chobani | Preppy Runner - Theodora Blanchfield

Just one more HLS post, promise.

After all the Official HLS stuff was over, I went up to Meghann’s room for a little cocktail hour with some ladies.

As the conference planner, she got a suite with a pretty sweet view.

Roomie love: Anne, me, Ashley and Gretchen

After our little cocktail hour, a group of us headed over to EVOO, an award-winning Cambridge restaurant.

Some of the lovely Chobani ladies were our hosts for the evening. Just a note here that I can’t tolerate a ton of dairy but I attended this dinner because I really like the Chobani brand and the ladies hosting the dinner.

Like the lovely Emily, their director of consumer engagement.

I also like wine. One of the wines they had to pair with the dinner was Sancerre, which I love.

Each course included Chobani in some creative way. The first course was an heirloom tomato salad with a yogurt gelee. The gelee texture made the yogurt taste almost like cheese.

The next course was a lobster succotash with vanilla Chobani. Lobster is one of my favorite foods by far, so I was really excited to see lobster on the menu, but I wasn’t crazy about any other part of this course.

What’s a blogger dinner without a little photo intermission? Oh hey Heather.

Our main course was Seared Yogurt and Spice Sous Vide Lamb Loin with Crisp Eggplant and Raita. The veal was really tender, and the eggplant was delicious. I don’t think I’ve met many fried foods I didn’t like, hence the reason I needed to start this blog…

We finished the meal with a nectarine-basil crisp with frozen berry yogurt. I’m typically way more of a savory person than a sweet person, but I finished this before Heather, sitting next to me, had barely made a dent in hers.

This was a special menu created for us by Chef Peter McCarthy, and I love that he did everything with such a light touch. The yogurt was never overwhelming in any of the dishes, but accented the other flavors in the dishes.

Thanks to Chobani and thanks to all these lovely ladies for such a fun dinner. (And thanks to Ashley for the photo.)

If you could eat a meal centered around one sort of food, what kind of food would you pick? OR if you could have one chef design a special menu, which chef? I’d pick Jose Andres; I was pretty obsessed with both Jaleo and Oyamel (long live their beef tongue tacos) in D.C.

Oh heyyyy! After coming back from a run and chilling for a bit, Tina and I went over to a brunch event hosted by Chobani at The Kitchen, a cool space for hosting and filming culinary events. (And eating.)

Speaking of Tina, apparently I work for her now.

On the menu was a parfait, scones, oatmeal bars, french toast and a frittata.

Everything, obviously, was cooked with Chobani. These scones were incredibly light and not at all dry like most scones.

Yum!

Oatmeal bars.

The French toast was also amazingly light and fluffy, with a bit of tang from the yogurt.

The frittata was also pretty light, despite having both Grueyere and cheddar cheeses and pancetta.

Chef Jason Duckworth at work. He told us about half a million things that can be cooked with Chobani: cantaloupe soup, crab cakes, smoked salmon mousse. He suggested starting with 2% if you’re new to cooking with yogurt and then trying out 1% or the nonfat yogurt as you get more comfortable cooking with the yogurt.