HAVE YOU BOOKED FOR THE CTFBC?

Greetings from the Mother City. It is the most amazing day again here. HOT but beautiful. These photographs were taken from Boyes Drive looking across False Bay on Sunday evening during the rising of the full moon. It was such a magnificent evening and the view was breathtaking. It was difficult to choose between the sunset over the Atlantic or the moon rise over the Indian Ocean. How wonderful to have choices like that!! As the sun was setting the moon started appearing and hung over the mountain like a huge orange balloon for a moment or two before gracefully continuing to rise into the pink, purple and orange sky.

Hanging like a huge orange balloon above the Hottentot's Holland Mountains

The colours of nature......

A close up but my tripod was not on steady ground....

Highway to Heaven

Looking towards Fish Hoek & Simonstown with the lights of St James &

Kalk Bay Harbour twinkling in the gathering darkness

Homeward bound after a long day spent in the sun and fresh sea air on the beach

(All photos taken with a Canon Powershot SX20IS)

Better for you than Champagne & Botox ;o)

To all those who have not yet booked for the Cape Town Food Bloggers Conference......nows your chance. Don't miss out on this wonderful experience. And I really mean that it is going to be a wonderful experience.

To all those who have BOOKED but have not yet received an email from me with the banking details please contact me collywolly50@yahoo.co.uk urgently as I need payment in the bank so that I can pay Giggling Gourmet for the venue and food by the end of tomorrow before I leave for a 10 day trip to a wedding in the hinterland!! Thanx so much.

Don't forget to let me know if you didn't get banking details. If you did get it please cough up. If paying via EFT do instruct your bank to notify me via sms that the deposit has been made. If you do the deposit in the bank then email me a copy of the deposit slip. I need to know who has paid so I can tick it on the booking list as paid. There are no tickets issued so this is the only way you can get into the conference.

The details for the conference once again, in case you have not seen it.........or have forgotten!! :o)

Date: Sunday 21 March 2010
Time: 9.30 for 10am - 5pm. Registration will start at 9.30am sharp.
Venue: The Giggling Gourmet Cooks Playground - 32 Napier Street opposite the new Cape Quarter underground parking garage entrance. A buffet style lunch will be served by the Giggling Gourmet team
Keynote Speaker - Jeanne Horak-Druiff from the award winning blog Cooksister
Other speakers - the delightful and talented Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking
Jane-Anne Hobbs, otherwise known as Juno, professional book editor, sub-editor and writer of 20 years experience and author of the fabulous blog Scrumptious SA and
Sam Wilson Editor in Chief of Women24, Food24 and Parent24 over at 24.com .
Cost - R430.00 (including a goodie bag but excluding travel or accommodation expenses)

The agenda for the day is as follows:
09.30 - 10.00: Registration and Champagne/Orange Juice (Orangina whooohoooo!!)

10.00 - 10.15: Welcome & Introduction by that super celebrity chef Jenny Morris aka the Giggling Gourmet(you cannot miss this lady guys hehe)
10.15 - 11.15: WRITING - 'Finding your Blog Voice' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff and 'Effective Recipe Writing & Editorial Techniques' by Jane-Anne Hobbs

11.15 - 11.45: 'Getting to know your camera' by Nina Timm

11.45 - 12.00: Short Coffee Break

12.00 - 12.45: 'How to be a better Blogger' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

12.45 - 13.30: Lunch Break (YUMYUM some delicious surprises here hmmmmmm)

13.30 - 14.15: 'Social Networking - Getting Connected' by Sam Wilson

14.15 - 15.00: 'Food Styling' by Nina Timm

15.00 - 15.15: Short Tea/Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.00: 'The Legalities & Ethics of Blogging' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

16.00 - 16.30: 'Monetizing Your Blog - how to make money from blogging' by Nina Timm

16.30 - 17.00: Questions & Answers with all the speakers

And if that is not enough to attract you ..............
* Each delegate will receive a goodie bag stuffed with exciting foodie lovers goodies!!!

