Wednesday 28th December 2011

Today we had an outing with the neighbours and their kids to South Beach. It's my first time to this beach ever and I loved it!

Fish and Chips for lunch!
The water was great therapy for my back but it was a pretty hot day and we couldn't stay out too long, despite the kids not wanting to leave the water!

Tuesday 27th December 2011

Many people ask this question after Christmas.

What to do with the ham bone?

The ham that Benoit and Ivy brought for our Christmas lunch was huge! I thought I might be eating it for the week to come but as I carved it, people ate it. I managed to get most of the meat off the bone and what was not eaten I distributed to people to take home. I kept the bone.

So, the answer to my question?

Make soup!

Ham and Summer Vegetable Soup with Pasta

Monday 26th December 2011

As the night wore on last night, my lower back started to get sore and this morning I could not get out of bed. I had to call and cancel plans that we had to go to the beach in the morning and then to Lisa's for a BBQ lunch. After a few hours on the couch with a heat pack, we managed to reorganise things and my two fabulous friends came over to have lunch at my place so that our day was not at a total loss.

Lisa roasted some gorgeously marinated lamb on her BBQ.

I made a quick Lentil & Cous Cous Salad.
When I say quick, I mean the salad takes no time at all to make but I took over an hour to make it because I was shuffling around in pain! Lisa also brought a fresh Tomato, Basil and Bocconcini salad and Marissa brought a Baby Spinach Salad. Very healthy lunch!

Refreshing Pimms

Marissa made us Pavlova for dessert!!

Ooh, I do love a nice pavlova! All that cream!

Sunday 25th December 2011

CHRISTMAS LUNCH
Today is the first Christmas I am celebrating in my new home and I am sooooo incredibly happy to have friends and family share it with me. I wanted low fuss throughout the day and to prepare things in advance so that I could spend time socialising and hosting instead of in the kitchen. The late night last night preparing paid off today!

Prawn Cocktail Salad

Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Avocado, Prawns and homemade Prawn Cocktail Sauce

I had heaps of prawns leftover so I wrapped them up with some
prosciutto and baked them in the oven until the prosciutto became crispy.

I made the Potato Bake last night and sliced it up today.

Roasted Pumpkin, Tomato and Rocket Salad with Fetta
I sliced the grape cherry tomatoes in half and baked them in the oven with some olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper to make my own sundried tomatoes. This salad was awesome - I must make it again!

We kick started the eating with the Antipasto that Ling and Shallen brought.

I especially loved the eggplant..

..and the mushrooms!!

We toasted to the occasion with some homemade Egg Nog that Yen Chen made.
Soooo delicious and creamy! And potent!

After stuffing ourselves with antipasto, we migrated to the table for lunch!

My roast chicken turned out really well! I roasted two trays of chicken
thighs in the morning and the stuffing turned out so good!

Ivy and Benoit brought a really gorgeous Ham!

A rather healthy lunch!?

Despite feeling too full, we were still able to fit in some dessert!

Jocelyn made a Summer Berry Cheesecake.

My neighbour made me her gorgeous Trifle and left it in my fridge for me!

Pauline brought some Rocky Road.

Jocelyn also brought some Red Velvet Cupcakes and Shortbread Men.
We also had some of the Hedgehog Slices that I made.

Some of us fell into food comas after lunch.

Later in the evening, a few people returned and I made laksa for supper! Who knows how we could possibly still eat after today's lunch!?

Saturday 24th December 2011

I am celebrating my first Christmas in my house this year by having some friends and family over for lunch tomorrow. I was planning to roast a big chicken but then decided that it would be too much of a hassle to carve it. Instead, I bought chicken thigh pieces to roast so everyone could have their own piece. Easy!

I made the stuffing tonight.

Bacon and Sage Stuffing
Onion, garlic, bacon, freshly ground sage leaves from my garden, salt and pepper to season and bread crumbs.

I gently stuffed each thigh fillet beneath the skin. They are ready to just go into the oven tomorrow morning!

I also made some Hedgehog Slice...

...and White Hedgehog Slice!

Friday 23rd December 2011

Supper
Pork Ball Noodle Soup

Thursday 22nd December 2011

CHRISTMAS WORK LUNCH
With Christmas coming up next week, we had a nice (relatively) healthy lunch today in anticipation of all the eating we have ahead of us in the next few weeks.

Pumpkin & Asparagus Quiche

German Chocolate Log
My, you could smell the alcohol before even taking a bite!

An assortment of platters!