May 24, 2011


The very best part of BlogHer Food ’11, held last weekend in Atlanta, was the opportunity to meet so many people I’ve come to call friend via Facebook, Twitter, or blog to blog communication. Putting a face to a name brings a new kind of life and energy to a friendship, and as a result of the last weekend, I have more people I call friend.

And then there were the opportunities to meet some of my heros. Writers, cooks, bloggers, food thinkers who have shaped the way I think and cook and appreciate food. David Lebovitz was so delightful, even translating Charcutepalooza into French for us (Charcutefolie.) Melissa Clark, who is as real and smart and funny as you think she must be when you read her cookbook. David Leite, precisely tackling the recipe-attribution question. Yes, the brains behind Leite’s Culinaria is evidently quite the dancer (Single Ladies? I am so sorry I missed that.)

And two people who left me nearly speechless.. Kim Severson, who told stories of the Mississippi River floods, what she’s seen, photographed. The picture she shared on her phone was heartbreaking – someone’s canning pantry, scattered. Kim’s book, Spoon Fed, was magnificent. I read it all the way through and started again. I hope you’ve read it.

And Hank Shaw, who’s Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook blog time-sucked an entire weekend when I first found it. Imagine my surprise when I realized Hank was the experienced sausage-maker guy who was helping me cook Italian sausage for our Charcutepalooza panel. (Yes, really. How embarrassing.) Look for Hank’s book, Hunt, Gather, Cook, hitting the bookstores today.

So what did I do when I met these amazing people? I tattoo-ed them.

It was so unbelievably fun to work with Sean Timberlake, the founder of Punk Domestics. He was our emcee and Chef de Chorizo, mixing up a hot and spicy sausage everyone loved. He did a great demo on how to put the grinder together, too, helping many attendees understand where all those little bitty pieces go.

Kim, embracing her role as Dame of Meat, wrangled the Pink Salt question so so well, helped along by Winnie Abramson (Healthy Green Kitchen.) Watch the video on YouTube (one of these days, I’ll figure out how to embed the video here…. for now, a link to You Tube.)

The Charcutepalooza BlogHer Panel

Speaking of Winnie, she took most of the photos and manned the video camera, too. She’s so brilliant – I was carrying the darn camera and not taking pictures. Without Winnie, there would be no blog post. I didn’t take one photo. Her photography skills are so amazing – this was a light-less conference room – how did she make us all look so good? Thank you so much Winnie, for this, and for our friendship and great times.

Kim, on the other hand, did use my camera for one photo. She wanted to capture the essence of her homeward-bound suitcase. Read more about that shiny red KitchenAid mixer in her May 31 Charcutepalooza post on Food52.

Thanks go out to Rachel who handled the microphone so we could hear the questions. And shoutouts to Jennifer, Polly and Jes from BlogHer Food for all their help with the session, and especially to KitchenAid, providing those three gorgeous KA’s w/grinding and sausage stuffing attachments, all of which have found good homes.

I’m happy to be home. Dennis is having a little knee surgery in a couple of days, so I might be scarce for awhile, until he’s back up and around.

23 Responses to “the suitcase photo: blogher food ‘”

  1. Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite

    OMG am laughing so hard at the suitcase photo. And right, I am so never living that blade incident down, am I? 😉 Great session ladies – I hope they have you back next year!

    Reply
  2. Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite

    And actually I believe I suggested Charcutefolie when DL tweeted that he had woken up with a tattoo in Atlanta (as did many people LOL!). He needed help in translating Charcutepalooza for the French and that was my one bright idea of the whole conference! Well, Merry-Jennifer thought it was pretty sharp for someone to come up with on 2 hours sleep!

    Reply
  3. merry jennifer

    I had the BEST time with you this past weekend. So glad we could finally meet – and have dinner and make sausage together! Well, you made it and I hovered and tasted. I must say, though, that I am inspired to buy my own meat grinder after your session. You’re one heck of a teacher, Cathy. Your students are lucky.

    Reply
    • Cathy

      I would say the same thing about your student, MJ. So glad to have met and let’s do it again soon! (PS Your family will love home-ground hamburgers. Start there, you’ll be hanging meat in your garage before you know it.

      Reply
  4. Lori

    It was so nice to (briefly) meet you at BlogHer. I wasn’t in your session, which was a shame, because the laughter coming from your conference room was such a teaser!

    Reply
  5. Winnie

    Love this post (and you Cathy!) and can’t wait to watch you in action again. Best wishes for Dennis’ surgery and talk soon 🙂

    Reply
  6. SMITH BITES

    DYING HERE!!!! i could not get into your session but i absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED MEETING YOU & KIM!!! i do hope you guys will be at another conference because i will park my hiney at the door DAYS before so that i don’t miss an opportunity to see you in action. btw – that last photo of Kim’s luggage is just the bestest evah!

    Reply
    • Cathy

      I know! How can we do that, Lynda? Anyplace I might be able to offer a canning class? A charcuterie class?

      Reply
  7. amelia from z tasty life

    This session was incredibly fun: so great to participate with all of you amazing bloggers, what a crazy, awesome, lovely bunch. You, winnie, kim, merry j, mardi,… BTW, I love the high heels next to the fat back…!!!

    Reply
  8. Mrs Q

    So wonderful to have met you both in person!! Too bad I couldn’t watch you guys make sausage (since I was in the other room speaking! gah). Love the suitcase photo!

    Reply
  9. Andrea Meyers

    The sausage demo was a blast, the best session of the weekend in my opinion. Thanks to you, Sean, and Kim for putting on the demo and letting all of us in on the fun.

    Reply

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