Hello my lovelies! I know you’ve been waiting for one of these for a while. And truth be told, I had meant to do one for the longest time but September and October (and actually this whole year) has been so busy that I could barely stop to think! But no matter, for hear ye hear ye, we had a fantastic selection of goodies for you this month with a mammoth 16 brands featured! All you have to do for the chance to win something is tell me which item you’d like to try and why. And before you know it, a package could come knocking at your door containing the delicious goodies! These can only be posted within Australia and the giveaway ends at Midnight AEST on the 7th of November, 2010.

Lotus & Ming

I love dumplings with something of a zealous passion and when I received a box of Lotus & Ming goodies I may or may not have done a happy dance (Ok yes I did). These lovely morsels are dumplings with a slight twist from your usual. BBQ pork buns aren’t just BBQ pork buns but instead they are smokey BBQ pork buns. Won tons aren’t just won tons but they’re peking duck and apple wontons. My favourites were the Peking Duck and apple wontons, the chilli chicken dumpings and the scallop and shiitake dumplings which were so addictive! I seriously missed these when they were gone from my plate They also have a great range of fifteen different types of low fat dumplings (yes, all of our prayers have been answered!) as well as vegetarian and vegan goodies as well as dipping sauces and premium seafood like salt and pepper squid and salt and pepper baby whiting.

Thanks to Lotus & Ming, five lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will win a fantastic pack of Lotus & Ming goodies. Drumroll please…. Lotus & Ming Scallop & Shiitake Dumplings, Lotus & Ming Chilli Chicken Dumplings, Lotus & Ming Peking Duck and Apple Wonton, Lotus & Ming Shitake & Leek Spring Rolls, Lotus & Ming BBQ Pork & Plum Spring Rolls, Lotus & Ming Whole baby Whiting, Lotus & Ming Sauce Soy Fusion and Lotus & Ming Sauce Spicy Plum. The total value of each pack is $107.90! As the products are frozen, delivery can only be to the Sydney Metropolitan area.

Barilla

I have a funny story about Barilla. They were kind enough to send me a big box of goodies to try out and this box contained all sorts of great pasta and sauces as well as polenta, bread flour, grissini and pesto (and even their wholemeal pasta which is really good too). It was a veritable treasure trove of deliciousness. Because I travel a lot and Mr NQN doesn’t get to go with me as he has to work (how dull!) he is often left to fend for himself. I don’t often have time to make him something to eat and I got a plaintive email from him one night saying “Our cupboards are totally full but I have nothing to eat”. I mean the man has no idea what to do with truffle salt or paperbark! You see his culinary skills extend purely to cooking pasta and eating it with a bought sauce. So I pointed him in the direction of the Barilla treasure trove and he happily dipped into it every night. Our favourites were the tomato and olive, arrabiata and ricotta sauces, the wholemeal pasta and the cheese tortellini.

Thanks to Barilla, ten lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will win a pack that contains two pasta and two sauce, apron, pasta tin, grissini sticks, Mulino Bianco, instant polenta (to make these polenta fries with gorgonzola sauce!) and a pizza kit! Plus Barilla are also currently running a store promotion wherein if you buy two pastas and two sauces then you then register online for a free cooking class at Casa Barilla. It’s a demonstration style cooking class, with Executive Chef Luca Ciano demonstrating two pasta dishes. And because the winners will be getting two pasta and two sauce in this box they can register straight away and get to go to the class. So not only do 10 lucky NQN readers receive pasta and other goodies to eat, they also get a place at a cooking class!

