My first ever blog post, my recipe for creamy baked chicken and mango curry, placed runner-up in a competition run by Avonmore and I now own a Prize-Winning Recipe Blog.
Whoop Whoop!
The competition was to create a recipe using Avonmore cooking cream. I won a lovely hamper with lots of gorgeous food products. But not only that, my recipe is now featured on the Avonmore website (check it out here). This was a huge surprise as like I said it was my first ever attempt at food blogging. It has been a huge boost to my confidence and belief in my blog. I hope this is just the start of many competitions and rewards for my writing and website.
Ok, now on to the good stuff; the contents of the hamper.
There were two snack products from the Dorset based company Olives et al. I demolished, in one sitting, the very moreish and highly addictive crunchy-coated sesame peanuts. They are flavoursome and not at all greasy or salty.
The second product from this company was the extremely tasty Chilli Puffs. They are simply the best chilli flavoured mini rice crackers that I have ever had. Surprisingly, I’ve had LOADS of chilli rice crackers in my lifetime. They have a kicking fiery flavour and surprising sweetness to them. I will buy these if I see them in a shop.
Next to go, although this time I shared with my mam, were the two tubes of jelly beans from The Jelly Bean Factory. We shared the tube of 36 gourmet flavours and the tube of tropical flavours. Would you believe up until then I had never had a Jelly Bean before as I always thought that they contained gelatine. Turns out Jelly Beans are gelatine free, gluten free, GMO free, fat free, and nut free. Therefore, Jelly Beans are a great sweet treat for allergy suffers. My favourite flavours were cranberry apple, wild cherry and passion fruit. My mam seemed to like every flavour as she popped them all in her gob before I could taste anymore! Like mother like daughter.
The Sheridan’s Mixed Seed Crackers didn’t last long.
I ate the whole box whilst waiting for my dinner. I have some appetite on me I tell ye! Again, these are from an Irish company and are so good. I ate them plain, no need to add anything on them, they are perfectly tasty on their own, plus, I am trying to ‘be good’ with my food choices. Cheese just seemed too sinful. However, eating a whole pack of crackers in the space of five minutes is totally acceptable and ‘healthy’! Right? These crackers are so buttery and they remind me of freshly baked scones for some reason.
And finally, tonight, whist waiting for the kettle to boil, I ate almost the whole pack of Pâtisserie Régale Ginger Spice cookies. Yes, that’s right, I couldn’t even wait for the kettle to boil. I ate them there and then. These cookies of character are individually handmade in West Cork. They are delicious with a lovely soft baked texture, bursting with ginger, cinnamon and a touch of clove and studded with pieces of crystallised ginger. They are nice big cookies and quite filling. One cookie would be most satisfying for any normal person but not a big hefty pig like me. I can never stop at just one of anything. It will be my undoing for sure.
I didn’t get photos of these products out of their packaging as my mouth was quicker than my hand, and by the time I remembered to take a photo I had eaten everything in sight. Oops!
The rest of the products are safely locked away out of my reach, for now at least. I will create a recipe using the other ingredients and post it up here for all to see, well that’s if I don’t eat the stuff first.
“Thanks for reading”
If you like this post, you may also like my spelt bread recipe.
You might also like to try my coconut cookies recipe.
You might enjoy reading my blog post of the difference between natural versus Dutch-process cocoa powder.
If you liked this prize winning recipe blog post, please share with others.