Tag Archives: MN Food Bloggers

Mar 16 2013
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Eat - Cooking, Life

Happy Three Year Blog-a-versary To Us!

Three years ago today I started this blog. I’ve been a writer my entire life. In high school, my favorite teacher/mentor told me writing was my destiny and that I’d be wise to share words with the world. So I went to college to become a journalist, decided Lois Lane wasn’t what I was going for and went into nonprofit communications. Then I struck out on my own … as a writer. I write professionally, I write as a hobby. This year, my goal is to finish my book (a not-so-serious work of fiction). I am a word nerd.

I started this blog as a creative outlet to share something fun my boyfriend and I were doing — the (mis)adventures of two kitchen novices cooking along to the Top Chef shows. Three years later, that boyfriend is now my husband and we’ve become proficient enough at this kitchen thing that cooking along to Top Chef is no longer much of a challenge for us! But that’s not going to stop us from tracking down and conquering new food adventures. Thanks to everyone who gave us suggestions, we’ll be doing a few “Chopped” style throwdowns to see if we could ever hack it on that show, we’ll be sharing some kooky original recipes and we’ll continue to share our travels and food recommendations that inevitably accompany those travels. Plus other stuff as inspiration strikes along the way.

K and I Cooking a Meal Together in Our Kitchen. Courtesy of StarTribune.com

K and I Cooking a Meal Together in Our Kitchen. Courtesy of StarTribune.com

But in the meantime, to celebrate our three-year blog-a-versary, here’s a roundup of our most popular posts to date and some of our favorite highlights:

Fried brussels sprouts with grilled prosciutto :: Proving once and for all that salty pork and brussels sprouts are MFEO

Roast chicken with tarragon veloute and cauliflower puree :: A good simple roast chicken plus the phrase “nip slip”

Pork shoulder with cheddar grits and Corona lime sauce :: Crockable comfort food, skip the sauce

Tempura avocado tacos with spicy fish slaw :: An original recipe with a crispy, creamy twist on fish tacos

30 days of food inspiration – Shrimp Sloppy D’ohs :: OMG, Chef Rick Moonen reads our blog!

How to throw a party – MN Food Bloggers style :: This night was an insane combination of amazing food, moonshine and Brother Ali

Thanks to the readers and commenters and questioners and to those who continue to inspire us to create. And thanks to WordPress for catching 13,788 pieces of spam that I never had to wade through. Cheers to three more delicious years!

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Jun 19 2012
3 Comments
Eat - Restaurants, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 19

Day 19: Chef Shack.

We were privileged to spend the evening on an exclusive blogger tour of the kitchens of food truck pioneers Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson, co-owners of the Chef Shack. We checked out their stainless steel palace in southwest Minneapolis, we got a wink and a nod that you should keep your ears open for exciting news in Chef Shack’s future, we hung out among their fleet of trucks (they have three) and we enjoyed dinner and dessert.

While Carrie gave us the tour, Lisa cooked up some pulled pork tacos (tender with a nice, subtle char on the tortillas and a fantastic crunchy cabbage slaw) and spicy vegetable curry (subtle heat on the back-end, not blow your tastebuds spicy — my kind of hot). SO good. To balance the savory, we also got a sweet chocolate mousse over moist chocolate cake. Rich and cooling on a hot summer evening.

Between bites and sips of Surly and Crispin cider, we peppered Carrie and Lisa with questions and they shared their cooking, baking, food truck and business wisdom.

Chef Shack Tips for Being a Great Food Truck Customer

* Keep an open mind and try new things. Indian-spiced mini donuts and beef tongue tacos might sound scary, but if you take a taste you might find you enjoy the tender braised beef and the fried dough redolent with exotic “pie spices.”

* If something isn’t working, tell the chef(s)/owner(s) — preferably not over social media. If you had a dish that didn’t have the right taste, texture or temperature, mention it right there and then (politely and constructively, of course). If you’re not comfortable talking about it face to face, send a private email and give the chef/owner a chance to respond and resolve the issue and maybe even change the menu! This is especially important with new food trucks who may be trying things out and still learning.

* If you’ve got criticism, be specific so the chef(s)/owner(s) know how to make things better. “This sandwich sucks,” is not particularly helpful. “I think I’d enjoy this sandwich more if it were crispier and not so spicy,” gives people something to work with and improve.

