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!!