This week was a great food week in my life.
In addition to being featured in the Food & Drink section of the August 6th Almanac (for my jam making, no less!), I also had a lovely evening out on Monday, listening to Cook Jesse Cool (favorite gadget: 8″ tongs) in conversation with Jen Maiser, of the Eat Local Challenge, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California. Jen then invited me to join a group of food bloggers for dinner at Tamarine, and I was fortunate enough to eat with Sam, Jeanne (favorite gadget: knife sharpener), and Stephanie (favorite gadget: Microplaner, no wait, burr grinder, no wait, Ikea Varde countertops), as well as several Chowhounds who came down from San Francisco to support Jen. Melanie (favorite gadget: Kitchen Aid Dishwasher) guided the dinner and the wine, and I must say, it was joyful to be sitting with a group of folks who enjoyed talking about the food on the table, food as entertainment.
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Back in 1996, when my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I planned our first trip to New York, we pulled out a piece of graph paper, created columns for each day of our trip, and the first thing we planned out was where to eat. Once those large items were in place, we could figure out the rest of our sightseeing.
Telling this story to our family garners giggles and snickers. Telling this story to the food bloggers around the table on Monday garnered knowing looks and nodding heads of agreement. Of course you would plan out where to eat on your vacation. Duh, doesn’t everyone do that?
That, and the great desserts, sealed the evening for me.
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When I went to BlogHer last month, I was really unaware the depth and strength of the food blogger community. After meeting several and lunching with several more, I realized that I am mostly out of my league and these folks are the true experts.
My goal for the next while is to absorb as much as I can, spending lots of time reading food blogs and building my understanding of the network. Fortunately, from the 25 blogs I have added to my reader, I am sure I will learn much.
And in the meantime, I thank the bloggers I have met thus far who have helped me along in my quest for world domination, wait, I mean food knowledge. Biggie, Amy and Kayln, thank you for your links. Jen, thank you for including me at your dinner party. And to all the other food bloggers I have met, thank you for your welcome!
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August 10th, 2008 at 7:50 am
It was great to meet you at BlogHer, and I love the goal you’ve set for yourself. Going to the conference helped me set some goals for my blog, too. It will be fun to meet again next year and see how we’re doing on meeting those goals! Meanwhile, I wish you many more “food weeks” like this one, which sounds like great fun.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)s last blog post..Ground beef, and a summer cookout giveaway (Recipe: burgers)
August 10th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Hey, let me know next time you’re going to a food event and I’ll see if I can join. I should hang with the local food blogging community more — BlogHer and the meet-up lunch were such a blast!
Biggies last blog post..Site updates & SF shopping
August 10th, 2008 at 10:56 am
it was so (jesse) cool to be able to hang out with you again. Sorry we gobbled up so much of your great dessert after proclaiming we were full and didn’t want any. I love eating with food bloggers - you have to dig right in else you’ll end up with nothing but a crumb to your name!