Recently I was invited by marketing expert Simon Marmot to the Spring restaurant in Brisbane for a product launch of Oliving by Hans deli meats. Simon told me it would be worth my while to drive down to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast. He wasn’t wrong. I was met at the door by smiling faces, treated to coffee and pastries and introduced to everyone in the room. How often do we attend events and never quite figure out who’s who?
Oliving by Hans (pronounced Oh living) is a new range of products where some of the saturated fat has been reduced and replaced with healthy Greek olive oil to produce a healthier and tastier range of deli meats. The company held events in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane where each lunch host was a hero food vlogger who cooked and brought their recipes to life.
The Melbourne group went to an olive grove and enjoyed a brilliant lunch outside cooked by The Internet Chef, Bridget Davis. You can click to view Bridget’s video of their lunch.
The 10 Sydney bloggers were entertained by Jason Pinder from The Simple Cooking Channel, one of the biggest YouTube food channels in the world. You can click to view Jason’s video of their evening event.
In Brisbane, we met at the restaurant and then walked to the Queen Street market where our hero food Vlogger Lydia Williams, food editor of Stay at Home Mum, bought the fresh food we’d need for the day. She’s a ray of sunshine and can cook up a storm for 10 bloggers all watching her every move.
Jamie Crick, an end-to-end videographer from Sydney, filmed every single second of the event. It’s only fair I got a shot of him. We never knew where he was, so trying to fake it for the camera just didn’t work. I watched the video and there are beautiful, well-behaved people throughout and one older lady really enjoying herself. :eyeroll:
The first dish we watched Lydia make were mini quiches or frittatas made with a ‘crust’ of deli ham. They were light, fluffy and filling. For anyone wanting gluten free or paleo, this is a winner of a dish.
Next, Lydia made some potato salad with a simple mayonnaise dressing and then her magic began. She sauteed onions in a skillet until they were translucent and then added some sugar and some Jim Beam Kentucky bourbon to the onions along with chopped chorizo and stirred until the chorizo was caramelized all over. The aroma wafting through the room was fantastic. Think of it, slowly cooking onions, chorizo and the bourbon. Makes your eyes roll to the back of your head.
She poured the sausage and onions over the potato salad and lightly mixed it in. Everyone in the group went back for seconds. I’m definitely making this a family favourite.
Dessert was pancakes with bacon and strawberries with maple syrup. The pancakes were fluffy, the golden maple syrup was flowing, the bacon was perfectly cooked – but I think I’d make this for breakfast instead of dessert. Brendan Allen from Stay at home Mum made the pancake batter. I love to watch men cook for me, although it doesn’t happen often enough.
We were sent home with a cooler bag of Oliving by Hans products. I walked in the door, placed the bag in the kitchen and went to change my clothes. When I came back downstairs, John had broken into the ham packets and made himself two massive sandwiches. I yelled, “I needed that for a blog post!!”
Mumbling with a mouthful, “Sorry dear, but it’s REALLY good, will that help?” I should have taken a photo of him with his sandwich!
The next morning I got up and made a lovely breakfast using the bacon from my stash. I meant to photograph John’s plate with two eggs but alas, he got his fork into it first. The trials of a food blogger.
Oliving by Hans products are available at most Coles, IGA and Woolworths stores across Australia. I say most because the only products I could find in my local stores were the hotdogs and bacon. . I’ve been assured that it won’t be long before the entire range is available everywhere.
The following morning I thought I’d be clever and surprise John with breakfast. I present to you my hotdog breakfast creation.
I cooked it and then photographed it before I called him down from his office. The look on his face was priceless.
“A hotdog breakfast?” he said.
“Try it, I think you’ll like it.”
And he did.
- 1 hotdog
- 1 egg
- few drops of cooking oil
- teaspoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon crumbled bacon
- 1 tablespoon grated cheese.
- Preheat a skillet on medium heat
- Slice just the edge of the hotdog bun on both sides, butter and toast in the skillet until golden brown and set aside.
- Make shallow slashes in the hotdog on two sides and place in the skillet with a few drops of oil and cook until lightly browned.
- In the same skillet, add one egg and fry to your desired doneness.
- Place the cooked hotdog in the bun and top with grated cheese, then top with the egg and finally with the crumbled bacon.
- You could also add green onions, chopped tomatoes or herbs.
Here’s the video that Oliving by Hans created from the Brisbane event.