Merry Christmas!!! – Cookie Love + Giveaway *Winner Announced*

Merry Christmas everyone 🙂

My small little family (Mr Bao, Cupcake and myself) would like to wish all my Dearest Readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day 🙂 Hope you’ve been enjoying this wonderful festival of overeating, overspending but more importantly spending time with loved ones.

I know I am once again guilty for disappearing and not posting for a few weeks. I really apologise for that, however, I simply have not had the time do very much with work being so busy, working until early hours of the morning and also moving houses. We haven’t found our new place yet, so for the interim we’re back at my parents ~ But hopefully in the New Year we’ll find our new home! Wish me luck 🙂

Because I feel bad for not blogging for such a long time a have a gift for one special Reader 🙂 Keep reading and scroll down to the bottom for details how to enter this giveaway. Christmas a time for giving and also receiving. And although we tend to spoil ourselves during the holiday season, I think it’s important to remember to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. That is the reason why I was keen in trying and reviewing the new website ‘Where Your Heart Is’ website. This is a new website created by both Farm House Direct (a website which supports and helps sell local produce) and Good Spender (a website that sells products from Australian social enterprises).

Cookie Love from Teresa 🙂

The concept of Where Your Heart Is, is to give consumers the options of purchasing products which not only help local producers but also help give back to those in need. I think it’s a great idea and definitely makes Christmas shopping a lot easier! So save the link for next year! I was sent some beautifully packed baked goodies from Cookie Love a local artisan baker from Phillip Island in Victoria.

Teresa the founder and artisan baker of Cookie love wrote me one of the nicest Christmas cards I’ve ever received explaining how she came up with the idea of selling her gorgeous cookies and moreish panforte. Oh by the way, if you haven’t noticed that’s not my hands haha I recruited Miss D to come help me devour some cookies!

Christmas Cookies

I opened the first box and squealed to see a range of talented decorated Christmas cookies, I particularly like the Santa Claus because he has the most adorable little face. Miss D and both tried a little gift box cookie, as we wanted to save the bigger ones for later ~ I was particularly impressed with how soft the cookies remained and had a nice texture. These cookies would put a smile on anyone;s face!

Gingerbread Men

Underneath Christmas cookies were another layer of Gingerbread men! Once again delicately made with the cutest faces! I’ve made them once before… and lets say some of my gingerbread men we’re definitely not as happy or cheerful looking! They had the same soft texture as the butter cookies, however, these had a subtle ginger and cinnamon flavour through them.

Panforte Noire

We then moved onto the other two boxes which were Panforte. For those who are not familiar Teresa explained in the Christmas card that panforte are very traditional Italian fruitcake with lots of nuts. Some may mix chocolate through it to make it a ‘Nero’ a dark version of Panforte.

Panforte Bianco

The serving suggestion is to sprinkle with a little icing sugar, cut into slithers and enjoy with a cup of coffee or I would suggest champagne.

 

The panforte bianco has white chocolate mixed through, a variety of nuts and dried fruit. I’m not sure I’ve had panforte before so I’m probably not the best judge, but Miss D and I really enjoyed the chewy texture and crunchiness of the nuts. Compared to the dark chocolate (nero) panforte, we found that this wasn’t as sweet and tasted more fruity.

Panforte Nero

Moving onto the Panforte Nero which is exactly the same as the Bianco except it has dark chocolate (Lindt) mixed into it instead. It still has the roasted nuts, glace fruit and also honey for sweetness. I think the dark chocolate one looks more like a regular chocolate cake ~

Once again severing suggestion is icing sugar (which I forgot oops!) and cut into slithers which mine are also too big…what can I say I’m a greedy person 😀 I must say the texture is very similar for both panforte but my personal preference would be the nero as it is sweeter and has a more intense chocolate flavour. I would have loved to have this with a glass of latte, unfortunately my life is in boxes right now so I don’t even know where my coffee machine is hehe.

The panforte were quite large and could easily feed 6 to 8 people depending no the sizing of the pieces as it is quite filling. I’ve enjoyed all the products from Cookie Love and really enjoy supporting products made in Victoria. You can also order these Cookie Love products from this Farm House Direct link and be sure to check out the other products they have. It’s like a local farmers market online without having to wake up early the products are directly sent to you 🙂

Now thanks to Teresa (Cookie Love), Where Your Heart Is and Farmhouse Direct I have one set of this Christmas pack to giveaway. I’m sorry that it’s after Christmas but it’ll be more like a New Years present 🙂

To enter this giveaway
– Leave a comment and tell me have you tried Panforte before? Will you like the Bianco (White chocolate) or Nero (Dark chocolate) more?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 4th January (Sunday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry per day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 5th January
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

My little Reindeer (Cupcake) would like to wish everyone good luck in this giveaway and also have a safe and Happy New Year!