Food Blogger Tips for Being an Awesome Food Truck

* Offering free samples helps people understand your food/culinary perspective and is an accessible “foot in the door” to get people to try (and hopefully buy) your food. However, if you’re going to offer samples of hot food, don’t let the samples get cold (and vice versa for cold food served too warm).

* If you’re new to the scene, talk to veterans like the Chef Shack crew.  The food truck community is great and kind and they all seem to help each other. They can help you ease into a great start with your food truck instead of going it alone and potentially making lots of rookie mistakes that could kill future business.

* Be unique. Offer food we can’t get anywhere else and we’ll keep coming back for more.

* Good customer service goes a long way. Interacting with your customers shows us that you care and making a personal connection often means earning a lifelong customer.

A BIG giant thank you to Carrie and Lisa at Chef Shack for such a wonderful evening and tremendous props to the tireless Matt from Thyme In Our Kitchen for organizing the event. Remember to follow Chef Shack on Twitter for updates on their locations and the latest news — you don’t want to miss what these dedicated and talented women have planned for the future!!

Chef Shack’s Carrie Summer waxing poetic about her “retirement truck.”

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May 08 2012
6 Comments
Eat - Cooking

Kebab Pizza (or Calzones)

Flashback: Many years ago I was visiting Gothenburg, Sweden (home of Volvo) and a pizza was ordered. This was no ordinary pizza. It was a peculiar regional specialty — the Kebab Pizza. Kebab pizza is a hybrid of the best of everything a pizza has to offer PLUS kebab meat, spices and sauce. This may not seem like it goes together, but does it ever! Every once and awhile I think back to the deliciousness and wonder if it could be recreated.

Flash forward to a recent MN Food Bloggers event featuring the lovely Zoe Francois, co-author of “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.” It was a pizza party at Kitchen in the Market and Zoe brought the dough, a copy of her book, some bread flour and yeast. We had a blast and made the most delicious pizzas. Though neither of us was gutsy enough to toss the dough into the air, we did dimple and stretch until we had the perfect pies. We also won a really nice pizza stone, something we didn’t have in our kitchen (believe it or not).

Armed with the ingredients, the recipe in Zoe’s book and a hankering for kebab pizza, we set off to recreate this Scandinavian treat. Early in the day, I made half the recipe for bread flour pizza dough (you’ll have to get the Artisan Pizza book for the recipe — trust me, it’s worth it). When K got home, he stuck the pizza stone into the oven set at 500 degrees. Make note of this, it’s foreshadowing for the rest of this tale.

Pizza Sauce
1 can organic crushed tomatoes
2 TB organic tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 anchovies (or 2 tsp anchovy paste)
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper (or smoked paprika)

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and saute for one minute. Add crushed tomatoes,  tomato paste, anchovies (or anchovy paste) pepper (or paprika) and oregano. Let simmer until tomatoes are falling apart (about 10-15 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.

It was hot in the kitchen. Very hot. I was also working to get rid of the flu and still had a fever, which made it even more hot. I pulled a portion of dough from our dough pile and K wrapped and froze the other two portions. I attempted to dimple and flatten and stretch and make into a circle, but the damn thing just kept springing back in on itself. Then it would rip. After a few frustrating tries, my internal *and* external temperatures at a boiling point, I said, “Screw it. We’ll just have an unevenly shaped pizza.” Sensing my escalating anger, K agreed and we started topping our kebab pizza.

Toppings
1/2 onion
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Emmenthal cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (more of less to taste) fresh basil, torn
1 cup cooked kebab, gyro or al pastor meat (we got a take-out container of al pastor meat from our local taqueria) *Must be the kind roasted on a cone*

Slice the onion and saute in a bit of olive oil until soft and golden brown. Spread sauce on pizza dough, add onions, sprinkle cheese evenly over pizza, add oregano, basil and meat.

It was at this point we realized we had no way to get the pizza from the cutting board onto the extremely hot pizza stone. Numerous attempts were made to transfer the pizza and most just resulted in the dough falling apart or the toppings falling off. No matter what we put under the pizza, it stuck because it was so damn hot in the kitchen that every ingredient was melting (including the cheese before it even got to the oven). Two sweltering, angry and hungry people stared at what was supposed to be dinner and a decision was made. Hack it in half, fold it over on itself and toss it onto the pizza stone. We’d be having Kebab Calzones.

