Tasting Australia - Botanicals and Bootlegging

When the schedule for Tasting Australia was first released, one of the share sessions immediately stood out to me; Botanicals and Bootlegging - the art of Blending your own gin, run by the head of KISpirits, Jon and Sarah Lark. I expressed interest one night at dinner and found that my mum would also be keen on heading along…next thing I know, tickets are booked, time flies and suddenly it's May and time for our Gin session. 

We rocked up, were directed onto the stage and given all of our ingredients and utensils for the session. 

First part of the session was Jon Lark talking about Gin, his company, KISpirits and their history with Gin and just what he hoped we would get out of the session. Listening to him talk, it is clear to see how passionate he is about his spirits and that he hopes to change the stigma attached to Gin, in that people see it as "an older persons drink". The session itself proved this incorrect, as a majority of the class was under 30 years of age!

KISpirits are known for being "traditional" in their Gin making. They blend a combination of Juniper, Coriander and Angelica Botanical Distillates to make a base Gin, then proceed to add different flavoured Botanicals to achieve the taste they want.

And then we went off to do just that...

We got given 10 Botanicals to choose from; Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Cinnamon, Lemon, Cardamon, Aniseed, Orange, Ginger and Mint. 

We were then told that Jon and Sarah had provided us with enough Juniper Distillates to form the base for 250mL of our own Gin blend; 200mL for a take home bottle and 50mL to drink on the spot. 

Jon recommended starting off with 70-75mLof Juniper as a base and then blending in our chosen botanicals and if we liked the taste of it after that, to then multiply that amount until we reached 250mL. 

Looking back, I still don't know how I managed to make it all work and have it taste as good as it does….I'm terrible at Maths. Enough said. 

And voila! I have my very own blend of Juniper, Coriander, Cinnamon, Cardamon and Lemon Distillates :)

If you're ever visiting Kangaroo Island, be sure to pop in and see Jon, Sarah and the gang at their Cellar Door at Cygnet River. If you're not a Gin fan, no need to worry - I visited them almost 3 years ago and feel  in love with all their products - the Limoncello was my favourite back then ;)

Tasting Australia 2014 - Fork On The Road

Welcome back! I know it's been a while, but real life has been giving me lots of issues and has taken me away from the computer a bit :(

But anyway, onto happier thoughts - after months of anticipation, Tasting Australia landed in Adelaide last week and I couldn't wait to throw myself head first in, starting with Fork On The Road on Sunday.

Fork On The Road is a food truck festival that, this year alone, has also featured at the Adelaide Food and Wine Festival. This time however, there was a lot more choice, with the added bonus of having the Tasting Australia "Town Square" there as well. 

As you can see, it was a pretty busy afternoon - and this was at 3pm! I decided to head into the Town Square to decide on what I wanted and fingers crossed the lines would be smaller once I had decided. As I wandered around Town Square, with the sounds of Poh talking on stage, I found myself slightly disappointed that many of the regional set ups wouldn't be opening until later on in the week. Luckily, at least the Barossa, Be Consumed tent was open and ready for business. 

I started off with a glass of this gorgeous Alicante Bouchart from Hart of the Barossa winery. It was lovely and cold with some sweet flavours, just what I needed as I wandered around in the heat of the afternoon!

After much wandering and deliberation, I decided on Mexican La Cantina Co. Authentic Mexican is naturally GF and the line up for these guys was insane, so I had peace of mind that they had a high turnover of food. The Quesadilla I chose was a Pulled Pork with Potato, Pineapple Salsa and Cheese :) If you every have the chance to go to a Fork on the Road and these guys are there, definitely check them out - you won't regret it!! 

Easy 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Hi, my name is Cassie and I'm addicted to Peanut Butter.

No, truly I am.

I'm one of those people who eat it by the spoonful, mix it through ice cream and custard as well. 

FYI: Definitely try the custard idea - you won't regret it! 

So when I had to decide what cookies to make for the Cookie Swap it was easy to decide. I had seen an easy PB cookie recipe on numerous sites that had 3 ingredients - Sugar, Egg and PB. But upon doing my test run, I found they were a bit crumbly; which would not do well for shipping! I upped the PB amount a bit to help bind it and then added some choc chips in - because everything is better with Chocolate! I haven't heard anything from Mia, Fatima or Erika...so fingers crossed they stayed in one piece!

Easy 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Yields 12

Ingredients

1 cup White Sugar (plus 2 Tblspns in a separate bowl)

1 Egg

1 1/4 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Mix all the ingredients together. 

