Swag from and dinner at Eat, Write

What a fun night! I checked into the Eat, Write Retreat just before 5p last night and was immediately struck by the warmth and friendliness of everyone as well as the monster swag bag I received. A wine tasting from Barboursville (love the Pinot Grigio, Viogner, Cab Franc and Octagon) followed as well as samples from DRY Soda and Jarlsberg and then a fantastic Cinco de Mayo dinner: guac, tamales, carne asada, rock shrimp ceviche, black bean soup (chock full of TVP [textured vegetable protein] which I swore was really mushrooms- so good), chili and salt seasoned fruit and so on. Then a chocolate tasting from Zoe's Chocolates, a PA chocolate co whose sesame chocolate was the bomb. I was stuffed. I also learned that I should, all this time, have been tagging my posts AND what a hashtag is. Oops. Into modern tech times I'm jumping albeit slowly and skeptically at times- still like my newspaper on the the newsprint but I can learn more about twitter and pinterest.

Today's sessions include food styling and photography, food writing, making money in this gig and so forth. And I'm super excited about our lunch at Elizabeth's Gone Raw.

Oliver woke me up at 5:15 so I'm not feeling terribly fresh but a giant latte is by my side, so that'll help!