New book in time for Mother’s Day

City Girl Country Girl cover - low resAuthor Liz Harfull is about to release a new book celebrating the inspiring true stories of courageous women forging new lives in the Australian bush.

A follow-up to her best-seller, Women of the Land, City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or another country to build a new future in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stand them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino.

It ranges in scope from the present day to the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s, and the author’s own mother’s experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast. City Girl, Country Girl is a compelling and fascinating account of these women’s journeys as they struggle through personal tragedy, hardship and self-doubt with grace, humour, perseverance and more than a little hard work.

Release date: March 23, 2016.

RRP $29.99.  Get a copy from your favourite bookshop, or order a signed copy direct from the author for $25, plus $8 postage. Email your name, address and contact phone number to sales@lizharfull.com and payment details will be provided.

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Original Blue Ribbon back in print

Front cover - lower resolutionAfter selling out last year, for the fourth time, Liz’s first Blue Ribbon Cookbook is back in print in time for Mother’s Day, and to celebrate we have a special deal.

Purchase a signed copy of either Blue Ribbon cookbook, together with Liz’s national bestseller, Women of the Land, and pay only $50, plus $13 postage.

That represents a saving of more than 20% on the Recommended Retail Price.

To order a copy email sales@lizharfull.com together with your name, contact phone number and postal address. We accept payment or cheque or direct debit and will send you payment details when we confirm your order.

 

 

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Special offers for Christmas

It’s hard to believe, but another year has almost zoomed by and its time to think about Christmas! Looking for inspiration for presents for your family and friends? You can buy books direct from the author, personally signed to the recipient, with these two special offers:

– Order a copy of Liz’s two national Top 10 best-sellers – The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook ($39.99) and Women of the Land ($22.99) and pay just $50, plus $13 postage.

– Order three copies of The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook and receive a $5 discount per book. That’s $104.97 for three books, plus $13 postage.

Depending on where you live, for delivery in time for Christmas orders should be placed before December 14. Or if you’re running a bit behind, for an extra $2 the books can be posted Express Post.

Email sales@lizharfull.com with your order, including name, postal address, contact phone number and the first names of people you would like the books signed for. Details for payment by cheque or EFT will then be provided.

 

 

 

 

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Blue Ribbon raising funds at the Adelaide show

Author Liz Harfull and The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook will be helping to raise money for South Australian country shows at this year’s Royal Adelaide Show. The book will be sold as a fundraiser at the SA Country Shows stand where author Liz Harfull will make a series of guest appearances to sign copies and meet readers.

The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook will be for sale at the special price of $35.00 (RRP $39.99) at the SA Country Shows stand at the Farm Expo throughout the show, while stocks last. The author will be at the stand to sign books and meet readers from 2 pm to 4 pm on September 5, 6 and 7.

Liz will also be making two appearances in the Goyder Pavilion, at the IGA Bookshop, which will host a series of ‘in conversations’ during the show with food writers and celebrity chefs. On September 6 at 5 pm she will appear  with The Advertiser food writer Dianne Mattsson and prize-winning show cook, Vaughan Wilson, who features in the cookbook with his prize-winning friands recipe. Liz will be back the next day at the same time for another session.

Released in April and already in its third print run, The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook has been Allen & Unwin’s number one selling title of the week in Australia, and in the top 10 best-sellers list for non-fiction. Its success has also led to the author being inundated with invitations to appear at shows across Australia. Ms Harfull is just back from the Brisbane show, and now preparing for a busy spring that will take her everywhere from south-western WA to northern NSW, and places in between, including the Royal Melbourne Show.

More information about coming events.

 

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Blue Ribbon hits the best-seller list

The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook has been rushed into a reprint after hitting the national best-seller list for non-fiction. The book reached No 4 on the charts tracking sales through book retailers last month, just a few copies behind chef Peter Evan’s cookbook and I Quit Sugar, which has dominated the list for a year or more. The book is also currently No 1 on Allen & Unwin’s own best-seller list as its top-selling title in Australia.

