The Disney Social Media Moms Conference: an Unforgettable Family Vacation

I heard about the Disney Social Media Moms Conference too late last year to attend. The bulk of the conference spots were awarded by invites and the handful of spots opened up to anyone interested were snapped up in seconds. When the conference took place, I read the tweet stream with great interest, noting that the speakers were top notch and that the evening entertainment (Joe Jonas, Demi Lovato) were unbelievable. And I decided to do all that I could to get us to attend in 2011.

Mickey and Minnie posing with the kids after hugs all around.

This year, registration was handled differently, with the majority of the spots available on a first come first serve basis. I logged on right when the window opened, and provided the requested background information to apply. A few hours later, I received confirmation that we had been accepted. For less than $500, our family of 5 would be staying at the Grand Floridian for 3 nights including breakfasts and dinners, and would have a 7 day park hopper pass. We started counting down the days immediately.

There's nothing like a Pluto hug.

We got back late last night from Orlando. It was a vacation filled with once in a lifetime memories for our family, a chance to do Disney as VIPs, to peek behind the scenes and to have character encounters galore. The conference day was amazing for me as well, hearing from Matt Jacobson, head of market development at Facebook and Chris Brogan, but being able to attend a summit at Disney with my family and give them all such unforgettable memories was definitely the highlight of the trip. We'd been to Disney many times before, but never like this.

With Darrell Green at the Disney Magic of Healthy Living Competition that Bella participated in.

Mark your calendars and begin checking Twitter for the #DisneySMMoms hashtag in late November for 2012 sign up details. I hope that next spring, you'll be embarking for a once in a lifetime Disney vacation combined with a quality social media conference with your family.

#Disney Social Media Moms Conference - Music and Inspiration from Susan Egan and Georgia Stitt

Susan Egan is a Tony nominated Broadway star, movie and TV actress. Georgia Stitt is an award winning composer and lyrist. Both are moms who juggle playdates and have made tough compromises between family and career in their lives.

They sang some of their own songs as well as popular Broadway tunes. My favorite was the You Tube sensation the Mom Song. How I wish I could belt out my frustrations like that! I might have more success when yelling at my kids.

#DisneySMMomsConference - Matt Jacobson from Facebook

The second #Disney Social Media Moms conference speaker was Matt Jacobson, Head of Market Development for Facebook.

He marveled at how different this audience was from his usual audiences, because we juggle personal and public personas. In many ways, our problems and questions are similar to what Marc Zuckerberg had to address when Facebook got so big unexpectedly. The conversation was informal and jumped around. The following are my jumble of notes.

• Matt Jacobson: Use the Facebook Notes Functionality to post your blog posts to your Facebook page.
• Matt Jacobson: Promote your blog on FB with this cycle: Write a blog post - post to your page - advertise - publish to fans - interact - write another blog post.
• Matt Jacobson: the age of 13 has been established for privacy issues but it's up to you to determine when your kids are ready. When my daughters turned 13 I tasked them with explaining how they would use it. It took them a year to be able to prove it to me.
• facebook stories - inspiring place to see the power of FB reach.
• Inside Facebook blog. See the latest FB developments. Just announced a groupon like Deals business.
• Are you on Twitter? Matt Jacobson is not.
• Andrea Deckhart - if I import my blog in Notes, you get the impressions instead of me. Are you considering a rev share model if we drive traffic to FB? Matt Jacobson - we don't do revenue sharing - you should look at Facebook as a distribution channel, a way to grow traffic
• Matt Jacobson: Decoupling Facebook.com from Facebook is the future. there are 700 sites that are using Facebook credentials from tehir login including Huff post. People are logging in throughout the web using Facebook. This is a huge new trend to be rolling out in the next few months. New plug ins are coming to bring Facebook functionality to your personal sites.
• Matt Jacobson & conference attendee: Skittles does a great job of using Facebook. Stuff people want to read about. Not all corporate.
• Ashley Forrester - Klout builds your Klout score based on both your personal page and your fan page. Will there be a way soon to split the two?
• Matt Jacobson: Building Facebook application is a pretty good business. Facebook doesn't make revenue directly from it, so I'm not schilling something. It's just a good business that you should get into.
• Someone asked, "Will we ever have the ability to communicate with our fans who are not our friends?" Probably not. We are very concerned about spam. Communicate with your fans using your feed.
• There are so few people who want to do what you guys do, manage multiple pages, have a public and personal persona, you guys are asking for capabilities few people use.
• I asked: Like many here, I was more aggressive on twitter than on Facebook, keeping it open to just my friends and family. I'm now changing that, but frustrated when the conversation happens on Facebook instead of my blog. Will you be rolling out plug ins to link Facebook comments on personal blogs? 
• Matt Jacobson: Facebook decoupling is going to be the big move this year. Credits, using facebook login on other sites. Stay on top of the Developers Wiki. Integration of comments on personal blogs is coming very soon.

Live at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference with Meg Crofton

I'm at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference, spending the day with some powerful speakers while my husband and the kids are at Epcot. Our first speaker was Meg Crofton - President of Walt Disney World Resort.

Her comments really highlighted the power and reach of Disney as a travel company, a dining company, and even a distributor of wine.

Walt Disney World Resorts:

• 62,000 cast members
• 3,000 pounds of linens and towels
• largest single site purveyor of wine in the world
• 472 places to get a meal or snack on property. Could eat 3 times a day until August and not repeat.
• Disney buses log more than 20million miles a year

walt disney parks

• 5 locations worldwide (and another on the way)
• 3 cruise ships
• travel company with trips worldwide
• 1000s of possible vacation experiences

"We are in the guest experience business. Our mission is to help our guests make memories." - Meg Crofton

And making memories is just what my husband and kids are doing while I'm sitting here being inspired by amazing speakers. Breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends at the Grand Floridian.

