Jocelyn's New Year's Eve Dinner

Happy New Year!  

As Cathy said, we're hitting the gym next this year right when we get back to school.  Or so she says.  She has never worked out her whole life.  Other than this one time she went to the gym with me.  And she lasted nine minutes.

My family and I invited two close families over to celebrate New Year's Eve!  And we only let them through the door if they food to offer.  A plate per person.  I'm just joking (sort of).

But no need to charge them entry fees because they all brought food, and delicious food at that.  All the dishes home-made with love and sweat!

The C family brought three Japanese styled dishes that were, as always, wonderful!  I think their dishes are always the first to be finished.

Honey Glazed Yam

One of my favorite dishes of all time!  They make this every time we get together and I swear I will never get tired of it.  The dish has perfect touch of sweetness which is a good change with all of the savory foods on the table!  

Sushi Rice topped with egg and shrimp

Variety of fishcakes and slices of daikon

The L family brought there famous home-made clam chowder and desserts!

A whole pot of home-made clam chowder!

There was a lot of sweat and time put into making this yummy soup.  And it was actually because I requested it... I just love it too much!  Their clam chowder is creamy, taste-bud-tickling, and never lacking of clam! 

Fruit Bowl Dessert  mix of lychee, longan, Asian pear, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, mandarin slices, lychee jelly, and home-made almond jelly

Home-made cheesecake

And as a tradition, the L family gave us a box of their scrumptious home-made cookies!  During the holidays, Mrs. L spends hours in the kitchen baking numerous batches of cookies for friends and family.  And I must say, the time was well spent because the cookies turned out great!  

The box came with two layers of cookies which I find exciting!

Peanut Butter Cookies, Peppermint Chocolate Rice Krispies, and Pecan Chocolate-Chip Cookies

The Peanut Butter Cookie filling with real peanuts was a delightful surprise!

Almond Cookies & Cream Cheese Cookies

My youngest sister who's five was throwing a tantrum while I was taking pictures of the cookies.  She kept screaming "JUST LET ME EAT THE COOKIES!!"  So when I finished with the photos, she devoured all of the cream cheese cookies declaring they were the best cookies ever!  Oh, she is just too adorable!

And just as I said I would, I made the apricot chicken dish again and it turned out even better!  Last time, I mixed the apricot sauce with the the chicken thighs before baking thinking that the chicken would be more marinated and flavor-able but it turned out a bit liquidy.  This time I just poured the sauce over the chicken before putting in the oven and apricot sauce turned out like a glaze!  And I was glad that the apricot chicken was once again a hit!

Apricot Chicken lookin' even better

(some) Made and eaten by Jocelyn.

Cathy's Mostly Home-Cooked Holiday Dinner

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE! 



Unlike Jocelyn, I didn't have much responsibility in prepping for our holiday dinner.  It was mostly home cooked by my mom.  We also bought beef flanks and BBQ pork from outside and my grandma brought some shrimp over.

Beef Flanks plate 1

Beef Flanks plate 2

My parents went kinda crazy and bought 2 plates of beef flanks.  We couldn't even finish 1 plate with 6 people, so uhh... we'll be eating lots of beef in the upcoming weeks.

We bought the beef from Cozy Cafe.  They have really good beef!   I guess the flavor of beef flanks are generally pretty similar, but the texture of these were perfect!  They were such an easy chew for the teeth.  They kind of just melt in your mouth, so you won't have to put up a fight with these, and also, they don't get stuck in your teeth!  I also love how they have ginger and cilantro to go it.  One of these plates happened to be in front of me, so I ate a good amount of cow this meal.

BBQ Pork

We got the BBQ Pork from Sam Woo(?). The quality of the meat will vary, since you choose your own pork, and every pork is different!  This time, we chose a pretty good pork, although it was a bit on the fatty side.  But still, good flavor, and nice texture that again, won't get stuck in your teeth. 

Now onto the home made food...

Sticky Rice

It's actually really easy to make, using a rice cooker!   You can add in whatever you want, but we kept it simple, since we didn't have much in our fridge.  We just added shrimp, mushroom, and pork to our glutinous rice, put it all into the rice cooker, and pushed the magic "start" button!  (Our rice cooker has a setting for sticky rice.)  It could have had more flavor, but since we were eating it with everything else, it was nice to have something on the bland side to balance out.

