We declared it Christmas, again!

Feeling all festive, we had to have a cookout!

So the entire gang came down, all decked in christmas gear and armed with gifts!

The Evening's Menu

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Super Mushroomy Mushroom Soup

Honey Roasted Chicken on Baked Vegetables

Beloved Gordon's Mushroom Mac and Cheese

Vanilla Ice Cream with Berry Compote

Chocolate Log Cake

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As you can already tell, we are crazy about mushrooms! It was mushroom, mushroom everywhere!

Turn around and you see one trying to sneak up on you.

We started with the baked vegetables first. They take the longest in the oven.

 This shot was at half time.

Then, went to work on Gordon's Mac and Cheese.

And it came out of the oven, looking like this! Hmmmmm....mmm

Took out the vegetables from the oven and placed the microwave heated honey roasted chicken on top!

(We wanted to save time so we bought a ready chicken instead of roasting one)

We are not so able as to cook the mushroom soup on our own. We just reheated the HEINZ cans and threw sauteed mushrooms in to bring the flavour up a notch. Also, to make sure cooking up a storm in the kitchen didn't translate to disaster on the dinner table *wink*

It was a jolly good time!

Too jolly, if we may add...

Anyway, here are the recipes if you wanna have your hand at them!

Baked Vegetables

Serves eight

1 bag of mixed potatoes (Purple Peruvian/ Red Bliss/ Brown)

1 bag of long beans

i box of baby tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

olive oil

thyme

salt and black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius. Scrub clean and chop potatoes into quarters or halves (up to your preferance) Chop long beans into halves. Peel and wash garlic. Wash baby tomatoes.

2. Place potatoes, long beans, garlic and tomatoes into roasting tin.

3. Drizzle olive oil. Sprinkle thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to coat potatoes with oil mixture well.

4. Bake for 30 mins. After 15 mins, take it out to stir and return to oven. Check if thyme is burnt. If it is, remove from vegetables mixture. Thyme has a bitter taste when burnt.

5. Stir and serve!

Gordon's Mac and Cheese

Serves eight

2 shallots, finely diced
250g dried macaroni
1 tablespoon olive oil
100g shitake, trimmed and sliced into pieces
1 sprig of thyme, leaves removed
200ml double cream
4 egg yolks
200g cheddar cheese

100g Parmesan
25g butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

1. Add the macaroni to a large pan of boiling salted water with the olive oil and cook for 7-10 minutes until just tender. Drain and rinse under cold water to remove excess starch. Return to the pan and set aside.

2. Melt the oil in a small frying pan. Add the mushrooms and fry until golden brown, add a small knob of butter and the thyme, cook for another minute then season with pepper. Drain the excess oil from the pan and then add the shallots and cook for a further 2 minutes or until softened.

3. Bring the cream to a gentle boil and add it to the mushrooms, add the egg yolks (a little at a time, stirring well to prevent egg from cooking), and parmesan, mix well and crumble in two-thirds of the cheese. Add the macaroni to the cheese sauce and stir until everything is fully incorporated. Heat gently for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Season with pepper.

4. Butter the ovenproof dish, and pour in the mixture. Top with some cheddar and parmesan and transfer to oven for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown, remove and leave to stand for 5 minutes or so, then serve!

 The next time we go this crazy, will have to be Chinese New Year!

HAA--JAA!

Merry Merry Christmas <3
Love, Rach and Via

Breakfast Adventure #2

You wouldn't believe how fast we came back for this one. We throroughly enjoyed our first one though a few blubbers. This time round, sauteed mushroom and tomato brushetta, aparagus on cheesy bacon eggs and strawberry pancakes!

We had to do a second take on the recipe. We didn't realise sauteed mushrooms were that simple!

Sauteed Mushrooms

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in pan

Wait till butter is foamy

Stir fry mushrooms in butter for about 4 minutes

Season with chopped parsley and pepper

Brushetta Tomato

Dice 2 large tomatoes

Drizzle with olive oil

Sprinkle with parsley

(Usually the tomatoes are boiled first, then skins removed, then diced.

But we prefer ours fresh. Option is yours!)

Garlic Toast

Slice baguette into thick slices

Rub peeled garlic on the sides

Butter them up

Dry pan-fry on the pan for about 4 minutes, flipping them when necessary or you can toast them in the oven!

Cheesy Bacon Eggs

Crack 8 eggs into bowl

Lightly beat, adding 6 tablespoons of milk (the more milk you add, the fluffier your eggs'll turn out)

Add pinch of pepper and chopped parsley

Add 2 1/2 cups of mixed cheese

Pour egg mixture into pan

Sprinkle bacon bits on top

And scramble away!

Aparagus

Chop off ends

Lightly boil for 1 minute or less

Drain and serve

We had intended to make aparagus wrapped omelette. Turns out we all prefer a scrambled egg morning!

So we just top the eggs with the aparagus :)

We had leftover pancake mix from the first adventure. So instead of waffles, we are going with the good ol' traditional buttermilk strawberry pancakes! One day, we'll do it from scratch!

Buttermilk Strawberry Pancake

Create mix following directions on the box

Stir in strawberries gently

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in pan (the more butter you have, the crispier the pancake)

Pour mixture into pan

Flip when you see holes forming on the surface of the pancake

Good to use a small size pan, the thicker the pancake the harder to cook :)

We had fun! So many ideas for the next adventure!

Till the next!

Love, Rach and Via