Hope you all had a – Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas my Dearest and most amazing Readers Sorry I’m a couple of days late, but still I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, family and friends. As for what we got up to, Mr Bao and I have started to make it a tradition to have a Xmas eve party at our place. My parents never really celebrated Christmas, so I’m definitely making up for it now.

Xmas Eve Feast

We went for a full traditional Christmas menu where we did the Turkey and Ham and everyone else was to bring a dish. Look at what a feast we had! So much food! I didn’t expect everyone to bring something but everyone bought something spectacular over.

Mr Bao and the 9kg turkey

Let’s start with the amazing Turkey Mr Bao made, we did it last year and found Heston’s recipe to be the best to ensure the meat is moist and succulent. The secret to this recipe is to brine the turkey in salt water for at least 9 hours or overnight. Last year the turkey was got was only 5kg so it wasn’t hard to find a bucket to brine it in. But this year we went for a 9kg turkey! We had no idea what would fit such a large bird so eventually I came up with the idea of the turkey in the eksy

You must watch this video because it is honestly so funny, Mr Bao putting the turkey into the esky and the strange noises it was making hahaha

After brining the turkey, the next step is to soak it in ice water for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes. I’m not quite sure what this step does, but Mr Bao said that the cold water will extract the unnecessary salt in the turkey and also help crispy up the skin. Once this is done, you can stuff the turkey with any filling you like – we used a bacon, leek, prune and walnut stuffing.

It then took about 4 hours to bake depending on the size of the turkey. The best way to test if the turkey is cooked is to use a meat thermometer and if the thickest part reaches 70 it’s ready I am so proud of Mr Bao, he absolutely nailed it! The skin was nice and crispy but most importantly it was super moist and succulent! Highly recommend this recipe next time you want to make a roast turkey!

Maple Glazed Ham

We also doubled the ham this year a 6.5kg hehe we used a Valli Little maple glazed ham recipe, I know ham is often served cold but there is something so nice about warm ham. We had a lot left over but everyone was happy to take it home in takeaway containers because they wanted to make fried rice with it

Sticky Ribs

Thanh brought over sticky ribs not sure what sauce he used but it was spicy, sticky and yum!

Sushi, Curry and Sausage rolls

Dave who I’ve known for so many years was awesome and brought over so many dishes, sushi, curry puffs, and sausage rolls. He also helped me cater for Miss D who is vegetarian. Hmmm the curry puffs reminded me of the ones we get at yum cha delicious!

Apart from all the mains, we also so many other dishes, Mr Bao made Nigella Lawson’s pea, mint and pancetta side, I made a vegetarian capsicum and corn salsa, Chris made a prawn and chorizo dish last but not least Jason made a macaroni salad with perfectly soft boiled eggs.

Heston’s Hidden Figgy Sauce Pudding

Mr Bao banned me from making dessert because he knew I would stress out having to help make the turkey, ham and sides so we decided to cheat and serve Heston’s Hidden Figgy Sauce pudding with warm custard instead. It’s quite amusing it only took 3 minutes in the microwave and all the sugar in the middle started to melt and became so molten inside. This was well received and I wished I had bought more when it was still available at Coles.

Ice-cream pudding

I also outsourced dessert to Iola who made a massive and delicious and ice-cream pudding. The inside was strawberry and raspberry ice-cream with fresh berries and topped with chocolate sauce and pop rocks.

Ice-cream pudding

I am definitely stealing this idea next time I’m invited to a party Its easy to make and definitely a crowd pleaser.

Drink Station

I also tried to deck out our study desk and transform it into a drink station with a homemade sangria on the left and a berry ice tea in the small drink dispenser.

Photobooth

To give the guests something to do, I stole this DIY Photo booth idea from BBFF Michele using my Macbook and putting it on a bookshelf there was our photobooth. Mr Bao and I ordered some Christmas photobooth props and we were ready to go

Here are some of the photos we took at the photo booth. Clearly I need to learn how to make funnier looking faces hehe oh and just in case you haven’t met Shy the cute Miniature poodle, Mr Bao and I are dog sitting him for a month while his parents go back to Hong Kong to visit family ~

KK Time

After all that food and fun, it was time to open out KK presents! Yue introduced a new way of organising the KK presents and that is we draw the number of presents. Then the person with No 1 will choose a present and open it, then No 2 will have the opportunity to either choose an unwrapped present to take No1 present. We keep going until no presents are left, so it’s always the best to be last, because you basically know all the presents and which one you’ll like I got a popcorn making machine, while Mr Bao stole a mug warmer from Iola hehe

Santa Clause!

Then out of no where SANTA CLAUSE aka Mr Bao appeared from no where This is definitely a modern Santa with those sunnies and he swapped Rudolf for Shy a poodle instead hehe

We then all took a mandatory picture with Santa with our KK gifts hehe I think next year I’m going to make it a costume party and everyone will need to dress up!

Merry Christmas from Mr Bao, Me and Shy :)

That sums up our super festive and fun Christmas party. It was a lot of effort and work to make everything but it was definitely worth it. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and please leave a comment and tell me how you celebrated! xx