I'd like to thank the Academy...

I was away in South Africa when the 50th Paper Chef winner was announced. This was the first Paper Chef I participated in, and was very excited about the whole thing. For the first time I could actually come up with a recipe, and made Ricotta, dill and honey crumpets. The Fabulous Man tasted the final product, and looking surprised, said he loved it (maybe it was the dill that scared him off initially). Then we both considered the other entries in the round-up. Being polite, he told me I'll definitely win. I wasn't so sure. Everything looked so wonderful. I couldn't wait.

In South Africa I told both my mother and brother about this great event I entered, and how it works. Everybody suitably excited, we kept our eyes peeled for the announcement of the winner. You won't believe it, it was me! I was very surprised and so, so happy about it. Thank you very much to Karen from Prospect: The Pantry for your lovely words. Before I started this blog, I'd never realised how good it feels to know that people like what you write.

And then, to top it all off, the announcement for the winner of Sugar High Friday was made, and it was my Lucky Green Guinness Cupcakes! People, my cup runneth over. I cannot put in words how happy this made me.

So, as Paper Chef queen (for this month at least), I get to randomly chose the next round's ingredients. Everybody has their own little way of doing this, but I was helped by the Little Girl. I wrote each ingredient on a slip of paper, put it in a bowl, and decided to take the first three ingredients she pulls out.

First one out (and straight into her mouth, I might add):

So apart from being beautiful and smart, the Little Girl is also a bit of a Gourmet!

Next one out:

Thirdly:

My choice for the fourth ingredient is ginger.

I'm not sure about the apricot, but luckily that's what Paper Chef is all about - creating something wonderful from slightly crazy ingredients.

So, everybody, thinking caps on. If you need reminding about the rules, head over to Paper Chef. All entries need to be posted and a link emailed to paperchef AT gmail DOT com by next Tuesday. Hope you have an interesting time.