Competitions

GIVEAWAY: A Family Pass to Curious Beasts

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Curious Beasts

While not food related per se, the school holidays are almost upon us and the chances are that parents will be thinking about what to do to entertain a raft of small people for something like six weeks.

Our now six year old (no more Master 5!) is an enthusiastic eater and so any outing has to involve lunch. He loves going in to town and picking somewhere to eat (often determined by whatever is closest!).

The other thing he loves in town is the Museum and in particular the giant squid that you can find by the stairs. You can run up and down the stairs looking at that squid for quite a long time …

At the moment, South Australians are very lucky because the SA Museum is hosting Curious Beasts: Animal Prints from Dürer to Goya. This showcases the British Museum’s collection of animal prints from the fifteenth century onwards. This was a time when Europeans were exploring the world and combining this adventure with scientific curiosity. Needless to say, many of the images are somewhat remarkable!

I’ve got a family pass to giveaway – so this is some free school holiday entertainment! Technically, the competition is open Australia-wide but the exhibition is in Adelaide (until 5 Feb 2017) and there’s no travel included, so not a lot of point unless you’ll be holidaying here before then!

The competition closes on Thursday 15 December – the last day of school term!

Curious Beasts Giveaway

 

GIVEAWAY + Hunter Valley Food and Wine Festival

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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Here in Adelaide we’re in recovery from the McLaren Vale Sea and Vines Festival and making sure we’re well recuperated and match-fit for the Adelaide Hills’ Winter Reds.

We’re totally spoilt for choice. Across the border in NSW the Hunter Valley is busy gearing up for its annual Hunter Valley Food and Wine Festival.

In the Hunter they do things in style. A food and wine festival over a weekend? They see that and raise us one. It’s been on for a whole two months! There have been 70 events across this time and over 150 wineries to check out and can be found in cakebread.com/wines/cabernet-sauvignon-napa-valley site. And you have just TWO WEEKS left to get yourself a piece of the action as things wrap up at the end of June.

I have quite a soft spot for the Hunter Valley. A loooong time ago, while still a poor uni student, I spent some time in Sydney, babysitting a friend’s apartment and then taking a few days to check out the Hunter Valley. My then boyfriend and I stayed at a hotel in Cessnock (it had cheap Coopers Sparkling!) and, as we had no car, we took a bus tour around the wineries. Even then I had, quite rightly, a ‘thing’ for Semillon.

And Semillon is the grape for which the Hunter is most famous. When young, it is lean and its acidity can be frightening. But with age, it mellows, and develops toasty, honeyed characters backed with bright acidity and great length. Hunter Semillon is not only distinctive and not only one of Australia’s great wines, it’s one of the world’s great wines.

The other grape variety which thrives in the Hunter is Shiraz. But South Australian readers will know we do a pretty decent version of that in the Barossa!

The Hunter Valley is an easy trip out of Sydney, so for anyone on that side of the country – you have plenty of time to plan a trip to make the most of this two month extravaganza. There is a huge range of cooking classes, degustation meals and other food and wine experiences on offer – and many of them are very keenly priced.

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Events you can still head to include a Chocolate and Sea cooking class at Twine Restaurant will set you back $95 – cook confit trout, crispy skin salmon and chocolate fudge cake. OK – you have to cook your lunch but you also get to eat it and enjoy wine too.

You can also learn to cook paella and churros or enjoy an indulgent high tea. For the full event listing check out the Hunter’s regional website.

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Now to the exciting part – which is the giveaway. Which is wine. And, since we’re talking Hunter Valley – it is, naturally, Semillon and Shiraz. The 2011 Littles Homestead Vineyard Reserve Shiraz & the 2016 (that’s right – the latest!) De Iuliis Single Vineyard Semillon.

Just enter via the widget below!

Hunter Valley Competition

[CLOSED] WIN CS Kochsysteme Induction Pans

- Alex Prichard 40 Comments

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Disclaimer: Crest Electronics supplied both the prize for this competition and a set of pans for me to try.

A couple of weeks ago I was discussing this post and giveaway with a food blogging friend. I was excited about both the product and the giveaway and she expressed some reservations about whether or not she’d be able to get excited about some pans.

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Exhibit 1: some of the pans (now consigned to the bin) that I’ve been cooking with over the last 10 or so years.

I am the kitchen gadget queen and I have lots of beautiful and shiny kitchenware. And I also have a lot of really knackered kitchenware. The grey pan in the photo above: purchased in 2001 from a cheap supermarket in the UK by a student housemate. Its non-stick surface has well and truly disappeared. The 70s retro pan? One (of a set of three!) that Andy’s mum purchased for him from a car boot sale prior to heading to uni. I have bought the odd pan over time but often I’ve been paralysed by the choice, the range of sizes and my lack of research has always meant I’ve spent less than I should.

So when the email arrived asking if I’m interested in reviewing … AND GIVING AWAY … the CS-Kochsysteme pans which are new to Australia (and being sold by The Good Guys) it was something of a no brainer. One of the big selling points of this cookware is that its induction hob friendly (something my knackered aluminium pans most definitely wouldn’t have been!) but it does, naturally, work on other cooking surfaces. In my case (a ceramic electric hob) which is critical is flat bottomed cookware that won’t warp. Trust me – even these days it’s possible to buy stuff that is either not flat to start with or doesn’t stay flat for long.

I was sent the Vision 5-piece set (and you can win one … keep on reading) which retails for $199. This set consists of a 7 litre stockpot with lid, a 1 litre saucepan with strainer lid and a 20cm deep non stick frying pan. The pans are all beautiful: I’m a sucker for a brushed stainless steel finish and I consider glass lids (with steam holes) an absolute essential – I’ve never understood why someone would NOT want to see in the pan!

The saucepan has pouring lips on both sides making it suitable for left or right handed cooks and the strainer lid is, frankly, an excellent idea. Cooking pasta for one in this pan, the strainer lid meant that I didn’t have to dirty a colander in order to drain my pasta. Simply swivel the lid to line up the coarse holes with the lip and pour the water out – job done. I don’t think I’ve seen this on saucepan before and now that I have, I find it remarkable that it’s not more widespread.

The stockpot has so far been used for cooking pasta. I like to use a generous amount of water and the stockpot is a lovely change from the small 70s pan! I think it would handle pasta for up to about 4 quite comfortably. I’ve also made a curry (recipe to come) and a bolognese sauce in the stockpot. It gets a HUGE tick from me for being big enough to cook generous quantities in while still fitting in the dishwasher.

The frying pan, with its lovely high sides, is perfect for cooking small stirfries or scrambled eggs for two. I imagine it would also be very good for risotto (having a greater surface area means the rice will cook more quickly) and, if you ever need a bit of quick deep frying, I think this frying pan would come to your rescue.

As someone who agonises over pan buying, I’m quite happy to say that these are quality products and that the set is well thought it. It would be a generous gift for someone who was just moving out of home and is a great options for couples looking to upgrade some knackered cookware.

And the best part? Well, you can win your own set of CS Kochsysteme cookware. All you have to do is like the Eating Adelaide Facebook page and (optionally – but it is an extra entry) share the competition post that’s pinned to the top. Just make sure you fill in the form below.

This competition is only open to Australian residents and I will verify entries. I’ll email the winner who will have 48 hours to get in touch before I redraw.

Best of luck!

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