Halloween cupcakes

A friend passed me a box of cupcakes on Sunday. Personally, I don't celebrate Halloween but I have no issues with people who do.


Thank you anyway!

Some pumpkins which caught my eye! Never seen such expensive and huge pumpkins before!

Kids CNY party!

My youngest 9 year old baby had her friends and some cousins over for a CNY party today. I finally had a chance to use quite a number of my Bento boxes!! LOL!

I prepared 12 Bento boxes with the help of #1's God-sister and #2. #1 had last minute replacement class today.



There were tiny puff pastry pizza's, spaghetti Alio Oglio, tuna sandwiches,



nuggets, sushi, mixed salad with sesame seed dressing,


some chocolate sugar cookies, mini oranges and a free flow of Sarsi and Sprite!


The kids tucking into their Bento boxes!!


This was their dessert!



Mini Pavlova!!


The pictures of the Pavlova were quite dark so I edited them!

Random

It's the 2nd day of CNY and we're supposed to be resting after all the reunion dinners in the different in-laws houses. We hosted last nights dinner at our home. The girls and I made a Pavlova (recipe here). (Excuse the soup spoons! It was chaotic in the house with so many relatives. Just grab whatever cutlery which was left in the cutlery box.)

Brother-in-law eldest daughter's 11th birthday was last night although the party is scheduled for tomorrow. #1 suggested we use the Pavlova as "Birthday cake" for her and sing her a Birthday song. This was the result.


some chocolate sugar cookies (recipe here)





and Tiramisu for dessert.

Mum, as usual cooked up a STORM!

Color of the pictures looks funny... must ask the camera woman!



On a different note, I just realized that this is my 381 st post!

This is NOT Bento!

I had another "Lui Cha" party over the weekend. This time the "Lui Cha" stock was even more delicious because I had this brain wave to use "Ikan billis stock" instead of plain old hot water!

My guests were raving about the entire meal and even the critique among them complimented on the the marked improvement of the soup and asked for the recipe. As it is in it's original form using hot water, the soup was good but with the flavored stock, the soup was richer and sweeter!

I had this for my lunch today. No Bento either because #2 didn't go to school today.


In the bottom of the bowl is some garlic rice topped with a mixture of vegetables, peanuts and pickled vegetables. Visually pretty and a deliciously healthy meal mixed together! Yummy!!

More sushi!

Tonight, as in all 3rd Wednesdays we go for our BEC gathering in a nearby home. It's a gathering of neighboring Catholics where we come together in a time for prayer and fellowship. On days like these, each family cooks a dish and brings to the host family and have dinner after prayers.

Tonight, after a long absence, the BEC will savor my signature dish again - SUSHI! The last couple of months have been Chinese food and they've been dropping HEAVY hints about missing my sushi!

My 3 tiered Jyubako from Japan. Love to bring this box for parties!

Wish I had been a little more tidy with the cutting. If the Japanese Chef who taught me sushi saw the way I cut the sushi, he'd have a heart attack!

*I was rushing, chef, sorry!*

More cuppacakes?

My baby has grown up!!
#1 made these cup cakes for CNY 2008!

More cuppacakes!!


#1 complained about how expensive the cup cake holders from Wilton's were and refused to add anymore to her collection than the one that we purchased last year.

Yikes! How were we going to display all those cup cakes that she made then? Little genius that she is, she constructed her own stand! Hero! It probably cost us under RM15/=

Every year for CNY, #1 and #2 would invite their school mates and church friends for an open house. My principal is always the same, the numbers cannot exceed 50 people otherwise we'd be drowning around their friends!! We cater the food BUT they must make the deserts. Of course yours truly also makes some lah!

The cup cakes were a hit as usual. There were none left by the time the kids left. Not even one for breakfast!!



Sorry for the poor shots. We were so busy that night that no one bothered to take pictures (as usual). #1 just took some using her phone. Sigh!

BEC Rosary night @ home

No Bento today! #2 is officially on holiday for the next ten days. #1 has her last exam paper today and doesn't have the time nor appetite to eat.

I'm hosting Rosary at my house tonight. Twice a year my BEC has a special devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus Christ by recitation of the Rosary at our BEC member homes.

It's a time for prayers and great fellowship. It happens four days a week for the whole months of May and October.

The Rosary nights are something the children look forward to and you can find the young ones awaiting designation of their portion of 'duty' (their turn to say part of the Rosary). Even small kids as young as 3-4 years old look forward to their 'duty' during these periods. It's also a time for bonding for these kids. My children's best friends whom they grew up with are from our BEC.

Tonight is a special night because my God- daughter (adult) and her family are back on holidays from USA and came tonight especially to spend this time with us.

Incidentally, her son is also my God-son (5 years old) and another one of my God-son (10 months old) from another family also came and so did one more God-daughter (adult).

Hubs and I are God-parents to many and tonight 4 God-children are at my house! I'm very happy and feel so blessed to see not only my good friends but also some of my God-children, especially the ones from USA whom I've not seen for the past year.

They are also fans of my Japanese cooking so I made their favorite sushi. I also introduced Oden and Udon noodles to them and they absolutely loved it!! It was everyone's favorite!








I made Ichigo Daifuku for dessert. It was also a hit. Initially everyone was wary because of it's size but after convincing them to try, they also 'ta pau' home!













I also made the little kids favorite macaroni and cheese. Froze some for my kids Bento.
It's been a long night but an enjoyable one.

I thank God for the wonderful people who has brought so much happiness into my life!

Party, party!

Last night, we had a party for some youths from our church. There were about 40-50 guests.

The youth leaders co-ordinated and managed the party themselves. The food was marinated by their mums and it was a huge success.

Remember the cocktail molds I posted on Aug 19? Some people were asking what they were for. Well, it came in real handy at last night's BBQ! One of the youths asked for a knife to 'score' the sausages, I remembered my molds and took out 3 for them to use. It was a hit with them.

See the top picture, you can see my favorite guys 'clamping' the molds on the sausages. It saved them so much time.




Everyone enjoyed themselves. The lamb was 'out of this world', it was marinated by one of the mums and was among the first to finish.














I made 4 packets of spaghetti and my own concoction of beef bolognaise sauce and that went as soon as the 'makan' started. It was supposed to supplement the BBQ but the youths just 'attacked' and by the time the rest who came later, there was nothing left! Next time I'll bring the spaghetti out last!
I was very busy and just managed to make a platter of mixed vegetables, thousand island and salad cream. That finished too!

My maid leaves tomorrow and there were lots of last minute things to deal with so I could hardly whip up anything. We were eating meats and I had to provide 'real' plates and steak knives. Luckily I pre-washed the service in my dish washer, otherwise ah, die!

Once we went for a BBQ and the host used disposable plastic knives and polystyrene plates. I leave you to imagine how the meal went.

It was a long day of preparation for me and I was grateful to the youths who managed the cooking as well. After all the 'makan' there was a time to get to know each other and then there was dancing. Who said youths can't have good, clean fun? God bless them!

[wiener molds]