Fungi + Foodies: BlogHer from the Lovely Lens of Kath Eats

I had the opportunity to go to the first annual BlogHer Food Conference this past weekend in San Francisco. My fungi friends from the Mushroom Channel wanted to meet me in person. After an amazingly short plane ride from East Coast to West, I found myself shaking hands with this gorgeous group  of mushrooms!

They were so hospitable, apologizing for getting a little peat moss on my hand during the shake. (The little ones started to giggle.) I learned the names of each one – Oyster, Enoki, Cremini, Button, Portabella, Beech. What an diverse group they were!

I had a chance to hang out with some of them and converse with their head mistress, Jessi. It was a fun morning. Jenna from Eat Live Run (right) is another Mushroom Channel Contributor and Jessi (middle) does most of the other talking as the MC’s MC/Editor!

A little later a cooking demo began featuring Top Chef’s Ryan Scott.

My mushroom comrades were quite surprised when he took one of their own to be included in his frittata sandwich. But it was a wondorous event since mushrooms wait their entire lives to be cooked. It was the ultimate joy ride for that little shiitake!

Chop, Chop

He LOVED it!

His favorite part, though, was canon-balling into the warm skillet with the eggs.

Goodbye little friend!

After a few conference sessions I came back to the Mushroom Table to see how their day was going.

And I discovered Ia few more friends had been called up to another great cause – Mushroom Soup!

Toppings included crispy porcini and a bacon infused cream, which was made by putting bacon in heavy whipping cream, straining it and then whipped it. It was out of this world!!! You can find the whole recipe here!!

Foodies lined up for a sample

One of the best mushrooms soups I have ever tasted.

Also being served was a Quinoa Stuffed Portobello. Vegan and full of diverse flavors and so easy. Brush a portabella cap lightly inside and out with olive oil.  Fill with thin layer of pre-roasted garlic (about 4 cloves) then prepared quinoa on top (I like Trader Joe’s but all are pretty simple to prepare).  Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes for an exceptionally healthy and satisfying meal.

My day with Mushroom Council was far too short, but a delicious one to say the least. They have ambassadors in markets all around the country, so I will be in good company when I visit the grocery store each week

Editor’s Note from The Mushroom Channel: Every single gorgeous photo was taken by Kath Younger of Kath Eats Real Food. Thanks so much Kath- it was great to see you guys!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.