* We have some fantastic grand prizes and give-aways to hand out to a lot of lucky bloggers. I will put up some more logos and confirmations tomorrow for you all to see......... :o)

Have a great evening,
Colleen

PRIZES & GIVEAWAYS CTFBC

Nobody ever told me that my little baby was going to grow into a big monster with horns....I tell you people I am stressed out of my cotton socks...But hang on a minute. Its very hot in Cape Town today and I don't actually have any socks on teehee...I reckon I could've booked out half the CTICC for a two day event at this rate. It is exciting stuff indeed.

So to keep you all updated here is the latest news

Arniston Bay Wines will be sponsoring the wines for the event.

Thank you so much Arniston Bay Wines and The Company of Wine People for believing in my project!

then.....................

we get to enjoy these cute little little babies on the day

Thats not all folk......................................

has come on board and I will have 100 double tickets to give away on the day

WOW!! Thank you so much Taste of Cape Town

 This remarkable festival will bring together the city's most acclaimed restaurants and
 carefully selected exhibitors to attract 20 000 of Cape Town’s most dedicated and sophisticated foodies.
This year the Cape’s most extravagant food festival will again be held at Rhodes High School, Montreal Avenue , Mowbray. From Wednesday the 24th, to Sunday the 28th of March, 19 of the Cape’s top restaurants and chefs will be serving a stunning selection of sample - sized signature dishes to Taste of Cape Town visitors. You've got to be there to cut the mustard :o)


And then..........what almost made this gal's jaw fall to the floor and faint clean away.........

THE CAVIAR GROUP

sent an email confirming the following prizes - and I quote -

20 Signed Caviar Dreams Cookbooks

A 6 course set menu dinner paired with specially selected wines for 10 persons at Blonde Restaurant 

that is opening in May

and.................

2 Caviar Fine Food Deli picnic hampers and gift boxes to the value of R500.00 each

I don't quite know what to say anymore........thank you thank you thank you!! I am overwhelmed.

This conference is going to ROCK!!!

And don't think this is the end of it.......don't forget those goodie bags that are slowly but surely getting overstuffed.

I don't have all the space on here to thank everyone but I will be doing so as soon as I have all the confirmations and logos

Before moving onto other things I want to thank the fabulous girls over at

  24.com for all the help and support that I am getting from them! I really appreciate it and

You guys also ROCK!!

If you have not yet booked your place do so soon or you might be very disappointed!!

Contact me here with your real name, blogs name, email addie and cell phone no urgently as I will be going away for a week and the rest of the seats are now available on a first come first served basis.

Here are the conference details again:

Date: Sunday 21 March 2010

Time: 9.30 for 10am - 5pm

Venue: The Giggling Gourmet Cooks Playground - just opened at 32 Napier Street opposite the new Cape Quarter.

A buffet style lunch will be served by the Giggling Gourmet team

Keynote Speaker - Jeanne Horak-Druiff from the award winning blog Cook Sister

Other speakers - the delightful and talented Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking,  Jane-Anne Hobbs, otherwise known as Juno, professional book editor, sub-editor and writer of 20 years experience and author of the fabulous blog Scrumptious SA and Sam Wilson Editor in Chief of Women24, Food24 and  Parent24

Cost - R430.00 (including a goodie bag but excluding travel or accommodation expenses)

The venue can accommodate 100 delegates so please book urgently if you don't want to miss out on the blogging event of the year :o)

Here is the day's agenda - to whet your appetite if you have not yet decided that this is for you:

09.30 - 10.00: Registration and Champagne/Orange Juice

10.00 - 10.15: Welcome & Introduction by Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris

10.15 - 11.15: WRITING - 'Finding your Blog Voice' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff and 'Effective Recipe Writing & Editorial Techniques' by Jane-Anne Hobbs

11.15 - 11.45: 'Getting to know your camera' by Nina Timm

11.45 - 12.00: Short Coffee Break

12.00 - 12.45: 'How to be a better Blogger' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

12.45 - 13.30: Lunch Break

13.30 - 14.15: 'Social Networking - Getting Connected' by Sam Wilson

14.15 - 15.00: 'Food Styling' by Nina Timm

15.00 - 15.15: Short Tea/Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.00: 'The Legalities & Ethics of Blogging' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

16.00 - 16.30: 'Monetizing Your Blog - how to make money from blogging' by Nina Timm

16.30 - 17.00: Questions & Answers with all the speakers

And don't forget of course the amazing prize that was previously announced on the blogs.....

