Jottings, ramblings, snapshots, candid and spiritual sharing.. which all began with her two beloved doggies Jojo & Jelly.. and later, the adorable Jam!
Suddenly I found out that I was not going to cook for just my parents and myself but also for my two uncles, aunts and a cousin on Christmas eve! But that was a challenge that I was ready to embrace.
I've always had an interest in cooking Western meals but usually it's quite simple and some times I would refer to recipes.. So this would be the first time that I cooked so many dishes for one meal! Fortunately I had our helpers' assistance - so I functioned as the main chef while they helped me cut the food and do the washing up! :p
The shopping for ingredients took about two hours in the early afternoon. I'm glad to discover Village Grocer at BV had stocked lots of fresh herbs which I needed! I started close to 3:30pm - with almost an hour break to go and collect my car back (yep! my car is finally repaired but not without some minor problems that still needed to be mended..). So it was pretty good timing as I finished by about 7-ish when the guests arrived.
Here's the menu of our Christmas eve `feast' :
1. Roast Capsicum with Balsamic vinegar
2. Cream of mushroom soup
3. Roast new potato with garlic
4. Grilled Portabello mushrooms with garlic butter oil
5. Baked salmon with lime and fresh herb cream
6. Char-grilled prawns (cooked by dad)
7. Chargrilled sirloin steak with garlic spice (marinated by me and cooked by dad)
8. Apple pie with vanilla ice-cream (bought)
To be honest, I was a little stressed earlier in the day. I've devised the menu but then worried that I might not be able to managed the dishes in a few hours! But thank goodness everything turned out well, considering that all of the dishes (except the soup) was totally new for me.
So what was the verdict? My dinner companions seemed pretty amazed at what they saw and tasted. I mean it was not the most sumptuous culinary experience but consider it came from me, it was good enough! :p Even my uncle who was quite particular with his food remarked that they were of 4-star hotel standard (but not quite 5-star)! And that was a nice compliment I thought.. :)
Yeah, cooking is fun! But just don't ask me to do it everyday.. it would then become a chore. I will reserve it for special occasions! :p
It's unbelievable that time passes so scarily fast..! Chinese New Year seemed to have passed not long ago.. but it's coming again in just one month-and-a-bit!
It has been an eventful week.. I could have put up another 3-4 posts but alas, am getting a bit lazy these days.. or maybe my time to blog has been taken up by other things.. So here's a rather brief account of my feasting and party week! ;)
On Monday, dad and mom treated me for my birthday dinner at Max Kitchen & Wine. I've read a few rave reviews from some food blogs so I decided to try it out! The starters were excellent, so was the dessert. But somehow the mains weren't as good as we expected, especially my Tenderloin steak which was a bit bland in taste and not so good in texture. Dad's lamb cutlets were pretty tasty and succulent but the sauce a tad sweet. Mom's cod was prepared with much Chinese cooking influence.. pretty good. Anyway, the impeccable service had more or less made up for it.. and the ambience was charming, cosy and casual at the same time.. We had a lovely time :)
I actually took lots of pix of the food - had in mind to do a food post. But a Flogger I'm not as I've forgotten to even take down the names of the dishes.. ! :p
Our small gang from college finally managed to meet up on Wednesday after a few attempts.. yeah, most of them are real busy career women! So it meant a joint birthday dinner for two of us. Our culinary expert friend chose Vintry at Damansara, which is also a wine cellar, and it was really bustling! We ended up having a 4 1/2 hour dinner - as our most busy workaholic friend was 2 hour late.. and our first order took a long time to come! The restaurant specialised in pork so we had roast pork starter and pork burger with blue cheese. We ended up opening two bottles of wine, and I ended up drinking more than any of them.. and we finished off with cheese platter and lovely Tiramisu cake from Just Heavenly.. I was SO stuffed!
My friends are all camera shy so here're the only two pix I took of the night! (didn't take food pix)
Then on Friday was our peer group's Christmas celebration - this time it was at a friend's house. It was a pot-luck style buffet spread. The host had already prepared quite a few dishes and each of the Bible Study group also brought additional ones.. I think my group had the most variety! I made potato salad and tomato salsa salad - both tried and tested! :p I think there were easily more than 30 different starters, mains and desserts! But of course the highlight was not merely food but our gift-exchange with a difference - where one can `covet' another person's gift! It was kinda fun but most people were either too polite or just not greedy at all.. ;) We also sang a few carols and the rest of the evening was free and easy..