When You Wish Upon a Star... Tears Flow

It never fails. I've seen the full Magic Kingdom fireworks show about five times now, but it makes me teary every time. It's all so perfectly timed, with the music and the childish simplicity of the power of a wish, that it captures the magic of childhood so well, so overwhelmingly, that I tear up, fully conscious that I'm a silly grown woman hopped up on mommy hormones. Tonight I stood on the balcony of the contemporary resort, with the music piped in to enhance the pastel explosions down below, and the tears slid down my face like clockwork.

When I walked back into the room filled with the other Traveling Mom contributors, I spied wet streaks on many of their faces. Earlier that evening, I was inspired by all these bold, amazing, creative women who effortlessly shared their bucket list dreams to learn to pilot a plane, to travel to Antarctica to see penguins, to take a dangerous trip to feel the power of the Middle East unrest.

I'm thrilled to be spending three days at Disney with these powerful dreamers, strong women with bold visions, who are not afraid to let their feelings show, not afraid to wish upon a star.

Foodily, the New Online Hub for Foodies

Ever noticed how the Google results for recipe searches are dominated by the big boys like AllRecipes, Epicurious, and the Food Network? The well-written and beautifully shot recipes posted by bloggers get buried below these behemoths with their huge page rank. But thanks to the launch of Foodily.com, there's a new way to search for recipes on the web that will help showcase the original work of food bloggers while giving readers a great tool to inspire their cooking.

I'm such a believer in the mission of the Foodily website that I signed on as one their ambassadors. The Foodily Beta launched earlier this month and was quickly hailed as the Facebook of Food. The site is populated with over one hundred thousand recipes, including 50 from yours truly. It is continually adding to its database by crawling web posts for hrecipe tags (HTML code that points to recipes). Foodily search is flexible and easy to use, easily letting you specify ingredients to include or exclude, as well as dietary restrictions such as gluten-free. So if you're looking for a gluten-free peach pie dessert but are allergic to almonds, you don't need to waste your time drooling over the wrong recipe.

I also love how Foodily has incorporated Facebook, so that you can see what recipes your friends have liked. It's like having a virtual cooking club, making the world wide web a little more personal. If you're having some friends for dinner and you're using Foodily for inspiration, you can even share your chosen menu with your guests on Facebook as part of your news feed or by creating a Facebook event.

But don't just take my word for it. Head on over to Foodily to take a look around. I can't wait to see what you like! Even the Foodily tagline is adorable:

1000 Posts and a Quiet Blogiversary

How will you celebrate your thousandth blog post?

As I logged on to write this post, I realized that this blog, this tiny piece of the great world wide web, now has 1,000 posts in its archives. 1,000 rants, recipes, and proud mommy moments. 1,000 instances of feeling passionate enough about something, anything from a delicious brownie to an amazing book, to sit down at the computer and write about it. 1,000 days of finding my voice and being heard.

I often get asked why I blog. "Do you make any money?" is usually the follow-up question. For me, blogging is not about the money. It's about living life fully engaged in my passions and connecting with others who share those passions. 

Thanks to finding my voice through the last 1,000 posts on this blog, my world is now a more colorful place. I now see life as a collection of vivid bloggable moments. I am a better cook, a better mom, and a happier woman.

I celebrated my blogiversary quietly. Alone with a beautiful cafe latte at my local coffee shop. Savoring every sip, appreciating the peace of the moment, the quiet energy of this happy coffee shop with its home ground coffee beans and its homemade pastries.

Here's to the next 1,000 posts.

Happy Wordful, Five Minutes Wordless, and Way-back wednesday.

And if you have any picture inspired posts to share this week, feel free to do so at the linky below:

Close Encounters of a Cow Kind

 Last week, a dozen bloggers headed to California to tour two dairies.

In our quest to learn everything about cows and milk, we posed for photo opps, petted newborn calves, and even got to give milking a try.

Up close, cows are really big. I was pretty nervous this one was going to eat me.

Have you ever seen anything cuter than this baby cow?

My sister Jessica giving a shy tug. I did it too. You have to seriously yank the teat to get milk.

A more substantial post about what I learned on the trip will be posted here tomorrow. But for now, enjoy these Wordful, Five Minutes Wordless, not so Wordless and Way-back wednesday pics.

Interviewing Influential Women for Technorati's State of the Blogosphere

For the last two weeks, I've been interviewing some of the most influential women in social media as part of Technorati's 2010 State of the Blogosphere Report. This was my first project as part of my role as a Technorati editor.

I set up a makeshift studio in a corner of my kitchen, gave strict instructions to the kids to not interrupt, and had fascinating conversations with women who have inspired me and been role models ever since I started this blog three years ago.

I spoke with:

• Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, 
• Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer, Inc.
• Barbara Jones of One2One Network and Blissdom, and 
• Liz Gumbinner of Mom-101 and Cool Mom Picks.

Head on over to Technorati to see other interviews as well as insights and trends drawn from the results of this year's State of the Blogosphere report. The following are the interviews I conducted:

Lisa Stone,  
BlogHer, Inc. Co-Founder and CEO



Liz Gumbinner,  
Mom-101 and Cool Mom Picks


Jaden Hair - 
Steamy Kitchen




Barbara Jones, 
Founder of the One2One Network and co-founder of Blissdom Events
Excerpt: "I see Twitter and Facebook as two very different applications. Facebook is like a backyard barbecue, mostly friends and family. I see Twitter as a cocktail party where you have the ability to pop in and out of conversations and make relationships."

