Sat, 31st Mar 2007

I've marinated the steaks with salt & black pepper and a light drizzle of olive oil. Some chefs tells you not to salt meat before the cooking process as it draws water out of the meat during, but frankly I don't find any difference.

Here is a parboiled potato, with some butter and salt on its skin.

Here it is wrapped in foil and the rest sitting in a tray just waiting for about an hour's baking time in the oven.

Now I'm off to prepare the garlic parsley butter for the escargots, the mushrooms, the vegetables and the condiments to be served with the jacket potatoes. Oh don't forget the light dressing for the small salad to go with the seared tuna and of course the tuna itself. eeekkksss - and I thought dinner for 5 was going to be easy.

Sat, 31st Mar 2007

I have just finished setting the table for tomorrow.




I've used the same tablecloth, napkins, crockery, glassware & placecards as last year's do.

Menu cards will appear on the table tomorrow night, just before the girls arrive. I removed J's menu card immediately after this pic was taken. hahahahaha (oh no, I'm haha-ing x 5 again)....

Sat, 31st Mar 2007

One more day, girls, just one more day......

Girls’ Birthday Dinner – Sat, 31st March 2007

Starters
Escargots with Garlic Parsley Butter

Served with Wholemeal Baguette

Seared Tuna with Black Pepper & Sesame Crust
Served with Japanese Soy Sauce & Wasabi

Main Course
Grilled Ribeye Steaks

Jacket Potatoes
Make your own topping with the following: Sour Cream, Bacon Bits, Butter & Chives
Broiled Whole White Mushrooms

Sauteed Sugar Beans, Pea Shoots & Carrots with Garlic

Dessert
Chocolate Birthday Cake

Tiramisu

Irish Coffee

Green Tea

Dancing?

p.s I've put on 3 kgs just looking at this menu..

Thurs, 29th Mar 2007

A certain someone celebrated her 4x birthday today.

This is her birthday cake.

This is her birthday soup - Turkey soup with whole onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbag and whole peppercorns, with dried scallops and dried oysters from HK.

Left - soup in the morning, Right - in the evening just before serving

This is her birthday curry - Thick rich spicy chicken curry with potatoes and a lot of curry leaves.

This is her birthday leg of lamb with PURE reduced meat juices.

This is her birthday beansprouts whichI stirfried with egg. We had 2 plates of these.

This is her birthday jelly - with rambutans. There was another batch in the fridge made with nata de coco which we didn't eat because we were all too full.

We also had roast potatoes and rice and green tea and ice-cream and white wine.........

With another huge meal coming up on Saturday, I will be so glad when this month is over due to the number of birthdays falling in the same month....

Sat, 31st Mar 2007

Sneak peek into the Girls' Birthday Bash

to be held on

Sat, 31st Mar 2007.....

Escargots in Garlic Parsley Butter

or

Classic Escargots A La Bourguignonne

Served with Toasted Wholemeal Baguette

Advance wishes to the birthday babes;

Wm, J & M

Note: I've never done escargots before so I hope it'll be good.

The tin has an expiry date of 2010.

Does anyone know where I can buy escargot shells from in Brunei?

I have tried Guan Hock Lee but they had sold out.

My tin of snails were from GHL - I had a peek into their freezers and they had Alaska Crab Legs, Scallops, Cod and many more. I picked a small slab of tuna which I will turn into 'Seared Tuna with Sesame & Black Pepper Crust'

Served with a Light Soy Wasabi Dressing

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Meat lovers, feast your eyes on this monster. Vegetarians may turn away.



Just wanted to show what Hazel's birthday turkey looked like when it was released from the oven. The little red button is the turkey-o-meter which pops out when the turkey is done.

Sun, 25th Mar 2007

Photo: Taken by AnakBrunei

Many thanks to Reeda for capturing the essence of the afternoon through his lenses.

SUNSET YOGA AT BUKIT SHAHBANDAR

Nora, talented and committed guru, organised an outdoor Flow session for us on Sunday.

