Words can’t adequately describe what great fun it was to spend the weekend with a few hundred (mostly) female food bloggers. The sense of camaraderie was tremendous, untainted by competitiveness. Speakers and fellow attendees alike had so many great ideas and tips to share. I have a whole list to try to put into practice right away, and another “back burner” list to revisit down the road.
Saturday night brought the fantastic final party at Sodo Park, an amazing venue that mingles modern sophistication and rustic authenticity in an old factory building. Great food, great music, great conversation, and lots of great prizes (although I didn’t win). I met Ree Drummond (aka the Pioneer Woman). She was lovely, gracious, funny…and tall! Here’s a sampling of the nibbles, which had a Mediterranean theme:
Sunday brought more good food, great conversation (and lots of Green & Black’s organic chocolate) at the Replenish and Reboot event sponsored by Keren Brown, author of the fantastic Food Lovers’ Guide to Seattle, at the Pan Pacific Hotel. The food was provided by chef John Howie, who has several Seattle-area restaurants, including Seastar, which is connected to Pan Pacific. The food was all fantastic (the vanilla latte pots de creme were to die for), but my favorite was the poached egg on top of quinoa…partly because it was healthy and delicious, partly because I can recreate something similar at home!

I’m in the process of updating my blogroll, but while that’s under construction, here’s a very short list of some of the fantastic bloggers I discovered thanks to BlogHer:

Diane Johnson of Eating Richly Even When You’re Broke
Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes
David Leite of Leite’s Culinaria
Amelia Winslow of Eating Made Easy
Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen
Amie Valpone of The Healthy Apple

Happy healthy eating!