bring on the food and santa belly

unfortunately as i was too busy stuffing my face, i totally forgot to bring out my camera and since i was too busy eating, i didnt even think of using my phone's camera! oops but i'll try to be as detailed as possible?

my very first pressie to arrive!!!

pretty boxes and great gifts this year.... especially with aaron back to celebrate this season with us :)

the feast all started on christmas eve dinner

i went on over to gina's house for dinner :) i was terribly late coz i had earlier gone out with some colleages to ice cold for some halfday, prechristmas drinks... i ended up going home lets just say a little bit unstable. i even proceeded on to bake my cake for this year's christmas season - french apple cake!!!

this recipe is all thanks to my fav baking food blogger - david l. his recipes have yet failed me but i did decide to tweek it just a little and introduced a little more alcohol compared to his original recipe as i found out that the rum just evaporated in the oven. and the alcoholic me of course wld appreciate more alcohol taste to this otherwise yummy cake

and then it was christmas day! as always we started it at church then it was off to the ever exciting ce michelle's new place... this year's menu was lamb, beef, ham, pork, turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, stuffing, roasted veggies mostly done by mark and it was AWESOME!!!! i was terrible and just stuffed my face without thinking that day and it was sooooo good. i swear christmas lunch at ce michelle's is the one thing i look forward to every year. the lamb was soooo good

with a hangover, my palate for wine wasnt as good as normal heh

then when we finally pulled ourselves away.... we came home and i had to rush prepping for dinner at kuma's. fighting major food coma, cooking was such a pain and unfortunately, given the last minute thinking, we were severly late for dinner :( the cake took a little longer than expected. by this time i was soooo exhausted rushing to cook the couscous that i barely ate but nonetheless kuma did her normal great job - carrot&orange soup, salade, ham, turkey, sausages with mushrooms in tomato sauce, clams

this week, my office was closed so i had some time to figure out what i wanted to experiment to cook so just last nite i finally got off my butt and cooked dinner. i've been meaning to try and make gnocchi and since i had aaron and his friends here, who else wld make greater guinea pigs???
menu was:
gnocchi in cream sauce
seared scallops
creamed chicken and the left over couscous

some of the scallops in butter and thyme

 

since i had some relatives in town, i was rather snappy with them and had to consume oh abt a bottle of wine to last me the nite heh

i was hopping to make risotto with truffle and scallops but i didnt haf time to get to the risotto so i just decided to sear the scallops and maybe this weekend if mom takes them out, i'll make the risotto

and of course no dinner wld be finished without dessert.... and since i wasnt that inspired, or valhorna choc wasnt readily available given the short time i had.... i just put together stickydate pudding/cake in toffee sauce

i think i'll just spend tmr baking the cupcakes i've promised ghia and the remaining pple i've promised cake to :)

in about 2.5 hours.... 2011 will be here! hopefully it'll be alot better than 2010 thou i dont think i can complain that much :D

christmas dinner with the girlies and the bear

christmas dinner #1 started on dec 22:

i tried leaving work earlier but failed miserably.... jojo was in town for 4 hours!!!

and coz he has the cooler camera, all the pictures were taken and he hasnt uploaded them yet.

this was what he carried back for me :D and more inside!

then it was off to cocette for dinner with sarah, gina and sinclair at the new wanderlust hotel.... or not quite so new hotel

we had a rather interesting experience here.... while we were placing our orders, the waiter told us we were over-ordering and should start taking off at least 1 of our orders. with curious looks all around - we were pretty sure we were all starving and would finish eating everything
we 4 piggies had.....
chicken liver mousse - which btw gina has me to thank for getting her hooked onto this
rather disappointing escargots
overly-charred scallops with fennel salad
sarah had horrible runny nose so she ordered mushroom soup

then it was on to the main courses:

boeuf bourguignon

lamb with veg

coccette's famous roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and greens

and of course we cldnt just stop there rite??? so we ordered apple tartin

unfortunately all this was really not great at all.... i personally felt it wasnt worth what i paid but at least i got to try the hype? but it was mostly just hype and nothing lived up to it. i mean with 3 very dessert orientated girls on a table... even the dessert was forced eated. oh well

but who cared abt the food when all we were there for was for the pressies!!!!

sinclair got sarah and i some water-expandable undies? and sarah got me a blouse and alice in wonderland ring but gina's pressie of the picture was amazing!!! i totally love it!

the best part of it all was.... i had earlier spied a pantry magic bag tt sinclair was lugging around and of course i thot that was for me... i mean y wld they be getting sarah something frm there rite? im the one cooking my butt off all year long :p haha but then when the exchange happened... sarah got the huge bag instead!!! haha and she left that to the last! she was sooooo intimidated by it, it was hilarious by itself! gina bought sarah a really cool apple green old school weighing scale for her packaging!!!! so that s can stop over-stamping her dresses

less than a week to christmas and then it'll be new years!

i didnt do much this weekend as i've had such a terrible week at work. my boss has essentially turned into a scrooge and work has become really horrible. i really do need to get off my arse next week and start sending out resumes again.