A course from the divine chocolatiers for two to attend any of their amazing chocolate workshops at

And so I bid you goodnight. I shall hit the keyboard again early tomorrow morning to carry on my campaigning and co-ordinating.

Colleen xx

CTFBC 2010

CAPE TOWN FOOD BLOGGERS CONFERENCE

Time waits for no blogger. There are only 3 1/2 weeks left before the most exciting blogging event to hit the shores of South Africa. I cannot believe that it is so close now...........and I still have soooo much to do!! Stress, nerves, knotted neck and shoulders and rescue remedy are my constant companions....this has to be the biggest challenge in my life since...well, since sliced bread :o)
Here again is a reminder to all food bloggers and those readers and lurkers on the blogs who might be interested in starting up their own blogs


Date: Sunday 21 March 2010
Time: 9.30 for 10am - 5pm
Venue: The Giggling Gourmet Cooks Playground - just opened at 32 Napier Street opposite the new Cape Quarter.

A buffet style lunch will be served by the Giggling Gourmet team

Keynote Speaker - Jeanne Horak-Druiff from the award winning blog Cooksister
Other speakers - the delightful and talented Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking Jane-Anne Hobbs, otherwise known as Juno, professional book editor, sub-editor and writer of 20 years experience and author of the fabulous blog Scrumptious SA and Sam Wilson Editor in Chief of Women24, Food24 and Parent24.

Cost - R430.00 (including a goodie bag but excluding travel or accommodation expenses)

The venue can accommodate 100 delegates so please book urgently if you don't want to miss out on the blogging event of the year :o)
Here is the day's agenda - to whet your appetite if you have not yet decided that this is for you:

09.30 - 10.00: Registration and Champagne/Orange Juice

10.00 - 10.15: Welcome & Introduction by Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris

10.15 - 11.15: WRITING - 'Finding your Blog Voice' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff and 'Effective Recipe Writing & Editorial Techniques' by Jane-Anne Hobbs

11.15 - 11.45: 'Getting to know your camera' by Nina Timm

11.45 - 12.00: Short Coffee Break

12.00 - 12.45: 'How to be a better Blogger' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

12.45 - 13.30: Lunch Break

13.30 - 14.15: 'Social Networking - Getting Connected' by Sam Wilson

14.15 - 15.00: 'Food Styling' by Nina Timm

15.00 - 15.15: Short Tea/Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.00: 'The Legalities & Ethics of Blogging' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

16.00 - 16.30: 'Monetizing Your Blog - how to make money from blogging' by Nina Timm

16.30 - 17.00: Questions & Answers with all the speakers


And if that is not enough to attract you ..............

* Each delegate will receive a goodie bag stuffed with exciting foodie lovers goodies!!!

* We will be having some grand prizes to hand out to some lucky bloggers. I have a few secrets up my sleeve but this one I have already shared with you all.....

A course from the divine chocolatiers for two to attend any of their amazing chocolate workshops at
The Chocolate Studio

So do yourself a favour - email me your personal and contact details here as soon as possible. I need to know who is coming so I can book your seats before I go away from 8th to 15th March to a wedding in the Eastern Cape.

I require real name (for name badges) blog name, email address and cell numbers. In return I will email you the banking details for EFT payments to secure your seat.

If you have already given me the above I will contact you via email soon.

I am still looking for some major companies to come on board with financial sponsorship. This is so that there can be a future for the SA FOOD BLOGGERS CONFERENCE and the chance to take it to other cities. If any of you have any contacts that could help me in this I would so value an email from you giving me details. Thank you so much.
Lastly, if you know of any food or wine bloggers who would be interested to find out about this conference please either let me know or give me their blogs names and I will go and find them and invite them. I have been doing a lot of that but it is very time consuming work trawling the net for bloggers. Most times I just get sooooo waylaid by all the fabulous looking food that I see out there LOL!! There are a lot of beautiful blogs to get lost in.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. The speakers are all excited and working on their presentations and I personally cannot wait to get educated on blogging :o)

