So, have I told you the one where I had to take part in a televised cook-off?! And that without any warning? And without any recipes? No?! Well, here you go!

Back in December, I was invited to a lovely goats cheese tasting evening – cheese, wine and meeting nice people – count me in! The only catch was that they kinda convinced me to take part in a Ready Steady Cook style competition. After initial hesitation I was like “hey, yeah, what the heck, if everyone is doing this, then so will I.” I’m pretty bad when it comes to peer pressure!

So.. come the actual evening I find out that no-one else apart from me and lovely Rachel from Cook your Life are taking part in this cook-off. Talk about putting up the heat. Now the pressure was on! Especially since Rachel is an absolutely amazing cook! I had to up my game!

After being all wired up and equipped with a microphone, the cooking began. We got a bag filled with mystery ingredients and had exactly 30 mins time to prepare two distinct dishes – both using goats cheese. My brain was spinning, and my hands shaking, and all I could think of was “what the heck am I going to make?!” I ended up falling onto two classic favourites of mine – a butternut squash tart with goats cheese and crispy bacon, as well as some goats cheese bruschetta, sprinkled with honey and roast hazelnuts served with beetroot carpaccio. Phew, quite a lot to chop, fry and bake in 30 minutes! Fortunately I had fantastic help from Bron of Feast with Bron.achel whipped up some absolutely amazing gnocchi, boy, those were tasty little buggers, I tell you that!

Anyway, the sweating, trembling and stressing was rewarded – I received a bottle of beautiful French sparkling wine – and this video! Yes, now you can all watch it on Youtube! Fun – or not! Either way, a fabulous experience.

The cook-off starts at around 1:23min. Enjoy! ★