My First Blogger Meet Up

I have been following Lauren at Say What you Need to Say for over a year now. A few months ago she organized a local blogger meet up at an Asian fusion restaurant but I was unable to attend. When she announced the next one for the beginning of December, I knew I had to get there!

We met at The Tomato Pie Cafe, a new restaurant off the Paxton St. exit on I-83 in Harrisburg.

Photo courtesy of Lauren

I am always excited to try local restaurants with unique menus. I was concerned about having gluten free options and at this point they have not added any but it sounds like they are planning on offering them in the future. Thankfully I can eat some gluten if I need to :)

They had quite the ample menu of specialty coffees and it was very hard to decide, but a peppermint mocha won out.

The specialty baked oatmeal was pumpkin with cranberries and walnuts. You might remember my former love affair with baked oatmeal but since going gluten free I haven't made it (not even with gf oats). Although I have to admit it is mostly due to the fact that I love my green smoothies in the morning instead!

This dish was phenomenal! I'm hoping I can find a similar recipe to make at home. I didn't want it to end!

It was a blast getting to know fellow bloggers and to talk about tips and tricks of the trade. I wish we would have had a whole day with our laptops to be able to work on our blogs jointly!

Here's our group! Danielle, Steph, Ellie, Erica, Lauren, Melissa (from PennAg), myself, Lindsay, and Nikki.

Lauren gave us each a sample of granola from Nuts About Granola and Erica brought some cupcakes from a local from-scratch bakery (which I promptly shared with my daughter!). I passed out the cinnamon roasted almonds and walnuts. Yes, yes I am making a funny face when I talk, oy. But for some reason I look exceptionally tan???!!!  Not too sure how that happened!

Photo courtesy of Lauren

Melissa from PennAg gave out some information on the organization and invited us to their exhibit at the Farm Show in January.

 The best part was definitely getting to talk personally with these ladies. Here I am with Lindsay (and again, how in the world do I look so tan!?)...

 

...and Lauren!

Looking forward to our next meet up, and I hope to try the Tomato Pie Cafe again!

If you are a blogger, what is the best tip you could give a fellow blogger? If you are a reader of blogs, what do you look for in a blog you read regularly?