While I feel I really stepped out of my “food comfort zone” last weekend at the conference, much of what we ate was so incredibly good! Each meal I found myself full and very satisfied! So I thought I’d show you some of the food I had no problem trying!
To start off with, we had these Corn Polenta Triangles with lunch on Friday. Since they posted the recipe, I’ll be making these here at home someday!
And for dessert at Friday’s lunch, they had Apple Crisp. If I could have gotten away with eating multiple plates of this, I would have. And it will most likely grace my table on Thanksgiving.
Dessert after the meatloaf was also just as incredible! Pumpkin Squares. And again with the real whipped cream.
Each morning for breakfast they had soaked oatmeal with lots of butter, cream, syrup, and all sorts of other toppers. This meal has renewed my love for oatmeal.
After being a bit disappointed with lunch I Saturday (I’m not a big sausage person) I was devastated to find that dessert was gone.
Seriously.
I mean, me and dessert? We are BFF’s.
But then……..Just as I was about to leave, the wait staff brought this out.
Folks, this is RAW Cheesecake.
Divine.
Simply divine.
And again, they did not disappoint with a key lime pie dessert at the banquet!
My favorite meal of all though had to be Sunday mornings brunch. It’s a good thing I had other people around me or I would have had no self-control.
The veggie frittata was the best frittata I’ve ever enjoyed. And will be my breakfast this weekend.
*Bit of a side note here. They had 600 POUNDS of butter there this weekend! That’s for about 1200 people.
*And whipped cream everywhere as well.
Sorry, I got a bit distracted there while looking through my pictures!
The sourdough french toast was to die for.
To die for.
So as you can see, we ate very well at the Wise Traditions Conference!
But, I have always been a fairly picky eater. I am NOT the type of person that will try new foods just to see what they taste like. I grew up on a very Standard American Diet that we never wavered from. And even now we stick to a lot of the basics, just in a healthier form. So this conference was definitely causing me to eat foods I’ve never tried before. Some that I’d just never gotten the chance to try, and others I’ve always wanted to stay very far away from!
First up we have the fermented salad dressings from Zukay Live Foods. The sweet onion dressing was served with our lunch the first day, and while tasty, it was a bit strong for my liking. I enjoyed trying out the other flavors later that day and decided the carrot ginger dressing was my favorite!
For lunch, we also had fermented carrots. Quite a strong taste and bite to them, but not bad. I could get used to them. (top right of the picture)
People who follow the Weston A Price diet are also very big on organ meats ( a bit too much for my liking). But alas, organ meat sausage was on the menu and I promised myself I would try everything that was served! And you know, it tasted like sausage.
Friday night we were served meatloaf. I have never eaten meatloaf. *gasp!* I saw someone make it when I was quite young and the whole bare hands squashing egg and ground beef kinda turned me off to it. And to top it off, this meatloaf had organ meats in it too! But it was good. Especially with some gravy and some awesome mashed potatoes. They also served sauerkraut, something I’ve never tried before. Now, I actually bought some last week from my farm share and just hadn’t gotten up the nerve to try it yet. I think I hid the fact that “Wow, it was strong-tasting!!” quite well, and no one was the wiser.
With every meal, they also served unsweetened ice tea. Why anyone would possibly think tea was good without sweetener, I have no idea! I can say though, by the time I left I was getting quite used to it and would actually call it ‘good’.
On Saturday I was able to stop by some of the booths and tried some liverwurst from U.S. Wellness Meats. While it wasn’t bad, I had a hard time swallowing it all because of the whole LIVER thing. The taste was fine, just the whole mind over matter thing was tough.
Saturday evening at the banquet was a real stretch for me as well.
Why?
Because they served caviar.
Friends….that is fish eggs. EGGS!
And not only was the appetizer salmon caviar that popped open when you bit them (squirm), they also served liver pate. Again with the liver! I did make myself take 2 bites of each and then decided I was done. Let’s leave it at that. And again no one at my table noticed me squirm. Though when I switched tables once the other bloggers got there, Kelly tried to pass another plate of appetizers my way. “Uh, uh, No way, No thank you!”
(this photo I snagged from U.S. Wellness Meats twitter pic – it was their Salmon and caviar.
I thought the salmon was very good, it was the caviar I could do without.)
For the main course, we had beef short ribs with lacto-fermented beets and brussel sprouts. I have never eaten a beet, let alone a lacto-fermented one, and I’ve never had a brussel sprout. Ever. Let me tell you, brussel sprouts aren’t bad. I almost bought some today while grocery shopping. I say almost because in the budget it was that or carrots and I chose carrots.
*and please excuse the quality of the photos. I made an executive decision to leave my DSLR at home and brought along my husband’s point and shoot since it fit in the ergo pocket. Let’s just say I felt like my right arm was cut off without my nice camera.
Donielle Baker
Crockpot BBQ Beef Short Ribs
Oh YUM! That is a major reason that I want to go next year! I’ll definitely check out those recipes.
And since getting a really nice Canon Rebel a couple years ago, I go nuts trying to take a pic on a regular camera. Even though I’m not a good photographer. There’s just something about getting used to a nicer camera.
Love the pictures. I am extremely hungry now. And to think all of the above was healthy!!!
I need the pumpkin cake. I am planning on brownies for dessert tonight, but now I have pumpkin lust deep in my heart.
@Celia, I can not even begin to tell you how fabulous it was. It seemed to be going against nature that I did not have seconds. 🙂
MMMM- that’s not whipped cream- it’s like a giant floating fluff of butter- only better! LOL
The fritatta looks delish. Thanks for posting the recipes!
@Kelly, I actually made the frittata for lunch today! Posting all those recipes made me a bit hungry for them. 🙂
Wow!! Now I REALLY want to go next year. I would love it if I had a full time cook in my kitchen so I wouldn’t have to be in the kitchen all the time and actually FULLY enjoy the food :o) But I love cooking and probably would be breathing down the cook’s neck about how to do things around my kitchen… LOL!!
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing all of that! I’m really hungry now. Hey, how much did it cost to go to the conference? Please email me at marebeard AT juno DOT com
Thanks!!!
@Marillyn @ just-making-noise, Ha! Maybe that is one of the reasons we all loved the food so much! We’re all so used to being in the kitchen ALL. THE. TIME.
And I was lucky enough to be able to go on scholarship this year. They normally open up applications the summer before the conference. You then just have to volunteer a bit during the conference. And it covers the conference fee (which is a few hundred bucks) but you have to pay for a hotel.