3. Roll out balls of dough (about 1 Tblspn in size) on the baking trays. 

4. Dip a fork into the bowl of Sugar and push onto the top of the dough balls twice to make a criss-crossed pattern. 

5. Repeat for all dough balls. 

6. Cook for 8-10mins and allow to cool before moving to a wire rack. 

7. Enjoy! 

**NB: In order to get the right amount for the swap, I tripled this recipe**

From Fati, I got Double Chocolate Cookies with Hazelnuts.

From Erika, I got Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies.

And from Faaiza, I got Espresso Meringue Cookies.

Thank you so much you lovely ladies - I enjoyed all of these!! And I can't wait to give them all a try at home :) xx

Gnocchi with Bacon and Peas

I should have been born Italian. There are times that I devour Pasta on a daily basis and wish that I had a Nonna to teach me how to make it fresh. So instead I try all the different brands of Pasta I can to find what I like the best. And when it comes to packet Gnocchi, I can't go past Simply Wize.

This dish is based off of a recipe I saw on one of the many cooking shows I watch. I think. I dunno - I watch so many, the original recipe could be so incredibly different -_-

Gnocchi with Bacon and Peas

Ingredients

1 Packet of Pre Made Gnocchi (or whatever Pasta you want)
5 Rashes of Short Cut Bacon, diced
1/2 Cup Frozen (or fresh) Peas
100mL Pouring Cream
Grate Parmesan Cheese

Directions

1. Cook Pasta as per instructions on packet.
2. Meanwhile, fry off the Bacon in a medium sized fry pan.
3. Once the Bacon starts to crisp up, add the peas. Cook until the Peas are fully thawed and warm.
4. Add the cream and stir. Drain the Pasta once cooked and add the the frying pan. Mix until combined.
5. Serve with as much grated Parmesan as you like on top.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

So guys! I know it's been a while, but I got a new job! For those of you who know me well, you'll understand how amazing this is for me! For everyone else, I had become quite disenchanted with my previous job and the people who ran the place, so I had to get out. So yeah, a couple of crazy weeks of adapting and training, but I'm back :)

Anyway, I decided that I was going to take one more step out of my comfort zone and sign up for this year''s Food Blogger Cookie Swap. It was set up two years ago by Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen. When you sign up, you donate a small amount that goes directly to Cookies for Kid's Cancer. In my mind, that's good enough, but on top of that, you get the names/addresses of three other bloggers who have signed up from your country and three others get yours and you send a dozen cookies to each of them! Sign up closed the other day and I'm (im)patiently waiting for my Cookie matches to check out who I'll be sending mine to...

Keep your eyes peeled, in about a month, the blogging world will be filled with everyones recipes and hopefully it might inspire some more of you to join in and help raise money for a good cause!

Melbourne Trip September 2013 Part 3

This is the last part of my 3 part series on Melbourne - Sunday :)

We had debated all weekend over what to do today. The plan had always been to go to the St. Kilda markets, then head back to the CBD, get our bags and go to the airport. However, as it happens with all good plans, it changed; we heard on the city loop tram that there's a market on at Docklands every sunday, so we decided to head there instead.

However, we walked out of the hotel on Sunday (after going to bed with it raining) to see bright blue skies. So we scrapped the new plan and went to St. Kilda. Lucky we did, since we were greeted with this view....

It was a gorgeous sunny day, so we were happy to wander and find Breakfast, in no rush. We stumbled across a small cafe called Rococo, which could do a variety of Gluten Free options, but first up was a coffee ;) 

For Breakfast, I went out of my comfort zone. I usually like to stick with just Pancakes or Bacon and Toast, since I'm not a huuuuge egg fan. Like seriously, it's scrambled or not at all. But I decided to take a chance on an omelet....

....and boy was I rewarded for my bravery; it was superb! It was light, fluffy and full of flavour. The bread was also pretty good - however, I suspect that was due to the amount of butter I applied to it - I haven't found a restaurant that does overly good bread, but I love that they do it anyway. The cafe staff were incredibly helpful and a special mention must go to our main waiter, who was very nice and had a wonderful Irish accent ;)

It was a fantastic day to be at the markets and we cherished the weather by taking our time to wander and enjoy the atmosphere. 

After a few hours there, we headed back to the CBD and the hotel, grabbed our bags and cookie dough from the hotel freezer and left for the airport. A quick question to Melbourne friends: What is this a statue of? It led to quite a few arguments in the taxi....

After a very uneventful check in and small wait, we got on the plane to head home after a crazy weekend away. The food and the flight home was no where near as good on the way there - we got a beverage, since everyone else got biscuits :( Lucky I was prepared and bought snacks!

Anyone else head to the expo and learnt anything new?

Melbourne Trip September 2013 Part 2

This is the continuance of Part 1 of our Melbourne trip, Day 2 - Saturday!

