Congratulations to Annabel Karmel who last night won The 2010 First Women Awards – Media Award hosted by Real Business magazine at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square, which recognises female pioneers across British Business in professional and public life. Sarah Brown is the Patron.

The ceremony was attended by more than 450 guests including the Home Secretary The Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Minister of State for Security Baroness Neville-Jones, Helen Alexander CBE – president of the CBI and Professor Susan Vinnicombe – Director of International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranfield University.

“This year’s winners are a tremendous example of the breath of female talent now operating in business and public service – they also send the vital message to young women across the UK that with hard work and determination, they too can succeed.”

Ebury’s publicity department hosted a event especially for parenting bloggers with bestselling author Annabel Karmel to celebrate the launch of her new book Top 100 Pasta Dishes.

20 Mummy bloggers from all around of the UK descended upon Marylebone (often with kids in tow!) to participate in a cooking demonstration with Annabel at La Cucina Caldesi cookery school.

Annabel first demonstrated how to make healthy meatballs from scratch (cooking them in tomato sauce rather than oil!) along with a Tagine… Then Mummy bloggers and their little helpers were invited to create a chicken pasta salad with a delicious pesto dressing.

As you can see from the evidence below, the children were not deterred by the presence of dreaded green veggies in the mix! There was Tupperware aplenty and what wasn’t eaten on the spot was taken home to enjoy along with a copy of the book.

Annabel subsequently showed us how to make ravioli from scratch. A little time consuming for the busy mum perhaps, but reassuringly not as daunting as one might expect!

Feedback from this event and the recipes from the book has been very positive, with some bloggers even Tweeting throughout to update their followers.

The event was also filmed so do have a look at the video below.

Caroline Craig, Publicity

Try this delicious recipe from Annabel Karmel’s new book, Top 100 Pasta Dishes.

Ingredients

200g fusilli
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g orange pepper cut into strips
100g broccoli florets
1 medium courgette (150g) sliced and the then cut into semi circles
250g salmon fillets
200 ml fish stock
150g crème fraiche
200 ml vegetable stock
150g tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and cut into chunks
75g parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cook the fusilli according to the directions on the packet.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for three minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the orange pepper broccoli and courgette and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes stirring occasionally until tender. Meanwhile cut the salmon into chunks.

Put into a saucepan cover with fish stock and poach over a gentle heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until cooked. Remove from the pan , strain and set aside.

Stir the crème fraiche and vegetable stock into the cooked vegetables and bring to a simmer.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and chunks of salmon and simmer for two minutes, then stir in the parmesan cheese and season to taste.

Toss the drained fusilli with the sauce taking care not to break up the chunks of salmon

Makes four portions.

Find out more about Annabel on the Annabel Karmel website.

Find out more about Top 100 Pasta Dishes

Wednesday of this week saw us all back at the Imagination Gallery (we last had our sales conference at this lovely, bright and airy venue) for a celebration for one of our most successful authors, Annabel Karmel.

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