time really flies and i've already been in this job for 9 mths! i cant believe it :) i knw its actually short but in the whole retrospect of things and the lack of faith on my friends parts, i've actually managed to hold down a position i think im good at for nearly a year. dont knw if i'll stay on but we'll see.... maybe i am a cheap person and might stay on another year if they raise my salary haha who knows

but this year for all teh families i'm close to, i was thinking of baking something and maggie's housewarming was the guinea pig! and my french apple cake was a total success! went round to buy my cake tin and now i'm pretty much set for next week's christmas baking! i've counted that i'll be baking a mix of med and large cakes for about 7 different families and totally looking forward to it! going to try making choc persimmons muffins after this but only after my pay comes in coz im sooooo broke this month after all the pressie shopping

next week will be an onslaught of christmas food! totally looking forward to it! so fun! gna was commenting that christmas is a time just to get fat and y not.... all teh yummy food....

anyway hoping i'll survive this week at work and will be able to usher in christmas with a great sense of festivities!

let the celebrations start!

Its officially 12 days to CHRISTMAS!!!

i absolutely love love love christmas! its the best season of the year personally....
everytime i think of it, it brings a warm feeling in my tummy and a smile to my face
hope all of you have a great christmas as the countdown starts.... and if you havent started your gift shopping... better start really really soon!


this christmas i'd definately be missing the cold weather, snow, friends and family everywhere else


wish i knew how to make my blog "snow" but it'd most likely be wayyy too complicated

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

vietnam for work

recently i had to go back to ho chi minh city for work and it has brought back memories from way back when i was there with nic, andrea and delia and a few more of my pepp friends

in fact when i first landed, and taking a cab with my colleague, we actually passed the place the school so graciously put us up at and my colleague's reaction was " ha.... as if" he wasnt convinced anyone could stay there! hahaha

anyway way i was there from monday morning to thurs evening... and out of those days 3 was used up for the conference while the 4th was really to catch up on my own work and attend an exhibition. but in the meantime i of course managed to find a good enuf tailor to make me some clothes :) vietnam is still THE place to go for a short period and tailor your stuff with really good silk for cheap and their turnover is sooooo fast! i managed to get 2 shirts for my brothers and one for mom, made myself a suit (jacket, skirt, pants) and a pretty dress all from good quality silk.... im tempted to go back just for that again hahaha

then of course there was the PHO!! omg.... i was soooo looking forward to having good pho again after being away from LA for soooo long. i haf yet to find good pho here in sg and it was such a part of my diet in LA i was definately looking forward to it while in Vietnam. and every meal i was allowed to not eat the pre-planned meals, i was across the street having pho!

i even stumbled onto...... pho 2000! haha the restaurant we were brought to in 2006! its pho for the presidents :)

here's what i had.... taken for nic and drea!

all the yummy pho all around! the broth, the noodles.... hmmmm im missing it already. although i have to say im was really disappointed with everywhere's fresh spring rolls.... including room service! it wasnt as fresh and nice as the ones they haf in LA or even in viet restaurants here in sg.... in this case i'd have to say that them exporting this dish made it better.

and of course... for my last meal before leaving for the airport... i had... PHO! this time round it was at pho 24 right across the hotel complete with viet coffee :)

these were photos of when we were soooooo young running about in vietnam... i do miss all my friends! :( LA now seems like such a long time ago..... i think i'll drop them all a quick hi on fb heh

berlin phil

the most awesome concert i've attended in awhile!!!!! they were fantastic! no wonder they are ranked the world's best philharmonic ever and thks to gina for coming with me....... it was simply a magical performance that i'll remember for a long long time

i heart.....



gina's quarter of century celebrations

long overdued - the birthday girl!!!

it all started at the new ps cafe at Ann Siang Hill

the nails

the place settings...

the yummy food

the cake (at least a slice of it which was wonderfully made last minute by the patissier)

and the really hungry people!!!

the familia

and then a few days later it was at kudeta

a whole week of festivities.... too many people with their birthdays in nov!!!! and now this month is ending ushering in dec :)

been playing christmas songs every opportunity and its GREAT now only to solve christmas pressies

am now in vietnam at my first overseas conference... havent been back since 2006 when i came with pepperdine but i've been seriously craving pho and i've already had one! now to continue on my pho overload :D

talented friends

i wish i was creative but hey i have creative friends to make up for it so it works out :)

with a limited budget and done in school paul managed to direct this and it looks great!

snapshots of events over the last few months

first time ever! aaron, ivan and i out partying at zouk on a wednesday nite...

needless to say i was paying for it on thursday at work
i miss my brothers

our yearly F1 special "seats"! this year was great!!!

as always.... we're always so spoilt by g and her mom! airconditioned place tt's been closed off, food and drinks within easy reach and we're away frm the crowd plus we get to see 3 of the hardest turns of the sg track and still get to hear and see the cars

sarah's blogspot birthday tea at swissotel!

hermes party  at nomu organised by people of overeasy