WINNER ANNOUNCED!!!

Congratulations CC you are the winner of this Cookie Love giveaway!

I will be emailing you and sending you the gift pack very shortly.

THANK YOU EVERYONE who entered!

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Healthy Snack – Cranberry Pistachio Energy Balls + Giveaway *WINNER ANNOUNCED*

Cranberry Pistachio Energy Balls

Happy Wednesday my Dearest Readers 🙂 Half way through the week! I’m not sure if I’ve told you, but I work in a very technical team with all men…there’s only one other girl in my team, but she doesn’t work in the same office as me so I haven’t even met her before. Anyhow, these middle ages men are always mindlessly munching on snacks all day long… whenever I bring any goodies in…they will generally be cleared in a couple of minutes.

Recently, my two managers have decided to try and be healthy and opt for healthier snacks and one thing they love are pistachio nuts. They will take turns in buying a big pack and share it amongst themselves, and it’s very entertaining to see them fight over the last one in the pack! I didn’t realise until recently, that pistachios are a healthy snack which can help lower cholesterol and the fibre and fat content make them quite filling and hopefully you will eat less later ~

Wonderful Pistachio

I was recently sent some Wonderful Pistachios to try and was asked if I was interested in creating a recipe for them. So I took this opportunity to make some healthy pistachio snacks for my colleagues which were also portable as they have been going on for long runs at lunch time.

Will provide you with the recipe now, but don’t forget to scroll down to the end for the giveaway 🙂

Recipe – Cranberry and Pistachio Energy Balls adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Yield – Approximately 20 balls (Tablespoon)

Ingredients
220g (1 Cup) chopped dates
1/2 Cup honey
pince of salt
1 1/2 cup of traditional oats
1 cup unshelled pistachio nuts
1 cup dried cranberries

Notes
– Fresh dates are probably better, because they’re not as hard
– More honey may be required to help the ingredients stick together
– Make sure the dates are well chopped, as my food processor had trouble combining the honey and dates together
– I use raw pistachio, meaning they were not salted. If you use salted pistachio, you can leave the pinch of salt out
– You can add additional seeds, nuts or dried fruit if you wish to

Method
1) Place chopped dates, honey and salt into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Mixture should be slightly runny, if it is too stiff add some more honey (1 or 2 tablespoons).
2) Transfer mixture into a large bowl and the other ingredients, pistachio, oats and dried cranberries. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3) Once the mixture is cool and harder, use your hand or spoon to assist and roll them into the size you like. Place them back into the refrigerator to firm up.
When stores in an air tight container they will last up to 2 weeks.

Mr Bao tried these energy balls and gave them a thumbs up as they were quite sweet and really filling, he said he ate 2 in the afternoon and was full until it was dinner time again 🙂 Note these are also sugar free too, as it uses honey and dates!

Now let’s move onto the giveaway!

One lucky ready will win a Wonderful Pistachio pack valued at $24, pistachios in 3 flavours, Roast & Salt, Salt & Pepper and Sweet Chilli. Otherwise, you should be able to find them at your supermarket 🙂

To enter this giveaway
– Leave a comment and tell me do you like salted or raw pistachios?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 22nd October (Wednesday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry a day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 24th October (Thursday) 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

WINNER ANNOUNCED

Congratulations Jessica M! You are the winner for the Wonderful Pistachio pack! I will be emailing you about this today 🙂

 

Thank you everyone who left a comment and participated!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet received Wonderful Pistachios as a gift 

 

The Booth Delivered – Menulog + Giveaway

As much as Mr Bao and I like going out and I love any excuse to dress up, put some make up on (sometimes perhaps too much lol) and head out for date night. Some days when I work from home, I literally roll out of bed in my pyjamas and will log onto my computer and stay in my PJ’s all day, with no make up on and put no effort into my look. And on days like these I would usually ask Mr Bao to get us takeaway for dinner. But then there’s another issue, sometimes when I tell Mr Bao what I want he’ll accidentally forget (yes men) or order something else because he thinks I’ll like… But I think I’ve found a new solution for this 🙂 And that is to use an online takeaway website instead like Menulog.

I was given a $30 voucher to try the services provided by Menulog, I’ve used another similar website before and found the interface to be more or less the same. You type in your postcode/suburb and it will generate a list of restaurants who take orders and deliver in your area. I let out a little squeal when I saw ‘The Booth’ on the list, because it is one of my favourite Taiwanese restaurants in Melbourne! As you all know my love for Taiwan!

Placing the order

I was really impressed with the menu online, it practically had everything you could order in the restaurant and at the same price. There is a $5 delivery free which I think is reasonable to cover for petrol and time used to deliver the meal. It’s quite easy to navigate, you choose what you want, it has the price on the right, press the ‘+’ button and it will be automatically be placed in the panel on the right and when you’re done, press ‘Place Your Order.’