Barbara's Interview had some technical difficulties and is available as a transcript on Technorati instead of a video.

Spreading Inspiration One Food Blog at a Time

If I had to sum up in one word the reason why I've been writing this blog for three years, it would be easy. INSPIRATION.

I write to inspire others to cook, to read, and to see the beauty in everyday life. At school pick-up on Friday, my friend Rowena told me that she had my butternut squash soup. Nothing makes me happier than hearing that something I wrote about inspired someone to fill their own kitchen with the smells of homemade cooking.

Just as I seek to inspire others, there are so many that inspire me with their blog posts, their pictures, and their ideas. So beginning this week, I will be sharing a few of the blog posts that made me think, drool, or dream, in the hope that they too, will inspire you.

Tricia's Chicken Curry Wraps with Cashews, Pineapple, and Raisins

• Once a Month Mom. If you'd like to become a little more efficient in the kitchen, you have to check out Tricia's Once a Month Cooking blog. Tricia has built a vibrant community there and shares some delicious recipes to fill your freezer and have ready quickly during busy nights. Her blog is also filled with great slice and dice tips like how to make your own bread crumbs. Her chicken curry wraps with cashews, raisins and pineapple will make you look forward to lunch all day. 

Isn't This Beet and Apple Salad Just Beautiful?

• This Mama Cooks on a Diet. When I'm looking for a little inspiration to be healthier, I head over to Anne Marie's This Mama Cooks on a Diet Blog. She is always sharing innovative recipes that bring the fun back to health food. I can't wait to whip up a batch of Pumpkin Seed Dried Cherry Trail Mix or jazz up a boring weekday lunch with this Healthy Citrus Beet and Apple Salad.

Jennie's Butternut Squash, Ricotta, and Bacon Muffins

• In Jennie's Kitchen. When I'm looking to get inspired to do some serious cooking, I turn to the woman who is probably the definition of inspiration in Wikipedia: Jennifer Perillo. Jennie wakes up early every day to whip up deliciously original recipes like these butternut squash, ricotta, and bacon streusel topped muffins. She makes most mothers look lazy, and would be easy to hate if she weren't so nice and so generous with her baked goods. I read her blog with a wooden spoon in hand because I know she will inspire me to get cooking, right away. I can't wait to whip up her creamed corn this Thanksgiving.

I'll be back next week with more inspiring foodie blogs to make your mouths water. And if you have any suggestions of recipes you'd like me to highlight, feel free to leave them in the comments. I hope you enjoy reading Tricia, Anne-Marie, and Jennie as much as I do.

Being Brought to the Table on the High Fructose Corn Syrup Debate

When I agreed to go on the Iowa Corn Tour, I knew that I was making a controversial decision. The Corn Grower's Association was in the midst of a major social media campaign targeted to mommy bloggers to address the concerns over high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They had reached out to bloggers at the Type A Mom Conference as a sponsor. They had hired the social media consulting firm Mom Central to organize a mommy blogger brunch. Our trip through the Iowa Corn Grower's Association was just the last initiative as part of that campaign to improve the image of corn farmers and high fructose corn syrup.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I jumped at the chance to go on the trip. I was eager for the opportunity to learn more about corn production, to see the process, and for access to the right individuals to get my questions answered. The other six women invited on the trip (Allison, Laurie, Lisa, Shanda, Susan, and Tanya) all voiced similar reasons for coming on the trip: concern about what we were reading in the press, and the desire to learn more, to better feed our kids. Both food bloggers and more traditional mom bloggers were represented on the trip, carefully selected by the Center for Food Integrity. In communications preceding the trip, Roxi Beck referred to a few posts from each of our blogs, sometimes going back over a year in our archives, really taking the time to get to know us individually. This was no quick selection using Alexa rankings or ShePosts lists.

I learned a lot on the trip, and I learned even more doing research on high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified corn, and farm subsidies as a result of the trip. I certainly achieved my goal of increasing my awareness and knowledge of these issues, and arming myself to better feed my kids. I'm so glad I went, even though the debate over the relationship between mom bloggers and the Corn Growers' Association continues to rage in the blogosphere.

As soon as mom bloggers began posting that HFCS is the same as sugar, repeating some of the information released at the various events, the blogosphere erupted in protest with posts by Jessica Gottlieb, Liz at Mom 101, and PhD in Parenting to name a few. Blog posts are being written, mud is being slung, and allegations of blogging without integrity are being made. Tempers are running high, and with good cause. Our nutrition is at stake. We're surrounded by crises: the world population keeps increasing, the ice caps are melting, the climate is growing warmer and more extreme, and obesity in America is at an all-time high. We need someone to blame, and the corn industry with its high fructose corn syrup is an attractive culprit. We want some answers, some changes to be made, some hope for the future, for our children. And we'd like them to be a little less drastic than Marc Bittman's "Eat less meat" or Michael Pollans' "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

The media runs articles on the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, and that begins to look like the solution to the obesity issue in America. Parents begin to look for products without HFCS, products filled with cane sugar like the new Hunt's ketchup mentioned in this Slash Food article, or even worse, filled with some new manufactured sweetener with a simple non-threatening name so they can tell themselves, "Oh, this says no HFCS, must be fine for my family!" And then we're right back where we started, with people eating too much sugar-laden junk.

