Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas Lunch!!

After breakfast, we moved on to our next meal - Lunch!! The venue - my Aunt's place, where we had a nice relaxed gift opening session, before moving to the table for a bite or two to eat :-)



First up there was a gigantic bowl of rather large prawns, which were eaten with a dipping sauce made by Bill, as well as this delicious sesame seaweed (really, the sesame seaweed was so good!!)




instead of prawns, I had some thai marinated tofu to eat with my dipping sauce and seaweed - YUM!






Next up, we filled the table with more salads than you could imagine!


I made this green salad - I marinated the red onion in lime juice for a few hours, and simply tossed mixed leaves with the onion, a chopped mango and a handful of chopped pecans.



Mango, avocado, capsicum & tomato salad - so colourful!!



Tabouleh



A mixed bean salad




potato salad - Janet said this was the best potato salad she has ever eaten! (good job Kristy!)



My Pumpkin, Leek & Feta tart made another appearance - this time decorated with pumpkin stars!


Some more prawns!!!




Tomato, basil & Onion salad - nice christmassy colours!




Oh, and there was some meat.....Turkey with stuffing on this plate




This is the special vegetarian potato salad Kristy made for me - no meat in this one!!


A giant platter of Ham







This was my plate



And this was Janet's plate


Can we fit in any more food? Well there is ALWAYS room for dessert - especially at Christmas!



My favourite thing EVER - the Berries that my Granddad makes!




and of course, the traditional Christmas Pudding - it is flaming here - we managed quite an impressive flame this year, by warming the brandy in a saucepan before lighting it and pouring it over the pudding - too bad it doesn't show up in the photo!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Christmas Breakfast

For breakfast on Christmas Day, we went to Pam & Sids for a delicious start to the day....



This is my bowl of Fruit Salad with Mango, nectarine, grapes, cherries and a lychee.



Barbequeing Bacon & Tomato

Toast, bacon, tomato and eggs for Janet & Pam



and some deliciously buttery hot croissants!!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!




Merry Christmas!!!! I hope you and your families have a happy and safe Christmas!!

Catch you all soon with some more Christmas Feast Posts!!





Shadow


Isn't she the cutest Puppy in the world???? I am only slightly biased :-)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Pre-Christmas Morning Tea

Another Pre-Christmas gathering - morning tea this time!


Mum made these deliciously fluffy pikelets, which we ate with real butter and some delicious cherry jam




Mum's Christmas cake - nice and fruity and moist


and some Sultana scones from my Aunt with raspberry jam! YUM!!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Lunch #1

Our first Christmas lunch of the season! We went to my Aunt  and Uncles place near Bribie for this delicious lunch






Mum made this cous cous salad - I love this - it has lots of little morsels of delicious vegies as well as feta cheese mixed through the fluffy cous cous



Some tomato, radish & cucumber salads - this combination looks so nice and Christmassy!!




I made this Pumpkin, Leek & Feta tart (I am making it again for Christmas day, and have come up with a way to decorate it to hopefully make it look a little more tasty!! - stay tuned for recipe in a future post!!)


Desley made this noodle salad, which I missed trying, but it looked delicious!



THere was also Barbequed chicken (and some other meats as well)


my plate



Janet's plate



Desley created this very tall dessert - it was a panetone layered with marscepone & custard -



Monday, December 21, 2009

Spaghetti bolognese & tofunese


For Janet, I used mince (not sure what sort - possibly pork & veal).


For me, I used grated tofu - so it did resemble mince!

For both sauces, I cooked an onion and then added the "mince" Once the meaty mince was browned, I added grated carrot & zucchini to both saucepans along with some bottled tomato pasta sauce, and let it all simmer away. Very easy and very delicious!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Paw Print Cupcakes!




We picked up our new puppy Shadow, and took these cupcakes along with us (for the humans, not the dogs!).  I decorated them with M&M's and mini M&M's - makes for very easy puppy paw print cupcakes!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Puppies!!

Before we brought Shadow home, we had to try take some group photos of all 10 puppies. Quite a tricky task!
















Jeya loves her new little buddy, but Shadow loves her new big buddy even more :-)

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Turkey Roast!



Pam & Sid were coming for dinner, so I cooked a Turkey Thigh Roast, along with a nice mix of vegies.  It was a frozen turkey roast that came in a box from the supermarket, so I just had to follow the directions on the box to cook it. I served it with some pumpkin & sweet potat mash, some peas & corn and some mini potato bakes (which I cooked in muffin tins) and some gravy. Turkey got thumbs up all round from the turkey eaters, and the vegies were delicious!