I would love everyone to join Gourmet Getaways at the Early Intervention High Tea & Fashion Parade. The event is being held on Sunday 18^th September at Novotel Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour.

Ladies will be treated to an exquisite high tea with delicious array of sweet and savoury dishes whilst enjoying a spectacular fashion parade.  Fashion retailers such as Nik & She, Inza, Sensara & Jacqui’s Shoe Boutique will be previewing their spring fashions on the catwalk.   Parry’s Jewellers will also be showcasing their funky Thomas Sabo range of jewelry.

This is going to be one of those great girly days. There will be a silent auction with an array of gorgeous items for ladies to bid on.  If you’re a little tired of this dreary weather then take a ticket in the main raffle. One lucky couple will win three nights accommodation at the Novotel Oasis Cairns including airfares from Brisbane to Cairns. I will certainly be buying up the tickets in that one!

On a serious note the event is being held to raise funds for Coffs Harbour’s Early Intervention Centre. Early Intervention is an organization which employs physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and early childhood educators to assist children with developmental delays. The service is free to families, and provides concentrated need based therapy prior to school. This therapy assists children in reaching their full potential in life.

This is the second year that Deborah from Parry’s Jewellers has co-ordinated this great event. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at any of the local businesses listed below.

If you would like to book a table for ten or more contact Deborah on 0409 337 212.

Gourmet Getaways has reserved a table, and I would be very pleased if you would join me. It would be a great opportunity to meet some readers, and have a great ladies day out.

Places are limited so let me know as soon as possible so I can hold a ticket for you. Julie@gourmetgetaways.com.au.

Now for the competition I promised. As I said, I would really like to meet some Gourmet Getaways readers so I am offering to refund one readers ticket to this event. If you would like to win your ticket to this delicious High Tea & Fashion Parade all you need to do is tell me your favourite High Tea dish and book a seat at the Gourmet Getaways table via email.

The competition will be open until 15^th August.  The winner will be announced on this day on the Gourmet Getaways Facebook page and on the Gourmet Getaways website. So please ensure you have “liked” Gourmet Getaways on Facebook.

In the meantime enjoy thoughts of sipping tea, and savoring delicious treat with a group of your best girlfriends.

As my regular readers would know, this website is dedicated to finding luscious food, great getaways, & the perfect wine... only trouble is I sometimes wonder if I enjoy sampling that perfect drop of wine a little too much on occasion.

For this reason I have decided I would take the challenge and give up the booze for the month of February.  I would be doing my health the world of good and helping to raise funds for a range of Alcohol related charities such as Mission Australia, The Australian Drug Foundation and Bushmob NT.  

I am sure this is going to give my family much amusement, and I know I will experience more than a little taunting from friends.  I have enlisted my regular drinking buddy, and partner in crime to join me in my alcohol abstinence. Rachel Mounter aka iWife will also be participating in the fast.

Her famous first comment when I told her about the FebFast was “but we just bought all that wine from the vineyard!” “true, true I said, but this is just one month, and it will all still be there at the end of the month” (see why she is such a good friend.) Once I promised that this will not be a lifestyle change for me, and I will back to normal after February she was in “boots and all” “after all” she reasoned, “it wouldn’t be the same drinking without me”.  Aww shucks J.

So Rach is the second member of team Gourmet Getaways.  Feel free to join us or offer inspirational thoughts along the way.  Here is our FebFast webpage, or just leave comments on the bottom of this story.

So it is going to be an interesting and difficult month.  I have my brothers wedding in Fiji on the 9^th of February so I intend to “buy a day off” for the celebration and another day off for Valentines Day, but other than those two dates I am on the wagon.

As Jackie pointed out when she read my facebook announcement “lucky Feb only has 28 days! For that I am truly thankful, but hopefully by the end of the month my liveer kidneys and general health will have benefited, not to mention the beneficiary charities.

So please people, even if you can just spare a couple of dollar, please kick off my donations.  At the moment it is looking pretty sad $0 raised.

I will update readers periodically so that everyone can know my pain and how I am managing the fast. So read along, encourage, perhaps fast with me and please donate!

I am on a bit of a roll with the “CSR Bake A Difference” fundraiser.  I have another suggestion, and this time it is a recipe that would be a great to do with the kids in the up coming school holidays. Now I realise that coconut ice is a little old fashion, but these are so easy, and I actually forgot how good coconut ice actually tastes!

These will make the cutest little gifts.  I will never give a box of chocolates again! These are so much prettier and personal.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups CSR icing sugar

¼ t/s cream of tartar

1 egg white

¼ cup condensed milk

1 ¾ cup desiccated coconut

Method:

Brush a 26cm x 8cm tin with oil and line with baking paper.

Sift icing sugar into a bowl with cream of tartar.

Combine the condensed milk and egg white and mix well by hand.

Add the condensed milk mixture and coconut to the icing sugar and mix by hand until combined.

Press mixture into prepared tin and refrigerate for 1 hour prior to cutting into squares.

Presentation:

I used clear cellophane cut into squares, and a five metre roll of pink ribbon. The cones are made from vellum paper.

It was really easy to wrap the coconut ice up as “lollies” and I was really pleased with the result. The original thought was to present them in clear noodle boxes with a pink Christmas decoration attached but being Christmas everywhere was sold out of noodle boxes.

For more “Bake A Difference” information see my previous post or the “CSR Bake A Difference” website.  Jeroxie will be compiling a collection of the most mouthwatering treats in this fundraiser for all to enjoy.

For my first contribution to the "CSR Bake a Difference" fundraiser, I wanted the colour of my sweet treats to instantly signify Christmas. So I was racking my brain for something red or green, and sweet.  While I was out shopping I happened to notice that Raspberries were $8.99 for a teeny tiny punnet! It is almost highway robbery!

I live in an area which produces vast quantities of Blueberries and Raspberrys and I am lucky to quite often have a whole ice-cream container of berries in the freezer.

That is when it hit me! I would make a Raspberry Jam.  I checked the freezer and discovered three ½ full ice-cream containers of berries, so more than enough to get started on some jam. I did feel a little guilty for turning these yummy berries into jam.  I really should have polished them off when they were fresh, but they would be put to good use now.

Ingredients:

500gm raspberry

300gm CSR sugar

Method:

Place 3 saucers in the freezer to cool.

Place the fruit in a heavy based saucepan and use a stick blender to roughly blend the fruit.

Add the sugar to the fruit and turn the heat on low.  Stir on low until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Increase the heat to a rolling boil. Continue to boil until the mixture appears thicker.

Cooking the jam can take some time.  Periodically check the syrup by placing a small amount of jam on the saucer and return it to the freezer.  Once the jam has cooled drag your finger through the cooled jam to test the consistency.

Retest every 5 minutes until the jam is the correct consistency.

Once a jam consistency is obtained, fill sterilized jam containers with the hot mixture and seal.

I found the jars in a two dollar shop for $1.50 each and I have decorated them with some leftover Christmas fabric and ribbon. I think these jams will make a great present for the “littlies” pre-school teachers.

Now, because I am contributing to “Bake a Difference” I will print out a gift tag from the CSR website and attach it to my gift.  The gift tag explains that this yummy gift was baked as part of a fundraising campaign for Mission Australia, and that a donation will be made as part of my gift.

Here is an example of the customizable gift tags.

The final step is to simply click donate on the CSR website and contribute to “Bake a Difference.” CSR sugar will match my donation, dollar for dollar up to $100,000.

Christmas is coming up fast so I am aiming to make one baked Christmas present per week. Remember, anyone can join in baking homemade gifts and donating the difference. Another big thank you to Jeroxie for helping co-ordinate the event.