Christmas Day Lunch 2010

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny X'Mas Tree

How's everyone's Christmas celebration ? Hope you got lots of presents from Santa (if you have been good of course!) and had way too many foods ?

In the past years we usually had Christmas Day lunch feasts at my aunt's place. Since this year she's overseas still (nursing back her fractured knee cap - hope she gets better soon!), we just had a simple lunch at my place, prepared by my mom who is visiting us this year for the celebrations :)

Rudolph Phoenix The Red Nose Reindeer

Presents Galore !!

A little red nosed reindeer decided to drop by and brought with him the X'Mas cheers ^_* 

The accessories didn't stay on him for long - it was off within 5 minutes he stepped into the house LOL

For some odd reason, there seemed to be more presents under (my non existence) X'Mas tree. I suppose it is unevitable when you have such big family like mine (did you know I have 32 first cousins ? Imagine if all us are here !)

Nasi Uduk

My mom just made something simple yet so tasty, an Indonesian rice dish called Nasi Uduk. 

The rice is cooked with coconut milk along with bay leaves and lemongrass, the rice is rich and so fragrant. Usually there are more side dishes that goes along with the rice, but my mom just opted for the toned down version LOL

So what we have on the sides are fried chicken wings, pickled cucumber, ribbons of omelette, anchovies & peanuts and a sprinkle of serundeng. 

Serundeng is deep fried grated coconuts mixed with heaps of spices and lots of chilli ! They are so damn good, perhaps not the healthiest, but oh well, they taste good :P

My mom actually brought over the anchovies and serundeng with her from Indonesia, at times I'm amazed at the foods my parents managed to get through customs whenever they come over (which means 99.99% of the time we have to wait for at least an hour for them to clear customs !).

Macarons by i eat sweet...

Yet once again, there were more sweets than savouries - we just can't help it....

First up, a platter of macarons from Ony a.k.a. i eat sweet...

The flavours were black sticky rice, tiramisu, red velvet, raspberry white chocolate, caramel fleur de sel, chai, milk chocolate honey and black sesame. 

Black sticky rice macaron is always a hit !! 

Pecan & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cella (Ony's sister, sometimes assistant baker and currently studying to be a vet) brought along with her 3 Tupperware full of these delicious cookies.
They had the right level of sweetness, lovely nutty roasted pecan aroma and slightly soft and chewy, just the way I love my cookies.

Cornflakes & Sultana Butter Cookies

My friend who joined us for the lunch, gave me a jar of her homemade Cornflakes & Sultana Butter Cookies. The trick was to roll the dough in the cornflakes right before baking instead of mixing them in. That way the cornflakes retains their crunchiness complimented by the juicy sultanas.

They were soo moorish - so good that my little nephew ate almost half a jar by himself and my mom decided to give him the rest of the cookie in the jar *sob*my cookies...*sob*.

Spiced Apple Upside - Down Gingebread Cake
w/ Kahlua Vanilla Cream & Hazelnut Brittle

Yet once again I made a last minute decision to bake for the lunch - obviously I don't learn from previous experiences :P

After watching the night fireworks at Darling Harbour on Christmas Eve, stopped by Coles on the walk home to grab some ingredients. To my horror, they are closing early so they have packed off all of the fruits into crates 0_____o

And of course the pears had to be at the bottom crates and I can see from the look at the Coles dude that there is no way he's gonna get them for me LOL

Thankfully the Granny Smith apples were still on display so they will just have to do, not quite sure how they'll turn out but c'est la vie !

Kahlua & Hazelnut Brittle ; Spiced Brown Sugar & Granny Smith Apples

I am so in love with Jennifer Lindner McGlinn's Gingerbread book !! I've made 3 recipes from this book and each one of them tasted so damn good - if you love gingerbread, you must must must get this book :)
The original recipe calls for pears but I've substituted it with green apples and they worked just as well.

Spiced Apple Upside - Down Gingerbread Cake (adapted from Gingerbread by Jennifer Lindner McGlinn)
(makes one 9 - inch round cake)

Spiced Apple

• 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
• 2tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1tsp Ground Ginger
• 30g Unsalted Butter, melted
• 2 - 3 Granny Smith Apples (peeled, cored and cut each quarter into 3 wedges)

Cake 

• 1 1/3 cups Plain Flour
• 1tsp Salt
• 1/4tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon 
• 90g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup Molasses
• 1 Egg, large
• 1/2 cup Whole Milk

 Kahlua Vanilla Cream

• Thickened Cream
• Kahlua
• Vanilla Bean Paste
• Pure Icing Sugar

Layer of Apples ; Topped with Cake Batter

How To :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C and butter a 9 inch round cake tin.
2. To prepare the spiced apple : stir together the brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the melted butter evenly over the bottom of the buttered cake tin and sprinkle the spiced sugar mixture evenly on top. Arrange the apple wedges in a circle over the sugar mixture. Set aside while you make the cake batter.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and soda, ginger and cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside.
4. Put the softened butter in a bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or hand mixer will also do the job) and beat until smooth.
5. Add the brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
6. Pour in the molasses and beat until smooth.
7. Drop in the egg and mix until well mixed, stop and scrape the side of the bowl at least once.
8. Reduce the mixing speed to low and alternately add in the flour mixture and milk - always begins and ends with the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
9. Pour the cake batter over the apple and smooth out the surface.
10. Bake for about 40 - 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre come out clean.
11. Allow the cake to cool on a rack for 15minutes then ran a palette knife around the edges to loosen it a bit.
12. Invert into a serving plate carefully.

The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, but I think it tasted so much better when it's warm (just nuke it in the microwave for 5 - 10 seconds per slice).

Making the Kahlua Vanilla Cream is idiot proof, just whip everything together and add as much or as little of each ingredients, however you like it :)

I used hazelnut brittle that I got as x'mas goodies from a colleague, but of course you can make your own if you wish.

Oozing Spiced Caramel

The cake was tender and the apple still retains a little bit of it's crunch, and the oozing spiced caramel....well...enuf said....

When you make the accompanying whipped cream, try not to make it too sweet as the cake itself is already sweet.

Having the cream along with the cake kind of balance out the sweetness :)

Bird's Eye View ^_^

Pressies Time !!!

After we filled our tummies to the brim, it's time to open up the presents !

Once again we have nominated Ony to be our presents "MC" ^_^

I've got a few goodies that will come in handy, but this from Ony took me by surprise 0__0

A NEW LENS FOR MY DSLR ?!??!?!

It's NOT a lens , it's a Tumbler !!

How cool is that ??!?! It's a coffee tumbler shaped like a lens, that you can even zoom in and out !

She got it from Photo Jojo, an online store with photography knicks knacks in the US.

It is such a dangerous website to visit and of course with the Aussie dollar being so strong now, it is so hard to resist to order something :P The damage has been done to my credit card.....*yikes*

So that's how we spend our Christmas this year - with lots of sugar ROFL