Thursday 31st December '09

Lunch
Instant Ramen with Seafood Dumplings & Kang Kong

Mum's been growing kangkong in the garden. Yum!

Tonight we're having a BBQ at Ling and Shallen's place to ring in the new year. We've all decided what we're each bringing so I went grocery shopping.

I have a jar of sundried tomatoes that I've used up, so I kept the remaining oil to use for something else. Usually I use the oil for pasta dishes. Today, I bought some plain fetta, chopped it up into cubes and marinated it in the jar with the oil. I also added some fresh thyme.

Fetta marinated in Sundried Tomato infused Olive Oil & fresh Thyme.


NEW YEARS EVE 2009

I arrived early to put together my platter there instead of having the meat and cheese sweat it out under gladwrap on the drive over.

While out getting groceries, I spotted some fresh figs! I've been waiting for them to come back into season so I immediately bought several. At Ling and Shallen's, we prepared them while waiting for everyone else to arrive.

Slit a cross into the fig from the top, being careful not to cut all the way through to the bottom. Put a bit of butter and a sage leaf into the centre of the fig through the cut. Wrap some thinly sliced pancetta around the fig. Bake for about ten minutes until the butter has melted.

When you have a mouthful of fig and some pancetta, you get the beautiful contrasting flavours of the saltiness from the pancetta and the sweetness from the fig. Delicious!

	Food, glorious food!

I brought a few of the fruit liqueurs that I made for everyone to try. Mango and Raspberry. I'll have to post about the liqueurs later.

For dessert, Kong made an Apricot Cheesecake for us.

While everyone present declared how they love the base of a cheesecake better, I actually prefer the 'cheese' bit. It's weird since I prefer savoury.

We had soooo many leftovers!

We toasted the New Year in with a bottle of Italian sparkling that I found at home. I also put in each glass a hibiscus flower in syrup that I've been meaning to use for a while now, but kept forgetting.

So...wrapping up the year 2009.

A rather good year although it did appear to pass by rather quickly. The only real complaint I have for it is the problems that I've faced with entering the world of home ownership, but in a way it's sort of nice to think that I am seeing out the year without a huge debt over my head. That can wait until next year.

So Happy 2009 everyone, and here's to another great year in 2010.