Saturday was a big whirlwind of busyness! The main portion was, of course, The Coeliac Society of Victoria and Tasmania's Gluten Free Expo for this year. It was held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and was well-attended by exhibitors and visitors alike.

So we started the day with a strong cup of coffee before heading to the Exhibition Centre. I've always enjoyed going there - it's right on the Yarra River and just has gorgeous surroundings.

We got really lucky - after last years expo, we filled in a survey to improve it and then about a week before this weeks expo (around the time the tickets went on sale), we got an email informing us that as a thank you for filling out the survey, we got a couple of complimentary tickets for this years! Epic Win :)

The crowds were pretty insane right from the moment the doors opened. The aisles were pretty packed with people and the crowds at each stall were crazy, but there's something about being there (regardless of the busyness) and knowing that they're all there for the same reason as you (plus a majority - if not all - are Australian Brands!). 

For me, the natural first place to go is to Naturally Gluten Free, who were stocking HOT JAM DONUTS!!! Zomg, so amazing - just like the "normal" ones from years ago haha however, nobody else shared this sentiment, so I left them to be boring and went and got my donut :D

We then made our way around and experienced some new products, but (in my honest opinion) more importantly caught up with some old friends. Like "Uncle Rick". He is Rick from Rick Grant's Seasoning Mixes. We adore his Wedges mix, and if it were easy to get it here in SA, we'd eat wedges a lot more! However, this time around, I got his cakes and dessert cookbook :)

Next up was Brookfarm. I have eaten their Muesli for a while - my local Foodland stocks it all the time. Then last year before winter, they released a Porrij (Porridge haha) and I devoured that all through winter. This year at the expo, they had all new trail mixes which were pretty damn good!

And last, but certainly not least, was Melinda's. 

We have had a long standing friendship with Melinda. I first met her 4 years ago at my first expo and she was lovely! Over the years, I've caught up with her numerous times when she's come here to promote new products. We've gotten so close, that if it's quiet, she'll wander the store with me while I do my shopping! Then last year, I actually won a competition through her company and won an iPad! 

Melinda's is also a 100% Australian Owned company. In fact, I'm fairly sure that is her Dad helping her  out above and below, as I've seen him at other events as well :)

A special mention must go out to Annabel from the Bikkie Dough Co. I briefly met her last year, but as we were driving back home, we couldn't find a safe way of getting her frozen Bikkie Dough back home. But having flown across this year, we contacted her again to get her thoughts. She said that as long as they were kept below fridge temperature, we would be able to re-freeze them. So we took Ice Packs and freezer bags across with us and got her to keep some aside for us to pick up at the end. We got incredibly lucky with Annabel as she is so lovely and was so helpful over the entire process of pre-ordering everything. Plus, we got super excited about her releasing biscuit mixes at the show as well!

We also got pretty lucky with our hotel - they put all of our frozen goods with the freezer bags in their kitchen's freezer until we were ready to head off to the airport! What good service!

After all the excitement of the expo, we left at around 2ish and headed back to the hotel to dump our bags and have a pick-me-up coffee. BTW: Holiday Inn on Flinders St's cafe do a wonderful coffee!

We then headed off down along the Yarra and headed back to the DFO to get a few things we didn't get yesterday. We then headed towards Albert Park to get to a wool shop Mum had heard about on Facebook called Wool Baar. 

That night for dinner, we had decided to wander down South Wharf and see if anything caught our eye that we could eat at, and if not, we'd head back to Il Primo Posto. 

However, upon wandering along South Wharf, we didn't actually find anything that mentioned anything about Gluten Free...so we just went back to Il Primo Posto. We even had the same waitress, who - to her credit - remembered us and our dietary requirements! But this time, I decided on what was my second choice the night before and what I wish I had actually got the night before - Spaghetti Bolognaise!! Side story, my sister is not a big fan of noodles, so it is very rare to have this at home, so I was very happy I chose to get it :) :)

After heading back to the hotel and grabbing a coffee, we unpacked everything we bought before roughly packing to get ahead for the following day. Here is all the food I bought;

So, what I got was:

• Yoghurt Bites and Choc Banana Bites from Food for Health
• Fruit Cereal, Florentines and Mince Pies from Kez's. 
• Tomato and BBQ Baked Beans, Sticky Date Pudding Mix and Lentil and Quinoa Mixes from Celebrate Health. 
• Rick Grant's Dessert Cookbook
• A couple of boxes of Corn Crunch from Simply Wize
• A couple of packets of Tasty Bite curries.
• A couple of Brownie Mixes from Melinda's Gluten Free 
• Trail Mixes from Brook farm
• Baguettes by Dr Schars.
• Biscuit Mixes and Frozen Biscuit Dough from the Bikkie Dough Co.
• Different flavour Wafers from Eskal

All of these make me so excited to try them all out :)