The glow of the first Eat Write Retreat weekend still lingers. Sitting in a kind of nasty Hilton Hotel room in Silver Spring, Maryland two days later (to be clear, not the conference hotel, which was the incredibly beautiful and awesome Madison Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C.), surrounded by bags and boxes of insane (in a good way) swag, is a rather stark counterpoint to a brilliant weekend. No, I’m not home yet, nor will I be for another couple of weeks (I have a house-sitter, for anyone out there who might be getting some big ideas – be warned!), so I get to travel around the South with all of these reminders of some very good times.

What you see here doesn’t add up to even half of the goodies we all went home with. Nope. Not even close. And I have twice as much, because Mike decided that he wanted to experience a Food Bloggers Conference. More about that, later. I will say up front, that he received the first shock of an “outworlder”, when we took the swag bags up to the room, and emptied them. “Holy shit! There’s a whole frying pan in here!”, he said upon removing the Calphalon Unison 12″ Griddle Pan, like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.

And while we did not score one of the coveted Calphalon toasters, panini grills, or 7 quart slow cookers, we did manage to make off with an OXO 14 piece professional knife block set, a couple of their bamboo cutting boards, and one of their new, safer chef’s mandoline slicers (not to mention tongs, measuring cups, vegetable peelers, spice grinders, excellent travel mugs, and on and on). Yes, Calphalon and OXO were very very good to us.

Even Freakin’ Flamingo made a modest appearance in the EWR swag bags, right alongside the big boys like Lindsay Olives, Peanut Butter & Co., Goo Goo Clusters (I just ate one of those while writing this, and oh. my. goodness. oh. We have to get these in Miami. Seriously.), My Spice Sage, and more.

By now, you’re thinking to yourself that Eat Write Retreat was all about the swag. Okay, I’ll admit that the swag is nice. Who’s kidding whom, right? But it was more than that. The organizers (Casey Benedict and Robyn Webb) insisted that the sponsors spend the weekend and attend the conference with the rest of us. We had the unheard of opportunity to spend quality time with the representatives from each of the conference sponsors and panelists, to listen to and learn from each other on a professional level. It was also the opportunity to meet and relate to new friends, and greet Twitter and blog buddies in real life. All of this, not in a hurried couple of minutes while being jostled by a crowd, but in real conversations.

And if all that weren’t enough, there were hands-on learning sessions at CulinAerie, sessions on descriptive writing, food styling and photography, an out of bounds culinary walking – and eating – tour with DC Metro Food Tours, and panel discussions on professional development. We even had the opportunity to sit, one-on-one, with publishers, editors, PR pros, and the sponsors themselves, to pitch ideas and get real, individual, professional advice. Ah-mazing!

I could write for days about everything we learned and everything we did at Eat Write Retreat 2011, but I think you’d get just a little bit jealous. But let me share at least part of our workshop at CulinAerie. We were given valuable instruction in knife skills and other techniques that, frankly, I’ve never seen except on television, and prepared several dishes using that “Queen of Vegetables”, endive, provided by another conference sponsor (and one of our personal faves) California Endive. So, courtesy of Chef/Instructor Susan Holt, here’s the one I prepared with Mike (I’m pretty sure that, since she gave it out to like 80 food bloggers, Chef Susan didn’t mean to keep it a secret):

Salad of Endive, Avocado, Tarragon & Grapefruit
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

8 bulbs of red endive
1 large or 2 small grapefruit (Florida, of course)
1 medium or 2 small avocados, cut in half, pit removed, & scooped from their shell(s)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Tbs. chopped tarragon leaves
Finishing salt (like course sea salt, or one of the many smoked or flavored salts) & pepper

Preparation:

Cut the endive on the bias in 1″ pieces, discarding the core. Supreme the grapefruit by removing rind with a sharp knife and reserving the segments (she means separating the segments from between the membranes); juice remaining membrane into a bowl with the segments and set aside.

Slice each avocado in half into two pieces, lengthwise. Leaving the root end uncut, slice lengthwise into thin slices, and fan each half on a plate. Sprinkle the endive pieces and grapefruit segments over the avocado.

Combine the oil with the remaining grapefruit juice, add tarragon, and spoon over the other ingredients. Garnish with finishing salt and pepper, and serve.

Here are Mike and I, butchering grapefruit. Him, more so than I. I only mangled the avocados.

Look, ma! I made an emulsion! So cool!

Isn’t it pretty? Pretty darned delicious, too! Even at 10:00 a.m.

