In order to save the date on everyone's calendar, I had created a FB page more than a month ago, inviting our friends over for a Christmas party. Now that we live so far away, we were a little apprehensive about people wanting to travel so far, hence we wanted to give people ample time to plan their schedules.
To cook for 15 people is no mean feat. We bought lots of food and planned our menu in advance. Knowing us, I wanted a western meal whereas K wanted Asian food. So we compromised and had a east-meets-west menu.
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Starters/ Nibbles
Basil and peppers bread (bought one of my fav bread from Waitrose), heated up in the oven and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus (mashed up chickpeas - tastes better than it sounds)
Crisps (yes, K's fav kind of starters)
Salad with ready made dressing
Smoked salmon on bread with fresh cream, dill and capers (Lloyd and I-Ding's contribution)
Mains
Slow boiled Chicken soup (K)
Beef curry rendang (K)
Mee Goreng (Bel)
Oven baked salmon with lemon and fresh dill (Bel)
Steamed jasmine rice
Desserts
Homemade almond longan jelly (courtesy of JX)
Homemade Tiramisu (courtesy of Lorraine)
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On Saturday 20th December morning, we woke up bright and early. Our cleaner came at 8am and at about 9am, K started boiling his chicken soup. The problem was that we only had one pot which isn't very big. So he had to split it up into 3 batches. Each box of chicken formed one batch and he insisted each required a slow cook time of 45min to one hour in order to have tender chicken meat. This is slowly become one of his best dishes. At the same time he marinated the beef cubes with his beef rending paste to get the maximum effect. Our fridge was soon running of out space and we had to leverage on our garden table as the second "fridge" lol. We put our drinks out in the garden since it's cold enough anyway.
In between the hustling, we made some time to visit our immediate neighbours to wish them Merry Christmas in advance. We got Christmas cards from them and to wish and thank them too, I bought them some chocolates as well. Ian and Janice both stay on our left and they have helped us quite a bit since we moved in - especially being our dedicated concierge service. All my shopping have gone to them since no one is ever at home to sign for my packages. And Keith on our right; he had kindly trimmed our front hedge a few months ago. No joke, climbing up so high to trim them back in shape again. Thank God for kind neighbours :)
We then drove out late morning to get the yellow noodles for my mee goreng dish. Originally I wanted to cook salmon pasta but K insisted on mee goreng because he loves this dish. Thank God we had the foresight to buy lunch back in between cos we were famished by the time we reached home.
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| The messy kitchen |
Soon at 330pm I started preparing for two batches of mee goreng because again we have a very decent sized wok meant for 4 people max. The kitchen soon smelled like home in Singapore. We had asked our guests to come between 430-5pm for an early dinner. We were worried they would have no trains home if they stayed late enough. (I think I am slowly painting an image of us living in the
kampung!) We had also asked our guests to bring either drinks or a dessert so we ended up with many bottles of wine and juices that night.
K joked that we would ask our guests which mains they preferred, to see whose dish is more popular. Hmm drawing a clear line huh K?
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| Mee goreng in the process |
People started arriving and by 5.15pm pretty much everyone had arrived and we started serving out the food in order. Everyone raved about our mains. I mean they had to be pretty good - some self brag here hehe - since effectively K started cooking at 9am that morning. And cooked with love, no less! :)
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All the home cooked goodness in one big pot - kept warm in our rice cooker
We needed to find innovative ways to store our cooked food that afternoon. |
It was nice to have our home filled up with chatter and laughter that night. We had Christmas songs in the background and I had rearranged the dining table to get maximum standing and sitting space in our living room. I love decorating the table to make it all festive, with a bright red table cloth and a runner with gold stars, and candles all round the room.
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| Our dining table with the starters |
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| Contribution by Lloyd and I-Ding |
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| Mains |
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| The crowded room. You can see everyone's concentrating. |
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| K entertaining. He ate so little that night; he said he was busy entertaining everyone. |
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| Julie and me |
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| And its dessert time |
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| Raving over Lorraine's homemade tiramisu with lots of alcohol |
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| The desserts. Omg that almond logan was so good. |
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| Lorraine and her tiramisu |
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| Chatting happily |
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| Noelle and Julie |
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| Mini group shot |
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| Lorraine and I-Ding |
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| Victor, Meihui and Yuan Yuan |
At the end of the night I reminded K to ask everyone the question. Team B or team K?
He looked at me and said "No, we shouldn't ask. Because we are team B&K!". *Fist pump*
Team B&K indeed. So glad we did this together because no way I could have cooked for 15 people alone. What can I say… Grateful for a hubby that cooks!
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