Oh, another highlight for me was playing with my friend's two dogs - Cotton and Sugar! Cotton is white - spitz mixed while Sugar is a miniature schnauzer just like Jelly! Except she's petite and slim.. (unlike my big fat Jelly) They're so cute!! and I couldn't resist asking my friend to take a pix of me and Sugar. I forgot to bring my camera - thus lack of pix - but good thing my friend did bring.
Of course Christmas is just around the corner and the feasting won't stop yet.. some sneak `preview': I'll be cooking a Western Christmas eve dinner for the family - Gotta go food shopping and then be the chef of the day! The next day, there's a annual Christmas party at my friend's house and the spread is lovely..
Gosh, really have to watch my diet soon... but making it a New Year resolution won't be easy for CNY is coming soon!! Argh!! : o
Yes, I love singing.. so it's great to be able to lung it out on my birthday!! Though as I looked through the song list, I discovered how backdated I am these days with new songs.. I only know of songs that are more than 10 years old.. esp. those in the 80s.
Oh, it was quite fun discovering what songs we know and like to sing.. including some rather unexpected choices!? ;)
We sang quite a lot, and was trying to cram in more songs in the last minutes.. we thought we had to leave by 10pm but a few of us sang on till 11pm and they didn't cut us off!
Thank you, my friends for a wonderful time! We should do this more often!! :D
Oh, and the presents I got. The bouquet was really a pleasant surprise - all the way my friends in Belgium.. So sweet of them. :)
p.s. I must admit that I was really dreading my birthday to come this year.. About two months ago I already hope that time would stop! Why? just say I'm afraid of getting old, and trust me, mine is a rather BIG number. But somehow when it was getting nearer to my birthday, it became `easier' and have more or less come to term with it.. I mean, you can't change anything can you? so might as well just accept it and enjoy the day! So that's what I did finally! ;) And I just want to thank the Lord for so much blessings in my life.. that I know I shouldn't take it for granted..
On Dec 20 last year, two of my friends were badly injured from a car accident.. the car was totally wrecked and they were fortunate to have cheated death, but they had to go through multiple surgeries and hospitalisation, and prolonged treatment and physiotherapy. It was a traumatic and very challenging time for them...
Fortunately now one year later, Pat and Tesa have recovered well enough to function almost normally. At the one-year accident anniversary, they had decided to host a thanksgiving dinner - to thank all their friends for their help and support, and also, to give thanks to God for His blessings and love.
I was honoured to be their emcee for this special evening, held last Saturday at a hotel. Besides inviting about seven tables of their friends, they have also invited some children from a handicapped home who gave two dance performances. The guests were encourage to donate to the home rather then giving the hosts any gifts..
Pat and Tesa giving a moving and heartfelt speech. There was also a slide presentation that had pictures of the accidents and their recovery process.
The dinner was also a time to catch up with our common friends..
With some of the people at the main table - among whom are Mr&Mrs Yong and Siew Yean who were present at the accident scene and helped Pat and Tesa.
With old friends Kington, Faith and their younger son Luke
My table who consisted of our secondary school friends from boarding school.
Towards the end of the dinner, Tesa gave a beautiful rendition of two Chinese numbers (the pix turned out too dark) After which, I kicked off the karaoke session with the song `Hero' to dedicate to my two friends..
So my dear friends, I'm glad that you've both recovered well and I thank God for your testimonies, and also for an inspiring and meaningful evening.. :)
Sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la in the morning.. sha-la-la-la-la..
Yep, it's the evergreen `oldie' band The Wynners! And they'll be here for a New Year Eve countdown concert!
You can't blame me for being excited.. Though I was too young (ahem :p) to be a Wynners fan, but almost everyone knows that I'm a hardcore, devoted fan of Alan Tam!!
