Monday, May 23, 2011
BlogHer Food Conference
Thank you all so much for your kind words, encouragement and well wishes for my panel discussion at BlogHer Food this past weekend. It means so much to me that I have so many people that care about me and it truly helped me knowing you were all there with me (in my mind).

I believe the panel I was on went really well. We had so many people come up and thank us for sharing what we know about adapting recipes for special diets. It felt great knowing that we could help others learn more so they can cook for their loved ones. The discussion between the audience and the panelists went back and forth, so there was a lot of interaction. I loved talking with people about my favorite subject...recipe development and adaptation for special dietary needs. The hour and fifteen minute discussion went by so quickly. I wanted more!

Speaking of the panels, all of the discussions I attended were great. I really enjoyed hearing about Branding, Social Networking (speaking of which, I'm now on Twitter and have no clue what is going on -anyone with words of wisdom please feel free to help - oh and I have a button to the side here for you to follow me...let's just say I'm fashionably late to the party), Cooking Without Recipes, Working With Brands And Media and Professional Recipe Writing. I got a lot of information on all of these and I would love to share every bit, but that would take forever. If anyone has any questions, feel free to leave a comment with your email address or email me at sarena (at) thenondairyqueen (dot) com. I would be happy to share anything I learned.

The sponsors were great and shared tons of great products! Some of my favorites were National Peanut Board (I got white chocolate peanut butter!), Quaker (you know this girl loves her oats), Starkist (I got a Charlie the Tuna Shirt from them), Sharffen Berger  loaded me up with cocoa powder and chocolate bars, Bob's Red Mill gave out sample packs of quinoa and whole wheat couscous, Wasa gave out tons of crackers (I love the new rosemary flavor), Barilla had pasta tastings with some of their great sauces, POM Wonderful had their juices there (which we love) and Starbucks gave out to go mugs with Via and Iced Via (you all know I love Starbucks, so that was a score)! There were more than that and also tons of prizes that are still to be awarded, so that led to lots of excitement!

The event was really nice and it was so inspiring to meet people that care about the same things I do. I'm extremely motivated now, so my book is in full motion. My brain is in overdrive too. I have so many ideas and I'm excited to put it all in motion. This weekend was just the kick in the butt I needed!

On a crazy note for today, our camera is having an issue. So, my beautiful, light, fresh dinner from last night of warm bean dip with roasted chicken and fresh guacamole did not get pictured. Bummer situation after coming out of a food blogging conference. Oh well, I'm taking the girl in to see why she's not happy. This is the last week of school for the boys and parties are all week!

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posted by Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen @ 11:27 AM  
19 Comments:
  • At May 23, 2011 at 11:53 AM, Anonymous Kristina @ spabettie said…

    oooh, rosemary wasa sounds great! :)

    I'm glad your panel went well (of course it did!) and that you had so much fun with it! I wish I could have been there to listen - I know how passionate you are about the subject and I bet it was a room full of good energy!

    I hope the camera is an easy fix (that dinner sounded GOOD!) and have a fun week with the parties! :)

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 11:58 AM, Anonymous Averie said…

    thanks for the recap of it all and so happy to hear your panel went well. I would have LOVED to meet you and Alisa and there were a few other ladies i "know" from the sphere who'd I'd have loved to meet...someday, soon!

    :)

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    I'm SO GLAD it went well!! I knew you'd do awesome. :)

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:17 PM, Blogger Emily said…

    I'm so glad that you had a good time, Sarena. I'm sure it was an incredibly inspiring experience. :)

    Good luck with your camera!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Blogger gfe--gluten free easily said…

    I'm still bummed that it wasn't in the cards for me to go and get to meet you this year, Sarena! But I did read the live bloggin' transcript of your session online. I enjoyed it very much! (Note: the typos in the transcript are bad. Understandable for those not informed though. For example, Daiya is Dea.)

    I'm sure you know this, but please remember that those Quaker oats are not gluten free for the Illustrator. Testing has shown them to have high amounts of gluten via cross contamination in fields and processing. That's true of all oats that are not certified gluten free, of course.

    Yippee on being on Twitter now! I love Twitter. :-) Now you'll see how many of your posts I tweet. ;-) Seriously. The easiest way to learn is watch what other people do. Most of the time it's just chatting and sharing ... not so hard!

    Shirley

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Anonymous Holly @ The Runny Egg said…

    I'm glad the panel discussion went well!

    Welcome to twitter :)

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Anonymous Natalia - a side of simple said…

    Glad everything went well! I so wish I could have gone. I would have especially loved to hearing your panel!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    oh I am excited for you! what a great event. Relax that brain now. and youre on twitter? this makes me happy!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 1:31 PM, Anonymous lee said…

    Very cool! I'm so glad it went well. I'm about to follow you on twitter.

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Anonymous Eryn @ Pumpkin's Pantry said…

    So sad that I missed Blog Her Food right here in Atlanta! Also, i feel you on the Twitter thing. I started an acct.for Pumpkin's Pantry in Feb and am still scared to get on there! Gigi (from gluten free gigi) told me that there was a tutorial so I guess that's what I'll be tackling next :)

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Blogger Heather Iacobacci-Miller said…

    So glad you enjoyed the conference. And now I want to know about this warm bean dip!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Anonymous Tina @ Faith Fitness Fun said…

    I'm glad it went so well!!! I knew it would. :)

    Sounds like a lot of fun. And I bet you got lots of GREAT goods at a food conference.

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I wish I had been there! It sounds like so much fun!!!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Anonymous melissanibbles said…

    I'm glad it went well! I'm sorry about the camera trouble. Have a great week!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Anonymous Jess@HealthyExposures said…

    I'm so glad to hear your panel and the conference went well! Sounds like you were able to be in on some really informative talks. Are you more ready for your book than ever? ;)
    Following you on twitter. It overwhelmed me at first, too, but once I got the hang of it it became a nifty tool. I still can't say I use it to the best of its ability, but I'm psyched your on it so I can send out cries of help to you ;)
    Fingers crossed there's nothing major with your camera!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Anonymous Alisa Fleming said…

    Glad you had fun too!

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 8:10 PM, Anonymous SUsan said…

    I'm glad the conference went well and you gained inspiration from it! Sometimes we just need a little something like that and the wheels start turning like crazy.

    Good luck with you camera! I bet she just has spring fever ; )

     
  • At May 23, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Anonymous Pure2raw twins said…

    we thought about going to blogher food, now we wished we did. glad it well.

     
  • At May 24, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Anonymous Madeline - Greens and Jeans said…

    Of COURSE your panel went well! I'm glad you had a great time! And I'm sure your boys are SO ready for summer vacation!

     
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Sarena Shasteen - The Non-Dairy Queen
Home: Atlanta, GA, United States
About Me: Lactose Challenged
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