New Year's Eve

The bubbly booze this year is Laurent-Perrier, I've never tried this one before. It's light and frothy so much so we practically drank the whole bottle in an instant. 

My sis brought parma ham with melons...hhmm!

I made watermelon men topped with pan fried hungarian foie gras, goat cheese, balsamic vinigar and black pepper. Everyone said it was yummy and I agree! 

Stuffed pita pockets. Ok, I had trouble making a hole in the wholemeal pita bread, so I threw the toppings on top like pizza. Lots of that lovely french cheese from Christmas to form the base, chopped basil & marjoram mixed with ground pork to form the stuffing. It really tastes more like chinese chopped meat patty than pizza. But, still delicious!

Bath Fizzies

This is a basic recipe for bath fizzies that I am trying out on smaller moulds (ice trays). Practice before Valentine's Day. You are supposed to spray the colour on and that really is the only way you are going to get the colour on. Then finger press into moulds. I am leaving it overnight to dry out and check in tomorrow. Wish me luck!



Homemade Scrubs

I used to make this all the time with my sis, trying out new recipes in the kitchen. Our favourite was the ground apricot seed scrub with pureed tropical fruits. Edible and bursting with antioxidants & vitamins for the skin. You can make masks, scrubs, bath soaks or fizzies (very popular these days), soap, hair masks.

With simple ingredients from your kitchen, you can make your own bath products. I would recommend homemade scrubs as it is the easiest to whip up and gift (not everyone has a bathtub). Look for the purest form of each ingredient: oils have to be 100% pure, extra virgin or cold-pressed, naturally found sea salts and cane sugar straight from the plantation. Oh yes! and seasonal fruits from the market.

Then add in essential oils for scent, colour and other healing properties. A couple drops of tea tree essential oil to help the body heal always helps.

Zhou Kitchen

I need this to counter all that festive turkey and ham.

I am part Hock Chia so I eat mee sua.

Presents

My booty of hand creams this year. I think there is a year's supply here =)

Boxing Day

The chocolate Christmas tree I should have brought out yesterday. Goes great with coffee from my brother's new nespresso machine. We were celebrating my Brother's birthday as well with the extended family where he brought out a baked Alaska ice cream cake. Aahh! I love ice cream!

Christmas 2010

That's me in the background. This year's turkey is a 6kg butterball surrounded by fruits in season (Columbian physalis and miniature plums).

This year I made the sides: truffled mushrooms, tomato avocado salad, whipped potatoes, marshmellow sweet potatoes. For dessert there is just a cheese platter and all the candy you can eat.

Now, about those sweet potatoes...I read online that it is a Thanksgiving must-have and the recipe comes straight off the marshmellow packaging. And they are right! It is delicious, every last spoonful was finished.

My sis carved the turkey and ham to make a lovely platter. My mom made a nutmeg lime drink.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2010

Coming from a non-Christian family, I don't really celebrate Christmas. So I do some last minute shopping for festive food to last us through the next few days and open a bottle of my favourite cidar while I prep for tomorrow's lunch.

Then the delivery people came just as I stepped home with Christmas presents!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Handmade Xmas Gifts

Homemade bath salts for Shan who made me red velvet cupcakes (with vinigar).

 Bath Salt Recipe:

Epsom & Sea Salt

Bicarbonate of Soda

Vanilla essential oils

Buttermilk powder

*just add water*

Pumpkin Soup

Looks like a giant egg yolk doesn't it? It's a really big plate of pumpkin soup, pureed whole pumpkin with cream.

Combi Oven

It's time to say goodbye to my 20 year old microwave cum steam oven as it's starting to heat unevenly and the glass plate is broken. I had to get another combi microwave oven again as it's soo handy. Who uses a regular plain oven or microwave anymore?

The hottest model in the market right now is this Panasonic 30 litre Awasewaza that can do it all - microwave, bake, grill, steam. All this for $1,500! Much cheaper than my dream 70 litre Ariston oven.

Realistically, I got a Samsung Trio 30l microwave oven that also does it all, but, with specialized equipment. It's even self-cleaning. For the down-to-earth price of $479, add $50 for a 5 year warranty.

Best Denki gave me a free Moulinex blender/grinder even though it's not advertised anywhere (*ok, it's advertised on the Samsung website).

Here's my new kitchen toy cleaning itself.

Christmas 2010 Nails

Gold lacquer with fluorescent glitter tips to point the way.

Applebees

Cocktails and dessert with whipped cream. Just what I need before going back to work tomorrow.

Squash Flower

I only have 1 variety growing mainly because we didn't water the plants while away on vacation. It's a squash. Quite a crawler, it has ran amok on top of other plants and I had to coil it around the rail. Now it has 3 flowers that I am contemplating plucking to stuff with ricotto and deep-fry. Which is quite a delicacy... very modern Aussie or Italian. I don't know what the neighbours will say once fruit starts to grow, I just hope it doesn't fall onto passer-bys below.

White Truffle Dinner

I love having long dinners in place of clubbing these days.

Lots of white truffle in my wild mushroom risotto. It's the season, near Christmas and my boss just told me I am changing my contract =)

And a fleur de lys dessert... seriously.

Parma Ham

Food tasting before deciding what we're making for Christmas and New Year's. Parma ham is the best prosciutto available on the market. How will the salty, porky flavour sit with the family? 

Google Adwords - Thank You Video

My own personalized thank you video from Google Adwords. How incredible is it!

 

Decorating for Christmas

Today, we put up the Christmas decorations.

It's the same every year - tinsel, felt stockings, bells and wood figurines.

This year's addition are a bunch of happy skaters powered by candles.

My Santa matryoshka dolls.

And the same wreath that gets re-decorated every year.

Winston the Penguin Purse

How cute is this little critter? I have a real weakness for 3D animal shape pouches, so it took me all of 5 seconds to buy this, especially since it was on sale. 

Elizabeth Arden Perfume Candle

The first perfumed candle of the season. Scent is Elizabeth Arden's Red Door.



Lucky Draw

Christmas block party. Lucky draw prizes and lots of fried finger food.



Christmas Presents - Wrapped!

To make wrapping presents easier this year, I bought more bags to put them in...zip it, slap a bow on and it's wrapped!

Chinese Name Necklace

Early Christmas present from my mom! We all remember the name necklace popularized by Carrie Bradshaw almost a decade ago. I was actually looking at a new necklace with my name in Arabic. But, my mom got me this one with chinese characters instead.