Giveaway: Win a double-pass to Cake Bake & Sweets Show!

Listen up, peoples! There’s a new food show in town and you want to check it out because it’s all about cake and sweets and cake and baking and pastry chefs and cake and cooking reality show personalities... And did I mention there was cake? Heheh.

The inaugural Cake Bake & Sweets Show is being held across three days from 21-23 March at Sydney’s Olympic Park. There’ll be live cooking demonstrations, hands-on workshops, plus lots to ogle and buy. Featuring familiar names such as Dan Lepard, Adriano Zumbo, Kirsten Tibballs, my pastry crush of the moment Anna Polyviou, and blogging alumni Sharon Wee, there is sure to be something for everyone.

image courtesy of National Media

Win a Cuisinart ice-cream maker from Kitchenware Direct!

Although I can eat ice-cream in any kind of weather, my childhood memories of summer revolve around the trinity of ice-cream, stone fruits and berries. Memories of driving up the coast to a family friend’s orchard outside of Gosford – in one of my family’s successive second-hand cars without air-conditioning, legs and arms sticking to the vinyl seats, which would invariably result in an overheated radiator, us pulling up to the side of the highway and piling out of the car to stretch our legs – and returning with boxes full of peaches and mangoes collected from the base of trees as fruit which was deemed “unfit” for sale. The fruit would last us through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, eaten hunched over the sink (me elevated by a footstool in order to reach said sink) with juices running down our arms and the corners of our mouths. Strawberries and cherries would appear in our kitchen around the same time, when they were at their cheapest and sweetest and back when these fruits were truly consumed seasonally as they couldn’t be found for sale at any other time of year.

Le Chasseur giveaway from Kitchenware Direct

There has been a distinct chill in the air during weeks of late and winter is well and truly upon us with crisp mornings and short daylight hours. While the middle of the day may be pleasant enough with winter sun (that is, when it’s not bucketing down with rain or blowing gale-force winds), the nights are definitively cold and there’s nothing quite like having something warming for dinner to comfort yourself from the inside out. Think stews, braises, casseroles, soups, risottos...the list goes on and on. And thanks to the lovely people at Kitchenware Direct, you get the chance to win a Le Chasseur product to create some warming food for yourself!

images from Kitchenware Direct

Le Chasseur is famous for its enamel-coated cast iron cookware handmade in France. Their range includes roasting pans, grill pans and, of course, French ovens in a variety of colours to suit your kitchen décor. Just looking at some of colourful items above is enough to bring cheer on a dreary winter’s day.

Kitchenware Direct are giving away a Le Chasseur product up to the value of $150 from their site to one lucky Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks reader. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what Le Chasseur product you would choose if you won and what you would cook in it, then send an email to mademoiselledelicieuse@gmail.com with the subject line of “Le Chasseur” and include your full name as well as a copy of your comment in the body of the email. Entries close Friday 15 July 2011 at 11pm Australian Eastern Standard time and are open to Australian residents only. The winning entrant will be chosen by Monsieur Poisson (AKA the Husband, AKA the one who doesn’t cook) based on originality and entertainment value and will be published here in a future post, so make sure you stay tuned! Any rude/profane/offensive entries will be deleted and excluded from the competition.

Seriously, if I could enter I would so don’t pass up this opportunity and get cracking!

Terms & conditions:

1. The winner will receive one Le Chasseur product of their choice up to the value of $150 from the Kitchenware Direct website. The value difference between $150 and the chosen product will not be refunded.
2. The item chosen must be in stock.
3. The winner will be contacted by Kitchenware Direct to arrange delivery details.

good luck!

Playing tourist in your own city & Bakers Delight winners

When I was a child, the only times I was taken to visit Sydney tourist icons such as Centrepoint Tower (now called something or other else) and the Opera House was when we had relatives visiting from overseas. I have relatives who have seen more of Australia through organised tours than I have having grown up here, but that’s because we always feel there’s more excitement, intrigue and curiosity surrounding places which are not within our immediate surrounds. And possibly because Australia is isolated by water from other cultures, why would you tour your own country when you travel overseas?

But there are hidden gems in your own city which you don’t get to see, do or taste due to restrictions by such a devil known as work. You know, that thing which demands attention for the most of us during business hours from Mondays to Fridays. That thing which may or may not reward you handsomely in a financial sense, but which takes up the bulk of your time to be able to enjoy it. How inconvenience!

So on a coordinated day off work for both Monsieur and myself back when there was a chill in the air, we played tourists in our own city by taking the train for a long-delayed chance to enjoy Plan B’s famed $10 Wagyu burger.

