Saying I was excited to receive a Kitchen Aid Food Processor from TAKEALOT is a bit of an understatement. Kitchen Aid is one of the biggest kitchen brands in the world and most (if not all) cooks aspire to owning at least one of their appliances. Since their re-launch in June 2011 TAKEALOT has grown from strength to strength and continue to forge new paths in the world of online shopping. Forget traffic, lengthy queues and unfriendly shop assistants – browsing and buying online from the comfort of your home takes the stress out of shopping and offers you an easy way to find the products you really want. They’ve…
Simply Delicious
A general food and cooking blog. I like to experiment and try all different types of cuisine and I have a passion for food photography and styling.
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
I don’t know if it’s always like this, but all of a sudden it feels like there are a ton of new cookbooks coming out. Maybe because I am awaiting the release of my own cookbook (Simple & Delicious: Recipes From The Heart) in a couple of weeks time but it feels like every second day I’m getting a new press release about a new fabulous cookbook being released. Three of those cookbooks were written by friends of mine and I could not be prouder to be sharing this space with them. Drizzle and Dip by my good friend Samantha Linsell is beautiful, light and fresh and packed with stunning…
I was invited by the fabulous Ian Manley of Manley Communications to join him and some other JHB-based bloggers for a weekend of extreme luxury, amazing food and lots of spa pampering. I contemplated it for all of 2 seconds before replying straight away with a big YES! (Image Courtesy of Manley Communications) I had been to the Mount Grace before and was really excited to be able to stay over for the night as well as experience chef Franc Lubbe’s amazing food once again. The cherry on top was to be able to experience the spa which I have heard such good things about. And I am very happy…
I just love tzatziki. My husband always jokes that I would dunk everything and anything in tzatziki if I could…but Chocolate and tzatziki doesn’t seem like such a great combo, does it? Jokes aside, I really do eat it with almost anything and one of my all time favourite meals is lamb chops grilled to medium rare served with toasted pita breads and tzatziki. There is just nothing like lamb served with good tzatziki. The Mediterranean Delicacies tzatziki is thick, rich and packed full of flavour. I love that the cucumber is kept chunky and that the garlic flavour is prominent yet not over-bearing. I was lucky enough to get…
I have always loved olives. The salty, almost bitter-ness is something that I’ve never been able to resist. And thankfully for me, my husband and kids share that same love, with me. While shooting these olives, I would see little fingers creeping ever-closer to the bowl trying to snatch one. Luckily, my husband, Chris, uttered a “hey!!’ every now and then and I got to finish the shoot before they were all gobbled up! But once I packed the camera away, I’ve never seen olives dissapear so fast. Abigail & Aidan both grabbed handfulls of the olives and munched them as quickly as they could manage. A few yuuummmyyy’s and…
If you had told me a few years ago that I would madly in love with a strong-smelling, super salty little fish called an Anchovy, I would’ve laughed in your face and told you that you must be smoking some strong stuff. I absolutely hated Anchovies when I was younger and couldn’t understand how people could eat them on pizzas, never mind anything else. Fast forward a few years and I would have them with everything if I could. Which is why I was so happy to see that they are part of the vast amount of products made by Mediterranean Delicacies (not surprising as their product range is impressively…
As an admitted Cheese addict, I hardly ever say no to good cheese. When I got a tub of the MD Parmesan Style cheese I was very excited to use it in one of my dishes. The very first thing I did was taste it. I have tasted a lot of bad and bland “Parmesan” before and was worried that this would be the same. I was so happy to find that the taste was wonderfully rich and nutty like a good parmesan should be and the texture was spot on. Like Parmesan, MD’s Parmesan Style Cheese is incredibly versatile and can be used in a variety of dishes. Tomorrow…
I use Basil Pesto (or any pesto for that matter) quite often to add some oomph to food. There’s something magical that happens when food gets cooked off for hours. You get a depth and flavour that just can’t easily be achieved in minutes, but then again, sometimes I just can’t wait hours. I need something satisfying and delicious right then and there. That’s when things like pesto come in handy. It’s got serious punch thanks to the garlic, basil and parmesan. But one thing I find is that shop-bought pestos are often bland and boring because they don’t use good quality products. They skimp on the pine nuts (as…
When the people from Land Rover South Africa asked me if I would be interested in doing a project exploring all the ‘bests’ of Gauteng, I said yes immediately. I know we have some amazing offerings in our province but unfortunately we also have some let-downs and too often, the let-downs are what people remember. Over the last year or two, some very exciting things have been happening, food-wise in Gauteng so you can imagine my excitement when one of the most exciting car manufacturers asked me to work with them to discover it all. Let me start off by saying that I’m not a big car person. Of course…
My husband and I were so lucky to enjoy a night away from the city at the gorgeous De Hoek Country hotel in Magaliesburg this weekend. We were invited by Land Rover as this would be the first of many excursions around Gauteng in an effort to find all the wonderful spots hidden in the province. South Africans are well-aware that Cape Town is the food-mecca but Gauteng has some hidden gems as well and with Land Rover, I’m going to be digging them all out and sharing them with you. De Hoek was built 18 years ago but it feels like it’s been there for a hundred years. The…
