All Photos By Gail

In anticipation of an extra festive holiday season — which always seems to arrive sooner than you expect — The fall Editor Showcase food and networking event took place on October 15th at the New York Marriott Marquis. This fun and well-attended event was packed with tastings and cooking demonstrations for over two dozen brands of food and kitchen equipment to make sure everyone is fully prepared for all of the parties and food-centric events that will kick off with Thanksgiving in just two short weeks!

Here are some of our favorite exhibitors from the show!

Farm Rich makes a line of frozen snacks that you just pop in your oven to create amazing hot hors d’oeuvres that will win you fans every time. We fell in love especially with their Chili Cheese Bites (filed with real chili, not just chili peppers), which are just insane. Their Toasted Raviolis were also a huge hit with the crowd.

Athens Mini Fillo Shells are a product that every party hostess will want to have on hand for easy preparation of both sweet and savory snacks! The shells come fully pre-baked and all you need to do is add your favorite filling and heat. So convenient!

Of course, Athens had an assortment of prepared mini quiches and tiny cheese cakes, as well as other taste tantalizing surprises, to give use more clever ideas of how to serve these shells at your next party! So yummy!

Legends from Europe is a campaign uniting five authentic PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) products from Europe, including Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigianio Reggiano — two of our favorite things to eat! Legends from Europe offered show attendees the chance to sample a full spread of snacks featuring its products and also had recipes on hand so you can make these delicacies at home.

Bertoli Olive Oil has grown to become the world’s Number 1 Olive Oil brand. Bertoli offers a variety of oils which we were able to sample brushed on delicious Italian bread. Bertoli had something else going for them at their booth which we found hard to resists: Chef Fabio Viviani!

What a charmer he is! Bertoli were very smart to align with Fabio because I’d buy whatever he is selling.

Success brand boil-in-bag rice has been a best selling brand for years and it tastes great in a variety of recipes, samples of which they had on hand at Editor Showcase.

Bourbon Raisin Rice Pudding made with Success Basmati Rice is super easy to prepare and tastes rich, sweet and exotic.

Success Jasmine Rice is used in this exceptional recipe for Laotian Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Balls), which were devoured by attendees very quickly!

Alouette Cheese Spreads had a couple of exciting new “Bold” flavors to preview including Wasabi Cheddar, which is just mind blowing, and Buffalo Cheddar — which is sure to become a favorite as well! While these new flavors will not be available until February, 2014, there are tons of other flavors for you to try in time for the holidays. Alouette Cheese Spreads are convenient for entertaining on the fly, and come in resealable tubs which keep them fresh.

If you want to get super fancy you can even hollow out a pineapple and impress your guests by serving your favorite dip made from Alouette Cheese Spreads right from the pineapple! Crazy!

Just look at this lovely display courtesy of the National Pasta Association. Nobody loves pasta more than I do, so I was way into all of the tasty and healthy recipes they had to give out as part of their Pasta Fits promotion, such as this yummy past salad picture below.

If you enjoy making your own healthy juices, smoothies and sauces — or just like to cook a lot of recipes that require a first rate food processor — then you will not be able to live much longer without a Ninja Ultima Blender. The Ninja distinguishes itself by the multi-blade core that does a superior job of chopping and pureeing foods. Check out the side by side comparison above: Some Other Brand on the left, Ninja on the right. Behold the clear winner in blended results.  Ninja!

Cooking Planit was giving out these cookies as well as bad ass magnetic photo recipe cards to promote this super cool website and mobile app that provides home cooks with step-by-step instructions to create full meals. They call it a “GPS for the Kitchen” – what an exciting and fun idea! Visit Cooking Planit at This Link!

Okay, here is product that I would literally eat all the time: Mann’s Sunny Shores Veggie Mac-N-Cheese, which contains everything you need to make a fine dinner of Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli in one bag! Also, please note above they it comes in a bacon variety, ‘Nuff said.

Last, but not least, I would like to give an extra special shout out to Sartori Cheese, producers of artisan and premium cheese for seven decades! Sartori makes the most delicious cheese you have ever tasted — and I have tasted a lot of cheese. They also gifted me with this coveted swag of a reusable insulted canvas tote filled with five different varieties of their awesome cheese plus a set of wine glass charms! Sartori Cheese!

As always, Thanks to Formulatin PR for the Hook Up!