BlogHerFood’13 Part 2

So check out all of this yummy food below! Whole Foods Global Chef Derek Sarno made us an A-MAZING dinner! First off we started with appetizers of roasted organic jewel potato, goat cheese, arugula and ciabatta crostini and braised shiitake, leek and kale, fontina and baguette crostini! I am in love with the roasted potato, goat cheese, arugula and ciabatta crostini by the way! Moving on to our first course of grilled chicken breasts, romaine hearts with shaved parmesan and whipped caesar dressing! Can you imagine how this all tastes, now triple it, because it was that good! Now for our second course, we had cedar wrapped chardonnay grill steamed wild alaskan king salmon with asparagus tips in lemon and pure luck farm herbs! For our main course, he served us pan roasted halibut with pistachio pesto, roasted yukon potato, with seared in house dry aged sirloin, garlic black pepper wilted dino kale! And to top it off with mini tartlets! Ok, so now you know exactly what I had for my Whole Foods dinner excursion, which was a lot, all I have to say is this meal was one of the best I have ever had in my life! Thank you Whole Foods for bringing out Chef Derek Sarano and his exquisite talents!

*Whole Foods dinner excursion with Chef Derek Sarno!

After leaving my dinner excursion I tried to head back to Parkside for another party, but quickly found out that 6th street in Austin turns into a real party on a Friday night! They totally shut down 6th street, making it impossible for me to get to Parkside. However, I did meet up with my friend Marla from SavingUGreen and we went to the hotel bar and met up with the CommonGroundNow girls! They were having a blast and were hanging out with Celebrity Chef Danny Boome! I was honored to get to meet him in person and so was everyone else in the bar! Now off to bed, Saturday will be a very busy day!

*Check out the sandwich that I made with my new Hamilton Beach breakfast maker!

First thing on Saturday morning, I went to meet the Hamilton Beach sponsors! They made us these savory ham, egg and cheese english muffins in their new little breakfast sandwich maker! With the Baileys Creamer Mudslide iced coffee and these little breakfast sandwiches, it was the perfect way to start off the day! I was very fortunate to win one of the Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich makers and I have used it on a daily basis!

*This is our Pork Passport we were issued to use during our lunchtime excursion!

After visiting with some other wonderful bloggers and sponsors. It was already time for lunch! The National Pork Board sponsored our lunchtime excursion to one of Austin’s food trailer park! Check out the pictures below, it sure was a hot day!

*Look at all the BlogHerFood’13 people enjoying their lunch @ Austin’s Food Trailer Park!

Once lunch was over, it was time to start wrapping up the last BlogHerFood’13 sessions and the sponsors were starting to pick winners of their great giveaways they were doing! Just when I thought that I couldn’t possibly win anything else, my name popped up on the Twitter feed that I should come down to visit my favorite booth, Wholesome Sweeteners! As many of you know, my husband has Crohn’s disease so Wholesome Sweeteners is already a household name for us. It is the only sugar he can tolerate and we love that they have so many other products to offer him! The Wholesome Sweeteners girls were wonderful to talk with and told me all about their new website launch! So be sure to visit them soon to see the launch!

*Check out the great prize I won from Wholesome Sweeteners!

By time I finished talking with everyone in the expo hall, most sponsors were already packing up ready to head out to the closing party at Stubb’s BBQ! I have never been to Stubb’s so I was so thrilled to know the closing party was going to be a held there! As an added bonus the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond was going to be there as well and I was hoping to get to meet her!

*Vanessa and I arriving at the closing party for BlogHerFood’13!

When we arrived to Stubb’s BBQ the party was already started! The band was playing, food was served and the drinks were flowing! The food was terrific! I have some beef with most BBQ places, but I’m proud to say that Stubb’s BBQ passed the Rachel taste test with flying colors! I can’t wait to return there with my family and let them enjoy some delightful BBQ!

*Christopher B. Stubblefield aka “Stubb”

After my tummy was full once again, it was time to enjoy the photo booth sponsored by Ninja Kitchen! We had so much fun getting to do funny poses in the photo booth! I met some really great Texas Bloggers at BlogHerFood’13 so of course we had to do a photo shoot together!

*Lacey, Me and Kathy representing Texas Bloggers!

Right after being silly in the photo booth, I turned around and guess who it was! DUMM-DUM-DUM– It was the one and only Ree Drummond! Not only did I get to meet her and tell her about my little ole’ blog, but my friend Lacey, from Charm and Sass and I were able to get our picture with her!

*Lacey, Pioneer Woman and I @ Stubb’s BBQ!

My night just couldn’t get any better after meeting Ree, so I headed back to the hotel to pack! As you can see I had a blast, which is an understatement, I hope you enjoyed getting to relive the adventure with me! Oh, last but not least check out all the swag I received from the magnificent sponsors at BlogHerFood’13!

*BlogHerFood’13 Conference Swag!