Feast #4 - It's a Wrap!

Finally, after 2 weekends, 4 groups of friends, numerous nights of menu planning, countless grocery shopping trips, a few cuts and horribly peeling cuticles on 10 sore fingers (that smell garlicky) and 1 disastrous soup, we wrapped up last night's dinner with The Boy's colleagues on a high note.

The cooking went well, except for a short moment of panic when I realised that I had my oven turned to too high a temperature for the beef that had been roasting for the last 20 minutes. Had to recover quickly by covering it with aluminium foil and continue roasting at a lower temperature, otherwise, by the time the meat was cooked, the top would have been charred.

In the end, thank God the beef turned out juicy and flavoursome, and the rest of the dishes were well-received. Chocolate fondant, by which time my helper already knows all the steps, was one of the highlights. Yup, I'm "redeemed".

Some creative gifts that The Boy got for his colleagues included the door stopper (for always putting a stop to all the shit that comes flying in the office), the chopsticks (for always getting a good grip on the situation), the spark gun (for always being the creative spark), the sweet chilli sauce (for always being so sweet and just a little spicy) and some paper plates (for always being worried that you don't have enough on your plate).

Well.... you can quite guess where he got these items from. Otherwise, it would have been just another routine boring trip to the supermarket for him!


One of my favourite gifts for this Christmas - the newest book by Jamie Oliver. *grins*


Ok, I think that's it for the madess with all the cooking and hosting. The Jemej Kitchen will take a rest, till the next Christmas! But of course, in the meantime, will be sure to continue having friends over for dinner, on a smaller scale. Food, wine and company, we love entertaining at home!

Endless Supply

What happens during Christmas? You get logcakes, fruit cakes, stollen, ham, turkey etc etc etc. And you can't finish all of them of course.

So you have them for afternoon tea.... which was quite nice on a cool Christmas afternoon with a nice cuppa English Breakfast.....


And you get creative with the ham and turkey - "Ham & Turkey Fried Rice"!!!!


Somebody would have to teach me how to fry the rice better though - taste is there, but mine tends to clump together. =p

Anyway, somebody please help us finish all the festive stuff in the fridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Time with Family & Friends

The eve of Christmas was spent with both our families over good food and wine at Heng-mummy's place. Haven't seen Julian in quite a while, and my, he's all grown up now!


Although my family has never really celebrated Christmas due to a different religious faith, I'm deeply thankful that they made the effort to spend this special day with us. That they made the extra effort to travel from the west end to the east, to spend time together as one big family.

And as they made their leave, I felt a twinge of sadness - truth is, much as I love the Jemej Home and married life, I still miss my family alot. I miss the comfort of knowing that I can always rely on my mum to take care of everything at home, including the shampoo that runs out. The dinner that we have once a week, much as I would otherwise prefer, never seems enough.

Heng-mummy's also very sweet, never fails to get a little Christmas pressie for my grandma too. For almost 9 decades of her life, think my grandma can probably count the number of times she has been to a Christmas gathering on one hand, and those are during these few years! :)






It was midnight mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary thereafter, where we would meet up with Mudfairy & Pamcake, and this time, Mudskipper & C, as an "annual tradition". And as with the past years, we would adjourn to somewhere nearby for supper later on.


Christmas - a time of remembering the reason for the season of giving. Spent with close families and friends, and with each other. We thank the Lord for this simplest way of enjoying this simplest joy. A much needed rest, to reflect upon the true meaning of CHRIST-mas.

With Love

Feast #2

Round 2 on Saturday night, with the Superheroes & Friends.

As it was a bigger group of 10, I sought "extra help" with some purchased turkey and ham to add to the festive feasting.


For a starter, there was Greek Salad and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, all recipes courtesy of Jamie Oliver. The potatoes were a hit - looks like I stumbled upon a gem of a recipe, and "founded an EJ Specialty"!! :D


Roasted beef was very flavoursome this time round, think I got the doneness right. Coupled with some simple sauteed spinach and mushrooms.


And Christmas dinner would not be complete without bubblies and desserts!


Best part of the evening - the great company of great friends. And the sweetest? The Boy you-tubed "How to carve a turkey" beforehand, just so that he could help me with the serving! :)


More pictures of the crazy night over HERE.

Feast #1

Took Friday off, and we had the BBs over for dinner that evening, the first of our festive feasting at the Jemej's. It had been a while since I last cooked, and coupled with a few recipes that I was trying out for the first time, started the preparations earlier than usual.

In line with The Boy's invite cum menu card, he bought the red noses as well, as a form of "welcome shot" that everyone had to take.




My indulgences from iwannagohome! added a nice little touch to the festive mood. Made the roast beef for the first time, recipe courtesy of my chef. Turned out great, except that for the next time round, I would shorten the roasting time to make it more medium rare!!!


With the standard-sized remekins this time round, chocolate fondant didn't explode and came out perfect!!!! So this led me to believe, at least for this time round, that the last few times I had failed in the making the fondant was due to too large a remekin cup size.


Pictionary was hilarious, and I guess everyone ended the night with lots of gifts and loads of fun and laughter.

And the Festive Cooking & Eating Starts

Finally, after a few weeks of planning, shopping and wrapping, the menu planning for the few groups that we are having over at our place is done, the pressies are ready under the Jemej Tree.

Along with a couple of Christmas albums by Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban and Laura Fygi, the mood is set.


The Bbs came over for dinner last night, it's been a while since I've made a mess cooked up such a feast in the kitchen. The Superheroes will be over tonight.

More details on the dinner last night, after I'm over with tonight's cooking....

Illogical Buyer Behaviour

Finally, it's up!! Yes, gan cheong spider me had been excited all week, looking forward to this weekend, so that we can put up the Christmas decor around the house.

We bought the Jemej tree last year, and to be honest, I was initially dreading to take it out again, as the dismantling was pretty troublesome and messy.

But once the tree was up with the soft fibre optics lights twinkling away, I was immediately clapping my hands in glee. Isn't putting up the Christmas tree one of the simplest joys in life? :) Was tempted to buy more ornaments, or even change the colour scheme, but decided to keep to the classic gold for now, we love it.


Confession - I overindulged at iwannagohome! yesterday. I have been there a few times, and each time, I simply couldn't bear to part with so much money for so simple stuff. Yet, I succumbed to temptation yesterday. And bought these little things for over a hundred bucks.

Despite the fact that when I peeled off the S$29 price tag for that little pot of single poinsettia, to discover its first original price tag of 6.50 EUROS, I was still pleased and gleeful about my buy. Buyer behaviour, especially that of women, can never be explained.

Sigh.... aren't they gonna look so pretty on my dining table during Christmas? *dreamy look*

All I Want for Christmas: X

The Boy has been pining for it since the first version, 3 years ago. His favourite song every Christmas has been "Santa Claus forgot me this year..."

Finally, after the long wait, and a few versions of the X-Box:

The 2nd

Round two of Christmas dinner at the Munchkin Habitat, this time with some of our bridesmaids and groomsmen (aka Batman and Spidey), r@e and uncle matt. The party felt happening already, when Batman and Ms P (the first to arrive) turned up at our doorstep, and did the "rap" that Jem composed, named the "rapping paper". I'd only wish I had a video cam at that moment instead of holding my oven glove.

With plenty of food and wine, and lots of pressies under the Jemej Tree, The Boy, playing santa distributing the pressies, was obviously having a good time, hahaha...








And after 3 bottles of wine, 1 carton of plum wine, some sake and some Tiger....


PS: Cleaning up after that was tough. I dozed off whilst washing the dishes....