Christmas 2013

I think a lot of people are in a food coma, comme moi (like me) after Christmas. We had our Christmas eve dinner.

There was more food than this, we just couldn't fit everything on one table!

HAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

We ordered a turkey & the best ham ever...

We cooked prawns, curry & noodles (of course you have to put an east meets west twist), potato gratin, roasted potatoes with duck fat, salad, roasted vegetables. It was my first time roasting potatoes in duck fat. This technique was suggested by M's boyfriend, who read an article on The Age. Very successful! The outsides were crisp and the inside was fluffy. I seasoned it with rosemary & pepper & salt. Quite indulgent; my mum was saying why I wanted to make the potatoes even more fat, and I proclaimed "BUT IT'S CHRISTMAS!" 

Dessert: Green tea ice cream, fruit cake, tiramisu, pavlova and cheesecake. I made the green tea ice cream, which was a pretty big hit! It's SO simple yet tastes amazing (and no egg yolk fuss, like in usual ice cream recipes). Aunty SS made the cheesecake, pavlova and fruit cake. My mum made her tiramisu. ALL delicious!

Next year I'll be in year 11 during Christmas... What? 

I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas. It's literally my favourite time of the year, and I had a really nice one this year :) We have so many left overs, it's time for me to make my grilled cheese turkey & ham sandwiches mmmmmmmmmm!

Past few days of Christmas festivities

It's Christmas eve! I'm getting ready for a good two days of celebrating Christmas with family and friends.

Last Friday, I hosted a Christmas party. I was busy cooking (with the help of my friend, Olivia!) and baking. I made some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chicken pie, lasagne, oreo and red velvet truffles and mango ice cream.

My famous chicken pie! 

Not sure who took this, but these are red velvet and oreo truffles.

Olivia's mum made this! 

Mango ice cream I made!

 Yesterday,  I went out to Crown with a few friends to celebrate my friend, Yvonne's birthday. We went to Kitchen workshop buffet. Boy, did I eat like a cow!

 Since it was the weekend lunch, we were able to get seafood passes. One each. So, we could each get a plate of oysters or prawns.

 There wasn't much savoury, I'll be honest, BUT the dessert was amazing! I grabbed a full plate (or 2 which I will not admit) of desserts, a couple of small plates and bowls of different desserts like pistachio panna cotta, mango mousse and sago (which tasted absolutely horrible. Aside from that, everything was great!) and even a bowl of soft serve chocolate AND vanilla ice cream. They also had the most amazing brownies ever!

The aftermath of five girls eating at a buffet.. I felt sorry for the waiters.

Excuse my lovely friends. 

 Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you have a fun time, gaining holiday weight and spending quality time with family.

Shortbread cookies

This is honestly the most wonderful time of the year. I'm getting real festive! So guess what I've been doing? BAKING HOLIDAY COOKIES!

Shortbread is a classic. This recipe is so simple, but it's simplicity at its best. It's the perfect, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth kind of cookie, and you can do almost anything you want with it. Cut it with a gingerbread man, love heart cookie cutters; well, anything you desire.  But what makes it even cuter, is if you cut a smaller part in the middle, and sandwich it and put the filling with some jam or buttercream.

These make excellent holiday gifts, and the decorations are always the fun bit. What I like to do, is I like to melt some dark chocolate, and then dip my shortbread and sprinkle it with some chopped up pistachios. Feel free to sub in any nuts, or even sprinkles or candy! But I like how the saltiness of the pistachios cuts through with the dark chocolate, and then there you have your shortbread. I made these with dark chocolate last week, but this week, I ran out of dark chocolate, so I only had milk chocolate. 

Happy holidays!

Shortbread cookies 

Adapted from Joy of baking

Ingredients
2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners' or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the salt.
2. In an electric mixer (I did it manually), beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, and beat until smooth and well combined. Put the vanilla extract, and then pour in the flour mixture, just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a ball, and wrap it in plastic wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, or until firm.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle. Cut into rounds, or other shapes with different cookie cutters. Place on the prepared baking sheets, and place in the refrigerate for another 15 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

* I rolled the dough out into quite big shapes, so it took a lot longer to bake. Just be caution not to over-bake them. They should have a bit of browning, but not too much!

* For a chocolate dipped shortbread variation, melt some chocolate (any) in a heatproof bowl, and then drizzle or dip the shortbread with the chocolate and place on baking paper. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, or when the chocolate is set.

What are your favourite holiday cookies? 

5 things (featuring fruits)

1. Blueberries

I used this recipe.

I eat blueberries (from the frozen box) on a daily basis. Usually with Greek yoghurt or in the form of a smoothie. Blueberries are cancer-fighting super-foods and can even improve memory!

Today, I baked some blueberry muffins. They have a lovely, fluffy and moist texture. I think it is due to the creaminess of the Greek yoghurt! I used half whole wheat flour and half purpose flour. So you can say, it's kind-of-healthy. So delicious, I had about three when they came out of the oven. I have been on the Greek yoghurt kick lately. I prefer it to normal yoghurt. It is so creamy and hey, it has more protein than normal yoghurt!

2. Peanut butter, bananas and strawberries combo.

Here you have wholemeal toast, with some smooth peanut butter spread topped with bananas and strawberries. 

Not that I didn't like it before, but I have a real obsession with peanut butter right now. My dad was telling my mum not to buy so much because I'm eating too much and it's not good for you.. Truth is, I've been using a lot of peanut butter for my baking. I bake for my friends (so I can fatten them instead of me). But now, I've actually started eating it on toast and also by its own (occasionally). But did you know, peanut butter is good for you, in moderation. I don't know whether it is an Asian thing, but I hear constantly from my parents and Asian friends that their parents don't buy peanut butter because it's bad. BUT IT CONTAINS PROTEIN AND MONO-UNSATURATED FATS, the good kinds of fats that can lower the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Same with avocados. People used to think "Oh avocado, lots of fats and high in calories" , but they contain good kinds of fats! I'm planning to make avocado pasta one of these days. I do love a creamy pasta.

Strawberries are in season now! After a bitter, probably one of the coldest winters and strawberries were expensive, THEY ARE NOW UBER CHEAP. My mum has bought a few boxes. I've been eating them everyday. They are a good source of vitamin C, experts even say that strawberries can result in healthier, younger looking skin (no wrinkles for me?)

3. Dippin' dots

I went to the Royal Melbourne show with my friends, and I bought one of these.I bought the bubblegum flavour (right). These are called Dippin' dots and they are made by freezing some ice cream with liquid nitrogen. They're super cold, and they're quite fun if you ask me.

4. Mooncakes

My mum has been busy in the kitchen, baking batch after batch of mooncakes! She has been selling this to friends. It's for charity, and she did this last year as well. You would not believe how many left over mooncakes were sitting in our containers last year... I'm not really a mooncake fan, so I don't eat them.

5. Christmas

Courtesy of Urban 75 blog

My favourite time of the year is just a shy 3 months away. This festive season includes Michael Buble's Christmas album, stuffing myself with food such as pudding and shortbread, Home Alone, presents, Santa hats, decorations! The only thing I wish for is snow. I've always fantasised of having a white Christmas in New York. I've seen the pictures; Rockefeller centre and Central Park, the atmosphere there just seems lovely.