Homefries U Back to School Weekend

Palm Springs.

Awesome people.

It’s a good combination.

I got to go to the Homefries U Back To School Weekend.

Pretty much summer camp for grown-ups.

There was lots of good food, of course.

And cameras. We may not have all been food bloggers, but we were definitely all camera people. (Which was awesome, because there was a very cool photography session with Michael Friedman.)

And peppered brown sugar bacon. Oooohhhh, that bacon.

(I’d make it at home, except there’s a definite danger of the entire batch disappearing before anyone else gets to try it.)

We hung out around the gorgeous house (and laughed until we nearly cried), we lounged by the pool…

But we’ll leave the swimsuit pictures out of this.

Did I mention the amazing food?

We got to see Joy and Tracy be their awesome, wonderful selves.

And we totally got behind-the-scenes access to how Joy photographs her blog posts.

(And then got to eat the results when she was done!)

More amazing food. Early in the morning and later in the day we would eat outside, and then retreat to the cooler house when it got too hot outside.

And there were friendship bracelets.

Er… friendship anklets. Awesome either way.

We got to learn about sparkling wines and gin…

Too bad I don’t drink. But it was still tons of fun… and a pretty cool experience since I’d never have tried any of it otherwise.

A delicious pasta dinner, with garlic bread to die for.

We were all laughing so hard on the shuttle ride back to the hotel after the second day, you’d never know we were all completely exhausted.

Day three was a short day. But still fun!

Tracy gave a neat little lesson about spices (I think I just fell in love with smoked paprika.)

But we were all really waiting for the doughnuts that Joy was frying up.

Ohmygod those doughnuts.

Ohmygod, that entire weekend. When I got there (late, thanks to bad timing and awful traffic), I was terrified – I didn’t know a single person who was going to be there. When I left, I had made so many new friends. We bonded over food (of course), same names (there were two other Al(l)isons there!), and dance (who knew there were so many other food bloggers/Joy the Baker fans who are dancers? Unexpected, but totally awesome.)

So much awesome.