Friday morning I met up with a bunch of bloggers to head on over the The Reading Terminal Market for a behind the scenes with Frito-Lay and their head Chef Stephen. This was my first blogger meet up and of course I was slightly nervous but I was instantly comfortable with this group and my nervousness quickly disappeared. I recognized a few people from twitter like @therunningjewess who I have interacted with on multiple occasions, so it was pretty nice to meet the people behind the blogs and twitter handles.
We walked over to the test kitchen at The Reading Terminal Market at about 10 am where we first got to learn some interesting facts about Frito-Lay before the real fun began…the cooking and tasting!








Next up was caramelized onions 2 different ways served with SunChips. One one side we had caramelized onions made in butter with a little balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese and Provolone cheese. On the other side we had caramelized onions made in olive oil with Goat cheese and herb. Both were fantastic but I preferred the caramelized onions made in the butter….must be the Paula Dean in me!!

Next was an avocado hummus with roasted pumpkin seeds. Basically instead of chickpeas Chef Stephen used avocados and blended all the ingredients in the food processor until they were smooth, then he topped the hummus with the roasted pumpkin seeds….can you say yum!! The avocado hummus was served with Tostitos Roasted Garlic and Black Bean tortilla chips from their Artisan Recipes line….these chips rocked!


Last up was a Bruschetta Quinoa Salad and it was out of this world. I had have made quinoa in the past with very little success, it basically has tasted like nothing but this salad was awesome. I am looking forward to testing it out on my hubby because he says he hates quinoa and I know he will love this salad, I practically licked the plate clean.
The quinoa salad was the perfect ending to the demonstration. Chef Stephen was great, he cooked us some great food and exuded passion about what he does for Frito-Lay. We concluded the demo with some pics, a great swag bag and a bunch of chips….plus a few great recipes. Thanks Frito-Lay for having us!!


Make sure you stop by and check out Frito-Lay’s website, they have a ton of great info and recipes. I also received permission to reprint all the great recipes I tasted so I will get that post up soon, if you’d like a recipe sooner just shoot me an email and I’d be happy to send them to you!!!
My next post will recap my day in Philly and the HLS cocktail party!!!


Love the recap! Looks like you guys had a blast! 🙂 Can’t wait to hear about the cocktail party too, as I didn’t get into Philly until laaaaaatttteeee Fri PM.
Thanks!!! It was fun, I’m looking forward to meeting up for the “blogger playdate”