PREGNANCY FILE: PRE-NATAL MASSAGE - THE BILTMORE

I recently spent an afternoon at The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Our best friend celebrated a surprise birthday, pool side, in a cabana. While we were on site I had my first pre-natal massage and snapped some photos of what I wore. For reference, I'm 22 weeks pregnant in these pictures. 

Click through for my outfit photos. This is look can be both a maternity look and non-maternity look. It's a fun poolside or beach look that is really easy. The outfit is built around a few layers of bright colors with a pop of really bright color from the shoes.  It's a bold color palette, layered over a solid yellow dress. Pretty easy and fun to wear. If you have kids and are going to be running around after them, change out the floor-length duster for something with a slightly shorter hem and keep the flats. I'm 22 weeks pregnant in these pictures.

22 weeks pregnant

The Biltmore Culinary Academy; Cooking with Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan Cheese) and the Biltmore Culinary Academy invited us for a cooking class so that we could delight in the wonders of cooking with this traditional, high quality ingredient.  The art of making Parmigiano Reggiano dates back hundreds of years, to a time when artisans produced it in large quantities in copper vats. Today, cheese houses (called 'caseficio's) across Parma continue to produce it in the same, timeless manner.

Did you know that this cheese is natural and highly digestible? It does not contain any preservatives. In fact, it only contains three ingredients: milk from the Parma region, renett and salt. Click here for some recipes featuring Parmigiano Reggiano.

We gathered in the kitchen for our class lead by Biltmore Executive Chef David Hackett.  We were then divided into groups of four.  Each group had one recipe to master. Ours was Parmigiano Reggiano Baked Sea Scallops served with Cumin Corn Salsa (the entire recipe is at the bottom of this post).  In total, we cooked 8 dishes that we all shared and ate at the end of the class.  This event was a collaborative effort on behalf of the South Florida chapter of The Blogger Union.

High res images by Ray Santana Photography