{What's On Edinburgh - Foodies Festival}

No plans for the weekend yet? Well, get yourself over to Inverleith Park in Edinburgh for the UK's biggest food and drink festival, Foodies Festival.

I'm looking forward to meeting Gillian, Nichola and Linsey from Three Sisters Bake. I'm a big fan of their new cook book and have been meaning to get along to their cafe or to one of their events for ages now! And maybe I could nominate myself as a tester for the cocktail making competition ;-)

Here's the blurb on the event:

"This year the festival welcomes top chefs from across Scotland including British Chef of the Year and MasterChef: The Professionals finalist Adam Handling, originally from Dundee and now head chef at The Caxton Grill in London. Adam is joined by fellow finalist Scott Davies of The Adamson in St Andrews, Celebrity MasterChef favourite Russell Grant, Great British Menu contestant Jacqueline O’Donnell and Three Sisters Bake - Gillian, Nichola and Linsey.  The festival will also serve up Edinburgh's top chefs Mark Greenaway who recently appeared on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch, Michelin star Jeff Bland of the Balmoral Hotel, TV Chef Tony Singh, The Pompadour by Galvin Head Chef Craig Sandle and Café St Honore’s Neil Forbes; who will cook their favourite summer recipes in the Chefs Theatre for home cooks to recreate at home. 

Exciting new features for 2014 include a spectacular Chocolate, Cake & Bake Theatre, hosted by Great British Bake Off star Glenn Cosby and steampunk baker Emilly Ladybird who will bake her famous absinthe fairy cakes alongside other pastry chefs, chocolatiers, bakers and sugarcraft experts. These masterclasses are complemented by the new Chocolate, Baking and Preserves Village for those who enjoy home baking, with a selection of stalls selling baking essentials and the latest gadgets. There is also a brand new outdoor BBQ Arena for lovers of al fresco dining. This purpose built BBQ stage will feature hourly BBQ cooking demonstrations and invites the audience to take part in BBQ challenges, meat-eating competitions and spectators can even learn how to make a ‘BBQ cake’!

For the adventurous, a Chilli Eating Challenge takes place at 5pm daily, when those brave-or-foolish enough are invited to try and break the current record of 13 varieties of chillies eaten in one sitting. This event attracts a huge crowd, who cheer on their friends and family to lift the chilli-eating crown. 

Returning favourites include the Drinks Theatre, where regular masterclasses and demonstrations offer visitors the chance to taste and learn about wine, champagne, sherry, ales, gin and cocktails with experts including TV regular Charles Metcalfe, beer expert Melissa Cole and wine writer Brian Elliott. There is also a daily cocktail making competition to find Scotland's best cocktail, judged by an audience of Foodies visitors. 

After its successful introduction to the festival in 2012, visitors can enjoy an extended Street Food Avenue, offering a huge selection of award winning hot and cold food from around the world including hog roasts, Vietnamese buns, exotic meats, tapas, churros, burritos, Moroccan tagines, South American prime beef, Jamaican and Thai street food. A new Feasting Tent at the heart of the festival becomes the social hub, where visitors can relax and enjoy their treats at long banqueting tables in the company of chefs, friends and family.

After a day of feasting, visitors can relax at the Champagne, Gin and Pimms tents with deck chairs and picnic rugs, or escape to the White Isle at the Ibiza Riot Bar with live DJs, giant beanbags, hanging chairs and hammocks with an exotic cocktail in hand. The entertainment stage features live music acts and fringe performers including Michelle McManus and Edinburgh's Got Talent winner Saskia Eng throughout the day until 8pm.

For little foodies a Children’s Cookery Theatre hosts “Around the World” themed cookery classes. These workshops help children find their taste buds and teach them basic cooking skills."

Opening Times
Friday 8th Aug, 11am - 8pm
Saturday 9th August, 10am - 8pm
Sunday 10th August, 10am - 7pm

Tickets are available at www.foodiesfestival.com

{What's On: Glasgow}

I've spotted a few things that look interesting in terms of What's On in Glasgow over the next few months and I thought I'd share them with you.

First up is 'Live @ The Shed'... for £10 you can enjoy a pie/quiche, a drink and a show and there a variety of performances and dates available, right up until December. Have a peek at their Facebook page here for more info.

I also received an email the other day about the next Glasgow Street Feastival which is happening on 4th, 5th and 6th October at the Barras Art & Design Centre. I wasn't at the first one, so keen to get along to it this time. There's DJs, stalls with various food & drink on offer and entry is just £2.

Over to the West End now for the Halloween Drive-In Movies at Victoria Park, Glasgow. The park is being transformed over 31st October to 2nd November with the world's largest LED screen (yes, the world's!!). It's £25 per car and you can either see the family-friendly Ghostbusters (PG) or late-night scare-fests Halloween (18). You can buy tickets via Itison here.

{Review: IceDelight}

It's no secret that I love ice cream, so when I was asked to review a healthy, guilt-free iced dessert, I jumped at the chance.

IceDelight (or Iced & Light - love the name, so clever!!) is a fat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free iced dessert that is crammed with fruit so that a serving (which is just 90 calories) counts as one of your five-a-day. Perfect!! One of the other things I love about IceDelight is that it's made in Scotland (Dunbar, East Lothian to be precise).

I'm drawn to nice packaging and I wasn't disappointed with the nifty cardboard box that the IceDelight arrived in. We were given five flavours to try - strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant, lemon and gooseberry & elderflower.

My son requested a purple cone and so I duly scooped him out a dollop of the blackcurrant IceDelight  (the colour was amazing - a deep, rich pinky purple). However, after a taste, he decided that he'd rather have a white one. I obliged and gave him a scoop from the gooseberry & elderflower carton that my daughter was demolishing. He wasn't as impressed as her though and didn't really eat much of it. He's definitely the fussier of the two though. I have to admit I wasn't sure either of them would go for it as the flavours were quite strong in the ones we've tried so far. Hopefully they take to it as I quite like the idea that it's healthy and contains real fruit.

My personal favourite has to be the gooseberry & elderflower - I love elderflower flavoured food & drink and this didn't disappoint. It was really refreshing. Just a shame that we don't have nice Spring weather as I could picture me having a bowl of this whilst catching some rays in my back garden! Unfortunately it was snow here this morning!?

Talking of snow, the lemon flavour was as white as snow, and I really enjoyed the tanginess of it. Definitely more like a sorbet than ice cream. I could imagine serving this as a palate cleanser between courses or at the end of a meal, that's if I was to ever host a dinner party again - it's been a while!

There are some amazing ideas on the IceDelight website...combine IceDelight with fruit salad or meringue for a guilt-free treat, or if you're feeling indulgent here are the other suggestions:

• Try the velvety Blackcurrant IceDelight with hot apple crumble
• The rich, refreshing Raspberry IceDelight is yummy served with chocolate cheesecake or as part of a traditional Scottish cranachan.
• Juicy, fresh Strawberry IceDelight is perfect with white chocolate brownies straight from the oven.

I'm sold :-)

There are also a few smoothie suggestions on the website, and I reckon they would be great as a cocktail too - throw in some vodka, Chambord and basil with the Strawberry IceDelight for a Basil Grande perhaps? Or some rum & mint with the Gooseberry & Elderflower IceDelight for a mojito?? I will try and report back!

Overall I was suitably impressed and would definitely recommend you give IceDelight a try. Not so sure that all the flavours are child-friendly but my littlest loved the ones that she had. My son less so, but as I said he is rather fussy! Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Don't know about you, but I'm craving chocolate brownies and IceDelight now...!!

We were given five flavours of IceDelight for free as part of this review. Opinions, as always, are my own.