Good Food & Wine Show

Yesterday (Sunday) I was lucky enough to win tickets to attend the Good Food & Wine Show in my home town of Adelaide. I took a fellow food & wine lover, my oldest friend Cathy along with me. Thank you Westfield West Lakes for the tickets (that I won in an on line competition via their on line newsletter)! Mine was a runner up prize so was just entry to the show - would have loved to have won the VIP pack, but regardless we still had loads of fun!

We went for the afternoon and I have to say one of the best things was spending time together without partners or children. It is not often we get to hang out just the two of us.

We spent the afternoon wandering around trying lots of yummy produce and tasting many lovely wines. Some of the produce was local, some from interstate but the majority seemed to be Australian.

We did buy a $3 wine glass each which seemed to be the only way to get to taste most of the wines...so unfortunately I did break my buy nothing new pledge for the month :( I alos purchased a few gourmet food items - some organic vanilla beans which were only $1.90 each if you bought 10 (Cathy and I split these). I was very surprised at the price as one standard one at the supermarket is like $6 the last time I looked. I'll be using these to make some vanilla sugar and some home made vanilla essence/extract. These could make an appearance in my Christmas gift baskets I think. Now I just need to find some inexpensive vodka.

Getting back to the show, we also got to attend the Fisher & Paykel celebrity theatre and see Ainsley Harriott and Matt Moran. Sadly I didn't get to meet either of them afterwards, but they were both entertaining and funny. Ainsley would have to have been my favourite and the most entertaining of the two. The dishes they both cooked looked fabulous and fairly easy to make at home. Not sure if the recipes are somewhere, might have missed that bit but was all fun.

We also picked up along the way some tomato relish, raspberry vinegar and organic Apricots (part of the Macro range available at Woolworths). There were definite advantages to going on the last day as a lot of the stalls were selling products cheaper or doing package deals, so we managed to make a few savings there. 

All in all we had a great afternoon and great fun together. I'll think about going next year even if I have to pay the $20 ticket price. I think for all the goods we got to sample it was good value for money and I got to try a lot of products I've seen in supermarkets or gourmet delis, and wanted to try.

Anyone tried any new food products lately?

buy nothing new

So many times of late I've written posts in my head, lying in bed at night! Finally tonight I'm putting my thoughts out there in the world again. 2011 has been a difficult year but I'm determined not to let it get me down!
I've still been on my frugal bandwagon, although I think my spending has gone a little off track of late.
In order to make myself accountable I've signed up to buy nothing new month. Although it stops me buying new things other than groceries and essentials, I can still buy used or swap. See more about it here buynothingnew.com.au .
I've got some new frugal recipes to share and my thoughts and ideas on living a frugal and fun life.
Thanks for reading :)