I had some sliced green bell pepper.

Mal and I ate dinner in front the TV while battling it out on Jeopardy. We both love trivia, so we’re very competitive!

For “dessert,” I enjoyed a mini Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar. I love these little guys!

We’re off to meet our realtor to make an offer. Wish us luck!

Hey, there!

This is going to be a monster blog post, so let’s make sure we don’t forget about lunch!

I had the “basics” (romaine, tomatoes, green bell pepper, broccoli) for a homemade salad, but they didn’t sound too exciting. So, after my workout, I visited the salad bar at The Fruit Center to pick up some “fun” salad ingredients for lunch.

To the mix, I added grilled veggies, breaded artichokes, chickpeas, kidney beans, marinated tofu, shredded carrots, and some other goodies. I also sprinkled some Garlic Gold Nuggets on top. (I had to see what the hype was all about!) The flavor sort of reminds me of Papa Gino’s pizza. Is that weird?

Lunch also included some cinnamon-sugar pita chips from the salad bar.

And a plum.

Workout

Before lunch, I hit the gym for a very sweaty treadmill workout. According to my marathon training schedule, today’s workout is Track Workout 2. I wanted to do the workout outside on a track today, but it’s 95 degrees in Boston, so the treadmill ended up working just fine!

Track Workout 2

2 lap warm up, 3 X’s 800M, 2 lap warm down, 1 lap rest
Pace based off of 5k race time

Here’s the workout that I did on the treadmill:

• 0.50 miles @ 6.5 mph
• 0.50 miles @ 7.3 mph (8:13 pace)
• 0.25 miles @ 6.3 mph
• 0.50 miles @ 7.4 mph (8:06 pace)
• 0.25 miles @ 4.3 mph
• 0.50 miles @ 7.3 mph (8:13 pace)
• 0.25 miles @ 4.3 mph
• 0.25 miles @ 6.5 mph

Total: 3 miles in 28:48

Track Workout 2 was much harder than Track Workout 1. I ran a shorter distance and it took me less time overall, but it was much more intense. Those 800′s were killer! I even had to walk to catch my breath after the second and third ones. I was an icky, sweaty mess by the end. Check out my treadmill!

Apparently, I’m a sweaty kid. At least I know that I got a good workout!

Win a Custom Banner

Raffle time!!

The nice guys from Adjacent Concepts (who designed the new CNC) are donating a $200 custom banner to help Mal and me raise money for Team in Training! Wahoo!

What is a “custom banner”?

A custom banner is an image at the top of the site containing your logo and/or other graphics that reflect your website’s personality. Adjacent Concepts will work with you to figure out what images and text will work best to suit the style and feel of your website or blog. Here are a couple of examples of custom banners they’ve done:

Healthy Tipping Point

A Better Bag of Groceries

Pretty cool, right?

The raffle will run the same way as the Breville Juicer raffle that I hosted on CNC a couple of weeks ago. Basically, for every $5 you donate to our Team In Training page, you’ll receive one entry for a chance to win the custom banner from Adjacent Concepts.

Here’s how the raffle will work:

• $5 gets you ONE raffle ticket.
• $10 gets you TWO raffle tickets.
• $15 gets you THREE raffle tickets.
• $25 gets you SIX raffle tickets. What a deal!
• $50 gets you FIFTEEN raffle tickets. Serious deal!

The raffle will run from now until Sunday, September 5 at 11:59 EST and anyone can enter. You don’t need to be a blogger to enter. All of the details for the raffle and customer banner can be found here.

Thanks for your support!!!

Wake Up! With Yoga

For the locals:

Healthworks and City Sports are hosting a series of early-morning outdoor yoga classes in Copley Square. The classes are scheduled for September 1st (tomorrow!), 8th, and 15th. They’re free and will be taught by Healthworks instructor Jasmine Friedman.

Mal and I are looking at a few more houses this evening. The hunt continues!

See ya!

I’m so glad to be home!!!

There’s nothing like coming home after being away for a few days. It’s such a great feeling– all warm and fuzzy– especially since my family was so happy to see me. Murphy licked me to death in the car on the way home from the airport! I’m also glad to be home so I can eat “normally” again– oatmeal, salads, and beer for me!