You shouldn't avoid HFCS because it's worse for you than sugar. That debate was concluded in a NY Times article quoting well-respected scientists like Dr. Marion Nestle saying that there is no biochemical difference between corn syrup and sugar. But there are other reasons that you might choose to avoid HFCS:

• Avoid it, as Michael Pollan suggests, because it is a marker of a food that's been highly processed.
• Avoid it because you fear genetically modified ingredients, and close to 90% of all seed corn, from which HFCS is produced, is made with GMO seeds.
• Avoid it because you are fundamentally opposed to finding sugar where you don't expect it: in bread, in crackers, in ketchup.

But instead of avoiding HFCS, why not simply read the nutrition labels on the food you purchase at the supermarket? Familiarize yourself with what's high in sugar, what's high in sodium, what's high in fat, nd explain it to your kids before passing them an apple or a carrot instead. Only by reading the nutrition labels instead of seeking out one or two bad ingredients can we hope to solve the obesity problem in America.

I don't believe the Corn Growers' Association is trying to take advantage of mom bloggers with their social media initiatives. They're trying to fix an image problem, an effort that experts like Dr. Marion Nestle agree is valid. I actually think that by pushing forward their own agenda, by bringing mom bloggers and their readers into the national nutrition debate, they're actually helping educate moms on nutrition, and stimulating discussion of a crucial topic.

When choosing to address the HFCS image problem, the Corn Grower's Association chose to focus on social media, and in so doing they asked moms to the table and brought them into this vital discussion. They could have just as easily chosen print or TV and simply talked at us instead of talking with us. I think that's worth celebrating. We're being asked to participate in a national discussion about nutrition, being invited to share our concerns about what we feed our kids. Thanks to social media, we're being given more power as mothers than we've ever had before. It's up to us to use that power to educate ourselves so we can make the right choices when voting, shopping, and eating.

Breaking Down the Iowa Corn Trip

I've been spending all weekend reflecting about my recent trip with the Iowa Corn Grower's Association. I've stared at the blank blog compose screen, struggling to begin a mega post to share my thoughts on all things corn. I was completely hypnotized by the blinking cursor when I realized that it's all too much to put in one post. Before I tell you where I stand on all the controversy, I need to tell you about what we did, saw, and heard on the trip, essentially taking you behind the scenes of this well-planned and executed press trip.

Although my trip to Iowa lasted less than 48 hours, it was so packed with experiences that it felt closer to a week. We began both days at 7:45AM and didn't have a minute of downtime until we parted at the airport for the return trip home. We met many people, heard many stories, had many conversations to really get a great sense of the lives of farmers today. Many of the activities were fun, some, like the laps around the Iowa speedway, were exhilarating, but all served the same purpose: to educate me and the seven other bloggers on the press trip about how corn is grown and to correct our outdated image of farming. As I've disclosed before, my flight and hotel stay were paid for by the Iowa Corn Growers' Association who also paid for all my activities and meals during my visit.

We began with breakfast at the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant, a country restaurant similar to Cracker Barrel  but without the white rocking chairs. It's a good thing the Iowa Machine Shed is not available on an interstate near me because their giant cinnamon buns with a generous side of fluffy white frosting would become a dangerous addiction.

We ate with a young farming couple, Kevin and Sara Ross and their 10 month old son Hudson. Unlike many of the other farmers we met, Kevin didn't follow in his father's footsteps. His father was a computer programmer and his mother was a teacher. He was exposed to farming by his grandparents' farm. Kevin and Sara own a 650 acre farm in the SouthWest of Iowa where they grown corn and soybeans and raise 80 heads of cattle. They use 550 of their acres for corn and soybean, leaving the other 100 for conservation, cattle, and other crops.

As we all sat around the table, getting to know each other and marveling over the extensive menu, he sat quietly, shifting in his seat, letting his wife and baby do the chatting, no doubt wishing he was in the field bringing in the rest of his harvest. He grew more comfortable when he began describing challenges he faced when he chose to become a farmer, like finding financing to purchase a $300,000 combine to harvest the corn, and purchasing enough land to break even. He described how as a farmer he wears many hats, "Yesterday I was a mechanic all morning, then I spent an hour as a salesman marketing my corn before heading to the fields to bail hay until dark." He supplements his farming income by selling crop insurance on the side. Regardless of how sophisticated and technical farming equipment has become, today's farmers still need to protect their families against the weather as best they can.

Tough Questions and Good Discourse on the Iowa Corn Tour

I've had many incredible experiences since I began blogging three years ago, opportunities to have conference calls with Katie Couric, to interview Olympic athletes and diet personalities, to have dinner with Rocco DiSpirito, lunch with Marcela Valladolid, and to meet the Duchess of York. The world of social media is still young and untamed, and as a result, I've enjoyed access to people I never could have met.

But not one of these press junkets were as unique and important as the trip I just took with the Iowa Corn Growers Association because I got some much needed answers on the food we put in our mouths. A trip during which my travel costs (airfare and hotel) were paid for by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Our action-packed agenda was filled with thrilling and fun experiences, but, as far as I'm concerned, they were not the important parts of the trip. We rode in an ethanol-fueled pace car on the Iowa Speedway at 107 miles per hour. We sat in a $300,000 combine, the tractors of the future, as it harvested a row of seed corn. But fast cars and big machines were not the reasons I went on the trip, and they're not the memories that will linger with me.

I traveled to Iowa to get some answers, to learn about corn production, and better understand this ingredient that is so prevalent in our pantries. I've seen Food, Inc. and Fast Food Nation. I've read Food Matters and Food Rules. I worry about our food supply, about its safety, and the growth in obesity in America. I try to keep abreast of the issues, but I have an undergraduate degree in European History and a graduate degree in marketing. I am no scientist. I am a mother and a passionate foodie. I wanted to get information straight from the source so I headed off to Iowa, armed with questions.