And, as you can see, they were ugly. But looks kind of stop mattering when you’re so hungry you could eat your own arm.

While the calzones were baking, I made the kebab sauce.

Kebab Sauce
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 TB fresh lemon juice

Mix all sauce ingredients together and set aside.

It only took about 10 minutes for the calzones to cook through and the crusts to become golden. We let them cool and used the kebab sauce to dip and, ugly as they were, they were also really tasty!

The crust was crisp and chewy, the flavors had a Middle Eastern hint, the meat was a phenomenally different touch and the sauce was tangy and cool. Not an exact match for that unusual pizza I remembered, but pretty close. Later, via Twitter, Zoe (and our friend Jen) recommended that in the future we use an upside down cookie sheet (or one without sides) in lieu of a pizza peel to transfer our pie to the baking stone. We’ll certainly give that a try, but if I have to endure an ugly, but delicious calzone in the pursuit of pizza perfection, I’m willing to take that one for the team.

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Feb 06 2012
8 Comments
Drink, Eat - Restaurants, Life

How to Throw a Party — MN Food Bloggers Style

Step 1: Find a willing restaurateur (in this case, Stewart and Heidi Woodman of Heidi’s).

Step 2: Make sure the fates collide so the party takes place at the same time amazing local hip hop artist Brother Ali is filming a music video at the same restaurant.

Step 3: Mingle with cast, crew and fellow food bloggers and eat delicious food.

Braised beef tongue.

Crab cakes.

Lamb meatballs.

Step 4: Add cocktails and liquor.

Ginseng and deer antler whiskey.

Ginseng vodka. All ginseng courtesy of Hsu Ginseng and Will Hsu (@wphsu)

Step 5: After many cocktails, make sure a festive crowd with cameras and an appetite encourages the chefs to demonstrate mad skillz.

Giant lobe of foie gras.

Step 6: Ravenously eat rich bits of foie with fig compote. Try to save some for event organizer Stephanie Meyer (@FreshTartSteph), fail miserably. Enthusiastically instigate chefs to utilize foie fat by cooking pork in it (genius idea, @MSPFoodie)

Step 7: Get pulled into sitting at a table in front of lights and cameras with “prop cocktails” and the director’s bottle of water while music video films with you in it.

Step 8: Bust out the big guns — deadly good moonshine from @MarkDewes and gecko and seahorse liquor straight from Vietnam.

Step 9: Dance party in the kitchen and the bar. (Those photos stay with me, just in case I need a favor some day!)

Step 10: Raise money for the Sojourner Project (the most important reason for the entire evening).

Step 11:  Go home, very late, shaking head, asking, “Whose life is this?!?” And wake up the next morning asking, “Did that really happen?”

Thanks to the kind, generous hosts Stewart and Heidi Woodman, thanks to the talented and incredibly patient (can’t emphasize that enough) staff at Heidi’s, thanks to Brother Ali for the chat and the opportunity, thanks to Stephanie Meyer for organizing it all and thanks to all the MN Food Bloggers for a truly one-of-a-kind evening.

Wow. Now, *that’s* how you throw a party.

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Dec 30 2011
6 Comments
Eat - Cooking, Life

What Happens in the Kitchen…

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Stephanie Meyer’s house, not a creature was stirring except 45 women, chef Adam Vickerman from Cafe Levain, comedian (server/bartender for the evening) Dan Mogol, host John Levy (Stephanie’s husband) and patient puppy Louis. So…creatures were stirring. And chopping and drizzling and grating and talking and laughing and drinking bubbles and eating.

The sparkly scene featuring snacks, smoked salt and Kelli Abrahamian

Stephanie was gracious enough to host a ladies-only MN Food Bloggers evening of cooking with Chef Vickerman. The atmosphere was festive and the menu was fantastic, to say the least:

* Roasted mushroom soup with sautéed mushrooms, Honeycrisp apple and cider gastrique
* Charred kale salad with roasted and pickled root vegetables, bacon lardons and buttermilk vinaigrette
* Slow roasted pork shoulder with braised white beans
* Brussels sprouts with dried fruit chutney
* Panna cotta with candied pecans and citrus reduction

Each course was more luscious, savory and mouth-watering than the last. The roasted mushroom soup was so smooth and the wonderful mushroom funk was cut by the sweet apple and the tart gastrique. The kale salad was *perfect* — the veggies were firm and well cooked, the lardons were a fantastic chewy bacon explosion and everything was bathed in the tangy buttermilk vinaigrette.

