Good Taste! Pittsburgh

I basked in a mini food heaven today.

When I woke up to get ready for Good Taste! Pittsburgh, I feel super sleepy and sluggish, so I made a green smoothie! It's unpictured (sorry) but the combination was quite good. Half a frozen banana, half cup soy milk, one serving GenSoy chocolate protein powder, and 2 tsp peanut butter with 2 handfuls spinach.

Good Taste! Pittsburgh was awesome. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I was by all the people, vendors, demonstrations, and samples being thrust into my hands. Within the first two minutes of being inside I was already loaded with three swag bags and they just filled up more as I walked down the aisles. I came home with one store loaf of bread, three artisan breads, tea, cookies, coupons, and advertisements.

I can't even recount all the samples I had. Lunch was definitely not necessary. It may have been 9:30 am, but my first and favorite activity came first: wine tasting!


Um, yes please! I tried everything-- red, white, blush, fruit wines, dry, and sweet. There was a ten year old red zinfandel that I really enjoyed, but my favorites were all the Merlot.


Maple. Oh my goodness. Can I tell you how much I love the flavor of maple? Probably one of my most favorite things in this world. And the lovely ladies at this booth even had maple cotton candy. OMG.


There were a lot of confections, sweets, and other desserts. I tried very hard to limit those samples, but there were so many it was hard to keep track. And amongst the sweets was Jessica, food and fitness blogger of How Sweet It Is! She had her own booth at the expo and was showing off her beautiful cupcakes. It was so great to meet Jessica in person!!!! I was dumb enough to forget to take a picture of her booth, but if you go to her blog, she has some pictures up.


Probably the most interesting sample I tried would be the edible flowers. They are organic flowers that are crystallized in sugar and are edible. The mint leaf was ok, but the flowers were not my thing. They were beautiful though!


The Library, one of my favorite restaurants on the South Side had a booth and was giving away samples of their Arabian Nights appetizer which is pita bread, hummus, and black bean hummus. (I'll admit: I've had this before. In the restaurant. But they handed it to me, so how could I resist?!)


I also had the opportunity to watch a cooking demonstration by the chefs at The Green Mango, a restaurant I haven't visited yet but it is on my list to try. (Especially after today!)


She made a fantastic salmon dish and a king chicken dish from the restaurant, and I got to sample some of the salmon. I am not accustomed to eating fish, but this was fantastic!


Before I left the expo, I swung by the holiday cupcake decorating contest. All the contestants were working quite diligently on their pieces and some looked quite creative:


As if I hadn't had enough samples all morning, I decided to have a mid-afternoon snack before heading to work. I enjoyed some tea from my samples:


And I also took a little bit of the artisan bread I'd been given and made cheesy garlic bread. I accidentally put too much cheese on it, so I ended up pulling about half of it off.


Dinner at work was nothing special. A Clif bar, yogurts, and a small maple soy latte. (No picture!)



I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!!!!