Dinner

Last night, Mal and I enjoyed dinner at American Craft with my friend, Jim, and his girlfriend, Kristen. (Jim is the nice guy who hooked Mal and me up with some New Balance gear.) I hadn’t seen Jim in years, so it was nice to finally catch up and meet the special lady in his life.

After my culinary adventures in Orlando, I wanted something light for dinner. I chose the The Market Salad with mixed baby greens, seasonal vegetables, feta, a boiled egg, and sweet onion vinaigrette.

So fresh, so delicious!

I’m glad that I asked for the sweet onion vinaigrette on the side because it didn’t have much flavor.

I also drank a couple of beers with dinner. I mean, I couldn’t visit American Craft without having some beer!

With dinner, I enjoyed an Ommegang Witte and Jolly PumpkinWeizen Bam Bière. The Ommegang Witte was an awesome Belgian white– light, smooth, and citrus-y. The Jolly PumpkinWeizen Bam Bière was good, but not at all what I expected. I thought it would be a pumpkin-flavored beer, but the name of the brewery is Jolly Pumpkin, not the variety. Bummer. It had a fruity (apricot), spicy, and refreshing flavor.

Ok, enough beer talk for 9:00 in the morning!

Breakfast

While I was away, my husband finished off the Teddie peanut butter and saved the jar for me. Hooray! He used to just throw them away, but he’s since learned about the specialness of an empty nut butter jar!

In the mix:

• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
• Chia seeds
• Teddie peanut butter

Make Oatmeal in a Coffee Pot

A reader sent me a link to this video about how to make oatmeal in a coffee pot. I thought it was really cool!

Question of the Day

What do you consider your “normal” eating?

P.S. Attention bloggers: I have a great TNT fundraiser coming up this afternoon!

Let me start off by saying that I don’t like amusement parks. I think they’re cheesy and overpriced, and I’d rather spend my time and money elsewhere. However, I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books.

At first, I didn’t think Harry Potter was for me. Wizards and magic? Totally not my thing. But, my husband fell in love with the Harry Potter books right from the beginning, so he insisted that I give them a try. Well, I blew through the first book in a few days and finished off the next five in a couple of months. (I still need to read the last one.) And, just like that, I became a Harry Potter fan.

Anyway, the point of tell you all of this is because I thought I would like visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I didn’t think I would love it. Well, I LOVED it! In fact, I enjoyed the experience so much, my new goal is to take my husband there before this time next year. If I loved it so much, I can only imagine how much he would love it. I actually think he would geek-out!

Walking around and seeing what I read in the books made me so excited. (I’m such a nerd!) I walked around with a goofy smile on my face all afternoon long.

Kisses for Hedwig!

The paintings really talked!!! So cool!

The Harry Potter ride was incredible. IN.CRED.IBLE! Mal is going to lose his sh*t when he goes on it!

This is the actual car used in the movie!

Here are Carol, Audi, and me behind Hagrid’s house. You could even hear Fang inside barking!

Clearly, Butterbeer is part of the Orlando culinary experience!

I ordered the frozen Butterbeer, which tasted like a butterscotch + vanilla cookie milkshake. I slurped it right down! Delish!

And, while at Harry Potter, I crossed off another item from my Life’s To Do List!

With a little coxing from Carol, I rode my first-ever upside-down roller coaster!!! Cross #37 off the list! It actually wasn’t all that scary. It was more thrilling than anything! I’m so glad that I decided to do it.

After our adventures in Harry Potter land, we headed to Mythos for lunch.

For lunch, I ordered the Wild Mushroom Flatbread with mushrooms, mozzarella, and white truffle mushroom emulsion.

I’m always skeptical about theme park food, but this pizza was quite tasty.

We finished lunch with Caldron Cakes! Our host from the CVB, Denise, purchased them from Honey Dukes for all of us to share. These Cauldron Cakes were made of brownie-like chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling inside.

If you’re thinking about taking a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I highly recommend not going on a weekend. It was a complete madhouse at the park! Luckily, we had VIP access and a special tour guide, so we were able to whiz in and out of attractions and rides, but if we didn’t, it would have made for a long day of waiting in lines.

Visiting Harry Potter at Universal Studios was such an AWESOME experience. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to go. I can’t wait to take Mal now!

I am stuffed. I may never eat again. My culinary tour of Orlando was amazing in so many ways, but I’m so glad that it’s over!

