#IFBC17 is coming fast! If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, don’t miss out. 

The below post comes to us from IFBC17 sponsor, Lindsay, whom you will be able to meet September 29 – October 1 at the IFBC. 

Calling all #IFBC17 Bloggers!

Lindsay will be serving up its famous Manzanilla Michelada on Friday, September 29th from 4:15 to 6:30 p.m. (during the Expo, Taste of Sacramento & Gift Suite). Please stop by and customize your Michelada with one (or more) of our Lindsay Party Picks!

For a little sneak peak and to whet your appetite, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. Bloody Mary Mix
• Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce
• Lemon wedge
• Light beer (we’re using Corona)
• Lindsay Party Picks (any kind!)

Directions:

Fill a highball glass to the top with ice. Add Bloody Mary Mix about halfway up the glass. Add a dash of hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice. Give a quick stir.

Fill to the top with light beer. Garnish with your favorite Lindsay Party Picks, like our Queen olives stuffed with red pepper or our spicy veggie blend.

Cheers!

The post below is brought to us by #IFBC17 sponsor, WordPress.com. Join us next week on September 29-30 in Sacramento and say hello to our friends from WordPress! There’s still time to register and take part in this outstanding food blogging event. Register today.

Are you a Foodie, with a capital “F”? Do you consider yourself a food connoisseur and are now just a tad insulted that we would even dare to use the term “Foodie,” capitalized or not?

No matter your thoughts on the art of food appreciation, WordPress.com is here for you! Whether you’re looking to share your amazing family recipes, the awesome new restaurants you’ve found in your hometown, or the exotic foods you’ve encountered in your travels, WordPress.com can help you build your perfect site. We offer pricing and plans for any budget, from free personal blogs to fully customized websites for businesses big and small.

The power of WordPress.com is its scalability. If you’re a newbie and have never built a website before, we offer a plethora of pre-installed web publishing tools, so you can sign up and get started right away. Write blog posts, add photos, share to social media — it’s all there for you. And as your personal brand grows, WordPress.com will be right there to grow with you. For the veteran blogger, the WordPress.com Business Plan offers the option to install third-party themes and plugins, giving you the full customization that professional sites require.

If you’re looking to build your first website, WordPress.com is a great place to start from scratch. And if you already have your site built on another platform and are looking for a bit more customization and scalability, you can transfer your site from other providers, as well.

WordPress.com is a proud sponsor of the 2017 International Food Blogger Conference. If you have any questions about WordPress.com or would just like to learn more about us, Anne and Dennis will be at the expo Friday afternoon. Just look for the giant WordPress.com sign and logo!

IFBC17 is coming fast! If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, don’t miss out. 

The below post comes to us from IFBC17 sponsor, Hestan Smart Cooking, whom you will be able to meet September 29 – October 1 at the IFBC. 

The kitchen of the future isn’t about gadgets cooking for you, it’s about technology teaching you to become a better cook.

Have you ever tried making caramel and found yourself fretting over the thermometer, or wondering what exactly ‘soft ball stage’ looks and feels like? Or been reducing a sauce while chatting with guests only to find it’s evaporated by the time you return to the stove? It takes professional chefs decades of experience to learn the sounds, smells, taste, and touch that signal when something is done. But what if your kitchen was smart enough to help you learn these skills in a matter of minutes?

Over the past couple of decades technology has crept into our everyday lives, affecting everything from how we control the air conditioning or lighting in our homes, to how we commute. But the kitchen has been slow to adapt—essentially remaining an untouched, time-honored kingdom of wooden spoons and gas flames. However, as many products are proving, using smart technology in the kitchen can help make us better (and happier) cooks by daring us to try what we hadn’t dreamed possible and realizing our inner chef potential.

Here at Hestan Cue, smart cooking means bringing Bluetooth into the kitchen so that appliances can communicate with each other, and a thoughtful app you control can help you deliver the best tasting and most consistent results. The truly smart kitchen harnesses all the techniques that top chefs spend their lives learning, factors in all possible variables, and sets you up for success. It combines hours of experience over the stove and puts the power of culinary expertise in your hands. At the same time, the smart kitchen creates room for flexibility and creativity. After all, technology should empower creativity, not diminish it. For the novice in the kitchen, it delivers the confidence needed to cook at home. For the more experienced cook, it provides a trusted sous-chef that helps turn an ordinary Friday night meal into an impressive date night dinner.

In an age where Bluetooth connectivity is more accessible than ever, Hestan Cue seeks to improve cooking and educate the home cook, rather than adding tech for tech’s sake. This ‘smart cooking system’ consists of an induction burner, smart pan and recipe app that communicate with each other seamlessly to walk you through every step of every recipe. From prep to plating, Michelin-star chefs teach tips and techniques through video guidance. At the same time, embedded temperature sensors in the pan and burner communicate to automatically adjust temperature while the app prompts you when to flip, stir, or sauté so you can enjoy the conversation (and perhaps a glass of wine) while you cook a restaurant-quality meal.

