Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas, people! -elaine @ 11.53pm, 25th December 2006Home-made christmas goodies;Chocolate-swirl crumbly cookie cups
A crumbly cookie in a mini cup with a hazelnut/almondnut centre and then decorated with chocolate swirls and lines, lastly sprinkled with rainbow dots for that extra colour.Hand-made Chocolate lollis
Basically blended out my own chocolate recipe, then set them in cute molds and randomly decorated them.Other bakings;Blueberry Muffins
This year's Christmas seem to be one of my worsts; simply so plain and boring. Had spent christmas overseas for the past 2 years (Shanghai and Boston/Florida ), and frankly speaking, the Christmas spirit in both those places is MUCH better than in Singapore. i absolutely loved my Christmas week spent in Boston and Florida, cause everything was super christmas-y there. haha, lets define christmas-y. People there put in their time,money and efforts to brighten up their houses with lights and decorations. Its just super lovely to drive pass rows of houses all colourfully lighted up, with pretty trees and huge figurines of Santa, reindeers, angels... In malls, everyone is doing Christmas shopping, and you just get the christmas feeling wherever you go. fine, i will stop here.My Christmas day this year was spent solely with my dad cause my sis has got no life and would rather rot at home alone on Christmas and my mum preferred going shopping with her own sisters.We started off with a late Christmas lunch at Bakerzin Millenia Walk. Dad suggested that we go for their Christmas Set Menu, which was only available for 2 days. Priced at $32.90++, it consisted of an appetiser (Pumpkin Soup/ Home Cured Salmon Salad), main course (Honey Baked Ham/ Roast Turkey/ Roast Beef) , dessert ( Strawberry Ice Cream/ Christmas Oreo Cheesecake) and a beverage (Christmas Italian Soda). My appetiser choice was a Home Cured Salmon Salad;
Two large but thin slices of home-smoked salmon which tasted terribly saltish.My main course: Roast Turkey with Cranberry Sauce
(Served with new potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and brussel sprouts)
I didn't really like the turkey cause it was bland and slightly undercooked,I loved the sauteed mushrooms and grilled mini potatoes, as well as the fresh cranberry sauce. 2 slices of turkey stuffing was also given but i chose not to touch it at all.Dad had a Honey Baked Ham with Pineapple Sauce instead.(Served with new potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and brussel sprouts)
3 relatively thick slices of honey baked ham, but it was uneven cut into varying thickness. I preferred this to mine cause it tasted mildly sweet and not over-salty. The pineapple sauce was nicer as well. Decided to change our beverages cause we're both down with a cough. i got a Rosebuds Tea while dad chose a cuppuccino;
Dessert choice was the Christmas Cheesecake with OREO Cookies; 
I liked it, cause of the sharp sweetness tasted with every bite, plus the oreo is a great match for cheesecakes. However, it may be too sweet for some.Also added a Fraisier;
its like light pistachio mousse filled with strawberries, between two slices of almond-flavoured cake. after lunch we did some shopping around orchard, and ive finally gotten a digital kitchen scale! (: byebye to that lousy cheapskate inaccurate scale ive been using. dinner at O'Briens, Millenia Walk (again!). With several outlets around, it serves Irish-style sandwiches and wraps.dad, reducing his carbs as usual, chose to have a lowfat tortilla wrap. his Egg Mayo with Watercress Wrappo;
I had a Cranberry Chicken on Wholemeal Toast;
Looks like alot uh! Truly, it was damn filling cause they were super generous with the chicken portion. Okay, looks like ive found a match for subway. Everything in this totalled up to a delicious sandwich; crispy toasted bread, crunchy veggies, lean chicken slices and sweet cranberry sauce. Yummy~ The cranberry sauce wasnt supposed to be part of the dressing choice but the person said he could make an exception. lol, and it was good (: But still, the bread itself loses to New York New York's. Came home, got lectured by mum about not packing my room and stuffs. arrgh, bad christmas. Sunday 24th December-Christmas Eve @ KaraokeLunch at our usual Japanese Restaurant; Ichiban Boshi @ Esplanade.They have many creative jap dishes and sushis, and most suhsis are reasonably priced at $1.90. Affordable quality food (: Shall just name a few of the stuffs i like from there;Crispy Lobster Salad Roll ($1.90)
Its deep-fried maki topped with wasabi-mayo lobster meat and spring onions.Unatama Crepe ($1.90)
A crepe used instead of seaweed, filled with unagi, egg and vegetables.Unagi Nigiri ($1.90)
I love unagi, but this one is the cold version. Still nice (:Others i'll probably post them on my foodblog so visit there instead.Evening was celebration time at godma's karaoke lounge
Our entire family basically booked a private room and they started singing christmas songs and stuffs. 
But i'm surprised to see that the atmosphere in the public area was even better! haha the people (erm mostly not too young ones) were dancing and getting into the spirit. wow. and then Melvin went up there to sing a hokkien song (i don't know whyy), and it sounded really good. first time hearing him sing anyways.Everything was rather well-prepared and we had light sticks, party poppers and even sparkles!
this dazzling little thing can mesmerize.
(totally distorted due to resizing)Everyone got together for the countdown while Ben & i were busy capturing the scenes of the people getting damn high. the shocking thing is that even mum and grandma joined in with the dancing. yes, and all the partypoppers popped at 12midnight.IT WAS CHRISTMAS. melvin took the centre microphone and announced that it was his mummy's birthday as wellHere comes the 3kg Pandan cake he bought with his pay;
And then Aunt Serene gave her speech and stuffs like that and check out these poor people suffering;
Happy Birthday Aunt Serene!Check out the 2 bouquets of flowers she received. 
The small 12-roses one is from her husband and the huge 99-roses one is from an unknown customer from the karaoke (she's working as a KJ there).The last part was a mass gift exchange session.
I wanted to organize it in a fun way but irritating mum stepped in and destroyed the entire plan. wth. So in the end it ended up in chaos but we still got our presents. i got a winnie-the-pooh glass cup and flask set, not bad compared to the other gifts. sis got a box of guylian chocolates and was utterly disappointed with it. blame it on her luck ya.Saturday 23rd December
-Christmas dinner with xinya
It was a boring afternoon where i went to parkway to develop the korea trip photos, then to marine parade library to get more baking recipes. Got a quick lunch at coffee bean.Food for Thought ($6);
4 slices of not-very-well-toasted toast with jam & butter, 2 semi-cooked eggs, a small side cranberry salad plus an english breakfast tea. Simply nutritious.Met xinya for our pre-christmas dinner. took 36 down to orchard. dropped by the lime flea market @ scape and i bought many things. A pretty stylish chain necklace ($11), a pair of earrings($2) and a tanktop($2). cheap buys~walked down the crowded street towards wheelock place. it was super packed! ate at N.Y.D.C;shared 2 mains;Mushroom Madness Pizza ($13.95)
The crust was like burnt and the mushrooms were rather dry and over peppery.Baked Roast Chicken & grilled Peppers Penne ($10.95)
This was nice! The entire combi was good, penne in savoury garlic sauce plus those chicken shreds with mozarella cheese.Then i still had a dessert at coffee bean....Christmas Raspberry Cheesecake ($5)
The taste was okay but the cake itself was too soft and not firm enough. Raspberries were abit too sour but overall still alrite (:Walked down the crowded orchard road once again, this time for photos (:
(distorted due to resizing)Everywhere was super jammed, and we took a long time to get to the mrt, queue to topup our ezlink cards and finally boarding the train back.will be putting up the korea pics soon~ (:off to work now!
elaine ; always remembered
7:44 AM
