What's Baking??: 2009 Christmas & Ash's 5th Birthday

December 25th, 2009

Frosty the Snowman, la la la la ...
It's Christmas where the house is abuzz with activities especially in the kitchen. The aroma of whatever is baking in the oven or grilling on the stove will fill the air. The old and the young, no matter at what age, will feel the excitement.

This year, we didn't put up a Christmas tree in our small living room (actually more of laziness. haahhaa). So we made do with making the outline of a Christmas tree on the wall with the twinkling bulbs. Idea from my creative hubby, off course! See? Nice?

I'm pretty smart this year. Instead of slogging in the kitchen all alone in preparing Christmas dinner as I usually do every year, I got myself a helper. My 17 year old nephew. A cheeky nephew that is! Since he's interested to learn how to cook, he's ever willing to come and spend a day in the kitchen with me. If anyone needs a helper, you can 'rent' him. Just feed him and he's happy!

For the past 5 years, all our Christmas were spent with added joyous moment as our little girl's birthday falls on the 23rd. So every year, we have double celebration and this makes her a very happy child as she gets double presents too! Our little Snow White!

Ok, here's the Christmas menu:

Caesar Salad
Roast Turkey with Apple n Raisin stuffing
Roast Lamb
Mashed Potatoes
Pasta with Tomato & Celery
Pie Tee
Ice-Cream Birthday Cake
*Thong Yin

*(The Nyonyas call this Kueh Ee which is served during the Winter Solstice Day. It's made of glutinous rice and shaped into small balls in white and red and served in sugar syrup. The Winter Soulstice Day falls on every 22nd of December every year).

Here are the pictures of our 2009 Christmas & Ashleigh's 5th Birthday Celebration.

Caesar Salad anyone??

This is how you stuff the turkey and how it looks like while waiting to be roasted. For the stuffing, heat some olive oil and butter. Add in chopped onion and garlic. Then add the chopped celery, followed by prunes and raisins. Fry for a minute or two, then add the chopped apple and pear. Take off heat, let cool and add in croutons. For the turkey, rub salt and butter all over the turkey and inside the cavity. Just before roasting, pour a generous amount of olive oil and juice of 1 lemon.

As for the gravy, pour the sauce from the turkey after it's baked, into a saucepan. Heat it up over a medium fire, add 400ml of chicken stock. Let boil and add a little cornflour to thicken the sauce. Then add a little red wine, salt and pepper to taste.

Voila! Roast Turkey with Apple & Raisin Stuffing. And the rating? Well I leave it to you..hardly any leftovers!

Roast Lamb

Marinate: Seasoned Salt, Black Pepper and Garlic. Before roasting, pour a little of olive oil and brush some mint sauce all over and bake for about 2 hours at 200 degree celsius.

There you go! A wonderfully tender piece of lamb! And the rating is...no left over. In fact, there's a request for repeat performance. Hmmmm....

Here's my cheeky 'little' Elf hard at work in peeling the potatoes! And the hardwork paid-off! Delicious mashed potatotes ever. And guess who finished it off? The 'Elf' himself..haahhaa.

Recipe? Well, boil the potatoes (without skin) in a pot of boiling water. Once soft, drain, and mashed it with a fork. Melt a little butter and mix together with the mashed potatoes. For added flavour, add in black pepper and a little of salt as desired.

Pie Tee contributed by my sisters who are superb cooks in their own ways, Joyce and Joslynn. Joyce, who is my 4th sis, is a very good cook and this is proven by her healthy looking family! She's also a good baker and she makes and sells cookies as well. I highly recommend that you try her cookies. It's like chipsmore, now you see it, now you don't. She can be contacted at joyceeong@yahoo.com. My youngest sis, who is quite a good cook and baker herself. She's very good at cake decorating and she writes her own blog. She has many interesting recipes in her blog www.nyonyapendekmelaka@blogspot.com. Basically, my sisters (5 of them) are very kitchen savvy! All thanks to our dearest Mom, nyonya pendek Melaka, Madam Tan.