Pay for order

The next page is where you enter your delivery details and pay for the order. I really liked the function where you can choose when you want the delivery to be sent, so I can order my dinner at lunch time at work and ask for it to be delivered at a specific time.

We asked the delivery to be sent ‘Now’ and we were immediately sent an SMS confirmation with an estimated delivery time of about 45 minutes. It arrived in about an hour which is slightly longer than we expected, but knowing how busy The Booth gets every night, we will probably order earlier in advance next time.

I admit, I probably over ordered, but this is about the same amount we would order when we go to the restaurant and I really do like their food 🙂

Green Tea with pearls $4.7 and Matcha Milkshake $6

Let’s start with the drinks ~ Mr Bao ordered the Green tea with pearls one of his favourite bottle drinks and I obviously got a Matcha Milkshake. I’ve had this at The Booth before and it can be a little inconsistent at times, sometimes too runny or milky. But they got it spot on this time with good matcha flavour and smooth texture. Who would’ve thought it was possible to get a matcha milkshake delivered to your door step 🙂

Chicken Wrap $9

We shared a Chicken Wrap as a little appetizer, if you’ve haven’t had this type of Taiwanese wrap before, think of it as a Taiwanese pancake very similar texture as a Roti but a little more doughy with a crispy layer on the outside. The filling is slices of chicken with a sweet sauce similar with Hoisen sauce. One of my favourite dishes from The Booth, the pancake was not as crispy as I’d like, but I understand because it was placed in a box and the steam would have created moisture and softened it.

Special chicken rice $9.5

For my main, I got another usual Special Chicken Rice which is deep fried drumlets with rice, tomato sauce, fried egg and veggies. It’s a pretty affordable all this for only $9.5. They used a paper bag for the fried chicken which arrived piping hot and still crispy and it tasted the same as it does in the restaurant.

Three Cup Chicken Rice $9

I’m not sure if Mr Bao has ordered the Three Cup Chicken rice before, but he felt like it that night. For those who don’t know Three Cup Chicken is given the name because it uses equal quantities of sesame oil, Chinese rice wine, and soy sauce. The chicken is then braised in these ingredients to make it into a stew. We both really enjoyed this dish and thought the chicken had great flavour and probably a more ‘takeaway’ safe dish to order, because it doesn’t change the texture or flavour at all. 

Taiwanese Meat Stick Soup $6.5

It was a little chilly that night so Mr Bao and I decided to order the Taiwanese Meat Stick soup as well. Taiwanese soups are generally thicker than the Canton style soups, we’re use to drinking in Hong Kong. This soup was full of Taiwanese meat balls, bamboo sticks, woodear, mushroom and radish ~

Sweet Soya Bean Curd with Pearls $6

For those who have visited Taiwan you would know the Taiwanese love their desserts and The Booth do a great job in replicating these dishes. They offer the snowthies which is like a crushed iced dessert but the ice-cream is shaved so lightly that it has the texture of snow. Being realistic this is very hard to be delivered, but I was impressed with the selection of deserted they offered. I chose the Sweet Soya Bean curd because it’s been a while since I’ve had that and paired it with pearls. It was the perfect way to end our meal and night.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience ordering through Menulog, it was quick, easy and most importantly we got our Taiwanese food fix without having to go out 😉 If you haven’t tried ordering takeaway and having it delivered before, I would really recommend you trying because we all deserve a break once in a while especially working mothers! I have so much respect for you!

Now thanks to Menulog, one lucky Reader is going to have the chance to win a $40 voucher to this service out for themselves 🙂

To enter this giveaway
– Leave a comment and tell me how often you order takeaway and have you tried Taiwanese food before?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 7th June (Sunday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry per day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 8th June 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

Congratulations to Ben Travia you have won a $40 coupon to Menulog!

 

I will be emailing you with the voucher and details 🙂 Thanks again for entering in the Giveaway!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Mr Bao received a $30 voucher from Menulog the remainder of the bill was independently paid for. 

Hazelnut Crunch Bars – Taylor’s Wines + Giveaway *Winners Announced*

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a recipe on the blog so I’m super excited to share this recipe with you today 🙂 I was recently sent a couple bottles of Taylor’s wine to review, create a recipe to go with it and most importantly do a giveaway for my amazing readers!

Gewürztraminer 2012, Taylor’s Wine

I was sent the Gewürztraminer 2012 from their white wine range, its a dry crisp wine with lime and lychee flavours. I think it would go quite well with a seafood dish such as rissoto, Michelle (The Bakernista) paired it with a Thai Red Curry prawn which I thought sounded great.