Questions like:

• Why do so many farmers choose to farm corn?
• How much more money do you make from corn than you would make growing tomatoes or green peppers?
• Do you receive subsidies from the government?
• Why do you think the number of food borne illnesses seems to be growing every year?
• If your genetically modified corn seeds keep yielding more corn, year after year, why don't you just plant less? Why do we need to keep growing more and more corn? 
• It seems wrong that cattle should eat so much grain. Shouldn't they be fed primarily grass?

My questions were naive. Basic. Innocent. Probably insulting. But I imagine they were the questions of thousands of other mothers, and I asked them like my children ask me questions. Relentlessly, doggedly, and without fear of pressing on until it all made sense.

I expected stock answers. I expected hostile stares. I was even prepared for anger as I asked, asked, asked.
But everyone I met was eager to answer me. Farmers and farmers' wives happily subjected to my interrogation, explaining their livelihood, their decisions, and teaching me about the corn industry in America. Of course some answers were more full of spin than others, but just as many were honest and eager to talk, happily telling me about their families, their tax returns, and their business plans, things I would be embarrassed to ask my neighbors about. Over and over again, people encouraged me to keep on asking my questions, insisting that they had nothing to hide.

I arrived in Iowa thinking that the corn my kids devour slathered with butter was at the heart of all the debate. I came home able to tell my family about seed corn and the role it plays in gas, processed food, cattle, pigs, and dozens of other everyday products.

I have over ten pages of notes, scrawled while walking in corn fields, cattle yards, and the race track. There were hundreds of tweets today with the hashtag #IACornTour, sharing links, recommending movies and continuing the discourse. I want to take the weekend to digest it all and write one or two posts next week, sharing what I saw and learned.

Keep sharing your links with me, your thoughts, your questions as you have been on Twitter. Our voices are being heard. This is the beauty of blogging, of social media. We're a powerful force in the politics of feeding our families. Let's keep the discussion going.

9 Cheap Props Every Budding Food Blogger Needs

Are you frustrated by your food photography? Do you make a beautiful dish, shoot it from all angles only to discover that you got some okay pictures, but nothing with that ethereal, mouth-watering quality? Do you hunger for a biggger, fancier camera, thinking, "If I only had that lens, my photography would be so much better."

I certainly do. 

I've been really working on my food photography for the last year and a half, eating plate after plate of cold food after having put my camera down in disgust and frustration. And as I shovel in my cold dinner, pining after the massive uzi-like professional cameras with lenses larger than microscopes, I mentally calculate how to budget for a $1000 lens.

But at BlogHer Food, I got some great news. It turns out that the pining was unnecessary, because I'm not ready for a monster lens. Instead, I heard about tons of inexpensive (under $5) props that will revolutionize my food photography.

It's hard to find time to shop when you're buried under a week's worth of five people's dirty laundry, but I'll share the list with you so we're both ready for greatness:

1. White Foam Core Board - Available at Michael's, Lowe's, or for more money at photo stores - Gives shots that gorgeous, infinite white background. Also lets you bounce light onto a subject for gentler and warmer lighting.
2. Black Foam Core Board - Available at Michael's or Foam Core Heaven (how do people come up with these names!) This is also useful as a background, or just to remove extra light from a shot.
3. Wallpaper -Believe it or not, many of those dishes you've seen served on well-worn wooden tables, those that look as though they've witnessed generations of families enjoying feasts, were really sitting on a small piece of wallpaper. Astek Wallcoverings makes designs in distressed wood, dark oak, green bamboo, and cork just to name a few. They'll send you samples for $5 each. Much cheaper than a table.
4. Tile Slate - $2.50 for an 18" by 18" tile at Lowe's - Food photography is all about texture. These tiles give the illusion of having the food sit in a luxurious garden at some 5-star hotel. They come in dark gray or with brownish hues. At that price, you can get a few to highlight the food differently. 
5. Clamps - $2.50 each at Home Depot - Sounds like something your grandpa might have stored in the garage, but having 3 or 4 clamps on hand can be a lifesaver. They will hold your foam core together, and let it stand up without needing an assistant.
6. Eye Dropper - $2.50 at Amazon - This will let you really control that casual sauce dripping around the plate, even letting you surgically add one more drop.
7. Mister - $9.89 at Amazon - The food styling session at times drifted in the territory of things you wouldn't want to do to food you still plan on eating, but this tip, misting steaks salads with a little light vegetable oil to make them glisten and seem fresher, is something I plan on trying.
8. Tweezers - many long tweezers on ebay - I'm not sure that I have the patience to start fiddling with my pictures with tweezers to remove extra crumbs, but the food styling folks swear by them.
9. Ego Lights - Set of 2 for $89 at Adorama at Amazon - Now we're getting way out of the under $10 range here, but this is the only expensive item I'm considereing as a result of my time at BlogherFood. I try hard to shoot in the daytime, in my two hours of freedom while my little one is at preschool, but often, life gets in the way and I find myself trying to recreate daylight at 11PM. Those pictures come out yellow and drab. Jaden from Steamy Kitchen swears by these Ego Lights.

I learned a ton at BlogHer Food. I've already blogged about the White on Rice food photography session and have pages and pages of notes on food styling, telling a story through photography with Penny de Los Santos, and an inspirational keynote session with Michael Ruhlman, Molly Wizenberg from Orangette, and Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef. I'll share those with you in one more post later this week, once I've digested it all.

