Jolly Feasting

After being a christain for so many years, this is the first time I'm cooking Christmas Eve Dinner (correction, more like Christmas Eve lunch). Being the only christain in the family, there has never been any celebration whatsoever and in my previous church the cell group always has a party on Christmas Eve.

So this year I was pretty surprised when my Mum suggested we have a dinner to celebrate. Eh..who's cooking??? No price for guessing :( I was 'elected' to be the chef of the day, one reason being I'll know what to cook for this festive celebration. It's not that I dislike the job, just that an old injury on the left shoulder had recurred and I'm having a little difficulty lifting the arm. So as not to disappoint the family, I made radical changes to the menu. Turkey? Big NO....since Dad is working on the Xmas eve & day, I don't want to chomp on cold turkey meat for the next 1+ week. Chicken? Eh....not looking forward to the required basting if I intend to roast a whole chicken. In the end, I settled on a baked pasta for the main, grilled sausages and a green salad for the sides and ending it with a tiramisu.

With some proper planning, I managed to dish out the whole lunch on my own within 3.5 hours. Hee, you may say you sure can do better than that but for someone with an injured shoulder, it's a mean feat!!! :P All thanks to Pioneer Woman's incredible recipes, my trusty Mayer oven and Kitchenaid mixer!

Drool-worthy Baked Pasta

Been reading Ree's blog for some time. Loved her witty writing and beautiful pictures. Never did I imagine her recipes played such a big role in this special lunch. Even my foodie brother sang praises of the food. If you're beginning to wonder why is that I never take a picture of the whole dish, truth is, both my mum and brother had started tucking into the food while I turned my back to retrieve the camera :P Yup...its really that delicious! Ha ha...I had no choice but to aim the camera at the untouched portion :) Made some minor adjustment to the ingredients as it's a nightmare to troll the supermarkets for all the ingredients at this time of the year. Everyone is in a frenzy buying mood! I'm so glad I had a tidy stash in my pastry fridge :)))

Here's how the pasta looks under the cheese....Yum!!!

Last.......but not least the superb Tiramisu

I'll post the modified recipes for the baked pasta and tiramisu some other time. Right now I just need to have a good break after all the cooking, cleaning and packing. Before I sign off, here's wishing everyone a very Merry Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!!

Pucker Up

If there's a fruit you'll always find in my refrigerator, it'll be the lemon. I simply adore lemon. A wedge of it to liven up the fish and chips, slices of it in ice teas during hot days and cups of hot lemon and honey when I'm down with the flu. It's bright yellow colour never fails to lift my spirit.

Here's the first batch of lemon curd I've made. Before this, I've never tasted lemon curd, let alone homemade ones. The verdict: I love its citrusy, light buttery texture and milky yellow hue. As I've passed the end product through a sieve, the texture is much more velvety than the regular kaya. Even my citrus fruit hater of a Dad is so in love with it. Nothing beats lemon curd and scones for breakfast :)

And so it begins...

Just a quick hello to everyone out there.

I finally started this blog after much procrastination. Well, you see, I’m not very much of a writing person. Hopefully, this time round it’ll be different as the focus will be on food…glorious food :P

Friends who know me very well will attest that I live to eat. I’m one who wouldn’t mind lousy service, long waiting time (nope, I’m not a donut factory fan) or obscure locations so long the food is great.

So be prepare to read about my adventures in eating, cooking and baking. H and BT, I’ll post the recipes you guys had been asking but I'd never got to write down. Ok, as a big appreciation of your ever forgiving nature, I’ll even list the ingredients in grams and spoons instead of telling you ‘agar agar’ (a colloquial term used in Singapore for estimation).

Do come back if you’re not bothered by my poor spelling or grammar or would like to know if I’d burnt down the kitchen. I’ll share more about that in another posting :)