Here we are in savasana at the end of quite a challenging Flow class. I really enjoyed the feel of the air on my skin, the greenery all around us, the wonderfully clear blue sky with fluffy cotton balls of clouds lazily drifting by, and sounds of nature - light breezes rustling tree branches ahead and even the birds chirping merrily in the background didn't un-nerve me!!

Managed to filter out the curious onlookers but couldn't help joining in the giggles during some of our unsuccessful attempts at the more challenging poses, and Pablo's comment on the 'men's version' of childbirth! hehe

More from: Pablo & here.

Sun, 25th Mar 2007

A simple home meal.

Fried fish with ginger and a sweet soy sauce and fried kangkong with dried shrimps and belachan.

Sun, 25th Mar 2007

Don't believe this tranquil scene for a moment!



While they were both hard at work, they were bickering with each other over Mark's pink dog and Hazel's yellow cat with its purple tail ...



p.s Mark was painting the dog for me.

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Comment from M:

I must thank YM for the fabulous dinner on Friday night. Thank you so much for inviting me to dinner. It was sooooo goooood! Someday I will be able to cook like that (ok maybe just below par) and then you can take a break and let someone else get all stressed out over dinner while you sit back with a drink. hehe. I can't believe you're gonna go through another round of it this coming weekend for us. I really appreciate it though - thank you very much :)

Reply from Eleanor:

You're verryy welcome, M! Roll on Saturday!

Sun, 25th Mar 2007

Usually I steer clear of instant noodles;

but when you're pms-sing as badly as I am now, nothing hits the spot better than a packet of salty, fatty noodles. I added sliced fish cake, a few slices of turkey, an egg and a good dollop of chilli oil for extra taste.

I thought they were pretty tasty while I was eating them but ugh, I feel a bit sick now and I'm so glad I had the good sense to cook only half a packet with the other half in the bin where it belongs.

I had to have a bowl of mango ice-cream to take away the salty, processed taste of the noodles from my mouth. Didn't work so it's on to the green tea now.

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Dessert:

We had Japanese jelly with nata de coco & pineapple, mango and yam ice-cream from the Philippines, fresh mango & grapes, and of course:

The Birthday Cake

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Here I'm trying inject a little creativity by taking a pic of myself. If you think my name badge looks a bit silly, I had all of us wearing them, to match our placecards on the table.

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Presents!

Angpows from Auntie J, UR, KF, Popo, Popo's friend, grents in Seria.

A battery operated toothbrush with a tube of whitening toothpaste and a extra pack of Energizer batteries from Mark.

A cat magazine from Wm and a home-assembled ice-cream birthday cake which Hazel decorated and iced herself.

A Hama bead set with kitten designs from Auntie M

A make-it-yourself kaleidoscope from Mummy

A do-it-yourself sun catcher set from Popo

A big Cat book from Auntie S

A cheap & cheerful set of kitchen appliances from Mummy

Here she is, making a small speech before dinner, thanking everyone for coming to her birthday party and for their presents and angpows. Without being prompted, she also thanked her mum for cooking the meal and arranging her party.

Sat, 24th Mar 2007

Turkey salad sandwich

Made simply with mayonnaise, wholegrain mustard, parsley & black pepper

Tasty!

Fri, 23rd Mar 2007

Here's the birthday girl with some of her presents and angpows,
dressed in a ninja suit which Dom bought.

Friday, 23rd Mar 2007

I thought I will post a few pics from last night's dinner which I really enjoyed cooking. I wasn't too rushed or stressed and managed to get everything on the table at the same time with help from my elves.



Here's M's plate.

I made these little tomato roses as garnish. I'm quite proud of this as I'm not very patient by nature. Strips of spirals skins were painstakingly sliced from the tomato, artfully curled it into even sized roses and stuffed with a roll of lettuce. The roses served as a division between the white and dark meat of the turkey on the platter.

The turkey was really tender, juicy and tasty.

Here are my kids, Dom & KF enjoying their meal.

I have heaps more pics to put up but I'm going to have my dinner now at 9 am! (which I did not have last night by the way - I'm that way when I cook).