Spring Lunch

A few pictures and a yummy recipe we made to celebrate Spring.

Dandi Spring Salad

Ingredients - Serves 4

350 g Farfalle

1 bunch Asparagus, ends snapped, cut into thirds

50 g Baby Spinach

¾ Cup Frozen or Fresh Peas

2 cups Broad Beans, unpeeled

80 g Feta (we used Australian), crumbled

½ bunch Mint, shredded

½ Lemon, juiced

¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Method:

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Cook Broad beans and end and middle asparagus pieces in salted boiling water for 3 minutes. In the last minute add in the Asparagus tips and peas. Drain and refresh veggies in cold water. Drain and refresh pasta in cold water. Peel outer skin from broad beans. Place cooked veggies, pasta and spinach leaves in a bowl and toss with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to combine. Sprinkle with feta and mint and enjoy the flavours of Spring.

Bon Apetit!

Dandi Male Model: FOUND!

The weather has been so warm and gorgeous and its only early spring! To make the most of it our friend Graeme recently hosted a beach side BBQ and donned is Olive Branch oil cloth apron for the occasion - we think he looks very stylish!

Dandi ♥ Julie from Masterchef

images via masterchef

Us Dandi ladies recently found ourselves cult followers of Channel Ten's Masterchef Series. We would discuss each episode daily and talk about the recipes and contestants with feverish excitement. We were all thrilled when Julie took the top prize as we love her homely and warm nature and appreciated her 'stress attacks' in the kitchen as we have all had those before! We absolutely LOVE her cookbook idea and can't wait to get our hands on it once it hits the shelves. To congratulate Julie we sent her a special Dandi gift pack a week ago and were pleasantly surprised to receive a lovely thankyou email from her this week. We were thrilled she took the time out of her now busy schedule to personally thank us. She is a lovely lady!

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

This morning the Dandi ladies hosted a decadent tea party with all sorts of cakes, muffins, cupcakes, scones, slices and biscuits. We had around 25 guests attend and raised over $500 for The Cancer Council as part of Australia's Biggest Morning Tea.

Our party in full swing

It was lots of fun baking all the yummy treats and all recipes were a huge success amongst the grateful guests who happily tucked in.

Some of the yummy goods on offer

Us Dandi ladies are feeling very satisfied with our efforts and appetites! Morning Teas can be hosted any time during May or June so visit the Biggest Morning Tea website and register your interest!

Dandi Ladies having a quiet cuppa before the guests arrive.

Home Beautiful: Plum Cake

Check out this gorgeous photo from the April edition of Home Beautiful magazine.  Its a cracker shot of our bamboo chopping board and the recipe looks amazing too! You might recall that back in February Caroline baked a plum cake with fruit from her inlaw's orchard, so seeing this shot made us feel like we were very up with the times! 

New Books!

Mindi accidentally slipped over and bought three new cookbooks... time to pop on a pini and get back into the kitchen!

Plum Time

With all the fruit literally raining upon Mike & Vivienne's property, Caroline felt the need to get into the kitchen and make use of it. Having been given the wonderful old cookbook, The Greta Anna Recipes, the recipe for Plum Cake was the perfect solution for the abundance of plump plums lying around. Recipe and images below, bon appetit!

Kylie Kwong at Think Big

Dandi attended the Think Big Business Forum at Homebush on Wednesday to hone our business skills to grow the Dandi brand. The keynote speaker was celebrity chef Kylie Kwong. Kylie gave an inspiring presentation on her business growth of her successful restaurant Billy Kwongs, her TV shows and the delectable range of cook books. She made everyone's mouths water with a delicious cooking demonstration and even signed a Dandi catalogue for us, so lovely.

We love the guiding philosophy behind Kylie and the Billy Kwong restaurant.

'To leave as small and light an environmental footprint as possible, to give back to the community whenever and wherever we can, and to think globally and act locally.'