World's best pork and beans, now with bonus brussels sprouts deliciousness!

The pork was fall apart tender and the beans were delicate and scrumptious. The brussels sprouts were roasty, toasty brown with pops of sweet from apricots and dried cranberries. The creamy, dreamy panna cotta was lush with citrus freshness and crunchy candied pecans.

Panna cotta perfection.

It was such a privilege to spend time in the kitchen with Chef Vickerman and I prepped with pleasure quartering brussels sprouts, chopping dried apricots, squeezing citrus and grating cheese. Then there was eating and a room full of chatty ladies went silent except for the occasional exclamation about how delicious each bite was.

So, what *does* happen when you gather 45 women in a kitchen, where women the world over have gathered together for centuries? Amazing happens. Joy, bonding, celebrations of success, comforting of sorrows, warmth and beauty, secrets, shoes, confidence, laughter, gorgeous, classy and strong happens. Plans are hatched, ideas born, problems solved, power is built, vision is clarified and friendships are formed. Maybe a woman’s place really is in the kitchen … it’s the staging area for taking over the world!

The ladies (and gents too) I’ve met this year through the MN Food Bloggers group have elevated my life in ways I couldn’t have previously imagined and I’m so blessed to have vastly expanded my circle of friends. And it all started in the kitchen.

Happy New Year to all the cooks and eaters. May 2012 bring wonderful tastes and adventures to you all.

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Aug 30 2011
2 Comments
Eat - Restaurants, Life

Girls at the Fair

It was like a scene from “Sex and the City,” except this group of ladies was on the hunt for food (preferably fried) and our glam outfits were stained with warm blueberry sauce. We even had a gorgeous red-head and a Samantha.

It was an absolute pleasure to join up with blogger and foodie gals Kate (@KatentheKitchen), Stacy (@WolvesGal), Amanda (@SweetNSnazzy), Jen (@thewhlehrtdlife) and Samantha (@escinsider) for an afternoon and evening at the Minnesota State Fair. If you’ve never been to the “Great Minnesota Get Together,” it is certainly a collection of characters. It’s generally hot (though the temperatures during our visit were divine) and dusty. You will alternately walk through puffs of smoke and the wafting smell of grilled meat and have to watch out for the dreaded “poo shoe” in the smelly animal barns. We saw a man dressed in a banana suit and small town local legend the “Vanilla Gorilla.” For just one dollar you can get endless refills on all the milk you can drink (this is not a challenge recommended for hot weather). And for $40 you can buy a V-slicer from a man with a microphone over his ear that uses the word “amazing” in every sentence.

My first steps into the Fair this year were to the Daily building where a finalist for Princess Kay of the Milky Way was having her likeness carved in butter. The room was 40 degrees so she was wearing a snow suit and a sparkly crown.

Butter Sculpture in Progress

Then, the group tracked me down and we went straight to the food building. Visiting the Fair with a group of people is definitely the way to go because you can share bits and bites of everything and have room to sample plenty of food. We grabbed a few containers of the real cheese curds — hot, salty, crunchy and addictive — while on the hunt for beer. Across from beer we found the San Felipe Asian carnitas tacos. This sounds like it could be a strange and misdirected fusion. It *could* have been, but instead it was a fabulous mix of the best of both worlds. Wrapped in a spinach tortilla were tender, juicy pork carnitas with a crisp slaw coated in a sauce with a hint of wasabi. One taco fed five of us easily.

Satisfied for the moment, we headed off to see the baby animals in the Miracle of Birth center. It was impossible not to coo and squee at the fuzzy ducklings, soft lambs, naked and squirmy piglets and wobbly calves. After snuggling a four-day old lamb and a one day old snoozing piglet, we decided it was time to move on to see some agriculture.

Sleeping Baby Piglet. Can you Stand the Cute?