Getting the Best Food Photos in your Home: BlogHer Food Session 1

My first sesssion at BlogHer Food was given by Diane Cu and Todd Porter, authors of the White on Rice Couple blog, professional food photographers, and authors of two cookbooks coming out next year. Their photography is so beautiful, they would be easy to hate, if they weren't so down to earth and open, eager to share all they know to help others progress.

I'll summarize this session here, and you can also get some valuable tips on their website which still has their early not-so-good beginning pics.

1. Think before you shoot. Don't go for the lucky shot. You should be able to take 10 pictures and have 7 good ones. Decide the feel you want, the props you want to use. Before you pick up the camera, assess your environment, and only when you know what you want to achieve, begin to shoot.
2. Expensive gear is not important. You can take a great shot on a $100 camera, and a poor shot with a $1000 camera. Practice, practice, practice before you buy.
3. Be Dynamic with your light source. Where are you relative to the Light Source? Decide whether you want harsh, diffused, or shaded effects then move to get that light. Photography is all about how light falls on your subject. A 12 o'clock light (from behind subject) will give you a light, airy, dreamy look (Todd calls it "girlie"). A 9 o'clock from the side lighting will give you a dark, foreboding feel. A 6 o'clock shot with the light straight on will remove the shadows. 4 or 3 o'clock will be fresh and dewy. Play around with light, really experiment with it. Test yourself by looking in magazines and blogs and seeing where the light came from for that shot. 
4. Shadows are not your enemy. They give life to the shot, tell a story, give it depth.
5. Don't Fill the Shot too much. Use both positive and negative space. Draw the viewer's eye to your subject. Don't be afraid to put the subject to the side, using the rule of thirds to know where the energy in the shot is.
6. Be Prepared with a little photography mise en place. Choose your props and setting before you take the cobbler or the souffle out of the oven.
7. Know your best light source - Look for the light in your home, don't limit yourself to the kitchen. If your bathroom gets great morning light, use it! And move anything, from pets to kids, to get good light.
8. A few incredibly useful tools to buy at Home Depot: Black and White Foam Core to act as backgrounds and light bouncers, simple clamps to hold them up, slate tiles to act as bases. All of these cost under $10. Don't buy them at photo shops.
9. You can even use light at night and in low light restaurants. Use napkins to bounce light. Use sheets or white pieces of paper to shield lightbulbs. 

Later tonight, I'll fill in this post with some pictures and diagrams. This session was incredibly valuable for me. I can't wait to play around with light in my shots.

Losing the Iron Chef Competition Gracefully at BlogHer Food

I flew in to San Francisco yesterday for BlogHer Food. The conference begins today and has been increased to two days of sessions on food photography, urban farming food styling, and telling food stories. I was here last October for the same conference and was so inspired by not only the information I took away, but also the passionate community of food bloggers.

The fun began last night with an Iron Chef type of competition sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories Labs, a non-profit organization that rates appliances around the globe on safety. Chef Lisa Schroeder, author of the cookbook, Mother’s Best, and owner of renowned Portland restaurants, Mother’s Bistro & Bar and Mama Mia Trattoria. We were judged on three criteria: taste, creativity, and, of course, safety.

Anne Marie Nichols Showing Off her Cooking Scars

My teammates were Marla Meredith from Family Fresh Cooking, Anne Marie Nichols from This Mama Cooks, Lori Lange from Recipe Girl, Amanda Simpson from What We're Eating, and Jenny Flake from Picky Palate. A dream team to be sure that we promptly called the Bad Ass Cooks.

Amanda from What We're Eating is a Plating Genius

Each team had to prepare one appetizer or side dish with fennel, one main course with halibut, and one Baked Alaska for dessert. After a quick presentation on kitchen safety filled with valuable tips like "With handles in, we all win!" we got to work, picking ingredients, brainstorming on dishes, and putting our creativity together. Our team got lucky with the long straw and had the honor of selecting their ingredients first which scored us some sweet dates, crumbled blue cheese, and a big bowl of fresh corn. Cooking can be such a solitary pursuit, each of us toiling away in our kitchens as the sun sets. Working together with other food bloggers from concept to plating was an amazing experience.

Recipe Girl and Picky Palate Plating our Baked Alaska

Our cooking space was trendy but small. It reminded me of my first apartment in New York. We jostled for a corner of a cutting board or one of the four anemic burners, definitely not your ideal safe cooking environment. We whipped up a chopped salad of fennel, dates, red peppers, corn, and blue cheese, seared halibut on a bed of roasted corn and avocado, and a chocolate Baked Alaska with caramelized pineapple and raspberries. We chopped, seared, seasoned and tasted as a team, and had a blast.

So when the news came in that we were the second-runner up, a much nicer euphemism than the big losing team, the disappointment wasn't too bitter. After all, it's hard to beat Baked Alaska S'mores (whipped up by Maggy Keet's team after a mishap in the freezer). The nice thing about cooking competitions is that after accepting defeat, even the losers get to eat!

Waking Up after the Dream of BlogHer

You may have noticed my silence, a rare occurrence, in the last few days. BlogHer washed over me like a tsunami, and I simply gave in to it, flitting from event to event like a giddy butterfly. I have to admit that it was wonderful to simply put all the stress of our move on hold, and just enjoy reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.

Last year at BlogHer Chicago, I heard people say that they didn't attend any conference sessions and spent all their time socializing. At the time I was live blogging the sessions, and didn't understand their lack of interest in what seemed to be to be the true purpose of attending the conference. But this year, I have to confess that I only attended one session, and I left halfway through. The topics just didn't seem that interesting, more of the same old conversations about FTC guidelines, working with PR firms, and monetizing your blog. But the parties and the conversations with creative and outspoken women made the trip well worth it. I found my inspiration outside the BlogHer sessions, making my virtual reality a physical one.

