Reunion 2 CNY 2008

Reunion 2 was at my MIL's place. She cooked all her children's favourite food. I contributed my share of Baked curry chicken wings and the Blueberry cake with crunchy nut topping.

My BIL bought duck and SIL bought roast pork. MIL cooked mushroom, beef, steamed white chicken, battered prawns, fried Ngoh Hiang and watercress soup.

I've always preferred this way for family gatherings with everyone contributing something to the lovingly prepared home cooked meal.

X'mas Gathering 2

Here was what we had for the 2nd party.

Baked Pasta
Bacon Roll
Beef in Red Wine
Sausage/Fish Ball Platter

Curry Chicken
Assam Pork
Smoked Chicken from CS
Honey Baked Ham from CS
Vegetable Salad


Brownie Muffins
Mochi
Cookies
Lime Jelly Cheesecake

Uncle W bought Steamed Crab and Chilly Crabs .
Dh bought Oatmeal Prawns, Salted Yolk Crabs, Peppered Crabs and Chilly Crabs too.
Because of dear Uncle W's contribution, we ended up with 5 kinds of crabs this year.

It was a night of catching up with the extended family members, lots of food when everyone had a chance to 'ta pao' something home. Good memories were formed when the younger ones had a chance to play with one another. My dear SIL helped me out with the washing up after the rest left and I'm so thankful for having her do that for me. GT 'xie xie ni'.

X'mas Gathering 1

This year I will have two family X'mas gathering at my home. So for the last week I had been kept busy planning the menu for the two days, marketing for the party food as well as cooking and baking. It is tiring but I always feel joy when I see family members enjoying the food I prepared for them.

The Menu for this gathering .....

Curry Chicken
Sausage Platter with Fish Balls
Baked Hickory Chicken Wings
Black Pepper Roast Beef from CS
Honey Baked Ham from CS

Rice and Bread

Peach Agar-agar
Orange Jelly Cheesecake
2 Kinds of Cookies (Chocochips and Lavender)
Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies

Vegetable Salad
Seedless Black Grapes with Strawberries
Chickpeas

My SIL also contributed Sushi from Sakae Sushi and dh bought butter oatmeal prawns and peppered and chilli crabs too.

There was a lot of food ... more than we could eat and everyone had lots of ta pao food to bring home.

Mini celebration for fathers in the family.

To honore the fathers in the family, I baked them a Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake and prepared a mini feast for them.

The menu for the day was like this .....

Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake

Curry Chicken

Fish Ball Sausages

Bacon Mushroom Rolls

Fruity Salad
Roast Duck (my brother's contribution)
White Rice

Baguette Bread

Lychee Fruits

Menu Ideas For Four Weeks

I remember when I first joined the m4m message board, I posted some menu ideas for the week to help those with maids in the household to plan simple meals. These ideas could also be used for those who just started to learn how to cook meals for their families. I shared this because I remember putting in quite a bit of effort to plan meals with my domestic helper and didn't want the effort to be gone to waste. Surprisingly these menu ideas were still referred to when some ladies from the message board emailed me for help. It's a good feeling they the ideas are still useful.

So here I provide the link to them in case anyone needs some help to plan meals.

Menu Ideas for Week 1

Menu Ideas for Week 2

Menu Ideas for Week 3

Menu Ideas for Week 4

CNY Reunion 2

This year MIL decided to hold the reunion dinner at BIL place cos' he just shifted to his new flat opposite MIL place.
Here's my share of the reunion dinner .... soft chocolatechip cookies for the children, konnyaku jelly & koi fish, hot chocolate chiffon and baked curry chicken.
Cos' SIL was not home until after 6 pm, I tried to help out by reheating the other foods from the table. It was after we had dinner that I realised I didn't take photos of the other foods cooked by MIL.
I think I'm getting a little too forgetful for my liking.

CNY 2007 Reunion 1

Ever since I got married, my family has to attend 2 Reunion dinners. Since MIL has always held hers on the actual date, my mum will usually hold hers a week in advance. I am thankful for her understanding and making it possible for my family to have a pleasant reunion dinner with her and dad and also my brother's family. I know that it is difficult to have to attend to 2 reunion dinners on the same night and this I witnessed with my own eyes when my SILs had to do this, rushing from one place to the other.

The reunion dinner was held at my brother's place and I baked some things, my mum also cooked some stuff and my brother bought some foods too. In this way, we found it easier to manage and also to feed the extended family of thirteen. I've never liked holding the reunion dinner at a restaurant or any eatery eversince the children came. It has always been a struggle to manage the children at a restaurant especially when they get restless or refuse to eat any food from the table. Having the reunion dinner in a home is so much more cosy and definitely less stressful. As for washing up, we just used paper plates and cups, plastic forks and knives and did the minimum for the pots and serving dishes.



So here's presenting our simple spread of ......
Roast Duck, Char Siew, Roast Pork (bought from our favourite stall in Hougang)
Chilli Crab (bought)
Yu Sheng, Steamed Prawns and Watercress Soup (mum's contribution)
Baked Prawn Paste Chicken, Baked Pasta, Almond Longan Konnyaku Jelly (my contribution)

Here's the family doing the Loh Hei with the Abalone Yu Sheng to start off the Reunion night.