A while back, 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 was a new range of products where some of the saturated fat was 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.
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 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 bourbon. It 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, and 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 made a lovely breakfast using the bacon from my stash. I meant to photograph John’s plate with two eggs, but he got his fork into it first. The trials of a food blogger.
Oliving by Hans products were 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. edit: Oliving didn’t pass the test of the masses and has been discontinued.
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 photographed it before calling 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.
My favourite deli meat would be bacon. It is just so versatile and can be used in so many dishes I make. Anything from quiche, to fried rice, to soups or pasta bakes. Thank you so much for the opportunity to win this great giveaway!
It took me a few seconds to refocus after imagining that chorizo, onion and bourbon simmering together! Holy yum! What a delightful time! Your creative hot dog breakfast looks like a fabulous meal!
LOL the hotdog was funny but it did taste pretty good. 🙂 Thanks, Sandra!
Hooley Dooley! I can’t believe I haven’t been subscribed to your blog way before this!!! It’s a travesty….& in my humble opinion, way better than the others above you on the list!
So big congratulations to you :)) And thank you for sharing…
cheers Roni xx
LOL Roni, I love you to bits. When are we getting together for coffee??? I think it’s time. I want to hear first hand about all the luscious things you got up to in Europe.
Bridget is great! So glad to see that she was heading up one of the events. I’ve never heard of these products before!
Great rundown Muareen. Pressue. I loved these hotdags. The texture was great and the skin didnt peel off.
I’ve never had a hot dog for breakfast. Such a fun idea. I’m thinking I’d have to switch it out for a sausage though.
Ham.
Oh men, looks good, breakfast or whenever!
An egg-topped hot dog?! Brilliant! Fun idea. And that sounds like a fun event, too. Plus you scored some excellent goodies — can’t beat that.
Hot dog breakfast – yes please:)
Breakfast food is my favorite food. I often have ‘breakfast’ for dinner. Must try this one soon.
I saw some of the products at Coles last week but didn’t have time to investigate. Now I can add them to this weeks list and have a good old browse and no doubt a buy up so thank you!. Drunken chorizo potato salad here I come.
Hi Maureen, love the hotdog with the fried egg on top….I could eat this for breakfast myself. Sounds like a great event you went to, how fun.
One of the drawbacks of being such a good cook and blogger is that your family eats all the goodies before you can use them or take pictures. 🙂 That’s quite the bright red hot dog skin.
What a nice haul. This would all be Bill approved as well 🙂
How very interesting, Maureen…. those events sound delicious… are they holding any in Canberra, I wonder? I’ve not heard of these products, thank you for the intro.
Hot dogs for breakfast?!? Already looks so delicious 🙂
a hot dog breakfast i my kind of breakfast. wow, talk about a feast. it looks amazing and so much fun to do it at that event
Very delicious, everything especially your breakfast and the hot dog breakfast! I have never seen an egg on top of a hot dog!! classic!
Holy cow (pig?)! That potato salad is making me salivate, it sounds SO, so good. I’m definitely adding that one to ‘the list’. Love the hotdogs for breakfast too, that’s something my partner would devour almost without chewing.
G’day! Sometimes it is in the simplicity of foods that create the most childhood memories of yum!
I have never seen an egg on top of a hot dog either! Great idea!
Cheers! Joanne
That looks like a lovely event, Maureen, and I’m glad you found it to be very friendly. I never seem to have any male cook for me either. I know the perils of coming home with produce for a blog post only to discover I took my eye off it for a nano-second and someone gobbled it up. I love the look of your hot dog breakfast – what a great way to start the day xx
It must have been a wonderful day. You were certainly inspired to produce this amazing hot dog breakfast. This would be a joy for my husband, lovely breakfasty flavours, with a hot dog!
You are such a good wife! That’s funny that John got into the bag. That’s something Will would do. I do like the sound of taking out some of the fat. That means it’s healthy bacon right? ]
ps I thought your photos were good before but they are not amazing with the new camera!
Sounds like you had a great time!
Your photos are great!!
Hot dog is sausage by a different name. We eat sausage for breakfast so why not hot dog? Love the mini quiches or frittatas made with a ‘crust’ of deli ham, did you get any recipes?
That was my reasoning, Norma. I’m sticking to it. 🙂
Well my hubby would eat hotdogs for any meal! What a fun day and they sound like great products.
Oh Maureen, I could not help but laugh as I read this post about you yelling at John in regards to the ham…somehow similar scenes like this happen in my kitchen too…
I really can see that you had a wonderful time…thanks for sharing all the pictures.
Hotdog for breakfast is indeed a great idea, specially with the egg yolk running through it…
What a pretty interesting experience you had! Love deli meats, too! Your hotdog breakfast with that lovely egg looks perfect!!!
Gourmet Getaways
Holy YUM! I need this hot dog breakfast in my life now. Reckon this would go down a treat for my family brunch tomorrow. Thank you! That was easy. 🙂 Sounds like a fun event & your photos are awesome too. Happy Friday!
What a great time you must have had Maureen! I adore bacon, so would have to grab some. My family would be thrilled with a hot dog breakfast- much more interesting than Weetbix 🙂
Maureen, what a fabulous experience, and you captured it beautifully in pixels! The Oliving products intrigue, but what brought the biggest smile, a hungry one, is your breakfast hot dog. Brava!
Another fun outing under your belt! I was grovin’ along with the Jim Beam in the onions, but I tell ya that hot for breakfast deal—-that one tops is all. But hey for your husband who thinks a fried egg on his hamburger is normal, this couldn’t have been such a reach.
A hot dog is a sausage right? People eat sausage for breakfast. It’s not such a stretch when you think about it. 🙂
I love food events! Thanks for sharing this Maureen – now I, too, can enjoy mini quiches with a ‘crust’ of deli ham and hot dogs with egg for breakfast!
A hot dog breakfast sounds awesome! The runny egg oozing into the bun, and some hot dog with every bite… mmm!
Also, those breakfast quiches with the ham crust is a great idea. How fun that you got to do this!
There have been so many times when I’ve had to yell at my fiance “DON’T EAT THAT YET I NEED IT FOR PICTURES!!” Sometimes we get a bit crazy with out blogs, right? But they can’t complain, they get good food!
O to be a part of such a fun adventure; I am a little jealous, Maureen. But thanks so much for a great post and for sharing all the fun. Lots of great family-friendly ideas here!!!! Glad we connected:-)
Great ideas in this post. I love those little quiches. LOVE them. And I made a breakfast hotdog one time for a group camping event. Ina Garten’s idea. So delicious in the morning.