In pizza heaven... this is a take and bake 5 meat stuffed pizza. The pizza is freshly made and you take it home to bake so that it is fresh out of the oven.
Not many Papa Murphy's around - shame though cos every bite is a mouthful of goodness.
It's the Toffees' first Christmas together and they are very excited! They just got their stockings and are trying to figure out what to do with them ....
they finally figure to put them up by the fireplace and wait for Santa
they try hard to keep awake but fall asleep in a huddle in no time
the next day - they are happy with their pressies but sad to have missed Santa.
Next year they will sit apart - perhaps when it is not too snuggly, they will be able to stay awake for longer.
D has 3 nieces and 2 nephews aged 2- 12. We celebrated Christmas morning with homemade breakfast - scones, crepes and bacon.
With so many presents under the tree, the kids were extremely well behaved and sat through breakfast. When they were allowed to start opening the presents, it was utter chaos - ripping of paper, exclamations of "this is awesome!", "cool" ...
I'd forgotten what it was like to be a kid on Christmas morning and have so many presents waiting under the tree.
Christmas is a time of celebration - being together with loved ones, for the kids - getting new toys and books. Let's not forget the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ- which often gets lost in the crazy, frantic shopping for food and presents as well as the parties.
which followed by the Crab & Salmon Cakes avocado, cucumber, tomato salsa & chili lime aioli and the Smoked Sablefish Brandade with Lobster
arugula, tomato oil & bread sticks
For the main I was tempted to have the Filet Mignon with peppercorn sauceand D had the bison ribeye. The meal had so far been fantastic and I forgot to take a photo of the main. All we got was this ...
We could not fit anything else by then and had to pass on desserts.
2nd ski lesson at Whistler. They have tons of programs to choose from and I settled on an all women 2 day ski camp. As a beginner, they go through all the basics and the instructors are very patient. I was lucky to have a 1 to 4 instructor -student ratio which provided an ideal environment to learn to ski. After the 2nd day, I could make it down a green run. To top it all off they provide muffins and coffee for brekkie as well as an apres ski with beer and light appis which we all could use after a hard day on the slopes. This was truly enjoyable - learning to ski and making new friends :)
Since the caramel macarons, I've come to the conclusion that 1) It is worth every cent paying for Pierre Herme macarons and 2) I can't separate egg whites - even D's 9-year old niece A can do it better. I've been messing around with the recipe substituting the egg whites for carton egg whites - these don't whip up into a proper meringue but more or less works without me wasting tons of eggs to get a couple of egg whites.
The recipe for the macaron remains very much the same, just varying the colouring and changing the cream filling.
So far I've made Rose Lychee Macarons, Peppermint Macarons and Chestnut Macarons
I also had the mad mad idea of making these for my wedding favors. D is glad that it was really a fleeting moment.
What's a trip to Vancouver without heading to Whistler? With the newly completed sea to sky highway for the winter Olympics next year, it is a breeze to drive up.
Yes of course Brownie made it but he made sure to bring some friends too...
Coming from Singapore - this place is as close to the hawker food you find in Singapore. Given that Malaysia and Singapore are only separated by a small strait and Singapore was once part of Malaya, there are some similarities in our food.
We started off with a Roti Canai, similar to Roti Prata in Singapore, served with curry. This was delicious - slightly crisp yet still fluffy when you bite into it. Sorry I didn't bring a proper camera so these dim pictures were the best I could do.
There were only 2 of us but we followed with an order of beef rendang, hokkien mee and a hainanese chicken rice. I was drooling over the chicken rice and forgot to take a photo (this happens very often)
The hokkien mee had the wok fried smoky taste and the beef rendang was sedap :). Satisfied my craving for hawker food.