Organising a Bloggers Get Together

So on Thursday I am looking forward to being part of organizing the Cape Town bloggers get together (with the helping hand of Being Brazen). Now we have utilized Twitter and Facebook as well as some very kind bloggers who have re-posted our invites.
We have been offered wine by Zandvliet Wines and changed venues...It was quite a search.
Thankfully the Grand Daddy Hotel will have us with no venue hire fee = we don't have to charge for people to come - YAY!  So I'm hoping people will support their bar and buy a drink or two (fingers crossed)
Ofcourse the FREE wine isn't going to help this - so we have decided to limit the wine to 1 welcome glass of wine per person to hopefully start things off and then hopefully everyone will order from the bar - after all we would like to be invited back again or be on good terms with the Grand Daddy Hotel for other events ...(if there are any) .... I maybe CRAZY at that POINT!!! (insanity here we come).
We just realized we don't have any snacks for everyone and were hoping to get some donated (good luck on that!!!!) so far no takers. If you are a nice kind soul (read - company) who would like to give us some food for roughly 140 (yes you read right) we would love you FOREVER!!! and of course tweet about it on Thursday night.

Let see if 140 people really pitch? - if half pitch thats 70 people - still not bad for a get together in Cape Town when people tend to hibernate when the weather is cold!

;)

Hugs
 

HOUT BAY MANOR

On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending Hout Bay Manor's Concierge Party. It involved live music by a very entertaining entertainer, delicious snacks by Pure Restaurant and mingling by a cross section of media and travel related people, - And it was LOVELY! 

After a tour of the hotel I realised how lucky we are to have so many beautifully decorated hotels in the Cape area. As well as such interesting and different places to visit in Cape Town.
I really enjoyed the snacks/eats from PURE restaurant and will definitely try go back for some supper. The tastes were impressive!

Thanks Hout Bay Manor for a lovely evening :)

 

CREAMY ROASTED ROSA TOMATO, MUSHROOM AND CHICKEN PASTA

When walking into a shop and smelling gorgeous cooked meats and tomatoes.. it made my stomach growl. I shopped like a lunatic buying a whole chicken and little tomatoes and onions and cream... came home and proceeded to make the aching for the gorgeous smell in the shop go away... It worked!

INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken 
2 large onions
400g (2 punnets) rosa/small tomatoes
250 - 350g mushrooms of your choice (i used button and portabello)
250ml (1 cup) of cream
fresh herbs - thyme, basil, sage (1 small sprig of each)
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons brown Organic sugar
3 cloves garlic
1 packet of pasta (i used rice noodles) 

METHOD
Place your chicken in a roasting dish and season with salt and roast at 170 degrees until cooked but still moist. Take the chicken out the dish and set aside to cool. keep the dish with the juices from the chicken.
Peel and slice the onions into half rings about thin to medium thickness and place in the same dish as that the chicken was roasted in - in all the juices. Roast the onions for roughly 10 - 15 min (until light golden brown)
Now place the little tomatoes in with the cooked onions, placing a slit in each tomato so it won't burst in the oven. Add the fresh herbs and thinly sliced 2 cloves of garlic. You can use dried herbs if you don't have fresh.Sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper. Place back  in the oven and stir occasionally. Cook until the tomatoes are soft and wilted and oozing. Squish them down with the back of a large spoon. 
While the tomatoes are finishing up in the oven start to boil your pasta.
Thinly slice the mushrooms and fry in a large frying pan with some olive oil add 1 diced garlic clove.
Once your pasta is boiled take off the heat and rinse.
Take all the white meat off the chicken and chop into chunks.
Add the tomato/onion dish from the oven to the mushrooms (juices and all) stir.
Now add the chicken and a tub of cream. Mix together and salt to taste.
Stir your chunky mushroom, chicken and tomato sauce into the pasta and serve.

(serves 4)

 

FYI

If you are attending the Cape Town bloggers Get together on the 30th of June we just need to make sure that you don't go to the wrong venue>>>> Because so many of you fabulous people wanted to join us we have had to change to a bigger venue (YAY!) so please do turn up at THE GRAND DADDY HOTEL in Long Street and not at El Burro.

If you knew this already - sorry. But if you didn't know that means others don't know either so spread the word for us please. The beauty of social media. Oh and talking of social media - did you know it is World Social Media Day on the 30th of June? - the very night we are having our bloggers and tweeters get together. Happy coincidence and so fitting! YAY!

don't forget to RSVP here

LAMB AND ROSA TOMATO STEW

Sometimes we need food that is easy to prepare but makes the house smell soulful and warm during winter. The smell hugs you like a blanket and makes you feel at home.
This dish is so easy to prepare and is delicious served with rice and a good glass of red wine.

 
INGREDIENTS
500 - 800g Free-range lamb stewing pieces
200g baby rosa tomatoes (or any little tomatoes you like - cherry etc..)
6 potatoes peeled and chopped
1 large onion diced
basil
rosemary
sage
sugar
salt
pepper
cooked rice for 4 people ( i used brown basmati rice)

METHOD
In a nice sized oven dish place lamb pieces, potatoes and diced onion with slitted baby tomaotoes and fresh herbs. Sprinkle on sugar, salt and pepper.
Place in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
Stir occasionally and cook until the lamb is brown and the potatoes are soft.
Serve on rice

•  Kind bloggers and a thoughtful sponsor are really making me smile about our bloggers get together we are going to have
• cooking really can be good for the soul :) especially when listening to music and just enjoying the moment
• being busy can suck but time away from the computer is necessary and brings NEW inspiration!
• watching a kid grow can be the most amazing thing for a parent - mine is amazing me each and every day
• getting a tiny recommendation in a magazine can really make me smile and boost my blog life
• each a every comment makes me soo happy - thank you

so what is HAPPY in your world?