Twisted Yogurt

The other night I went to the opening of Twisted Yoghurt store in Bondi Beach and made sure that I brought along yoghurt freak Mr NQN. I like yogurt but he seriously luuuurves the stuff. I’ve tried some of the other frozen yogurt places and their yogurt is just way too tangy rendering it way too strong for me (and way too strong for him too) so I remained somewhat nonplussed by the whole frozen yogurt phenomenon. Then I tried some Twisted yoghurt and I was utterly smitten. It was just the right level of sweetness, not overpoweringly sweet and it had a tang but it wasn’t so tangy that your face screws up when you take a spoonful. What Twisted yoghurt does is twists two flavours out of their 18 flavours of yoghurt together so that you get a very cute combination of flavours such as my favourite: green tea and acai berry (aka “Daily Dose”) or green tea and passionfruit (aka “Passion Pop”) or Mr NQN’s favourite the original and mango (aka “Lip Licker”). It is also all made from the non fat Greek yoghurt with live cultures. And because it’s in Bondi Beach and is inhabited by beautiful people, it is 98% fat free. The texture is light and very, very creamy (read: it doesn’t taste low fat!).

Thanks to Twisted Yogurt, fifteen lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will win 2 x 1 litre take home packs so that you can pick and try two flavours (or four if you twist them up!). They blast freeze their take home packs so that they remain creamy and smooth. The winners will need to pick up your prize from the Bondi Beach store at 36 Hall Street, Bondi Beach.

Madame Flavour

I am a huge tea drinker. If you were to step into my kitchen you would see a huge canister of loose leaf Madame Flavour Earl Grey with a twist, my current flavour that gently infuses my favourite tea Earl Grey, with lemon myrtle. Madame Flavour tea pods are great because they come in adorable silky purses and I always look at tea as a welcome break in the day and it is always so much nicer to make tea using nice tea bags if you aren’t brewing loose leaf tea.

Thanks to Madame Flavour five lucky winners will receive the full retail range of infuser pods! This means: two boxes of 25 aromatic Madame Flavour English Breakfast Infuser Pods, one box of 25 Earl Grey Twist Infuser Pods, one box of 18 sensual Sultry Chai Infuser Pods, one box of 18 Green, Jasmine and Pear Infuser Pods and one box of White with Rose infuser pods!

Green & Black’s and Fleur Wood

“What does fashion designer Fleur Wood have to do with food?” I asked when I received her new book Food Fashion Friends.  After all, fashionable people don’t tend to eat much. Or do they? Fleur’s new book is a girly tome full of recipes. I must admit I was skeptical at first. I own some of her dresses and thought that they might be full of cocktail party finger food served with a glass of champagne (which is about all that I’ve seen fashion people eat) but there are lush recipes including a stunning rhubarb meringue cake (you will be mine cake!) and a lemon cake with Earl Grey icing. OK some of the pictures are like a fashion magazine and styled to the hilt like a fashion spread but there are some lovely recipes contained within.

Thanks to Green & Blacks organic chocolate, one lucky Not Quite Nigella reader will win a copy of the new Fleur Wood book Food Fashion Friends worth $59.99 as well as a selection of Green & Black’s chocolates with 100g bars of Mint Fondant, Almond, Dark 70%, Milk, Maya Gold and Butterscotch!

Saxa Salt Flakes

Well we’ve all heard about Maldon salt but of course this salt comes all the way from Merry England which is all very fine but also has a tonne of food miles added to it. There is now an Australian salt that rivals Maldon and it is by Saxa. The salt comes from the pristine Great Southern Oceans of Australia too which are so lovely and pure. Chef Justin North endorses it and has created some recipes to go with it (I’m doing the pork belly for Christmas ). They are aimed at the premium end of the market (hehe you know I wouldn’t put just any salt on here!) and are priced at $7.99 a box.

Thanks to Saxa, twelve lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will receive a box of regular Saxa Salt Flakes and a box of iodised Saxa Salt Flakes!

