Annual Christmas Party

Every year, my parents would organise a Christmas Party where they would invite relatives and close friends to their house. This year is no exception. I would always wait eagerly for the time when the young ones would gather and play together, as well as indulge in red wine and great food! Not forgetting, the whole load of presents the children gets!

The kids first started off gathering together for a Barbie cartoon! That was an opportune time to get some shots of them TOGETHER!



There's Chey Chey Phoebe and Danielle sitting down side by side as Danielle puts the barbie hand in her mouth...


Baby Joyanne was busy eating in front of the TV. Here's her perpetual puzzled look.



Before indulging in the whole spread of food, my father made a speech talking about the meaning of Christmas and shared about what he was thankful to God for in 2009. He said in English while my mum translated in Cantonese.


Here's a snippet of food pictures which we ate that night. I didnt manage to capture all the food...

We had finger food..which was nicely presented--toothpicks poked into the pineapple.



Then there was prawn and fruit salad prepared by Aunt Rosalind.


as well as baked potatoes with bacon and cheese, steamed cauliflower topped with cream of mushroom, portabello mushrooms, bacon and coriander.





Felt it wasnt a really good idea to put portabello mushrooms as it comes out water when sauteed. So, in the end, the gravy was too watery. So just adding bacon and coriander as toppings is good enough.

As for dessert, we had almond agar agar with longan as well as mango pudding and apple, choc chip crumble. All homemade! So yummy!


There were lots more food like roast beef (which I kept eating!! Probably ate about 4 slices!), as well as pasta, roast turkey, honey baked ham etc etc..



Caleb was having a fun time with his cousins and Godma!




During the later part of the party, me and my cousin decided to give ourselves a challenge by trying to get all the kids to sit down together, look at the camera and smile at the camera. We tried and this was the best we could do...We were delusional in thinking it could work. Anyway, what was important was that WE TRIED..



I really enjoyed the party for its great food and company! Every dish was superb!! Cant wait for Chinese New Year!

Couple time

This afternoon, we went to my mum-in-law's place for lunch. Caleb left the place with Keelia's sunglasses on. He refused to take it off.

Its strange how he liked wearing it that no matter how the sunglasses keep falling off, he still insists on wearing it.



Even Danielle noticed something strange on Caleb that she kept staring at him.



That's my boy at this stage in his life.


At night, CT and I left the kids at home with Vicky and went on a date to Orchard. We took the train there. Purpose of this date was to eat wagyu beef.

We first went to Orchard Central- a newly opened mall in Orchard. Quite a number of stalls still empty.


They had interesting narrow path ways in the shopping mall.


And took a picture of this gothic looking pot hanging beside the escalator.


We heard that there's a restaurant in Orchard Central that serves Wagyu beef, called "Grill out" restaurant. We went there and I felt the restaurant looked empty and still new. So, I went with my gut feeling and decided I shall stick to the original plan which was to go Angus Steak House for the beef since they had good ratings after doing some research over the internet.


So after a tour of Orchard Central, we went to Takashimaya for our wagyu beef at Angus Steak House.

What prompted us to eat Wagyu Beef is because CT had $250 to spend. His company gave him that amount to spend for a meal with the family to celebrate the opening of their new plant. All along I wanted to eat Wagyu Beef since its the holy grail of beef. So, I had to eat it since after hearing about the money we had given by the company!



We ordered 200g of Wagyu Sirloin and 200g of Wagyu Rib Eye. We chose these because Sirloin and Rib Eye is the fattest part. I love beef that has lots of fats!

It was a 5 course dinner. The first dish was a nicely pan fried cuttlefish ball with horseradish mayo sauce and salmon roe on top of french beans. Pardon me for such a description of the dish as they do not have a writeup of what we are eating and I didnt ask. So I am just describing as how I eat and taste of it! A very light, tasty and delicate dish. Loved it!



2nd course was a cream of mushroom soup. It was rich and tasty, but yet , it feels light as after slurping up the soup, you still want more! Went well with the complimentary bread roll.


3rd course was a fresh and light salad with soya sauce and balsamic vinegar taste to it.


Both CT and I seemed to chow down every dish almost immediately. Our behaviour probably didnt fit in at the nice and classy restaurant as we ate so fast but couldnt help it as the food was just so nice.

And finally, our main dish arrived!



Biting into the wagyu beef was practically effortless! It seems like I finally understood what "melts in your mouth" meant.

This was Wagyu Sirloin


And Wagyu Ribeye


Eating such steak, doesnt require any knives because of how tender it is.


Every bite that I took off the steak, I kept commenting to CT how happy I was to indulge in this and that I could just die now.

As for dessert, we had a cake with fruits and chocolate and butter sauce which once again tasted rich but light! Its quite an oxymoron because most rich dishes end up making you very full. But the texture was so light and fluffy that it didnt make me feel stuffed.


Oh, forgot to mention that I actually met one of my ex-students during our dinner. Guess I should get used to it since Singapore is so small and I will probably stay in teaching for some time.

