Merry Christmas 2011

 

 Decided to cook a Christmas dinner because well, commitments.

Our Christmas ended up to be a two day feast. This is one of it and another was the following day at my elder sisters house. She had her in-laws over and we had fun.

But preparing this dinner was not easy task. :\

My grocery list for stuff we don't have includes the following.

Had to buy them early because nothing is open during Christmas day.

2 small brown onions, halved, finely chopped
55g (1/3 cup) unsalted pistachio kernels, finely chopped
245g (3 1/2 cups) fresh breadcrumbs (made from day-old bread)
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh continental parsley
    250g dried maccheroni pasta (see note)

1 1/5kg Chicken
    4 cooked chicken drumsticks
    100g baby spinach leaves
    300ml light thickened cream

4 strips bacon
1 bunch of chives
sour cream
    3/4 cup semi-dried tomatoes
    1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
    1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
 2 cups (500ml) thickened cream
    1 x 250g packet Arnott’s Choc Ripple biscuits
    Raspberries or seasonal berries to decorate

(probably my longest grocery list every)

 

According to Sam, it rains every Christmas lol and so this year it hailed while we were prepping. 

Hailing is really quite common here.

 Nearing the end it was so messy. -_- couldn't stand the clutter.

 Stuffing at its second stage. I like how the cranberry makes it look so colourful. 

 I'm super crazy over sun dried tomatoes.So good.

I usually put whatever I want inside it. Left over roast chicken, sun dried tomatoes, bacon, whatever you like really.

 We had a lot of problems with the stuffing because we didn't have a food processor to chop up the bread to make breadcrumbs. So we resorted to a variety of measures.

 Using a microplane and scissors.

At first I thought we wouldn't succeed because of the amount of ingredients we had to chop, dice, peel, wash, and cook looked so overwhelming. Thank goodness we prevailed at the end.

Looking forward to this sort of challenge again. well not so soon.

Happay

Go karted.

what surprised me was when i got back from the gym.

Nick had already gotten ready his backpack filled with buns, biscuits and even energy drinks. I thought it was kinda cute, mama syndrome scared no food. 

coz we were going to be out the whole day that day.

Lindt cake and Brunetti profiterole tower.

The tower is supposed to feed 10. LOL assuming that each person got 2. glutton

Overall I loved the day, eventho it was so tiring at the end of it.

Take Away

So the weeks before our exams. I was super lazy to cook.
So we basically survived on take away food.

To save money we usually hunt for cheap makan like closing hour sales when food goes cheap.

Instead of paying like 8 bucks or 10 bucks per-meal we got off with 5 boxes for just $27!

Ranges from $3.50-$6.00 epic.

The above had stuff like lamb rogan josh, red curry, massaman beef curry, black bean beef, green curry. 

Only drawback is that I get fat.

This wasn't cheap makan finds but shows how we depend on take away -_-.

Compared to the cheap find above this is $45.. the horror.

Half a chicken for $3.00 bucks epic. Quater for $1.80.

Thank god exams are over and im back to cooking again. typing this post made me feel grossed out.

Char Siew

 

Wanted to make wan tan mee the other day, well not make.

More like buy the char siew and 'lou' the noodle, the end. But Nick doesn't like char siew here so he surprisingly volunteered to make the char siew. least i didn't have to cook that night win-win.

 

I cincai lou-ed the noodles and made the sauce, guess what's important to add is the sesame oil, makes all the difference.

satisfying nom, least it tastes better than what you get outside.

Amigos @ St. Kilda

 

  Went to Amigos mexican restaurant @ St. Kilda the other night with Gessie.

They claim to serve gourmet mexican inspired food and drinks.

But anyhoo they have 3 branches in Melbourne and we got ourselves a scoopon :D

I didn;t take pictures so I had to go and steal some from googles images.

for $40 bucks we got a jug of Sangria, two paella's and a sizzling chocolate brownie

 

One paella itself already costs $29 normally @_@

We got the chicken with chorizo and seafood combination. At first I was skeptical bout the portion size when the waiter told me that one paella each would be enough to make us full. 

He was sure as hell right @_@.. they're really generous with the amount of meat they put in them. The seafood combination had really nice scallops, prawns and a realllly large king prawn I assume. 

Should have ordered two seafood.

 This was entertaining for the senses. 

Homemade brownie topped with melted Spanish chocolate flavoured with Kahlua and served on a sizzling plate with vanilla ice cream.

 

So they pour the chocolate on a sizzling plate and it starts to bubble.. smells incredible like burnt chocolate/caramel. Then the hot chocolate and ice cream gives you that hot and cold effect on your palette which is fun.

All in all, I think the price is bit overrated but with a scoopon or any other deal it's definitely worth having a go.
We both left really full and satisfied.