And what was Mike’s verdict after a weekend with a bunch of food bloggers? Two thumbs-up! “You’re always telling me what an incredible community the world of food bloggers is, and I have to say that I’ve never met so many genuinely nice people in one place, before. This has been an eye-opening experience for me, on so many levels. I really didn’t think I, as an outsider, was going to have such a great time.” I guess this means that I’ll never get to go to another food bloggers weekend without him, now. Casey and Robyn, I think maybe you did too good a job. LOL!

*Many thanks for the additional photographs to Olga Berman of MangoTomato and Allie Mak of Live, Laugh, Eat, who were the “expedition photographers” of the weekend. Thanks, ladies, you were completely awesome!

Don’t get me wrong – we’re as romantic as the next couple. We love to pamper each other, go out for a nice meal, give each other little gifts. But we don’t reserve these things for Valentine’s Day. We do them all year round. And with life as hectic as it’s been, lately, when Valentine’s Day rolled around, neither of was, well, in the mood to go all out this year. I still wanted to prepare a nice meal, though. You know, at least acknowledge the day and make it a little bit special. I had no idea what I was going to do.

Timing – not usually my friend – stepped in, when I received a lovely Valentine bouquet of both red (Belles Rouges) and white (California Pearl) California endive (ohn-deev, people) from Rodger Helwig of California Vegetable Specialties, who was the very first person I’d met at the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle, last August.

California Vegetable Specialties is the only grower in the United States that grows Belgian-style endive commercially. When I visited it’s website (endive.com), I learned more about the health benefits of this sweet, but slightly bitter, little relative of chicory. Don’t we all have relatives like that? But you love ‘em anyway, don’t you? I also learned that it’s not just for appetizer dippers and salads. Apparently, 90% of the endive eaten in Europe, is eaten cooked.

Earlier last week, I received several sample bottles of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur wines from Mike Wangbickler – who I’d also met at IFBC (#ruke!) – on behalf of Planet Bordeaux.

Now, I’m not a wine geek. I fall into the category of wine-drinkers who – like most people who buy art – may not know much about wine, but I know what I like. The Planet Bordeaux campaign is “…an effort to elevate awareness of the wines of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur in the United States. The goal is to show Americans that Bordeaux is about more than classified growths and wine reviews. It’s about the people who make the wine, the land that grows it, and the lifestyle that surrounds it.” Couldn’t have said it better, myself. The wines are made to be drunk young, but age gracefully (unlike me), and are extraordinarily reasonably priced – most under $20. In fact, this lovely Château Loudenne 2007 Bordeaux Blanc we had last night, was the most expensive of the lot, at SRP $20. It was dry, but lush and fruity, and a perfect complement to our meal.

Seems the fates were speaking to me and shooting some divine inspiration my way, right? And so they were. The combination of the endive and the Bordeaux Blanc resulted in a simple, yet elegant, Valentine’s Day meal that moved my husband to declare, “I think I have a new favorite vegetable!”

Wine-Poached Chicken With Braised Endive & Mushrooms
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
6 heads endive (I mixed white & red)
1 large shallot, peeled & sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, peeled & sliced thinly
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
2 cups chicken broth (or stock)
1/2 cup white wine (in this case, Bordeaux Blanc)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz. mushrooms (your choice), sliced
2 heaping tsp. cornstarch
water

Special equipment: large (12″) frying pan with tightly-fitting cover, tongs

Preparation:

Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Slice about 1/4″ off the bottoms of the endives, and core by running the tip of a paring knife around the core at an angle. A little cone should pop out. Place the whole heads of endive in the pan and sear for about 2-3 minutes. Turn them with the tongs and allow to sear – again, about 2-3 minutes. The endives are a bit triangular, so you may want to sear the third side, as well. And don’t worry if you lose a leaf or two – they’ll just add to the sauce.

When the endives are seared, add the sliced shallot and garlic to the center of the pan, followed by the chicken broth and wine. Move the endives so they are now ringing the pan, and add the chicken, pretty-side-up. Add the mushrooms to the pan. Don’t bother stirring, just spread them around evenly in the pan. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and cover the pan tightly. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for about 20 – 25 minutes.

Remove the chicken and endive to a plate and keep warm. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half.

Spoon the cornstarch into a measuring cup, then fill with cool tap water to the one-cup mark. Stir vigorously until the cornstarch is completely dissolved and add to the pan. Stir the sauce and allow it to simmer until it thickens a little. Remove from heat.

To serve, arrange one chicken breast and 3 endives on a plate and spoon the sauce and mushrooms over all.

Disclaimer: This is not – strictly speaking – a sponsored post. I received endive from endive.com and wine from Balzac Communications, at no cost to me, and with no promise from me. The opinions expressed – as always – are my own.