“It is very exciting and a real tribute to the show cooks I wrote about, and their generosity of spirit in sharing prize-winning recipes and allowing me to tell their fascinating stories,” says author Liz Harfull.

“In this day of celebrity chefs, reality television and fashionable food fads, its great to see that the stories of some humble home cooks and simple, traditional recipes handed down over generations are striking a chord with the public.

“Given my book contains enough butter and sugar to sustain Australian dairy farmers and cane growers for years, some of my readers have even jokingly suggested that I am restoring balance to the karma of the food world!”

Liz is preparing for a busy few months as the spring show season kicks into gear. She is due to make guest appearances at shows and author events across the country, from WA to Queensland between now and November.

You can keep up to date with news about coming events and the world of show cooking by following her new facebook page.

 

 

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The perfect scone

A final recipe to help your prepare for tomorrow’s Biggest Morning Tea. What would a morning tea be without scones, jam and cream! Here is a great recipe from Queensland show cook Dorothy Rideout, who has made more than a few in her time, to serve at smoko during mustering on the family property at Thangool. As usual, there are special tips to go with from the cook and the judges.

Ingredients

450 g (3 cups) self raising flour
2 tablespoons soft icing sugar mixture
3 teaspoons baking powder
250 ml (1 cup) milk
250 ml (1 cup) cream

Preheat the oven to hot (200 °Celsius in a conventional electric oven). Grease a baking tray, or line it with baking paper.
Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder together, twice, and place in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add both the milk and the cream. Stir with a knife, until the mixture forms a soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly, patting the dough gently into shape until it is about 2 centimetres thick.
Cut the scones out using a scone cutter. Place them on the prepared tray and leave them to sit for five minutes. Bake for 12 minutes, until they are lightly brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Makes about 30 scones.

Tips from the cook
Scones require a light hand. Knead the mixture gently, and only enough to pull it together.
A good scone should never be cut. You should be able to split it apart with your fingers.

Tips from the judge
Always cut the dough using a proper scone cutter rather than a glass.
Do not twist the cutter when you press it down into the dough and remove it, or it will cause the scones to rise lopsidedly as they cook.

 

 

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A Victoria cake from Tassie

Judging Victoria sponges at Bream Creek 1948Today’s recipe to help you prepare for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is a wonderful, old-fashioned cake that is still found on most show schedules in Tasmania. It comes from Bream Creek show cook Judy Berry who regularly takes out the most successful exhibitor trophy at one of the best little shows in Australia. The Victoria cake is an elegant cross between a sponge and a butter cake, traditionally made with just a little butter and joined with jam. And to go with the recipe is a fantastic image from the show’s archives of judging the Victoria cake class in 1948.

Don’t forget  you can join Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook author Liz Harfull and other authors for a special Twitter event as part of the Biggest Morning Tea. To participate jump onto Twitter between 10 am and 11 am EST on May 22, and use #TheTeaChest and #BiggestMorningTea. Visit the event’s official page  for more information and to make a donation.

Ingredients
125 grams plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 eggs
125 grams castor sugar
2 tablespoons milk
30 grams butter
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ½ tablespoons raspberry jam
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat the oven to moderate (180 °Celsius in a conventional electric oven). Grease two 20 centimetre sandwich pans, and line the bases with baking paper.
Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl, until thick and creamy. Gently fold in the dry ingredients.
Combine the milk and butter in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Pour the boiling milk gradually into the cake mixture, folding gently as you go. Fold in the vanilla essence.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared pans and bake for about 15 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown and begin to leave the sides of the pans.
Allow to cool for a few minutes and then turn out onto a clean tea towel.
When cool, join the cakes with raspberry jam and dust the top with icing sugar.

Tips from the cook
Do the folding with a spatula, making sure you scrape the outsides of the bowl to incorporate all the ingredients.
The cake marks easily so use a tea-towel with a fine, plain weave.
Don’t use too much jam – it should be spread thinly, right to the edges but not over, so that just a little jam shows when the cakes are put together.
If you are making it for home, add a layer of cream to the filling.
Tips from judge
Both layers must be made from the same mixture.
The cake should be a pale golden biscuit colour, well risen and light, with a flat top and a fine texture.
Check the show schedule for specific instructions about filling and decorating the cake in case there are local variations.