Better for you than Champagne & Botox :o)

Colleen xx

HEAVENLY APPLE PIE

This morning passed in a very pleasant way. I took some time off from conference convening and had a little tea for some "old" friends. A wonderful excuse to make my heavenly apple pie. Two of the couples present are ex-pats visiting from Los Angeles and Texas so it was a wonderful reunion. This is an old family recipe that I have sadly neglected in the last few years but yesterday when I was feeling very tired with no desire to bake it suddenly came to mind at the last minute as I was about to go and see what I could buy for tea!!!! (HORRORS!!!) I think everything inside of my baker's heart rebelled against that idea so late last night found me in the kitchen whipping up my heavenly apple pie. The aromas that accompanied me to bed after midnight were enticing to say the least. I served it simply on a plate with a dollop of whipped cream. It was so delicious I thought I would share it with you.  I am, after all, a food blogger and that's what food bloggers do :o)

HEAVENLY APPLE PIE

125ml Granulated Sugar

60g Butter - at room temperature

Vanilla Bean Seeds - just a knife tip

3 Jumbo sized Eggs

30ml Milk

250ml All purpose or Cake Flour

5ml Baking Powder

1ml Salt

1ml Ground Cinnamon

1 Can Pie Apples

For the sauce:

1 Can Evaporated Milk

60g Butter - at room temperature

250ml Granulated Sugar

Knife tip of vanilla bean seeds



Preheat the oven to 180deg Celcius

Grease a deep pie dish well with butter

Beat the sugar, butter & vanilla well until light

Beat the eggs until very pale and thick

Mix the eggs into the batter

Sift the dry ingredients together then fold into the batter

Add the milk and mix through

Turn the mixture out into the greased pie plate and level

Place the apples on top of the cake mixture

Bake for about 30 minutes until lightly browned on top and a skewer inserted comes out clean



Ten minutes before the cake comes out the oven make the sauce as follows:

Boil together the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes - stirring all the time

and watching that it does not boil over or burn

Once the pie comes out the oven prick it all over with a fork or skewer then pour over the boiling sauce

a bit at a time until it is all absorbed by the cake

Serve at room temperature with whipped cream, ice cream or custard!

Enjoy,
Colleen xx

CTFBC - EXCITING NEWS

Better for you than Champagne & Botox :o)

Hi everyone, it's Friday and this is me your intrepid conference co-ordinator reporting in once again with some more exciting news.

I got an email from my editor, Chef Caro, over at food24.com informing me that a rather delicious sponsor has come on board for the conference

Yes the divine chocolatiers are donating a voucher for two to attend any of their amazing chocolate workshops

Do yourselves a favour and go take a long look at  The Lindt Chocolate Studio and drool over these workshops.....

Thank you Lindt for this fantastic prize....only available to attending bloggers on the day :o)

If you havn't yet booked your seat....please do drop me a line at collywolly50atyahoodotcodotuk (very soon as interest is snowballing) giving me the number of seats, real name, blog name, email addie and cell phone number

There is limited space available.

Have a great weekend

Colleen xx

CTFBC NEWS & UPDATE

Its another beautiful day in Cape Town today - well, it is from where I am looking at it here on the southside of the mountain. You never can tell with this awesome city. You can drive around the peninsula and experience all four seasons in one day :o) On Saturday evening the hubs and I went to drink in one of the spectacular sunsets that we experience here and it was a really good one, especially in light of the fact that the next day was Valentines Day. Take a look for yourself and you will know what I mean.....

 

 

 

The organizing and co-ordinating of the conference is going very well. It is my intention that we bring those who are attending this exciting event a slick, polished and highly entertaining and educational day.

 Exciting news is that Sam Wilson Editor in Chief of Women24, Food24 and Parent24 has agreed to speak on one of the topics and Jane-Anne Hobbs, better known as Juno, professional book editor, sub-editor and writer of 20 years experience and author of the fabulous blog Scrumptious SA is also going to present a topic that she is very passionate about.

