KitchenAid, Cook Books, & Photography Event

When Todd and Diane asked me to attend an event at their studio on Wednesday, I said yes faster than I could say yes to a sale at Anthropologie.

I think they have their own personal Anthropologie store, and then some, at their studio.

Check out the props. I hope they have a garage sale one day. I’ll be their best customer.

The event was co-hosted by KitchenAid and who doesn’t love a 7-quart Red Classy Lady.

Two stand mixers were raffled off to attendees, 3 food processors were given away, and one convection oven. I didn’t win anything but had one of the best days I’ve had in ages. I felt like I hit the jackpot just being among all the great energy and wonderful people.

About 30 bloggers were there and we were celebrating the release of Cristina Ferrare’s book, Big Bowl of Love, and Joy The Baker’s book, 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes

From Left to Right: Todd, Joy, Cristina, Diane, KitchenAid represenative Rachel, Alex (Cristina’s daughter)

Cristina made gorgeous food and there was pretty food in abundance.

Pretty food, pretty lighting, pretty much awesome.

The cauliflower and red peppers in that jar were so striking and spectacular in person when the light was hitting them just so.

If cauliflower could be called beautiful, that’s how.

Joy made the most amazing frosting that tasted like…

…melted Marshmallow Fluff!

There was a cupcake decorating station and Nancy “only” made 300 cupcakes the day before for the attendees to decorate.

I slathered the marshmallowey frosting onto a couple of cupcakes and in between decorating, I used plenty of those wooden sticks to sample some frosting BLTs (bites, licks, tastes). I promise, I didn’t double dip.

Todd was double-fisting blow torches and was just a wee bit excited about that.

I let him torch my tops.

That’s some of the best frosting ever. Egg whites, sugar, corn syrup. It’s in her book.

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy and let’s just say, I have already dog-eared about 10 recipes in the one day I’ve had my copy.

After the torching, I visited the cupcake-wrapping station where I packaged up the cupcakes.

Talk about an afterschool treat for a 5 year old girly girl: Pink cupcake wrappers, pink decorative sprinkles, pink ribbon, and a marshmallow-frosted cupcake. I got the Mom of the Week Award for that one.

Everyone was so fun-loving and genuinely happy at the event..

It was wonderful to see Diane and Todd again. I had not seen them since Food & Light in Boulder last summer, which was an extraordinary experience. It was a photography (and life) changing trip. I’ll never forget it.

It was fabulous to connect with local SoCal bloggers like Rachael and Jenny, and many other unpictured ladies (Naomi, Lori, Marie, Cirian, and many more)

While we were all gabbing away, eating, and laughing, oranges were being juiced with a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Freshly squeezed orange juice made for the best mimosas.

Mimosas, fun people, great energy, marshmallow frosting, food, cupcakes, cookbooks, stand mixers, food processors, bloggers, photographers. It was a phenomenal day!

Many thanks to Kitchen Aid, Todd & Diane, Cristina, Joy, and everyone who was there to make this day so fun!

Two other items:

1. I was nominated to The Kitchn’s Best Food Photography on a Blog list.

If you want to vote for me, I’d love it. You can sign in with your Facebook or Twitter name to register and voting is anonymous. Takes about 1.18 seconds to do. Wait for the page to load (it’s a bit slow and you may need to scroll “up” to see the names). Click to Vote and of course, Vote for anyone who’s work you love.

Voting ends on March 2 (tomorrow) so do your voting now. There’s a million super talented photographers, professional photographers, and fabulous bloggers on the list, so to even make the list and be nominated, I was honored.

2. I was nominated to Fitness Magazine’s Blogs We Love: Best Healthy Eating Blogs list. I’m the first to admit, my blog’s focus has changed from where it was three years ago and I’ve moved from posting about raw vegan food and yoga and onto decadent desserts and comfort food, but I’m still honored to be nominated. If you want to vote for me, I’d be grateful.

What was the last really awesome day you’ve had? What did you do?

My Wednesday was one of the best days I’ve had in ages. I loved every second of the day (other than getting caught in traffic twice on the way there; once leaving San Diego and once entering Orange County. Very small price to pay)

Another one-day event that I will always remember fondly was this Real Food Styling Photography Workshop

This day in Mexico City. Omg the.things.I.saw. (I will always remember the day, that’s for sure)

And this day in Aruba was not too shabby.

Happy Friday