BLOGGERS GET TOGETHER

Hey Lovely Bloggers and Tweeters
Its been a while since anyone has hosted  a get together. Lets just meet and say hi - possibly a drink :)
The lovely Zandvliet Wines has offered us some wine for the evening and El burro said we are welcome to have it at their Restaurant. So we picked a date and a time and hope you will ALL pop in for a hello :)

It would be so nice to meet you or say hi again.

*please post this invite on your blog page so more bloggers will know about the event :) It would be so appreciated!

ALSO Don't forget to RSVP on the Facebook Events Page so we can let El burro know how much seats/space we need.  (And feel free to invite your fellow blogger friends on the events page too)

EVERYONE is welcome

hugs
 

HESTON BLUMMENTHTAL AND GOOD FOOD & WINE SHOW

This time last week I returned home from the Good Food and Wine Show with sore feet and a head buzzing with ideas. After seeing Heston Blummenthal talk and hearing how he came up with parts of his tasting menu for his restaurant The Fat Duck in England (ranked number #2 in the world) I was so inspired! It was a shame that he didn't cook but all his talking inspired me to re-look at where i find my inspiration of how a dish is comprised. Now I won't be buying any special gyro-thingy-ma-jigs or reducing my stock and freezing it 3 times over! but I will be thinking how i can do things differently. So after Heston told us that cooking star anice with onions gave food a fragrant meaty flavour to a dish - I had to try it out. I have already since then made up an Asian lamb rib soup with star anise and corn in it, which my husband was well impressed with (10 points). Now it isn't by any means a Heston creation but it did make me think i should try out cooking with more different spices.




VENDORS

I enjoyed looking and tasting many things at the Good Food and Wine Show. Some of the display owners I recognized from places that I shop. It is always nice to see a happy friendly face and have a chat. Unfortunately I didn't get to photograph them all but I need to say hi and thanks for the chats to Lewis at Odeds Kitchen, Linda at Sublime, Ben at Le Creuset and plenty more....

    

The above pictures were taken of the Cavendish display done by Kim Gray. I found it very pretty and the actors sat around a table and pretended to have a tea party. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.. or maybe they just enjoy acting ;)

 Cute and pink - The Sweet Temptations display was so cute. They had plenty of toffee to taste in a multitude of flavors (from vanilla to turkish delight and also jelly tot flavor and many more). I think the tops the ladies all wore at there stand were so pretty- All matching pink and black and CUTE!

Wayne from Rudis Sausage Deli. Wayne is a great guy who I buy sausage from at The Earth Fair Market in Tokai on a Wednesday and a Saturday. Rudis has a large display of sausages and they use free-range pork which is anti-biotic free and hormone-Free. 

Of course there was plenty of Lindt to Taste. enough said... :) 

 

There was plenty of chocolate vendors -one I enjoyed chatting to was to Mr and Mrs Ellis of  Madecasse Chocolate. The company Bright Bean imports fair trade chocolate from Madagascar. So not only is this the right product to buy as its fair to the farmers but it tastes delicious too.

My husband bought me some goodies while we were walking around the show - one of them being this beautiful red kettle by Le Cresuset

one of the other things that I bought was a really nice pairing knife that I REALLY love! It is so handy and I've been using it ever since I got it last weekend. The people at the KAI shun knife stand were really helpful and apparently the little knife I bought has won an award so that is always a good thing. They also stocked beautiful baking equipment from the USA.

HONEY - MANUKA HONEY :)

regular honey on breakfast, bananas and milk

This all starts with Miss Emma Jude Jackson who asked me if I would be interested in trying out some Manuka honey. After saying yes :) I receiving it, opened it and proceeded to eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar - Because it tastes Fabulous!

But wait!!! Manuka honey is special and has these amazing properties that have made it quite an extraordinary honey. I had read about this particular honey before on natural health sites on the internet and really wanted to purchase some for myself because it has some amazing healing properties. And when the opportunity arose for me to try some from Manuka honey via Miss Emma I jumped at the opportunity - I now didn't have to pay R150 for a small jar of honey :) AND I could try it out for myself and see if I it really worked or not.

After a few weeks I had tried it on my muesli and I was contemplating how to use it next. But Manuka honey has amazing anti-bacterial properties and cooking it just seemed wrong! after all would heating it up kill the anti-bacterial properties?  But then last week I was sick last with a killer sore throat and achey body (I felt sooo aweful)... I now had the PERFECT opportunity to try out the MANUKA honey.


Well I can say it worked fantastically - REAL homemade Lemon in boiling water with a spoon of honey stirred in for my super sore throat. It tasted amazing and actually worked. Like sore throat gone after 24 hours. Next I want to try it out on a scrape or cut if I hurt myself (on the skin) but no opportunities have arisen as yet and I'm not that crazy to actually cut myself.

FYI: You can buy this honey in different strength ratings from 5 - 20. I had rating 15 which has a high antibacterial activity e.g. it worked on my sore throat! but you can get it in a 5 rating if you just want a regular table grade honey.

Manuka honey all brown and caramel

Manuka honey has a smooth caramel taste and is fluffy and thick - like its been beaten to a mousse consistency. I really enjoyed just eating it off the spoon! I think it would be really great in a smoothy with bananas and milk. It would make a great energy booster and breakfast on the run. I'm going to  definitely try this in the warmer months when the weather warms up :)