Sandhurst

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Sandhurst items on supermarket shelves. They’re great to put in the cupboard for guests that just pop in (arrgh the dreaded pop ins!). They have a range of lovely goodies but I have to confess my very favourite were the lite semi dried tomatoes. They still packed the intense flavour of a semi dried tomato but they were really low fat too-diet win! Summer bikini win! Along with Lite Semi-dried tomatoes they also have Antipasto mix, Kalamata olives, Prima Scelta Chargrilled Artichokes, Rainbow Olives and Panino mix or Jalapeño stuffed olives

Thanks to Sandhurst, ten lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will win a pack worth $30 each with sixof the above items (I’ll make sure they include the lite semi dried tomatoes, you’ll love them! )

Bonne Maman

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Although I’m not what one would consider a goth (I mean really, do goths tan or more accurately fake tan?), I am not really surprising anyone when I say that I do all of the accoutrements of the gothic world. That doesn’t mean that I also don’t like the girly but I get similarly excited when I see the Hallowe’en decorations filling the stores. Not only do I get to create some creative food, I also get to dress up. And you see Dear Readers, that is what girls do best.

My Hallowe’en parties are costume only affairs. I admit that when guests don’t dress up, I get a little upset inside and somewhere a unicorn dies (ok not really). Costumes don’t have to be elaborate or costly. Case in point, my friend Miss America made an awesome costume where he stuffed a pillow under his shirt and wore a retro shirt and hat from a vintage store. So when people don’t bother dressing up, like Franck Eggelhoffer would do, I strike them off my invite list for the next year. Yes I can be ruthless that way. The guests that tend to not get dressed up are the boys. Mr NQN is a prime example. He will do anything to try and avoid getting dressed up.

As you can see I delighted in getting dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. OK my costume was a little shorter than I wanted. Queen Viv was going to make it for me but she was called to South Australia for work so with no time left, I bought it on ebay. And I warn you if you go that route, they only seem to sell sexy adult costumes and I spent to whole night pulling down my skirt trying to ensure that I wasn’t mooning my guests. And along with dressing the part, I also like making the food. The more ghoulish and blood like the better and I tend to use a lot of black and red food colouring for this holiday.

I got the idea for these directly from Linda’s lovely Bubble and Sweet blog where they were more of an ode to Twilight but of course the timing wasn’t lost on me. She was kind enough to email me tips on how to do it. I did the lazy route and made pops out of white Tim Tams rather than cake. One thing that I would suggest is to buy the Wilton red chocolate melts which is what Linda suggested as painting the white chocolate was a) fruitless b) stupid and c) time wasting. I’d like to save you from that fate but still enjoy these gorgeously vampish treats.

Sure there is some food colouring involved and when Teena brought little Annabel to the party I didn’t give her any for fear of her turning into a head spinning toddler. But they are surprisingly easy to make, especially the lips. Plus they can help give you the vampire teeth look while providing you with a snack at the same time.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like getting dressed up for costume parties or Hallowe’en?

Vampire Cookie Pops

Makes 16 Vampire Pops

• 1 packet white chocolate Tim Tams
• 50grams/1.7 ozs light or regular cream cheese (I used light)
• 3-4 tablespoons almond meal
• red food colouring gel or liquid
• 250/6ozs Wilton red chocolate melted
• Lollypop sticks
• a small batch of black royal icing (see recipe below) or you can use chocolate fondant
• white fondant for teeth and fangs

1. In a food processor, process the biscuits, cream cheese and red colouring until it becomes a smooth paste. You may need to stop and scrape 2-3 times to do this. Add almond meal if it becomes too sticky. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes until it becomes firmer.

From a ball, to a flattened ball..

To a diamond

To lips!

2. With a melon baller or small spoon scoop out truffle shaped balls and rolls these into balls between your palms. If you have hot palms like me, run them under cold water and quickly towel them dry. Shape them into lips but making a diamond shape and then fashioning lips-this is surprising easier than you would think ’

3. Melt red chocolate in a double boiler. Dip a lollypop stick or a small wooden skewer into chocolate and carefully and gently insert it into the base of the cookie pop. Allow to set firm. Then dip each ball in the chocolate making sure that excess chocolate drips off-this is very important. Place back on parchment lined tray to set firm.

4. When set, add a little black royal icing in a long oval shape in the centre of the lips. Then shape some fangs with the white fondant and some teeth and affix these to the royal icing which will set hard and adhere them.