Maintaining the monthly blog post

The end of May already, but with a new computer, after weeks of no computer at all, it also brings the promise of regular blogging again - I have months of catching up to do. My friend Marion and I have been doing some catering over the past few months. Last Tuesday we headed off to a saltworks company 45 minutes away from where we live, to provide a lunch for 20 visitors that the company were hosting, for a product release.

We were in the kitchen/staff lunchroom unpacking and starting to prepare food when the Site Manager came in and introduced himself, and then asked if we knew what was happening during the day. He then went on to say that the visitors were actually from Sydney and that they were all food editors! Great...... It still didn't occur to us how important these food editors were until the door opened and in walked Lyndey Milan - food editor of The Women's Weekly - and appears on TV (currently has a new foodie travelog type of show on SBS Thursday nights).......deep breaths were taken by us.

We recognised others too - Jennene Plummer from Woman's Day, Doris Papps(?) from New Idea, Michelle Southan and Betty Chung from Good Taste, ....from Food Ideas, and more. The group were heading up to the Barossa Valley for the night and had their own chef with them. It was supposed to have been Justin North (who you may have seen on Masterchef and other TV shows) but at the last minute he couldn't make it so his head chef was sent on his behalf.

The Public Relations lady who had organised the group, popped out to see us a few times and was sampling various things before we even got to take them out to the dining area. When she saw the macarons she told us that Adriano Zumbo is one of her clients and she didn't think she would ever want to eat another macaron again, after sampling some of his wasabi and other flavoured macarons. She told us that ours were really good!

We had a moment of panic, wondering if what we had prepared was up to their standard and then decided that it was, and we couldn't have done anything else at that time anyway.

The menu we prepared? Is as follows - make sure you don't read it on an empty stomach!

blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche

arancini with mushroms and mozarella cheese filling

bruschetta with tomato and roast capsicum

caramelised mushroom tart with sour cream and chives

............................................

prawn, atlantic salmon and scallop skewers

balsamic glazed fillet with caramelised apple skewers

middle eastern lamb pies with minted cream cheese and pinenuts

spinach and feta rolls

chicken and haloumi skewers

korma rump steak pies

autumn vegetable tart wedges

...........................................

meringue nests with poached mixed berries

lemon brulee tarts

pink macarons with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

green macarons with salted caramel filling

macadamia tarts

black forest petit fours

dark chocolate orange tarts with chocolate orange pastry

..........................................

cheese platter with 3 cheeses and homemade (& home grown) quince paste

Not a lot of photos, I know, it was only as we were putting the sweets onto the table (and the group were out of the room on a short tour) that we thought to take a few.

What a day - not the kind of day, you expect in a small country area! The feedback was great and we were called into the dining area to be thanked by the food editors.....hope they remember where we live, if they ever need us!!!!!!!!!!!