That’s the real power of the smart kitchen: to let all of us, no matter our culinary skill level, get better results and more enjoyment from the timeless art of cooking, and ultimately, to bring us all together around the table.

IFBC17 is just around the corner. If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, don’t miss out. 

The below post comes to us from IFBC17 sponsor, The Idaho Potato Commission, whom you will be able to meet September 29 – October 1 at the IFBC. 

Hi there IFBC bloggers and attendees!

Since this is our first time as a sponsor at this conference we’d love to introduce ourselves!

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is a state agency with the job of promoting and protecting our most famous commodity – potatoes!

We were founded 80 years ago, in 1937, to develop and expand markets outside of Idaho. We represent the fresh, refrigerated, frozen and dehydrated products made from the nearly 13 billion pounds of potatoes grown in our state each year. Now Idaho® Potatoes can be found not only all over this country but all over the world!

While known mainly for the famous Idaho Russet Burbank, our farmers grow nearly thirty varieties of russets, reds, yellows and fingerlings for year round consumption.

WE LOVE BLOGGERS! 

We not only love bloggers, we are one! Dr Potato was started in 2009 to respond to all the potato questions we receive. We have more than 650 posts covering everything from storage to recipes; cooking for large groups to resolving food service issues.

Since 2011 we have worked with nearly 100 food bloggers to develop recipes and videos, run contests and giveaways and most recently for Facebook Live posts. We have a page dedicated to our bloggers which includes photos, bios as well as links to their websites and social media.

Over the years we have also brought over 50 bloggers out to experience a harvest firsthand. We tour Idaho farms, dig fresh potatoes, learn how spuds are stored and French fries are made. And no trip would be complete without a stop at the Idaho Potato Museum.

WE CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU

We generally work with bloggers that are strictly food focused verses lifestyle or travel bloggers. While the number of followers is important, we put more value on the quality of the content, the engagement and professional level photography skills.

Currently we are looking for:

• Fresh video content
• Facebook Live bloggers
• Recipes for specialized diets such as gluten free and vegan
• Ethnic dishes – especially Indian, Peruvian, and Asian

We are really excited to be part of the 2017 International Food Blogger’s Conference. Stop by our table at The Expo on Friday afternoon to get your own Spuddy Buddy, sample some delicious potato chips and find out about our Instagram contest.  And find us anytime at IdahoPotato.com and on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/famousidahopotatoes

https://twitter.com/idahopotato

https://www.pinterest.com/idahopotato/

https://www.instagram.com/idahopotatoes/

We look forward to meeting you!

 

IFBC17 is just around the corner. If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, don’t miss out. 

The below post comes to us from IFBC17 sponsor, Sacramento International Airport. If you’re joining us via the airport, make sure to check out their new concession offerings.

It’s safe to say we are truly in an airport concessions revolution. Sacramento International Airport (SMF) will celebrate its 50^th birthday on October 21^st and out of the many ways the airport has evolved over five decades, the concessions choices are certainly one of the most dramatic.

“When we began concepting the concessions for the new Terminal B, we wanted them to mirror Sacramento’s food culture, which was just beginning to reflect the Farm-to-Fork movement,” explained Laurie Slothower, Communications and Media Officer for Sacramento County Dept. of Airports. “Now that we’ve completed our concessions renovation in Terminal A as well, we are proud that both of our Terminals’ offerings define a sense of place and reflect the cuisine and rich food ethos of the Sacramento Valley.”

Airport concessions have come a long way from a singular coffee shop between terminals, or a generic bar/restaurant and a few mainstream fast-food outlets. Trends in airport design have opened up the opportunity to develop more creative dining concepts.

According to Frank Sickelsmith, HMSHost’s vice president, adult beverage and restaurant development, in an October 2016 Airways magazine article, “Airports have changed and their design has followed that. But as airports change aesthetically, brands have changed too. And what we do in airports now is representative of what’s already in cities. It’s sort of a smaller version of what’s happening in the city and that’s pretty cool.”

Sacramento International Airport caters primarily to travelers beginning their journey versus layovers, so having attractive concessions options is an incentive to get travelers to the airport and through security early. It features popular restaurant concepts right from the streets of Sacramento – Esquire Grill, Cafeteria 15L, Dos Coyotes, Iron Horse Tavern, Paesanos, Squeeze Burger, Taylor’s Market-Selections by Vino Volo, Burgers & Brew and Jack’s Urban Eats.

“In the early days of airplane travel, the entire experience surrounded the glamour of flight, the meals, the excitement of being at the airport. Now with air travel hampered by increasing security demands, crowded planes and no complimentary in-flight meals, concessions play a much more important role in the air travel experience,” added Slothower. “We hope that our design and concessions planning have now made Sacramento International Airport travelers look forward to enjoying a meal as a part of the travel ritual, including arriving early at the airport!”