recent homecooked feasts

In the twelve days Sunshine23 was staying at my apartment, we whipped up three sumptous feasts fit for royalty. The first was on X'mas Eve.

Mozart chocolate liqueur sponsored by my little boss. I really like the bottle.



Fresh cheerful sunflowers for decorating the feasting table.



Becky even bought lots of cute Christmassy stickers and stuck them all over the house. Sunshine23 and I went last minute grocery shopping to get all the essential sauces for the various dishes.



Our feast included a very tasty stuffed turkey courtesy of Eliss and Ernest who did the stuffing themselves from scratch. We had a mini drama with the turkey (wasn't cooked thoroughly the first time!) when it was cooking in my oven but it was quickly resolved. Here you see Sunshine23 carving the turkey fresh from the oven and the spread on the table that included ham, prawns, salad, beef pies, vege pastry rolls and wine.



Here's the fresh salad handpicked by moi truly.



Eliss and Ernest actually went to the Sydney Fish Market in the wee hours of the previous night to get us the fresh king prawns.



We were the professional food photographers while the girls got busy in the kitchen. Hehe.



Timed group shot of all of us before tucking in. I think the highlight of the feast was the apple berry crumble Sunshine23 chose to purchase right at the last minute when we were dashing to the cashier at Coles.



Second feast was a day after our road trip to Hunter Valley. We couldn't wait to try all the gourmet produce we bought from that pitted and pickled place in Wollombi and so decided to dine in. Here you see me cooking the hot chilli linguine I bought. It was slightly overcooked cos I got distracted by Facebook while cooking, but still edible.



Becky didn't want to be left out and made her specialty baked rice. There was crab meat, tuna, lots of cheese and I can't remember what else in it.





Here's Sunshine23 enjoying a glass of Chardonnay we got from Broke Village Winery and me holding a bottle of the best extra virgin olive oil I've ever had - we used it to go with the italian sourdough from David Jones together with some caramelised balsamic vinegar.



Third and last feast was on New Year's Eve. I cooked chicken and mushroom ravioli in cream sauce and we had a bottle of red that Sunshine23 bought from Margan at Hunter Valley. Me thinks the red was the culprit for the madness before the fireworks. Heh.



Out of the three homecooked feasts, I would rate the X'mas Eve feast as the best. I'm now counting my days to all the feasting I'll be doing in SG!