Snowthie

don't you think they should have come up with a better name...

got the peanut and black sesame one

anything that has nuts in them, i'm sold.

pissy blur face as per usual

one too many

bit too many for one household don't you think?

the last time i checked there was only two.

think he bought it coz it was on special.

anyhoo, I l o v e having carbs for breakfast. 

Love having my toast, my cereal and my muesli. 

These days i've been toasting away. Peanut butter + jam is preferred. Peanut butter and anything is always good. always.

 

 Had take away for dinner. Got a pad thai, crab meat fried rice and a deep fried pork shank.

  

 I don't know how to explain to you the size of this pork shank. It's so big and tastes epicc... god. The inside is not really fatty but lean moist and niceeeee.

Even if there are boys in this world i still think girls end up doing the hard work
like opening the coconut..

Decided to add a picture of a waffle coz there was an extra space to add a picture. the waffle was guuuud.

Indulge

 I'm quite a firm believer when it comes to indulging. Although I also believe that we should be thrifty and/or cheap when it comes to food. So what I'm trying to say is that once in a while I don't mind splurging on nom noms.

We went to Provenance Food + Bar @ Smith St

We got the chef's sharing plate consisting of cold meats, olives, bread and dip. We also got 3 small plates to share consisting of two little tiny pieces of pork belly, half a quail that's half the size of my fist and the smoked tuna. Thing about ang moh food that I don't like is how small the portions are -_-.

Since it was so little we ended up getting a main to share. Maybe I just developed a big appetite?

In total we ended up spending 80sth to be full  :\.

 

I lost an eye. And gessie lost half of her face.

Later headed to Brunswick St for some churros and hot chocolate, super cold. 

Lazy Food

Made pasta yesterday, got me thinking how it's one of my all time lazy foods.

You can create whatever concoction you want and still make it edible. o_o

I like to cook, makes me happy but being the sloth that I am, I tend to cook shit food for myself.

Only tend to cook nice stuff when it's for other people

or when it doesn't feel like a chore. (so demanding hey)

But lol, I know that when I have a family

that mentality will be the first

to fly out the window.

 

 Manage to find a few others of my "lazy food" creations.

I know Gessie's lazy food is of course instant noodles.

I'm planing on compiling recipes that I usually make so that I can easily have something to fall back on later in life lol, sounds epic. Anyway, living with a second person makes cooking a responsibility.. :\

I keep going back and forth, like I know I like doing it but during those lazy days I feel like

the "responsibility" is too soon -.-

like there is this benchmark of expectations that I have to fulfill. 

oh well, another day. got to take it as it is.

Random Nom

 

 So yesterday I was lazy to think of what to cook. 

Gessie had just bought tom yum paste,

so what the hey lets have a steamboat.

Whipped out the induction stove and tried

to find whatever to ingredients. At first we were unsure whether we could get enough variety but 

we ended up with a decent amount o_o

prawns, chicken, tofu, wombok, beans, dumplings, thai fish cakes

Learned that if you marinade the chicken with a little bit of chinese cooking wine will alter the texture of the chicken slightly. It becomes smooth and soft?

 

Thin and crispy nom

 Since Gessie and I do most of the cooking Nick offered to make crepes for dessert this time.

Watermark @ Docklands

Had makan at Watermark Bar at Docklands. Their mains were well priced at $15.

Food was so so. Their kitchen closes at 8pm and we came at 7.50pm o_O, so we had to scramble and eventually decided on

6 mains and 3 entrees for the 5 of us.

Portion wise, wasn't too big. Hopefully they enjoyed themselves.

Tour guide

State Library

 So Gessie's friends came over, mei chen and jessie saw

Took them around the city

here are some random pictures that I bothered taking.

Ate a lot that day, my highlight of the trip was La Belle Miette macarons!

Also managed to buy a pair of ankle boots as well. hot :D

Reading Room, State Library

Real cool place to come and study.
They also have a games room with all the gaming consoles.

Bratwurst and Donuts at Queen Victoria Market

T2 at Melbourne Central

Went past lil alley ways fill with Melbourne lil cafes, pass arcades,

Bourke street performers, Federation Square and Flinders Street Station.

Stack Pie

Carlton Draught Brewery Tour

 We went for it a few weeks back.

It only lasted for an hour, mostly walking around the factory.

It was pretty insightful. Carlton Brewery takes up

quite a lot of land. 4 MCG's according to the guide.

Factory runs 24hrs everyday, making sure the alcoholics never get 

thirsty.

 mom and dad

Dad was super happay.

Wasn't allowed to take pictures during the tour.

At the end of the tour we got to sample the 12? varieties that they make on site. 

 Then we got to put on the props from the recent Carlton Draught advertisement.

check out the guy in the yellow jumpsuit at the back.

the two alcoholics in the family.