My husband, baby T, and I traveled up to Maine this weekend to visit some family and friends and so that I could attend the Blog Better Boston Food Summit at Stonewall Kitchen.  Stonewall Kitchen’s headquarters in York, ME include a food production plant, their corporate offices, a cooking school, and a huge store with SK products.  I’ve always driven by their headquarters on many other trips to Maine and have always wanted to check it out.  When I found out that the lovely ladies behind Blog Better Boston were organizing a food summit at Stonewall Kitchen, I knew I had to attend!

We started off with a delicious breakfast provided by Au Bon Pain.  Next, we toured the Stonewall Kitchen facilities.  It was very cool to check out the production line.

I also loved the office spaces and conference  rooms-  what a beautiful space to work in!

We had four sessions throughout the day: Restaurant Reviews, Food Photography, Recipe Development, and Photo Editing.  They were all great sessions and I learned so much information.  I was really inspired by the Food Photography session hosted by Stonewall Kitchen’s product photographer, Michael Cabelin.  He provided so many great photography tips that I am hoping to implement soon!  I was blown away by their props collection- check out all the plates and bowls!  They also had an entire tool cabinet of different size spoons and forks.  How funny would it be if I took out all my husband’s tools out of his tool chest and put in blogging props instead?

For our lunch break, we got to attend Stonewall Kitchen’s Cooking School.  Culinary instructor Patty Roche walked us through the delicious lunch menu.  We started off with a butternut squash soup with ginger.  The entrée consisted of prosciutto-wrapped chicken with ricotta and sage topped with a lemon roasted garlic beurre blanc and side of roasted pumpkin & vegetable medley with creamy polenta.  We topped off the meal with a pear and fig cobbler dessert.  (Check out the 2S2C facebook page for photos of all 3 dishes!)  It was a wonderful fall meal and the class itself was very entertaining.  It was like being on the set of a cooking show!  Patty also shared many great cooking tips throughout the class.

Before we left, we were treated with a pretty awesome swag bag.  Some of my favorite items included the Stonewall Kitchen Holiday Jam, coasters from Chilewich, and the Lake Champlain organic cherry peruvian dark chocolate bar. My favorite item overall has to be the Kitchen Aid 3-Speed Immersion Blender from Wayfair…I can’t wait to try it out on some recipes later this week.  Be sure to check in to 2S2C later this week- I am planning a giveaway with some of the swag I received! (And speaking of giveaways, have you entered our Kitchen Aid Mixer Giveaway yet?!?)

This was actually the third conference of the year that I have attended (see here and here for recaps from the first two.)  I really enjoyed this conference since it solely focused on food blogging.  I definitely hope to attend more food blogging conferences in the future!

So tell me, do you have a particular favorite Stonewall Kitchen product?  Share in the comments…