The food blogger community is extensive and supportive, but having a few besties who blog is beyond.  Take my pal Delilah Snell for example.  She is half the duo (along with her niece Nicole Stevenson) that produces the Patchwork Shows and Craftcation conferences.  She lives in Santa Ana.  I live in mid-city LA.  So we have this occasional tradition called Couchella.  It combines the fun of having a friend sleepover along with the adventure of a stay-cation.  The “host” organizes the adventure, introducing the bestie to previously unknown parts of the city.  It was my turn to host.  As usual I picked D up from Union Station and we headed over to Bar Ama for drinks and a snack.  Then we walked over to The Million Dollar Theater on Broadway for a screening of Chef.  KCRW and Zocalo Public Square were launching a new collaboration called My Favorite Movie.  First up, Roy Choi picked the Jon Favreau movie he co-produced and I was tapped to lead the Q and A after the screening.  As we hit Broadway from 4th we saw a line of what turned out to be 1000+ people waiting to get in the theater.  Then we literally ran into Trisha Cole of Wagstaff PR and Teri Wahl of Auntie Em’s, the perfect folks to have as seat mates during the screening.  I can’t say enough about how fun both the screening and the Q and A were.  Here’s the takeaway in depth.

The next morning was all about getting business done.  A hallowed part of Couchella is the two of us sitting side by side on the couch, laptops on laps working away while commenting on whatever we’re simultaneously binge watching.  The job D set for herself was making a recipe for a Dear Handmade Life blog post.  So we shopped then settled in, me at the computer and D in my kitchen.  The weekend came to an end early but I was the stoked recipient of a quart of this addicting Nectarine Pico de Gallo. Thank you D!  I ended up using it everywhere.  On eggs, in a bean burrito, on top of a corn-coconut soup and mostly just powering back the refreshingly spicy salsa by the spoonful.