Foody's Heaven!!

Here it is, Sunday night, it's cold outside and I'm snuggled up in front of the fire with my Beloved Geek Boy after a fun day thinking about ... FOOD! :0) Now ... given my ... er ... teddy-bear-like!! ... physique, it will come as no surprise to you all that I LOOOOOOOVE food! :0) I like light nibblies, I like flavoursome main meals, I like an indulgent dessert (especially if it's lemon-y or caramel-y ... MMMMM!!!) I like to explore new eateries, cafes, restaurants and tearooms, I like to cook, I like to play and experiment with flavours ... yep ... I LIKE food! :0)

So imagine how exciting it was for me to find that we live just a short five minute drive from the site of a local food festival  today ... the Hampton Food Festival. GB and I have planned to attend the Hampton Festival for the last five years or so ... but something always seems to pop up to change our plans. Last year, we had to attend an open house ... for THIS house! Guess that was a good reason to miss it, right?! :0)

We planned to attend this year, too ... and our plans were scooted along by an hour or two when GB was called in to sort out some issues with the AV equipment organisers of the Festival had hired from the business where he works. Life is seldom boring around here. :0)

Once GB had sorted out the AV bits and had everything working as it should, we had a lovely time wandering around. There were so many stalls offering GORGEOUS foody treats, most grown and produced right here in the south east corner of QLD, many in our Toowoomba/Highfields/Crows Nest region. Olives, oils, chutney, mustard, ice-cream (YUM!!), fruit, veges, cheeses, yoghurt, boutique breads, handmade chocolates ... oh so many treats for food-lovers!

GB and I could have spent hundreds of dollars on tasty treats that would have ensured we'd become as big as houses after eating them all, but we restrained ourselves to collecting some delicious ingredients for an 'indoor picnic' for our dinner tonight ...

YUMMO!!! Two different flavoured olives, 'Eweghurt' (yoghurt made from sheep's milk), locally baked lavosh crisps. And I added my own home-made chilli jam and a fresh tomato/avocado/red onion/orange/balsamic vinegar salsa. I confess ... there were only empty plates left when we'd finished! :0) 

We also sat in on a couple of the cooking sessions, which was interesting and it gave us a bit more enthusiasm for continuing towards our goal to grow as much of our own fresh produce as possible and buy from local producers when we can't grow it ourselves.

Our vege patch is all planted up with winter crops ... snowpeas (that are flowering madly already!), beetroot, silverbeet, cauliflower and broccoli ... LOTS of broccoli! Kind of a funny story that involves a thriving vege patch, a large dog living next door, two mammoth bones being given to the dog, the dog finding the PERFECT place to bury said mammoth bones (GRRRR!!), a VERY cross gardener coming home to half her broccoli crop dug over to make way for mammoth bones, a very embarrassed neighbour and three punnets of broccoli to apologise! :0) Did I mention that life around here is never dull?! Tee! Hee! Hee! So ... if you have any interesting recipes for broccoli, send them this way! :0)

Well ... that's been our weekend's excitement, so no sewing happening here. What adventures have YOU had this weekend? And what're your favourite foody treats? Did I mention I really like food? Tee! Hee!! Hee! I'm now off to clean my toothy-pegs and head for my warm, cosy bed to try to prepare myself for the work week. I am SOOOO not qualified to be a grown up! :0) Til next time ...

BURP!! BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS