Our First Meeting!

Picture a room lit by a single bulb. A decrepit picnic table is housed in one corner. Two lonely dishes of food sit in the middle of it, not occupying it so much as emphasizing its emptiness. Taylor Mathis leans against a wall, tapping his fingers absentmindedly. Julie Ruble sits across the room, debating whether or not to throw something at him to stop the finger tapping. Other than these two pitiful souls, there isn’t a living foodie for miles.

Yeah, that’s about how we pictured our first meeting, too. Thankfully, reality was a lot different.

We’d joked that if we could even double the size of the group to 4 people instead of just us, we’d feel successful. Well, hip-hip-hooray, because 13 food bloggers made it to our first meeting!

The meeting was held in Park Road Park in lovely weather (after being rescheduled due to Saturday’s tornado watch — good grief!). We situated ourselves on picnic tables between a 2-year-old’s birthday party and a swing dancing group — talk about a festive atmosphere. Though we discussed group goals, schedules, and suggestions, the main focus was on chatting and getting to know one another. Conversation topics ranged from veganism to Teen Mom 2 (thankfully, no one brought up poop). And of course, there was lots of EATING — all while cameras clicked away.

We enjoyed the following amazing dishes:

- Vegan Quiche from Julia of No Face Plate

- Chocolate Banana Sunflower Butter Blondies from Katie of Sweet Tater Blog

- Panzanella from The Preppy Vegan

-Chocolate Cookies from Lindsay of Foodie CLT

-Pizza Bread from Brooke of Baking with Basil

-Cold Spaghetti Salad and Cookies from Martha of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

-Assorted appetizers from Alison of Wish Upon a Chef

-Southwest Quinoa Salad from Diana of The Chic Life

-Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad from Sarah of Dine & Dish

-Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches from Taylor of Taylor Takes a Taste

-Banana Coconut Cream Cupcakes from Julie of Willow Bird Baking

Oh, and did I mention that there was a cupcake truck involved? The Southern Cake Queen rolled up in her posh truck to give us a tour and some cupcakes. Fun!

We enjoyed meeting everyone immensely, and have already turned our thoughts toward next month. Our next meeting is scheduled tentatively for May 22. Keep your eye on this space for more info! Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful time.

---

Some important notes if you missed this meeting:

- You can now follow us on Twitter as @CLTFoodBloggers.
- You can also “like” us on Facebook.
- Speaking of keeping you up to date, news and fun endeavors will be posted on this blog and our Twitter and FB pages between meetings.
- Please send any and all CFB questions, comments, and suggestions to our new email address, charlottefoodbloggers ‘at’ gmail.com.
- We’d love suggestions for conversation topics, field trips, group challenges, pot luck themes, etc.
- Please send your schedule constraints to our email address above if you haven’t already, so we can pick a meeting time that works for most folks.

About these ads

---