BlogHer Food is flying by! I can’t believe the day is more than half over!
After Break-Out Session #1, I grabbed a Pellegrino to rehydrate before the break and demonstrations started.
Break & Demonstrations
The break and demonstrations were sponsored by Top Chef and Pillsbury.
The cooking demo featured Ryan Scott, who had previously appeared on Top Chef.
He prepared a frittata sandwich, which attendees had the chance to taste.
It was yummy!
Chomp!
After my mid-morning snack, I bumped into my new blog buddy, Janet!
During the break, I also tried some samples from Healthy Choice.
I wasn’t really impressed by their Sweet Asian Potstickers. They were kind of bland and mushy. 😕
The break and demonstration area got so crowded at one point. It was overwhelming, but, at the same time, a great opportunity to network and chat with other bloggers. I met some cool people!
Networking Lunch
When we entered the dining room for lunch, the tables were beautifully decorated with a fancy sliver-rimmed china, tastes of wine, and a gorgeous Grilled Tuna with Olive and Tomato Salad as the centerpiece.
I wasn’t sure about drinking wine with lunch after all of the vino I drank last night, but it went down pretty easy!
I love wine… at almost any time of the day! 😉
Danica from Danica’s Daily ate lunch with us, so we made sure to snap a photo. I loved meeting Danica– she’s such a sweet person.
The roll served with lunch was AWESOME! It may have been the highlight of the meal. It had big chucks of green olive baked into it. Delish!
The Grilled Tuna with Olive and Tomato Salad recipe was created by Chef Rocco DiSpirito. So cool!
Yay, Rocco! I’m a big fan, so it was really neat seeing him in person. He had a ton of energy!
Bertolli Frozen Meals provided the food for lunch. I was actually pretty surprised that we were served frozen food at a food blog conference, but I gave it a chance.
The first course was from the Bertolli Skillet Creations line: Lemon Herb Shrimp & Penne. The penne had a lemon-herb flavor with shrimp, green beans, yellow zucchini, and onions.
I wasn’t a fan of this dish– the veggies were scarce, the pasta was mushy, and the flavor was somewhat bland. Ick. It really wasn’t worth eating, and I left most of it untouched on my plate. 😐
The second course was much better! We had the Meat Lasagna Rustica from Bertolli’s Oven Bake Meals. The meat was seasoned and baked in a creamy ricotta and savory tomato sauce, and topped with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. It was surprisingly tasty for a frozen meal.
I had high hopes for the final course, which was the Tri Color Ravioli. It smelled delicious when it was served to the table, but unfortunately, the texture was mushy and flavor wasn’t anything special– it also tasted sort of artificial. Boo!
For dessert, I snuck out into the hall to make another Pillsbury cupcake. This time I went with cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut. Yum! 😀
By the end of the meal, I finished my wine. 😳 Oh well. Apparently, I’m in vacation mode!
After eating all of those heavy foods, I was pretty stuffed, but I still wanted to try Rocco’s dessert: Milk Chocolate Pan Cotta garnished with caramel popcorn. It was heavenly! I had a few bites, but I was too full to enjoy much more.
Our second Break-Out Session is Principals of Photography featuring Todd Porter and Diane Cu from White On Rice. It seems like it will be an interesting and helpful session!