Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Xmas Food Bloggers Style

What does a gathering of 50+ bashful food bloggers look like? Well...this.

What is best in a food bloggers life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. No wait, that's Conan. To feed your friends, meet like minded people, and to hear the speed shutters of digital SLR's taking happy snaps of food. So when the invite came out for a party that guaranteed all this, Yaya's Yum Yums had to show up in force.

Helen from Grab Your Fork and Chocolatesuze organised a shindig at Hyde Park over the weekend with an amazing showing of over fifty food bloggers. What to bring? A sweet or savoury dish and a $10 Kris Kringle present. That being said, you know there was going to be a heck of a lot of food. Here is a miniscule selection of what was on offer:

Bacon and onion baked goods courtesy of Sara from Belly Rumbles

Extremely satisfying Peking Duck Cocktail Wontons by Almost Bourdain

Grab Your Forks Elvis inspired bacon and jam cupcakes with peanut butter icing and a very much appreciated piece of bacon rind at its center. It's the little things that count the most.

And my contribution: Dark Chocolate Rocky Road

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Rocky Road:
100g Pistachios
100g Hazel nuts
100g Turkish delight (thinly cut)
100g Craisins (dried cranberries)
1 cup Marshmallows
500g 70% Dark chocolate
100g 85% Dark chocolate
White chocolate for decoration

Cooking Instructions:
Ummmm, melt the chocolate and mix in the rest of it.....OK I can't leave it at that. The thing I like about this recipe is it's easy to impress. Just get quality ingredients and let them do their thing. Be sure to roast the nuts well so they release their natural oils and provide the crunchy texture. I was very happy with the addition of turkish delight which turned jelly like without sweetening the road too much.

All in all a great day with good food and wonderful people. Thanks Suze and Helen for making things happen. As for the Kris Kringle, I didn't vie for the much sort after Food Face plate (a plate with a cartoon face on it you can dress up with your food e.g. potato mash beard and green bean monobrow) but I'm lucky to have a food face plate in the form of my little niece mini B.

Camera shy and when she likes a dish, happy to lick every bit off the plate. You can tell we are working hard to make sure she grows up to be a food blogger.

Happy Holidays everyone!

9 comments:

  1. Wasn't aware that there was an alternate photo of the group shot. Did you not end up in the final group shot, or were you even more "bashful" than the rest of the group? :)

    Unfortunately, did see your contribution but, for what it's worth, it looks like it would have been nice :)

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  2. I did get to try the rocky road and could really taste that the hazelnuts had been roasted. Mmmm... =)

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  3. thanks for the Dark Chocolate Rocky Road recipe. i loved them. so smooth and delicious! nice meeting you :-)

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  4. Arrrggghhhhhhhh stop taunting me.........I missed the rocky road too!

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  5. You really can tell B is part of a foodblogging family can't you? So cute!

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  6. Simon: Yes I was in your group photo (red shirt on the left) but I snuck a couple of shots and photoshop'd them together for this photo when you were setting up.

    Mademoiselle: Glad you could tell the difference that roasting the nuts made. =)

    SFF: Thanks for the mention on your blog. Glad you enjoyed them.

    HB: Hehe you missed a LOT of other things too. There's always next time.

    Yaya: Hope she's not always that bashful. Need some cute shots of those new teeth for the photo albums.

    Suze: Thanks Suze. Always feel lucky when I get a shot like this. Then again kids these days grow up with cameras constantly on them, just in case.

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  7. MiniB's working on her new blue steel it's called "Scrunchy Face".

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  8. Homemade Rocky Road is such a delight and I like how you've filled it with lots of good quality goodies :D

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