The week is a blur of amazing experiences. I'll try to give you a taste for them through a few pics...

Thursday began with the Kodak Big Apple Bus Tour. I spent a decade of my life living in Manhattan and never once got on one of those double decker buses. So I was looking forward to experiencing the city I called home for so long as a tourist. New Yorkers never look up, so I saw my city from a whole new perspective. I even took a few shots with the Kodak M580 share camera that I received as a gift from Kodak in advance of the event.

Thursday night was jam-packed with parties. We started out at the Social Luxe Lounge, a dazzling affair organized by Jane Maynard, Allison Czarnecki, and Marie LeBaron. Even if it had been held in a cupboard, I still wouldn't have missed a chance to catch up with Jane, who I see all to seldom for my taste.

Then I headed down to the Martha Stewart offices, eager to get a glimpse at where the Martha magic is created. I caught peeks of rooms filled with props, even walking by a dozen white doors, each waiting, like a shy girl at a dance, to add their own slight nuance to the background of a Martha Stewart magazine shot. Like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I didn't stay long. When I stepped into a cab to head back uptown, I felt as though I had just experienced a strange dream filled with chic men wearing white suits with bowties and gorgeous, impossibly tall women sipping ginger martinis and watermelon cosmos.

Thursday night ended at the Nikon party getting flash and lens tips from the Nikon team, and chatting on the terrace overlooking the lush green lawn of Bryant Park with Anne Marie Nichols, Susan of Five Minutes for Mom, Ellen Seidman, Heidi and, of course, my sister Jessica.

Delicious olive oil poached salmon at BLT Fish

On Friday, I left the BlogHer festivities to head to BLT Fish for a discussion with the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition on the importance of getting 12 ounces of fish in women's weekly diets. The discussion was relevant and interesting, and the food was delicious, including this olive oil poached salmon that melted in my mouth like butter. Getting a chance to meet Olga from Sassy Radish and see Sarah Caron from Sarah's Cucina Bella made the lunch even better.

 Although the schedule was packed, my sisters and I found a few minutes to sneak away to have a picnic lunch in Central Park, a decadent one to celebrate our birthdays with food from the Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center.

Kidnapped by Mario!

The best photo opp of the weekend took place Friday night, when rickshaw drivers dressed up as Mario took us to the Boathouse in Central Park for dinner. Weaving in and out of midtown traffic behind a man wearing a fake mustache and an electric blue polyester costume was definitely another dreamlike sequence. The dream became even more surreal when other rickshaw drivers surrounded us spontaneously in the park, playing tinny Mario Brothers music on their cell phones. The fact that our Mario was himself an eco-tourism blogger seemed like fate, as we spent the rest of the crazy ride discussing the power and egalitarian reach of social media.

MJ Tam, Duong Sheeha, Miss Lori, Jessica Rosenberg and other Nintendo guests

The food was delicious - not a small feat for a large group dinner. My buttery filet mignon was perfectly cooked with a crispy crust and a warm red center. I'd never eaten at the Boathouse, waiting in vain for my husband to surprise me with a romantic night at this gorgeous spot. Instead I shared the view of the moonlight casting a blueish glow on the boat basin with these gorgeous women. Then we headed to the Swanky After Hours party at the Penthouse of the London Hotel to continue our superstar night, rushing to beat the twelfth stroke of midnight in case the magic wore off, returning us to our usual blogging attire: pajamas and zit cream in front of the computer screen.

How many bloggers can you fit in a luxury tub?

The alarm rang early on Saturday morning, and I still felt the pull of sleep when I walked into the dazzling loft above Nate Berkus' apartment in the Jean Nouvel Building for the Kellogg's Moms' Breakfast. The views of the river and the New York skyline were incredible, and combined with the positive energy of the two women organizing the event, Cooper and Emily from the Motherhood, I couldn't imagine a better environment to bring me back to fighting form. We had an interesting discussion about the challenges of providing a healthy breakfast to our kids, and brainstormed the logistics of the Kellogg's breakfasts we will soon be hosting in our homes. The caterers had created some delicious juice combinations: blueberry lemonade, strawberry acai juice, cherry pomegranite juice, and a honey melon juice. I'm thoroughly inspired to kick our breakfast drinks up a notch, and not just for the breakfast party I'll be hosting in Chicago this fall!

Beautiful views at the Kelloggs Breakfast

My last event was a brunch at the Loews Regency on Sunday Morning. It was organized by Carol from NYCityMama, and even though I always expect great things from my visionary and spirited friend, this event may have been her crowning achievement. The food was spectacular, a far cry from your typical "hotel food": the ceviche bar left my mouth zinging with flavor and the short ribs served atop potato pancakes with a perfectly poached egg and a dollop of demi-glace hollandaise were heavenly. My only regret was that I did not have the time to explore the elaborate cheese display and chat with the cheese expert. I would love to have had an entire evening to talk cheese with him, but it was time to catch my flight and reunite with my family in time for our move.

If this post was overwhelming and lengthy, it was meant to be, that's how BlogHer should be experienced. It's a mad rush of top-10 life experiences crammed into a three-day period. Leaving BlogHer is like waking up from a great dream. Only the bulging bag of swag proves that the dream was a reality.

Kicking Off BlogHer at the Plaza

Gleeful.

Yes. Gleeful is the perfect adjective to describe my state of mind when I closed our front door yesterday, postponing the chaos of moving til next week, and replacing it with the chaos of BlogHer. A quick flight and drive later, the kids were safely ensconced at their grandparents' house and I was on my way to New York City.

My mission this year is simple: to enjoy myself. I will steer clear of any swag and party angst, making sure to spend time with all my blogging friends gathered in New York, one conversation at a time, fully focused and engaged in the moment.

With those goals in mind, the fun couldn't have begun more auspiciously Wednesday with tea at the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel. The PLAZA! The mere mention of the Plaza name fills me with nostalgia and memories of walking into its glorious lobby, in my underappreciated 24 year old body, holding my new fiance's hand, a gleaming diamond feeling deliciously foreign on my left hand. I followed all the news of the Plaza's closing and reconstruction into condo apartments two years ago, and was very eager to get a peek at the redesign of the venerable hotel.

MJ Tam organized the event for Chicagonista and NYMetropolista and it was sponsored by Dyson. Those magical-looking bladeless Dyson air multiplier fans stood between the towers of petit fours, scones, and crab sandwiches. I felt like little Eloise, spoiled at the Plaza, enjoying delicious food and reconnecting with Beth Feldman, Ellen Seidman, Carol Cain, Heidi Richter (whose gorgeous food pic I borrowed), Barbara Jones and Alli Worthington. I even indulged in some foodie talk about experimenting with jellies with Becca Levey and Jennifer Perillo.

After two hours of sticking my pinkie finger out, nibbling on canapes topped with dollops of caviar, and saying "dah-ling," I emerged back into the sun and heat of Fifth Avenue, ready to take BlogHer by storm.

Going to Blogher this summer? It's Time to RSVP for the Blogher Parties

I came home thoroughly dispirited from BlogHer '09, depressed by the competition, the stress, and the swag frenzy. I've decided to head back into the fray this year for two reasons:
1) It's in NYC, home of many great friends.
2) I want to challenge myself to have a quality experience, connecting with people I enjoy, and remaining zen amidst the mayhem.

With that in mind, I just heard that many of the BlogHer parties are already filled and are taking names for wait lists. I'm therefore sharing the links to the parties taking RSVPs so that all of you who read this post, who are people that I definitely want to hang out with, head right on over and sign up.

And then when we're all in NYC together, we can decide whether or not to attend, or simply to head to one of the thousands of amazing eateries that NYC has to offer and break bread together.

Before you head to these sites, search in your email for your confirmation from eventbrite for your BlogHer ticket number. You'll need it to rsvp.

• Social Luxe Lounge - RSVP not yet open 
• that's the SocialFiesta
• People's party
• Sparklecorn
• Cheeseburgher
• Blogalicious is live
• Green something or other party.

Responding to the Siren Call of New York

Sometimes the siren call of New York is just too strong. The restaurants, the shops, the buzz, and ... the blogger events, each one more amazing than the next. Since I've left New Jersey, the invitations keep on streaming in to my inbox, and every once in a while, I make the journey in. I love an excuse to get back to the city that I love, and have lunch with my baby sister.

Tuesday was one of those days. I flew in first thing in the morning, and had a whirlwind day filled with four events. I started out with a quiet breakfast in a little village coffee shop during which Claire Danes walked in with her little dog. And I was the only patron who even batted an eyelash at this famous neighbor's visit. I could have snapped a picture of her bending over to pooper scoop after her dog, but that would have been too National Enquirer. I'll just say that I wish I could look that good bending over in tight black leggings at 8 in the morning.

Then I had another breakfast, this one loaded with generous dollops of Nutella atop a buttery brioche. Sitting with the delightful Dagmar Bleasdale of New York City Moms Blog, Esti of Prime Time Parenting, and Colleen Padilla of Classy Mommy, we listened to dietitian Connie Evers talk to us about the importance of breakfast and suggesting how a little Nutella might help entice our kids to start their day with a balanced meal.

I then headed to a lunch hosted by Ragu and Molly Ringwald. It was surreal to be a few feet away from someone I had just watched at the Academy Awards and I have to tell you that she looked fantastic up close. Hard to believe that she has three kids at home, including twins less than a year old. When she spoke to us about how she loves to get her first born helping out in the kitchen in preparing dinner, I felt as though I was listening to just another mom, instead of John Hughes' muse.

During the Ragu lunch, I had the pleasure of sitting with Food Network Chef Marcela Valladolid to sample some simple Italian dishes made with Ragu sauces as a base. I had met Marcela a few months ago, at a promotional event for her cookbook, but this time I really got to chat with her. She simply lights up the room with a contagious enthusiasm. Her cookbook, Fresh Mexico, is amazing, really makes Mexican food approachable. I can't wait to see her show when it starts up again on the Food Network in a few months.

I then walked to the next event, a Dove Chocolate pampering lounge in the Chelsea Market with a new friend and fellow New Jersey mom, Ellen, author of the blog Love that Max. Although she and I had never met, we connected quickly, and ended up spending the day together, going from event to event, talking about blogging and freelancing. At the Chelsea Market, I had a chance to catch up with a few other friends including Beth from Role Mommy and Issa from Single Mama NYC. Before heading out to the fourth and last event, a Modern Mom brand showcase, I popped in to Fat Witch bakery for some of their decadent brownies because if you've started your day with chocolate, you might as well keep indulging.

By the time I boarded my 8PM flight home, I felt sweaty, sugar crashed, and thoroughly exhausted. But I also felt elated to have packed so many amazing experiences in one day.

When the alarm rang the next morning at 7AM, I had no idea where I was. The previous day seemed like a wild dream, until I saw the pics on my camera.