I'm a finalist!

You know I have always been scared to enter competitions. I remember my first culinary comp as an apprentice, I was working for the Sheraton group at the time and they thought apprentices should enter into the up and coming competitions in the culinary world. I decided I would put my best food forward as a 4th year apprentice and go into the Entree section. I was so proud of my dishes. My friend and fellow apprentice, Karena, worked along beside me. We worked solidly through the night to put out our dishes. My biggest mistake was thinking the judges were actually going to taste the food. I put all my efforts into making my dishes taste fantastic when I should of been putting all my efforts into making the dishes look AMAZING! ( the details you learn after the event.....or perhaps I should of read the rules??)- Anyway, I didn't win and not one of the judges tasted any of the four dishes I made. From that day forth I promised myself I would not put myself through the agony of culinary competitions and have stayed true to my word until now.....15 years later.
Pam, my mother-in law came to stay a few weeks ago and encouraged me to enter into Australia's ABC Healthy recipe competition. Now I thought it was a good idea but I really didn't think I'd do it.....thanks to Pam's insistence I entered my roast veggie and goat cheese recipe. Not thinking I'd actually get somewhere but of course secretly hoping I wouldn't fall flat for a second time- I was delighted, no thrilled, to receive a CONGRATULATIONS email from ABC saying I was one of the ten finalists and will now have my recipe rated and trialled by the public.
Thrilled, elated and totally amazed that I had pulled it off, I am now asking my readers to pop over to the site here, perhaps make the recipe and then rate it so I am in for a chance to go to the next level. What ever happens I am happy to have moved on from my fear of failure and excited to be chosen in the top ten.

My first award

I woke up this morning to find a surprise email- one of my fave bloggers nominated me for a kreative blogger award. Yippee!! I thought, I never win awards and even better I love thekitchwitch blog so the fact that she gives me a nudge in the right direction only made my morning all the better (it couldn't get any worse, I had one of those nights when you are bed hopping from your bed to your three year olds on a freezing night, then having him cough in your face on and off all night-happy days!)- THANK YOU for making my day TKW (I am yet to learn your name??).

So to do my bit for the blogging community I am now abiding by the rules and looking forward to spreading the good vibes to my other fave blogs, firstly the rules are;

(1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

(2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

(3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

(4) Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting

(5) Nominate 7 Kreative Bloggers.

(6) Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

(7) Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

As for 7 things people might find interesting........

(1) I love to eat jalapenos at any time of the day and ate way to many when preggers with son number 1.

(2) I love winter but hate feeling cold

(3) My first ever job was picking 'baby's breath', back breaking work which I then changed to pumping petrol and flipping burgers at Elizabeth Town roadhouse when I was 15 or 16.

(4) I am hopeless at learning languages yet managed to live in Italy and Greece and got by on a smile and LOTS of ginning :0)

(5) My fave colour is green

(6) I can't stand eating, smelling or even looking at brains- dad can have them all to himself

(7)and finally....... when in the mood I can pull some pretty good moves at the disco

I can't believe how hard that was to think of 7 things people might want to know and even after it is all done and written, I am still not sure ya'll could give a flying rats!

Now to the fun part- nominating 7 cool blogs

(1) Rurally screwed

(2) The kings

(3) The lunchbox project

(4) I need a martini mom

(5) ZOMT

(6) Cinnamonspice

(7) Howtoshuckanoyster

OK so some of them are websites but I love looking at al of these- Enjoy!