More Christmas

Jaspa trying to open Jeya's Present!

Jeya opening her present (watched from inside by jealous Jaspa)

Janet opening her presents!

Christmas!!

We started the day with breakfast. As well as this fruit I also made a more eggy version of Nigella's Green Eggs & Ham. Which is basically eggy pancakes with green pesto mixed through, wrapped around a slice of ham.

Lunch - lots of food!

We provided the nibbles - I made Polenta cupcakes with pesto/creamcheese frosting, and wonton cups filled with avocado & tomato salsa.

Jeya was given a doggy cupcake from Lochie!

Our girls relaxing under the tree!

Look what I made...

Last night I gave up waiting for the Christmas cards we ordered to arrive. I sat down and made 20 cards. They were simple ones, but they look ok. Not bad for a last minute job.

So I sat down on the couch to wait for the glue to dry (this was about 8pm) and not 2 minutes after I had finished making the cards, a van drove up the driveway and the parcel lady dropped of a parcel at our front door. Guess what it was? Yep the Christmas cards we had ordered. So now we have a good supply.

I roasted a chook!

Saturday night Pam & Sid came over for dinner, so I decided to make a roast chicken. This was slightly stressful since I have never roasted a chicken before. I basically followed Nigella's recipe for Lemon Roast Chicken from Nigella Feasts. You rub the chicken with butter and put half a lemon inside it. I added fresh herbs from the garden (rosemary, sage & thyme) to the butter and rubbed this all over the chook, as well as putting some butter under the skin over the breasts. I also chucked some sprigs of these herbs inside the chicken. THen you salt the chicken and bake it in a 22o C oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it rest for 15 minutes before squeezing over some lemon juice and serving.

I also par boiled some potatoes, shook them around a bit after they were drained, and threw these in around the chicken, as well as some separately for the vegetarian (that would be me :-) ). Along with some roast pumpkin and roasted cauliflower, it was really quite delicious.

I was most impressed with the way the chicken turned out! It looked just like a real one. And by all reports also tasted delicious.

For dessert I made mini pavlovas with strawberry & mango.

And then we all played a bit of tennis & bowling on the Wii.

Happy 90th Birthday Pa!!

On Saturday it was my Grandfather's 90th Birthday. I made the cake. I used my Gran's recipe for chocolate cake. It was the cake she always made us for our birthdays. I have written the recipe down in my recipe note-book as told to me by my Mum over the phone many years ago. THere is a secret to the recipe. The recipe says 2 eggs, but the secret Gran twist is that you actually put in 3 eggs and get a better result. This was an accidental discovery by my Gran, but it is the way I always make this cake. Its a simple, tasty chocolate cake.

MMMMM chocolate cake batter. I actually made this cake twice. I had a slight disaster with the icing during round one. So that cake ended up in the bin, and I made a second cake after a quick trip to Woolies for some more ingredients.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PA!!!

Busy Busy....

Its getting to be that busy time of year. How did Christmas get to be less than 2 weeks away? No idea!

I believe we are fairly organised Christmas-wise. We have our shopping done, aour presents wrapped, our tree decorated, and our lights up on the house. We have not as yet sent out cards. This is because, rather than make them this year, I thought it would be good to buy some from a charity so we could at least be helping out someone. Good idea, only I should have had it earlier, because the cards we ordered have not arrived yet. People may be getting New Years or Easter cards from us. Who knows!!!

This weekend I have some cooking to do, so I am planning to take some photos and do a little cooking-blogging. I am going to make my first ever roast chicken dinner, for Saturday night when Pam & Sid are coming round. I am also baking a chocolate cake for my Granddad's 90th birthday. So that will keep me occupied this weekend!