Family picture with  mum & dad via skype, a few days before Christmas.

Dinner at the brother’s place on 1.1.11

Croquette chicken  and shrimp – typical Mauritian snack

Prepared by sis

Potluck. Yummy food. Mauritian, Chinese and Western fusion.

Spicy Bee Hoon, Croquette, Baked Gato Piment (Chilli Cakes), Braised Mushroom, Corn Soup and Aubergine Dip

Aubergine Dip, one of the things that I was preparing in the kitch. Will post recipe soon.

Corn Soup prepared by bro and SIL

Spicy Bee Hoon prepared by bro

Gato Piment (chilli cakes)! Typical Mauritian Snackies.  La Pingouine made a good guess the other day :) And these were BAKED instead of deep fried! They were not too bad.

Alas, my main dish (not pictured) , which was supposed to be a mango cranberry crusty baked fish, was  yucky. So I didn’t bring it over for dinner because it really was inedible. The whole dang thing went into the trash.  I believe it is the type of fish that I used. Never ever gonna bake  frozen Pollock fillets!

Play Time

With sis and sweetie niece who is already 16 months. How time flies!

Desert Time — I baked a flour-less banana almond cake and there was also two types of chocolate cakes. We had fruits too. All about balance right :)

Chocolate Cake

Simple Flour-less Banana Almond Cake – will post the recipe soon.

I’ve done some serious indulging during the holiday season. I’ve gone overboard with sugar especially chocolate!!!! My body is rebelling now. Gotta get back to the normal eating!

***

Xmas Dinner at my brother’s place

Our non-traditional Christmas menu – Chinese food

Baked Cod Fish, Beef, Stir Fry Broccoli with mushroom, Honey Baked Chicken, Omelet, Baked Salmon

Desserts: Fruits (far end), macarons, pineapple tarts (left) and banana cranberry cake topped with melted chocolate

Related Posts

• Christmas 2009
• Christmas 2008
• Christmas 2007

My 1-day fruit detox went pretty well. I did not feel bloated at all today — not the feeling-full kind of bloating but the pregnant-looking stomach kind, which I believe could be due to certain food that I consume (too much gluten maybe …). I am sticking to a fruit-and-vegetable diet (okay fish too — I just love my fish soup)  for the next 3 days.

Anyway … our Christmas Tree is up!

Real gifts — I received mine (from siblings) already. Since we will be away during Christmas  time this year, we had an early family dinner at my brother’s place yesterday (more on that next time).

Yesterday I baked and brought over a banana cranberry bread to my brother’s place. The cake was very dense (not sure if it was supposed to be this way) and not sweet enough (I modified the recipe by reducing the amount of sugar).

So I unhealthy-fied it by spreading melted Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate on top and half way through!

Recipe to come another day.

Some time last week we were in the city having dinner at New York New York

Baked Fish

Enjoy your Sunday! I”m on a Fruit Detox today (after a weekend of indulgence)! Fruits like green apples, prunes, dragon fruits ans oranges.

1. Christmas eve: worked half day, dined at a nearby fast food restaurant and watched “The proposal” on DVD  at night — funny movie. We had a good laugh.
2. Christmas day: balinese massage.
3. Boxing day (we don’t celebrate but I mean the day after christmas): family dinner at my brother’s. More on that later.

I made some edible gifts for my family and friends.  The house smelled very chocolaty for couple of days!

Dinner at my brother’s

On the 26th, we had dinner at my brother’s place.  I roasted some garlic rosemary potatoes in the morning. It was a tad early but I knew that I wouldn’t have enough time in the afternoon.

My brother prepared the rest … crab-meat pasta, roasted chicken, chorizo omelette and salad. All yummy!

And my sister made a super delicious creme caramel

That’s me and my niece. I always feel very warm when I hold babies!! Maybe I get too excited :)

2009 is drawing to an end. This year has been a mixed of joy and sadness. I hope 2010 will be a better year. I wish you all a Happy New Year for 2010! May all your dreams and wishes come true in 2010! I gotta feeling that 2010′s gonna be a good year.

It’s Christmas THIS Friday and I STILL haven’t purchased my Xchange gifts for my colleagues! I don’t have any plans for Christmas. My brother is hosting dinner on the 26th.  I don’t think I will have much time to whip something as I have an early PM appointment which might drag till 3-4pm at most.

This morning I finally downloaded the pictures that I took when we set up the christmas tree and after looking at the photos, the excitement came back! The Santa Snowman cushion is reminding me to smile :)

Now, I want to go to IKEA soon, search for Christmas recipes etc. I’m not sure if I’m gonna bake Turkey this year. Maybe I will try something different. Roast beef? Ham? How about you? Any special food this Christmas?

This is the Santa Snowman cushion that I bought from “Barang Barang“. It was on sale. $15 I think?

I will post pictures of our Christmas tree another day. At the moment it’s looking a little bit weird. Something is missing. The gifts maybe lol. What’s in your wishlist?

Christmas tree gift from sister. Brings back good old childhood memories like  setting up and decorating the tree together, special food & snacks prepared by mum, gifts, watching christmas movies together etc. etc.

Christmas table setting on the 24th

Christmas table setting on the 25th

Dinner on the 24th with my in laws and friends

With dar

Dinner on the 25th with sis, bro and cousins

I made some cranberry sauce

Some baked swedish meatballs as well. I prefer the baked version as it doesn’t get dry + it’s slightly more healthy too hehe

And some roast potatoes. Peel, dice into bit chunks and boil them first. Drain the water and give the boiled potatoes a good shake while they are still in the saucepan with the lid on top. Then season with salt, pepper and dry rosemarry herbs. Drizzle with some olive oil and place into the oven. Bake for 45 – 60 mins. The potatoes will turn out very nice.

I started preparing the turkey since 1pm. At almost 3pm it went into the oven and it was only at 6.30pm that it came out! I cooked the 2nd turkey wrapped in aluminum foil unlike the first one. I also coverd the top part with back bacon. Cooking it wrapped in aluminum foil produces very moist meat because the turkey steams in its own juices. I removed the foil for the last 40 minutes of cooking to let the turkey brown.

And here’s my pancetta-sage bacon-rosemarry turkey! I couldn’t find pancetta and sage ran out of stock! Good thing there was fresh rosemarry and thyme. Always let the turkey rest for a couple of minutes (40 – 60 mins) so that the juices settle before it is served. While the turkey was resting, I prepared some turkey sauce, sis prepared her rocket salad and bro prepared his seafood spaghetti.

Dinner time

Sis and me

Merry Christmas!!

This morning (on Christmas day) my alarm went off at 7am. It was time for a morning workout. The boy also woke up and we went to the stadium together. I did my second 5 km time trial run on track (my first was last week). I finished in 22:55, about 30 seconds faster than my last trial. My body still ached from Sunday’s weight training. Tomorrow’s just gonna be some light 1 km interval.

Once again the boy and I — and of course my fatty cat — wish you a Merry Merry Christmas!!!!!!!