 

 

 

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Shirley’s Orange Cake

Tammie DriscollToday’s recipe to help you prepare for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is in memory of Shirley Schilg, who died from ovarian cancer at the age of 44. It is featured in The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook courtesy of her daughter Tammie Driscoll (pictured), a talented show cook from the small town of Walbundrie, which runs one of the most popular shows in the NSW Riverina.

Even though she is only in her 30s, Tammie is a veteran competitor. Learning to cook alongside her mother, she began entering at the age of ten. As an adult, she won most successful exhibitor in the open section seven times up to 2012, and on occasions she has claimed the same trophy at Wodonga, Albury and Lockhart. This very easy one-bowl recipe was one of her mum’s favourites and is regularly among the prize winners. Like all the recipes in the cookbook, it comes with extra helpful tips from the cook and show judges.

Why not bake the cake and then join Liz and a group of other Australian and New Zealand authors for their Twitter event as part of the Biggest Morning Tea. To participate jump onto Twitter between 10 am and 11 am EST on May 22, and use #TheTeaChest and #BiggestMorningTea. Visit the event’s official page  for more information and to make a donation.

Ingredients
220 g (1 cup) white sugar
125 ml (1/2 cup) milk
125 g butter, softened
225 g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
grated zest of 1 orange

Orange icing
15 g butter
juice of 1/2 orange
180 g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar mixture, sifted

Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C in a conventional electric oven). Grease and flour a loaf pan (22 cm x 15 cm).
Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat for a minute on low speed until combined. Turn the speed up to medium and beat for another few minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until golden and firm to the touch.
Allow the cake to cool a little, and then turn out onto a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel, to cool.
To make the icing, put the butter and orange juice in a pan over a medium heat, and stir until the butter is melted. Alternatively, put them in a microwave safe bowl or jug and heat on medium until the butter is melted. Add the icing sugar and stir until it forms a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Ice the top of the cake, using a knife.

Tips from the cook
You may want to line the loaf pan, using baking paper.
Make sure the butter is at room temperature.
You can turn the recipe into a plain cake by leaving out the orange zest.

Tips from the judges
The top of the cake should be smooth and slightly rounded, without any cracks.
It should not be sticky, which indicates the sugar wasn’t beaten enough, or that the oven was too cool.
The texture should be fine, moist and even, without any holes.

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A virtual approach to the Biggest Morning Tea

To help raise funds for the Cancer Council, a group of enterprising authors from Australia and New Zealand is taking part in a special Twitter event as part of Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea on Thursday, May 22.

Led by Queensland author Josephine Moon (The Tea Chest), they will have a chat, answer questions and share pictures of tea and cake being enjoyed from the comfort of their own homes. So far some of the fabulous authors who’ve jumped on board include Anna Campbell, Amy Andrews, Christina Brooke, Fleur McDonald, Jenn J McLeod, and Liz Harfull.

To kick things off, Liz will be sharing recipes and tips from The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook for people who want to bake something special for the occasion.  Starting tomorrow, Liz will post a recipe and special tips from show cooks and judges every day leading up to the event.

Then on the day itself, she will post tweets from a very real morning tea – being held at the Coventry Library at Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Here is some information if you want to come and join her.

To participate in the Twitter event, jump onto Twitter, and use #TheTeaChest and #BiggestMorningTea. Visit the event’s official page  for more information and to make a donation.

 

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ABC Landline story coming up

A story about show cooking and The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook is due to go to air this Sunday on ABC’s popular Landline program.

Put together by presenter Pip Courtney, a keen cook in her own right, the story is a follow-up to the piece broadcast way back in 2010 about show cooking at Brisbane’s Ekka and the start of author Liz Harfull’s quest looking for show cooks to feature in the book.

Landline goes to air on ABC1 at midday, May 18. The story will also feature in the Saturday Landline edition on June 14.

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