But you know me, I’m no good with making anything savoury, so decided to make something sweet (so predictable :P). I had so many ideas going through my head – apple pie, cheesecake and pudding. Eventually, decided to make something a little richer because I think the dryness of the white wine will cut through the sweetness.

Hazelnut Crunch Bars

I came across this Hazelnut Crunch Bar recipe and thought it was the perfect thing to make because it used two of favourite ingredients feuilletine (thin crepe crisps) and Hazelnut Praline Paste. If you haven’t used this praline paste before, think Nutella but without the chocolate flavour and but has intense hazelnut flavour.

This is also ridiculously easy to make, no baking required just some chopping and melting. The end result is a crispy chocolate layer topped with a hazelnut chocolate ganache filling. Mr Bao tried it and said it reminded him very much like the Bueno chocolate bar made by Ferrero 🙂

I’m quite happy with how these hazelnut crunch bars turned out but found the chocolate ganache was quite soft, so maybe next time, I will add less creme to make it a more solid filling so it doesn’t melt in your hands as soon as you touch them 🙂 If you like Nutella, Bueno and hazelnuts – you will LOVE this! It’s not always easy or cheap to buy feuilletine or hazelnut praline paste, but trust me it really makes a huge difference and you won’t be disappointed!

Now going to share the recipe with you, but don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom for the giveaway!

Recipe – Hazelnut Crunch Bars adapted from The Kitchn 

Yield – 8×12 inch tray (approximately 20 bars) 

Ingredients 
For the base:
170g dark chocolate, melted (microwave or bain marie)
285g (1 cup) hazelnut praline paste or Nutella
140g (2 cups) feuilletine

For the filling:
160g milk or dark chocolate, finely chopped (depends on your preference) 
60g dark chocolate, finely chopped
225g (1 cup) thickened cream
57g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Optional to garnish
Toasted hazelnuts
Feuilletine

Method
1) Spray the pan 8 x 11inch pan with oil and line it with baking paper, allowing it to hang over the sides.
2) In a large bowl, mix the melted chocolate and hazelnut praline paste together until well combined. Gently fold in the feuilletine trying not to crush them until combined.

3) Pour mixture into prepared tray and flatten using the back of a spoon.

4) For the ganache filling, place chocolate (finely chopped) into a glass/steel bowl. Place thickened cream into a saucepan and over medium heat until it simmers and bubbles start to form. Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. Add diced butter into chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth and shiny.

5) Pour ganache over the feuilletine crust base and smooth with a flat spatula. Place into the refrigerator to set and firm approximately 1-2 hours or over night. Slice into thin bars and ganache with toasted hazelnuts or feuilletine if you like 🙂

Giveaway

One lucky reader will win two bottles of Taylor’s wine!

To enter this giveaway
– Leave a comment and tell me what do you like to eat when you drink white wine?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 24th March (Monday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry a day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 23rd March (Sunday) 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

Winner Announced

Congratulations Nicole! I will be in contact with you soon!

 

Daisy@Nevertoosweet tried and reviewed Taylor’s wine as a gift, all opinions are true and honest. 

Be Bold Blend – Hudson Coffee + Giveaway *Winners Announced*

If you ask my best friend Sasa what she thought of me the first time we met, she’ll definitely tell you “Daisy was loud, noisy and very bold!” Yup hahaha I have been known to be overly friendly and ask rather bold and inappropriate questions as soon as we meet. I remember the first time I met Sasa, first thing I said was “Hey I know you and after lunch I can drive you home!” clearly she was quite taken back but I felt like I already knew her as we had so many mutual friends 😛

Source: Hudson Coffee

Anyhow, reason why I told you this little story is because, Hudson coffee has recently released their newest Barista ‘Bold’ blend of coffee. As the name suggestions, it’s not for the lighthearted it’s intense, dark with underlying earthy tasting notes. It makes a good strong latte which helps kick start our day and keeps me awake during those boring morning meetings 😀

It was really sweet, one morning I woke up and Mr Bao managed to make a latte with a little heart on top ~ It’s not as pretty as the latte art they can do at Hudson but it’s still a really good first attempt!

Thanks to Hudson and Keep Left PR two lucky readers will get the chance to win their own packet of Bold blend coffee, a Keep Cup and a $10 voucher that can be used at our Hudson stores.

To enter this giveaway:
– Leave a comment and tell me what’s one of the BOLDEST things you’ve done? 🙂 
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 30th October (Wednesday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry a day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 31st October (Thursday) 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

PS. Fast-forward 8 years later Sasa and I are still best friends…so I guess being bold isn’t such a bad thing? 😛

Congratulations! Narelle and Ling you are the winners of this giveaway! I will email you soon 

 

Daisy@Nevertoosweet received the Bold Blend Coffee a gift from Hudson Coffee and Keep Left PR however, was not paid to write this recipe or review.