My final day in Orlando started with blog friends! Meghann, Katy, and Katy joined me for breakfast at Harvest in the Hilton where I was staying.

I knew that I had a full day of eating ahead of me, so I ordered a light meal: fruit salad + zucchini bread.

After breakfast, I headed back to my suite, caught up with some work, and then met the group for brunch at The Boheme at the Grand Bohemian Hotel.

The Jazz Brunch at The Boheme is a Sunday tradition in Orlando and it offers something for everyone– from a a raw bar, chef’s carvery table, gourmet omelets, desserts (!!!), and more.

Brunch included mimosas. Hey, it was after noon!

I wasn’t all that hungry for brunch, but I still filled my plate up with a few favorite foods: grilled veggies and dessert! So, very Carrots ‘N’ Cake of me!

I always have room for bread pudding and carrot cake!

I loved the carrot cake! I ended up eating two of these adorable shot glass desserts.

Carrot cake + mimosa = !

Midway through the meal, the chef served us a delicious dish of sliced filet mignon with a blueberry-pecan sauce and smoked gorgonzola. It was to die for. I helped myself to two small pieces.

Obviously, we were very excited!

After brunch, we stumbled upon an artist using coffee to paint! How cool is this!?!

He uses different coffee roasts to create these pieces of art. I was impressed!

After brunch, we visited the Morse Museum and wandered around the Winter Park area of Orlando. I absolutely loved Winter Park! It’s an adorable area with restaurants, cafes, shopping, and speciality shops. It also seemed really dog-friendly as I saw three pugs!

Before dinner, our group met at the Wine Room to sample a few wines.

The Wine Room is a combination wine store, wine bar, and deli. It was a great place to unwind and socialize with my blog buddies. Th Wine Room offers 148 varieties of wine and an exclusive state-of-the-art Enomatic wine-serving system, which allows visitors to purchase a smart card and dispense wine with the touch of a button.

I had a blast trying new wines. Boston NEEDS a place like this!

While tasting wine, we enjoyed a nice spread of cheese, meats, olives, pickles, crackers, and bread.

Blog buddies! Carol and Jessica!

Then, we headed to dinner. Yes, more food!

Our group attended the Best of Orlando Dining Event in which specially-selected Orlando chefs showcased their idea of the best of Central Florida cuisine. It was hosted at The Ravenous Pig and contributing chefs included: Scott Copeland of Antonio’s La Fiamma Ristorante, Kevin Fonzo of K Restaurant, Jamie McFadden of Cuisiniers Catered Cuisine and Events, and James and Julie Petrakis of The Ravenous Pig.

The event started with champagne and passed hors d’oeuvres.

Deviled Quail Eggs with House-Made Duck Ham and Brioche

Miniature Biscuit BLTs

Grilled Octopus with Romesco

Winter Park Dairy Bleu Cheese Tart with Heirloom Tomatoes and Balsamic Caramel

I enjoyed all of the appetizers, but doesn’t my expression just say, “No more food”?

Dinner included one small course with a wine pairing from each of the contributing chefs.

Citrus & Coriander Cured Florida Cobia with Orange Smoked Habanero Sorbet and Pickled Watermelon Relish

Brentwood Sweet Corn Veloute with Florida Frog Leg and Bacon Hushpuppy

St. Augustine Flounder with Garden Heirloom Gazpacho, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Canaveral Blue Crab

The fried green tomato + gazpacho was especially outstanding!

Palmetto Creek Farms Smoked Pork “Napoleon,” Deep Creek Ranch Chicken Fried Beef Tongue, Local Rabbit Ballotine with Pickled Cherry Preserves

I only tried a few bites from each course, but managed to devour the dessert. Obviously! It was easily my favorite dish of the evening. It was the perfect blend of creamy, sweet, and refreshing.

Vanilla-Bean Créme Caramel with Huckleberry Compote and Florida-Honey Tuile

I definitely ate like a queen while I was in Orlando!! I had a blast exploring the city and tasting different cuisines, but I am SO ready to get back to “normal” eating. A BIG thanks to Denise at the CVB for organizing a wonderful culinary tour!!!

I have one more post about my adventures in Orlando. It’s about the highlight of my trip– well, besides the amazing breakfast that I ate at Bull & Bear. That meal blew my mind!