Any Chicago friends out there? I spent a whirlwind trip in Chicago this weekend as part of an exciting food blogger program with Verizon Wireless.  Over the next few months I will be reviewing some of their products as part of their campaign to use technology in the kitchen.

On Friday I met up with 16 other food bloggers at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago. We spent time learning about our first product for review- the Motorola Droid Xyboard with 4G LTE. It is skinny, has a large, beautiful display, and is super fast. I am still learning how to play with it but so far I’ve enjoyed connecting all of my social media to it. (Instagram on a tablet screen is SO beautiful!) Our keynote speaker Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen shared some snazzy tech tips that she uses for blogging. After our official training a few of us went out for cupcakes. I got Vanilla Vanilla and enjoyed every last crumb!


We were treated to a dinner surprise as we dined at an eclectic old convent that was converted into a beautiful eating space just for us. Aren’t those colorful bowling balls adorable? Three hours and 8 courses later (lots of fresh picked, locally grown produce) and we left feeling very much in love with Chicago.

A long, leisurly breakfast the next day with a few new friends ended my trip. I ordered Challah bread french toast with lemon curd and blueberry compote. Thankfully I walked around the beautiful city for 2 hours after breakfast! Cassie ordered this beautiful breakfast ham and egg panini that we were all gawking at while Bree and Amanda opted for ginormous fluffy buttermilk pancakes.


Pictured: July 4th Layered Drinks – Perfect for your celebrations this week!

I haven’t had much time to spend with the new Xyboard but 5 Year Old Foodie already knows his way around it and is using the Sticky Notes to write out an app wishlist. How do they know these things?! I’m going to try my hand at photographing and publishing an entire post on the Xyboard as soon as I can sneak it out of his hands for a few hours.

You can follow along with the event and catch up with some of the other bloggers by following #VZWSG on Twitter or Instagram.

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Gourmets program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product. I was not compensated for a postitive review.