Bok Choy

You can't really go wrong with home-cooked veggies, and it was a nice way to balance out the meat.

Shrimp

They were pretty good, but they were still wearing their shells!  Being the lazy person that I am, I didn't want to strip the shrimp, so I just ate one.  It was good, but it wasn't worth the effort to peel it. 

We also had soup (SO MANY FISHCAKES AND FISHBALLS...oh the memories...) and dessert (red bean/purple rice soup), not pictured here.  They were in pots in the kitchen, so I forgot to take pictures of them.  But don't worry.  There were plenty of leftovers, so I will be eating them many times in the near future.

                 Our Drinks               

Left:  Me...........Sparkling Apple Cider

Right:  Everyone else..........Red Wine

I thought this was pretty funny.

(mostly) Made and eaten by Cathy. 

Jocelyn's Home Cooked Holiday Dinner

I was bestowed with the task of cooking (and the cleaning) for my family this holiday and it was successful!  All the dishes were cleaned off!  But the cleaning of the dishes was not so fun.  Being the smart gal I am, I provided everyone with paper plates and cups.

I normally cook dinner to help out my mom when I'm home but I never had to cook for twelve people!  So baking seemed to be the way to go since I could easily bake large portions.   I looked up some easy recipes online and created our Holiday menu: Apricot Chicken, Asparagus and Mushroom Puff Pastry Pie, Baked Salmon, Shrimp Scampi Pasta, and a salad.

Apricot Chicken

I pulled this recipe from allrecipes and it was a big hit!  It was all smiles and everyone had seconds if not thirds!  The chicken was tangy, sweet, and delightful.  During dinner, my sister turned and told me "THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER."  I think she ended up eating a whole chicken's worth.  The recipe is easy and only calls for four ingredients: apricot preserves, french dressing, and a package dry onion soup mix, and chicken thighs.  I'm thinking of making this dish again next week for another holiday get-together!

Asparagus and mushroom stirred in with hollandaise sauce

The final product of the Asparagus and Mushroom Puff Pastry

The presentation of this dish wasn't particularly pretty but it was tasted great!  I also got this recipe from allrecipes.  The recipe instructs you to wrap and seal the asparagus and mushroom in the puff pastry.  I instead made it like a traditional pie and used the puff pastry for only the top.  It turned out good and I think I actually prefer it this way.  The dish was not as heavy which meant you could eat even MORE food!  The only thing I forgot to do was drain the cooked vegetables before stirring in the hollandaise sauce which resulted in it being a bit liquidy...it still tasted fine but it could have been even better!

Baked Salmon topped with capers, garlic, and basil

I bought the salmon with this particular honey dijon mustard recipe (which is delicious) in mind.  But as I was prepping the ingredients, I found out we don't have honey in the kitchen!  I actually started the panic and debated on whether I wanted to make a twenty minute trip to the supermarket for a bottle of honey.  But with the clock ticking and the guests coming in a few hours I decide to just improvise.

So I didn't use a recipe for this dish and kind of just...went with it.  I just added these ingredients to taste: salt, a pinch of sugar, black pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, dried basil, three cloves of garlic, and capers.  Then I popped it in the oven at 400 °F for 15 minutes.  And surprisingly it turned out scrumptious!  It must have been fate we ran out of honey!!  

Shrimp Scampi Pasta

This dish is for lazy people (like me).  I bought a box of Shrimp Scampi from the frozen section at Costco and threw the shrimp on the skillet.  Then I took out the shrimp to ensure none overcooked while I mixed the surplus creamy white sauce with a half box of cooked pasta.  After, I mixed in the shrimp with the pasta and WAALAA!

The salad consisted whatever vegetable I found in my refrigerator that was suitable to be in a salad.  I added in some Craisins and pine nuts and topped it off with Italian dressing.

And because I was taking care of the main courses, I asked my uncle bring the desserts.  So we finished off our Holiday menu with pastries and cake!

Fruit Tart custard filling topped with glazed fruits

Tiramisu Cake

I'm quite satisfied with this Holiday meal and especially the positive feedback!  They've voted for me to cook the next big meal and we'll see how that goes!

Made and eaten by Jocelyn.