Baltimore Book Festival with Ingrid Hoffmann

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly contain my excitement. Not only am I a huge book worm I am an even bigger foodie!

Where do I begin! Okay... after the Dress for Success Fashion Show I made my way 6 blocks down Charles Street to the Baltimore Book Festival. Having not checked my weather bug I had not exepcted the huge rainstorm that came down. I literally found myself asking patrons of the event who were on their way out if I could purchase their umbrellas. Two desparate inquiries later, I ran into a couple of women who just happened to have a stack of them in their van. Amazing! I begged them to let me pay for their parking and they finally resisted.

$4 and 10 minutes later, I had my umbrella. Success.

Time check-- I had approximately 12 minutes to make it to the cooking stage where I would be meeting Food Network's Ingrid Hoffmann, host of Simply Delicioso. She was not only more beautiful than she appears on tv, her 'chica tips' and poblano and tomatillo shrimp held the attention of a max crowd, despite the pouring rain. We also made coconut rice and a radicchio salad-- all with 5 ingredients or less. And if we hadn't been chatting for two hours on stage, the meal would have probably taken 30-40 minutes from start to finish.

A self proclaimed 'professional eater' and extremely knowledgable about her ingredients, she described her culinary perspective as a 'mutt," leverging from both her European and Latino heritage. Cooking side by side with Ingrid exceeded all my expectations-- I can see why these celebrity chefs do what they do, 24/7, it's exhilerating!

If you don't already have it, I suggest you run to your local B&N or sign onto Amazon to purchase your copy of Ingrid's cookbook-- Simply Delicioso. Mine is signed! Photos below are of Ingrid and I.