Only open on weekdays, we’d just not had the opportunity to venture to Plan B any sooner. So we sit at a table under the dappled winter sunshine, outside this little coffee bar with a reputation much larger than its shop space, and enjoy a single burger and drink between the two of us. The stature of the burger is rather grand, being taller than it is wide, and the Wagyu patty accounting for at least a third of its height. Held by a glossy brioche bun, a charred patty exterior holds juicy thoroughly cooked innards flanked on either side by cheese, mayonnaise, beetroot and salad leaves.

This is followed by us crossing the road to Le Grand Café for a little something else. And although there are sweets on display, I am needing further savoury food whilst Monsieur Poisson is craving a coffee. A café au lait and ‘Terrine de campagne’ platter soon arrive.

The texture of the meat terrine is firm without being dry and crumbly and not overly salty like some. The studs of pistachio add textural interest although I wish there was more of the lovely toasted brioche to go with it. Cornichons are always welcome for cutting through any fat, but I’m biased as I pretty much enjoy anything with a tart flavour.

We take a leisurely stroll to Circular Quay to enjoy a free tilt-shift photography exhibition before hopping on a train again to make our way to a special coffee date. A truly relaxing day in our own city enjoying some of the more relaxing things for which we normally don’t have the time.

Plan B

Ground floor, 204 Clarence St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9283 3450

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  8am-4pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

Le Grand Café

Ground floor, 257 Clarence St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9264 7164

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  8am-6pm)

                        Sat  8am-3pm

                        Sun  CLOSED

Bakers Delight competition winners

So in keeping with enjoying the simple pleasures in life, thank you to those who took the time to read my post, leave a comment and enter the Bakers Delight competition. Monsieur Poisson read all of your responses and has chosen the following five lucky people to receive a $5 voucher each:

1. Sara
2. FFK
3. Susan
4. Tina
5. Shez

Congratulations to you all! Please send your postal details to the email address over on the left so that I can forward your voucher to you. And let me know how you go about enjoying your bread.

Thank you once again to Rebecca Stalker from Keep Left Public Relations and Bakers Delight for the gift vouchers.

happy eating!

The simple pleasure of bread and your chance to win some!

Life has the most inconvenient way, sometimes, of getting in the way of enjoying life itself.

I say, dear Responsibilities, wouldn’t you like to take a holiday from giving me guilt when I neglect you? This co-dependent relationship can’t be doing either of us any good here. And Obligations, surely you’d like to take a day off and just take it easy in a hammock whilst sipping a colourful drink adorned with a paper umbrella?

Unfortunately life doesn’t wait nor necessarily slow down when we want it to, unlike the recent approach I’ve taken with this blog. The blog has taken a backseat whilst other areas of life have been demanding my attention and keeping me busy, inciting frustration and annoyance along with way. Hopefully the cobwebs have yet to set in as this blog will be on the quiet side for a little longer still.

When life zaps most of the energy and sunbeams out of me, I lose the inspiration and motivation to cook. We’re not talking about attempting some magnificent feast here – oh, no – just the usual simple stir-fry with a bit of rice, and even then it seems to take exponential amounts of effort compared to usual. Comfort eating can only occur when you have the resources to do so.

And so I have been thankful for quick staples such as dried pasta, canned soup, frozen dumplings, dried Chinese noodles and bread. Yes, bread – one of the simple pleasures of life which is a meal in itself with some butter, olive oil or any manner of spreads or toppings. Take soft Turkish bread which can effortlessly be sliced into fingers and eaten with some dip and olives…

…ciabatta which can be hollowed out as a vessel for (a failed) cheese fondue with nubbins of corn. Or for a cob of comforting soup with the “lid” cut into fingers for dipping.

And a sexy French baguette which I attempted to fashion into two types of picnic-style stuffed rolls which didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisaged. Well, much like life itself.

Luckily there was this somewhat redeeming rendition of “pizza”, where the leftover Turkish bread was split into top and bottom halves to act as bases for basil pesto, sausage pieces, marinated artichoke hearts, pine nuts and, on one of them, sundried tomato pesto and egg.

Seasoned, topped with cheese and shoved in a 220°C oven for the sausage pieces to cook and for the cheese to bubble and brown, these made for a perfectly easy lunch to remind me that life indeed can have its simple, peaceful, pleasurable moments.

Now, for your chance to win some bread, Bakers Delight are kindly giving away vouchers worth $5 each to five readers of Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what simple pleasure you enjoy in life and why. Entries close Friday 26 November 2010 at 11pm Australian Eastern Standard time and are open to Australian residents only. Winning entrants will be chosen by Monsieur Poisson (AKA the Husband, AKA the one who doesn’t cook) based on originality and will be published here in a future post, so make sure you stay tuned! Any rude/profane/offensive entries will be deleted and excluded from the competition.

Mademoiselle Délicieuse received the above selection of bread courtesy of Rebecca Stalker from Keep Left Public Relations and Baker’s Delight.

happy cooking!