And yes, if you don't know this shame-on-you, Alan Tam was the lead singer of this group and he went on to pursue a most successful solo-career - the indisputable King of Canto-pop in the 1980s! And while many artistes from that era had already faded off from the scene, Alan is still very much in it, making his presence felt.
Ok ok, I'm not here to write about Alan Tam but The Wynners. :p
Although it was a last-minute notice (I only knew of the time of the press conference a day earlier when I covered Michael Wong in Genting) but it is one PC I can't miss! I wanted to go, whether for work or not! Then it turned out that I was to cover it for two of the publications I contribute to - one mag, one paper.. So it's killing two birds with one stone so to speak.
Just for the record (for the young and ignorant :p), The Wynners - touted as The Beatles of Hong Kong - consisted of Alan Tam (vocals), Kenny Bee (vocals), Bennett Pang (guitar), Danny Yip (bass guitar) and Anthony Chan (drums).
For their promotional tour to KL last weekend, Anthony - chariman of a listed company in China - couldn't make it. But the four of them were sufficient to provide lots of jokes and laughters and made it such a fun and hilarious press conference. Needless to say, the chatty Alan was the one who spoke most followed by Kenny Bee. Bennett Pang had some dry humour too while Danny Yip was his usual rather timid self. But the way they made fun (in good humour of course) of each other was like watching a comedy. Alan even dubbed themselves as the `The Spice-men' - in Cantonese `Lat Gung'!
They may be well into their 50s but The Wynners was probably more youthful at heart than those half their age! And it was heartwarming to see how close the band members are after more than 3 decades! Although they have gone separate ways by 1980, The Wynners never officially disbanded thus the five of them would get together like every five years for their anniversary concerts. This is their 33rd year anniversary reunion.
So for the sake of my idol, I'm doing extra publicity plug here :p <easy WYNNERS 33 Anniversary Countdown Concert>will be held at Stadium Negara on December 31, 2007 starting at 9pm. For details, click here.
The last time I watched The Wynners in concert was 9 years ago at Genting Highland, and yes, it was a great show! So don't ask what I'll be doing on New Year's Eve.. you know the answer!! :p
I captured these photos from the bus while going down the mountain from Genting Highland.
It's quite a rare and breath-taking sight! It's as if we're above the clouds - which actually was thick fog and yeah, the ride became quite foggy later on..
I must say I am pretty captivated by `The Golden Compass' - which I watched at a media preview. I think it has to do with the animals in it..
Not having read the book, I must say I enjoyed the movie - it's creativity and fantasy to a new level, and quite touching at parts. Being an animal lover, I just couldn't' help but be enchanted by the Daemons (the soul of a human being which takes the form of an animal.. and it's always besides you). Oh, and also the gallant ice bears of course..
It is always more heartwarming when the protagonist in a child.. Lyra is super cool, and yes, I love especially her daemon Pan(Pantalamoin) which takes many forms.
No, I am not reviewing the movie.. this post has no spoilers. In fact, thanks to Liz's blog I discovered an interesting test from the movie website called `Meet Your Daemon' - yep, just answer 20 questions truthfully and then it will tell you what is your Daemon!
Presenting to you my Daemon - Pereus
For those of you who know me, you can help to determine whether it matches me by answering a few questions. After 12 days, my daemon will settle into its final form. Try it out for yourself.. let me know what's yours!
Oh, after watching the movie, I had this candid thought that Jelly is like my little Daemon in a way. She follows me everywhere, literally. Only thing is she can't speak. :p
After going to the police station thrice since the accident last week (to lodge report, meet sargent, pay summon and collect report), today I sent my battered car to the workshop.
It will take quite a while - for the insurance company to process the claims, to buy the spare-parts etc.. The workshop guy said on average it takes about 3 weeks.
Sigh...no car for 3 weeks. Hopefully can get it back before the new year! But fortunately I can borrow mom's car.. we just have to share.
My poor car.. it was having some internal problems too! overheating (no water) and leaking motor oil too.. must be due to the impact from the accident. It was badly hurt a few months ago and now had to endure another bout of injuries.. :(
Have decided that one of my new year resolutions for 2008 is to drive carefully and hope it will be an accident-free year!!
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