 

Our agenda for the day will look something like this

 

• 09.30 - 10.00:  Registration and Champagne/Orange Juice
• 10.00 - 10.15: Welcome & Introduction by Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris 
• 10.15 - 11.15: WRITING - 'Finding your Blog Voice' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff and 'Effective Recipe Writing & Editorial Techniques' by Jane-Anne Hobbs
• 11.15 - 11.45:  'Getting to know your camera' by Nina Timm 
• 11.45 - 12.00:  Short Coffee Break 
• 12.00 - 12.45: 'How to be a better Blogger' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff 
• 12.45 - 13.30:  Lunch Break
• 13.30 - 14.15: 'Social Networking - Getting Connected' by Sam Wilson 
• 14.15 - 15.00: 'Food Styling' by Nina Timm 
• 15.00 - 15.15:  Short Tea/Coffee Break 
• 15.15 - 16.00: 'The Legalities & Ethics of Blogging' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff 
• 16.00 - 16.30: 'Monetizing Your Blog - how to make money from blogging' by Nina Timm 
• 16.30 - 17.00:  Questions & Answers with all the speakers

 Please contact me via my email if you are interested in attending
collywolly50atyahoodotcodotuk changing the necessary as you know :o)

Looking forward to seeing you all there
Colleen (aka browniegirl at Kitchen Diary )

AHOY FOOD BLOGGERS

Good day readers, it is a breathtaking hot summer's day here today, not conducive to standing in the kitchen ;o)
We are calling all food bloggers and those wannabe foodies from across the globe. We know there are a lot of you……

We have been working frenziedly behind the scenes to plan the first South African Food Bloggers Conference…….not a MOB (meeting of Bloggers) but an actual conference (open to all food blogging platforms) that will include speakers and lunch etc. How exciting is that???? America has her Blogher Conferences and the UK in November had their first London Food Bloggers Conference. Both were very successful and informative events and it is this that has inspired me so much. Why should we be left out down here at the tip of Africa??The first seed was planted in my brain when I met up with Nina from My Easy Cooking and Taz from Cocoa for breakfast late last year while Taz was on holiday in the Mother City. We chatted about how entertaining and educational it must be to have one of these conferences and that it would never happen here. Once home I was thinking again about it and the seed began to germinate and a crazy little voice told me "There is no reason why South Africa should NOT have one. You do it"!!! Moi? Nooooooo!!! I was dragged kicking and screaming to the first little sticking a feeler out there chat with a potential speaker. And almost 4 months down the line here we are.....almost ready for the day!! Since posting the survey on my blog Kitchen Diary on the 1st February the interest generated has proven to be phenomenal, proving that there is a great need for this type of convention all over the world.

So the beautiful Mother city, Cape Town, is obviously the choice of venue for the first SA Food Bloggers Conference, not least for the fact that everyone currently involved in the organizing lives in and around the Cape peninsula (well excepting for one over the pond on mud island). We are a friendly lot and Cape Town boasts wonderful tourist attractions and we look forward to welcoming all our friends, exposing you to the fantastic fresh produce & wines coming out of our region and the overall beauty that is Cape Town.

The details for the conference are as follows:
Date: Sunday 21 March 2010
Time: 9.30 for 10am - 5pm (provisionally)
Venue: Giggling Gourmet's Cooks Playground
A buffet style lunch will be served by the Giggling Gourmet team
Keynote Speaker - Jeanne Horak-Druiff from the award winning blog Cooksister
Photography and Food Styling - the delightful and talented Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking
I am in the process of procuring the errr services of another couple of speakers so will update this again later.
Cost - R430.00 (including a goodie bag but excluding travel or accommodation expenses)

The venue can accommodate 100 delegates so please book urgently if you don't want to miss out on the blogging event of the year!

Our topics for the day will include
- getting started - the tecchie bits of blogging

- writing style & voice

- getting to know your camera

- the legalities and ethics of blogging

- food styling

- promoting your blog through social networking

- effective blogging - blog etiquette, schedules, comments & readers

- making money with your blog
 
 
The rest of the world has embraced blogging in their countries with many making a living out of getting the full potential for all their hard work that they put in from day to day. Join us to reach your full potential.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you. If you would like to attend leave me a comment and I will get back to you.
 
Colleen (browniegirl)