I was privileged this past weekend to attend the first annual BlogHer Food conference at the truly special and elegant St.Regis Hotel in the SOMA (south of Market Street for the uninitiated) district of San Francisco.  It was a wonderful gathering of women (and a few men) who blog about food and related topics.

In addition to the fabulous people I met, I also got to sample great food, drink some good wine (provided courtesy of St. Supery Winery, and take home fun "swag". I even won a new Netbook computer at the end of the day. Can't beat that!

The conference had some great sponsors, The Mushroom Council, Pur, Cuisinart, Scharffenberger (yep- free chocolate in the "swag bag"!), Bertolli and Nature's Source. The biggest name sponsor was Campbell's who highlighted their products in a wonderful cocktail party which closed out the conference. It was a magical evening in San Francisco, uncharacteristically warm on the rooftop deck which looked out at a corner of the diagonally striped roofed of its neighbor, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A glorious half autumn moon rose in the warm September air as we sipped classic martinis, and Brut Rosé champagne.

The tasty treats at the reception were all presented "small plate" style, a trend which has become very popular in this economic downturn we find ourselves in. A "small plate" reception allows smart hosts to serve dishes at a stand up reception, which in more free spending times, would have been part of a buffet or sit down menu. Our menu at the BlogHer reception included Braised Beef with Shallots and Mushrooms in a rich meaty sauce, Skewers of Chicken with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Herb Grilled Vegetables, classy little shooters of Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Sage, French Onion Sliders (bite sized burgers braised in Campbell's French Onion Soup, which btw, no one could get enough of), and even Tomato Soup Spiced Mini Cupcakes- okay- I'm not too sure about that one…

The St. Regis has classy little china plates to serve the bites on, but you, too, can have this kind of "small plates" party. In fact, we here at small pleasures, used small plastic plates earlier this year at our Tropical Themed Party to serve small bites of Grilled Corn Salad, and Black Beans with Curried Rice Pilaf.

We found them at a great on line source- Smarty Had a Party (isn't that a great name?) where there was a wide selection of them. Enjoy the pics below.