There is never a straight shot to anything at the Fair. You must wind through the lanes of people and there are endless distractions in the form of vendors, exhibits, buildings with mysterious noises and smells, rides and Midway games. One of the distractions that we couldn’t pass up was the Minneapple pie booth. We shared a pie with a flaky, crisp cinnamon-sugar coated crust and a naturally sweet and tender apple filling. Capped off with creamy and spicy cinnamon ice cream, it was a perfect treat. And it kept us fueled long enough to get to the Agriculture building. We toured giant crops that Samantha joked came from Chernobyl Farms. Case in point, these ginormous pumpkins:

It Really *IS* the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

We admired the seed art (also known as crop art, crotch art and see dart). Some of the pieces truly were spectacular and you couldn’t tell they were crafted using seeds. My favorite was this homage to Stacy and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear.”

What to Hang on Your Wall

We passed by the bee booth (which sometimes has a man in the booth with the bees) on our way to honey sunflower seed ice cream and honey lemonade. I love me some honey and I have no idea how I missed the honey lemonade in the past. It’s sweet, it’s tart, it’s flowery and full of honey flavor and it’s so refreshing. After several hours of walking, our feet needed a break so we checked out the amateur talent show and snacked on some peppery jerk fries from Harry Singh’s. Highlights of the amateur talent show while we were there were the “house band” and their wordless but energetic “Eye of the Tiger.” Lowlights: Someone sang, “My Heart Will Go On.”

One of the Impressive "Minnesota's Got Talent" Performers

We wandered around a bit more — beers and sangria were consumed. We saw a big green beacon in the distance and got some fried pickles to provide sustenance until we hit the International Bazaar. I’m no fan of pickles, but the breading on these was crunchy and substantial and the pickles were thick and not too pickley. Once we made it to the International Bazaar, we shopped our way to Holy Land where Kate enjoyed some kushari which confused us all — rice, lentils, macaroni, fried onions and tomato sauce. The rest of us enjoyed gyro on a stick, some falafel and grape leaves. The falafel was a little dry, but the grape leaves were tender and filled with rice and dill. Everything benefited from a slathering of cool, cucumber tzatziki sauce.

Our evening coming to an end, we found a table at the Blue Moon Diner and shared two dishes of sweet corn ice cream — one with bacon butter sauce and the other with warm blueberry sauce. This was the most amazing ice cream we’d ever eaten. Naturally sweet from the corn milk and cream, but not overwhelmingly sweet. The bacon butter sauce had nice chunks of salty, chewy bacon with honey butter overtones. But that blueberry sauce … it was fresh and wild and sweet and earthy and blue. So we shared another dish. Then another dish. Then another dish. Then offered to share our lottery winnings with their employee if he’d just tell us the recipe. Which he wouldn’t.

Exhausted, exhilarated and full, we all headed to our respective buses for the ride home. Though I think Stacy may have wisely grabbed some mini donuts for the road. I should have done that. I have no photos of the food we ate because we ate it too quickly, but it was a delectable culinary tour of the Fair with some great company. I say we make a date to do it again next year!

(front to back) Samantha, Amanda, Kate, Stacy and Jen. (Not pictured) Me. Hey, someone's gotta take the picture!

Best of the best: Asian carnitas taco, honey lemonade and that fan-flippin’-tastic sweet corn ice cream with warm blueberry sauce.

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Aug 11 2011
5 Comments
Drink, Eat - Cooking, Life

FreshTartSteph Hosts a MN Food Bloggers Backyard BBQ and Bars Bake-Off

A perfect Minnesota summer night. A gleaming and glowing home with a bustling kitchen, counters overflowing with delicious food. A sprawling green yard, surrounded by lush trees reflecting in the still pool. Smoke wafting from the MYOKebabs on the barbecue. Sweetly clinking wine glasses and warm laughter. And then…
someone said “pork in a box” and it was all downhill from there.

Stephanie Meyer (Minnesota Monthly’s Fresh Tart Steph) graciously hosted the MN Food Bloggers earlier this week for a backyard barbecue and bars bake-off. Her home is lovely. The food, provided by Tastebud Tart Molly Hermann of Kitchen in the Market, was delectable and summer perfect — cool salads, build-your-own kebabs with tons of “accessories” and sauces. Shaina and Ole from Food for My Family provided the Chinese Box, a mobile smoker, and Ole manned the great hunks of pork as it crisped on the outside and become more and more tender on the inside. The Fulton Beer guys were there with cold, crisp local beer and Kitchak Cellars were there sampling deep ruby wine that K loved.