After a satifying meal, we walked to another new mall-Ion Orchard to take a look. Initally, I felt unworthy to enter since it was all branded shops, but considering how often we come to Orchard, I felt, I might as well drop by inside to see.



The shops in Ion Orchard were very interesting. They even had a Christmas shop. When I saw it, I felt like I was in the streets of London during a cold winter night, glancing at the windows of this shop that sells Christmas ornaments, trains etc.

We spent time at the art gallery as well as the supermarket. I usually make it a point to explore new supermarkets because I always feel it would be an eye opening experience to see what interesting things they sell and yes, I was right! I managed to see not only the usual green, red and yellow bell peppers but black, purple, white and orange ones! Also saw them selling Japanese grapes which was royal black and I understand from the sales woman that the taste is just like red wine! If I was shopping alone, I would definitely buy some of it to try!

Went home straight after our tour of Ion Orchard. Really enjoyed my date with CT! Wonder when will be the next time...

Food that makes me go mmmm..

My mum is a very generous woman. Sometimes I feel that she is over-splurging on us that I do feel unworthy at times as she would cook good and expensive food, but I have came to realise and accept that it is her way of showing her love and she just wants to make us all happy. So I humbly accept her generosity...;p

Here's what she has prepared for us tonight on one of those usual weekly visit to her place.

1) Grilled portabello mushrooms with melted cheese


2)Fruit and vegetable salad


3) One plate full of lamb chops


4)Fried fish with herbs- mainly for our 2 helpers as they do not eat lamb


5) And lastly, angel hair pasta with meatballs


After dinner, Caleb went to play piano with my brother...


As for myself, I was waiting patiently for my sister-in-law, Pamela to arrive as I havent seen their 2 gals for quite some time and I do miss seeing both of them.

When they finally arrived, I quickly went to carry Joyanne and take a good look at her. So here's me and baby Joyanne who is still quite light!



Really wonder how the children will all grow up looking...hmmm

Simple Western Meal

In the mood to cook Western tonight as I bought one whole golden snapper from Giant yesterday and told the fish counter guy to fillet it for me. Since Caleb now eats the same food as us and since he is a typical Chinese guy, we had to cook rice for him. So here’s his dinner- rice with steam corn and pan fried snapper, as well as clam chowder soup.





It was also my first time preparing mussels with creamy butter herb sauce. I usually grill mussels with white wine, garlic and mozzarella cheese but decided to try a new version which I quite like as well.


I also did a tuna salad. The ingredients I have in my fridge decide for me what kind of salad I would make. I actually had left over tuna mayo in my fridge for my regular breakfast sandwich, left over lettuce, celery and tomatoes. So I just threw everything in and mix them together.

So here's our nice, simple dinner!

Swine chops

When the H1N1 first surfaced, it was called "swine flu" and because of that, for the first few weeks, many stayed away from pork. I know this because I would be one of the very few to be at the pork counter in Giant hypermart when the counter used to be quite crowded.

Anyway, I felt like eating pork chops. So bought 6 pieces and decided to cook it today. I marinated it with herbs, salt, black pepper and lemon zest.



Also made a simple salad with cucumber, red pepper, cocktail prawns, celery, tomatoes and pinenuts wih mayo dressing,



Also made couscous. (yep, inspired by Cherie who made it for me in Perth!) There were a couple of boxes on the shelf and I chose this box because it has a nicer and more interesting packaging. Yep, I go for aesthetics. Its like going to the library and when I do not know what book to borrow, I will look for the one with an interesting cover and nice fonts.



And finally, here my dinner which I prepared for my family!

Burger & Fries

Went to Cold Storage recently to spend my $30 Voucher which I got from Manulife Insurance. I do not usually go to Cold Storage for any of my marketing as the stuff there is more expensive.

Anyway, bought proscuitto, pork burger, basil leaves, salad which already amounted to $30 bucks! Can you believe it??!



So tonight, I finally cooked them. Prepared a pork burger(because Vicky doesnt like to eat beef)



topped with crispy bacon, melted cheese,


sauteed mushrooms and onions with BBQ and Mustard Sauce.


First, I put butter to pan and put the hamburger buns in it to give the crispy and slightly burnt taste which I like.



Then I fry the bacon with very little oil till crispy and set aside. I also saute the mushrooms and onions, seasoned with salt and pepper. Then set aside as well.

After that, I place the meat patties in the frying pan till slightly brown. Then lastly, I add the sauteed mushrooms and onions to the meat patties.



And finally, place a slice of cheese on top and cover the pan. If your pan has no cover, you can always use piece of aluminium foil to put on top of the patty for the cheese to melt.



Then I serve it like this.


Aside from burger, I also made butterhead lettuce salad with tomatoes, proscuitto and light evoo, lemon, basil dressing. Couldnt find baby spinach in Cold Storage. So no choice but to have this.



So this is my simple dinner. (FYI, CT had 2 burgers!)


CT and I both concluded that we preferred beef burger. But nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable meal.