September 21, 2013

Bundles of Surprise


My friend Sue and I stepped out on this beautiful sunny day to go to the Bonogin Valley Spring Fair.  I bought a brand new floppy pink hat, two Australiana books, scented candles, nick nacks from the CWA stall and heaps of raffle tickets to help with fundraising for the local CWA and the local fire brigade.

What a turn out! Twas a truly successful day. In more ways than one.

Sue and I also decided to enter the inaugural cupcake competition. Gosh. Quite the turnout as it happens. Looking at some of the entries my hopes were dashed at any chance of winning one of the two prizes on offer. So I decide to feel good in helping to raise funds for the fire brigade - each cupcake fetched $1. A couple of hundred dollars were there for the taking.

We chatted in the undercover area eating poffertjes and drinking very nice frothy capps. When I heard my name over the loudspeaker I almost fell off my chair.  I won for the Best Decorated Cupcakes. Donated by the local bakery I couldn't believe how very generous was the prize. Such a lovely prize, such a great honour and such a great bloody day.

Best of all; these two very important community organisations raised some serious money.

See you next year Bonogin Valley.

6 comments:

  1. How exciting!! I am not surprised at all that you won - it looks so good to eat my mouth is watering. So the question is - what was the big prize??? I am dying to find out.
    Thrilled that you had such a productive day, fundraising, letting people enjoy your beautiful food, catching up with friends and winning awards. Well done.

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    1. Well I hope I didn't make it sound like I'd won a fridge or something like that Kylie. Instead of the typical ribbon I'm more than happy with from the Mudgeeraba Show, this prize was lovely.

      It contained a ceramic white square cake plate stand; piping nozzles, a quality cloth piping bag, four big containers of cake decorating toppings; four cake scraper tools, a small cake knife, cupcake cases, a scoop, a chunky 'cloth' thingy, a lovely apron and a $30 voucher to use at the local bakery.

      So for someone like me who is normally delighted to win a ribbon, this was special. Thanks dear. x

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  2. h, I have come by your blog from Rhonda's down to earth blog. I a must say I am impressed. I have spent countless hours scrolling through old post and checking out the recipes. now the hard part what to put on our family's meal plan and baking. my hubby was liking the look of you vegetarian lasagne was wondering if you have quick run down of the recipe please. thank you for such a lovely place to spend some time. Desiree

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    1. Oh dear Desiree. The feature in that story was my old oven and not the lasagna. I'm afraid there is no 'quick run down' for this recipe. I make the tomato sauce, the bechamel and everything except for the pasta. It's quite a big job.

      * I make a basic tomato 'pizza' kind of sauce using two 400gm cans Italian tomatoes, 2 large brown onions, lots of garlic, carrots, herbs, well seasoned with pepper,salt and sugar.

      * Place evenly sliced pumpkin pieces of a tray, oil and season well; bake till just done.

      * Cut zucchini and eggplant into long thin slices. Shallow fry till nice and golden brown. Very important to drain well on paper towelling.

      * Bechamel is key. Place 60gm butter into large saucepan; melt with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic till garlic turns white. Add 1/2 cup plain flour; mix well over low heat till clumpy to help cook out the flour. Take off heat; add one cup of milk; whisk like crazy till well combined. Add another two cups milk; return to heat, season well; stir till thickened. Throw in a bunch of silverbeet that has been chopped and wilted in a frypan till just done. Season.

      *Begin lasagna by layering with tomato sauce, pumpkin pieces, lasagna sheets, more sauce, zucchini, sheets, sauce, eggplant, sheets, cover with fresh ricotta cheese, top with bechamel. Bake till golden.

      Crikey I'm just going off the top of my head here by looking at the pic but I have made this or a similar version quite a few times. Much depends on available produce at the time of making. What I can say is - it's an absolute hit! Hope this sort of helps.
      Cheers Mariana.



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    2. Thank you, so much. Can't wait to make it.

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  3. It was merely a coincidence me dropping in here and getting all impressed. You're a wonderful cook as well as a beautiful person. Continue being so. Good luck with all future endeavors.

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