I may have mentioned that I’m no photographer. K takes most of the photos for this blog (and takes *all* of the good photos), but I’m giving myself points for remembering a camera this time and taking a few photos — even though I didn’t remember until it was dark.

Enjoying Delicious Fulton Beer

Eating, Drinking, Chatting and Fighting off Mosquitoes

The food, the drinks, the atmosphere and the conversation were absolutely perfect. And just when the mosquitoes chased us all indoors, it was time to witness the results of the judging for the bars bake-off and enjoy the sweet fruits of our labor.

Given the competition, it was ridiculous that I attempted a bars entry and I *agonized* over what I should bring. I finally decided on Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars which were a compilation of shortbread cookie crust, lemon meringue pie filling and vanilla meringue cookies and my imagination that adding the herb lemon thyme would elevate the whole thing.

First I made the shortbread crust:

Buttery Shortbread Crust

1/2 c. Confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 cup butter at room temperature (1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup)

Mix the sugar and flour together, add butter and mash together with a fork (or your hands, if you’re impatient) until it forms a dough. Press evenly into a pan until it’s about 1/4-inch thick, make sure some go up the sides of the pan as well. Bake at 350 degrees until it’s golden brown (25-35 minutes).

Then I made the meringue cookies. It has been AGES since I’ve messed with a pastry bag and tips and it showed. These, however, would become the crowning achievement and most identifiable factor in the bars.

Post-Piped/Pre-Oven Meringues

3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
4 egg whites
3/4 tsp vanilla
big pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites, vanilla and salt on high speed until soft peaks form. Combine the sugar and cornstarch and add slowly to egg white mixture, beating while you add the dry ingredients. Crank the mixer up to high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Put the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe into cookies (I used a large star tip). The faster you can do this, the better they will turn out.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 225 degrees then turn off the oven and leave them for about another hour (or until they’re cool and crispy).

Mine were not cool and crispy and I had to put them back into the oven where many of them burned. They didn’t end up a lovely white with the “s’mores marshmallow” streaks, they were a toasty beige color.

Lemony Lemon Thyme Filling

With the meringues chilling in the oven, I made the lemon filling.

1 1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
big pinch of salt
6 egg yolks
1 Tb. lemon zest
1.5 TB lemon thyme (you should add more, I couldn’t taste the lemon thyme)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 TB butter

Simmer the water, sugar, cornstarch and salt over medium heat in a saucepan. When it starts to bubble and thicken, whisk until it starts to get clear. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time then the lemon juice, zest and butter. Let it simmer for a minute then remove it from the heat. Add the chopped lemon thyme. Let cool (stick a piece of plastic wrap on top and let it touch the filling, like pudding, it will help prevent a weird skin from forming). Put into the crust and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I dipped some lemon thyme leaves into egg whites and sugared them. When everything was cool, I placed the meringue cookies on top of the lemon bars and voila …

Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars

I did not notice at the time that these very closely resemble breasts. So while I did not win the bars bake-off, at least I gave the judges a good laugh with what were alternately called “Boobie Bars” and “Nipple Bars.” I’m not even going to tell you what K called them.

If I ever make these again, I’d add chopped lemon thyme to the crust, more to the filling and even sprinkle some fresh lemon thyme over the top.

The well-deserved winner was Kelli from I Had a Delicious Time with her rosemary, apricot,  Captain Morgan creations (you’ll have to get the recipe from her for yourselves). Here she is posing with her hubby and some of those amazing bars.

Kelli and David Abrahamian with Kelli's (Delicious) Winning Bars

After briefly meeting the delightful Andrew Zimmern, a latecomer to the party who wisely stole the last of the crusty pork bits, we headed out — full, sugared up and simultaneously buzzing with energy and exhaustion from a wonderful evening. And if you’re wondering what the aftermath of a MN Food Bloggers event looks like…

What we Left Behind

Thank you to Stephanie Meyer for being such a gracious hostess and to everyone who made the evening a delicious success. We had the best time chatting with friends, meeting new people and, to everyone we didn’t get a chance to meet yet, there’s always next time. And we’re looking forward to it. We are so fortunate to have come across this amazing community of people who gather, not only online, but to share in real life the joy of food and everything that comes with it.

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