60th Birthday Celebration for 7th Uncle

Tsu Mae SMSed us a month ago to invite us to her dad's 60th birthday celebration on Fri, 29 Aug. Her mum, 7th auntie will be cooking dinner for us. I always love 7th auntie cooking. She's a very good cook.

When we arrived at their house, the above hors d'œuvre was set on the side table ... cheese cracker with Camembert and brie and grapes, strawberry and bruschetta (roasted with garlic, olive oil and vinegar). We had champagne (Moet & Chandon) with the hors d'œuvre. It was a lovely start to the evening.

This is the marble cheese cake that I made for 7th uncle. I bought the cake stand a week ago from Living Quarters (at RM89.91 after 10% discount). The cake stand came with a clear plastic cover and the stand is removable. You may choose the display the cake with or without the stand.

This is broccoli salad. The ingredients are broccoli, bacon, raisins, onion, grapes, cherry tomato with creamy salad dressing, red/white wine and vinegar. The salad was crunchy and very tasty with the bacon giving a slight salty taste balanced by the sweetness of the grapes.

This is Pilaf rice, using basmathi rice cooked with butter, raisins and almond. This went well with all the dishes served. It was fragrant with the fruity taste of raisins and the cruchiness of the almond.

This is Peperonata using red and yellow bell peppers, red onions, red wine, vinegar, fresh oregano and thyme. A great vegetarian dish.

And this is roasted smashed potatoes. First, boil the baby red potatoes. Then, smash the potatoes and roast them with Parmesan cheese, rosemary, parsley and olive oil. A delightful companion for the beef (which I don't eat).

This is Herbed Rib Roast. 7th auntie used rib eye beef, roast it with herb, salt and garlic. 7th uncle had to use a special electric knife to cut the beef. It was served with mushroom gravy. I didn't eat this beef as I'm a Buddhist. The beef was cooked medium well and everyone said the beef was excellent. It was the highlight of the evening meal. Apparently it took 2 hours to roast and it is apparent that the juices are well preserved in the roasting unliked the dry product that is served in a grill restaurant.

I particularly love this dish. This dish was created by 7th auntie herself. Pan fry the prawn, dish it out. Then, fry the onion and button mushroom. Pour in the pan fried prawn and stir with bacon, pepper, parsley and olive oil.

Again, 7th auntie made a wonderful dinner. After the dinner, I interviewed 7th auntie to get the name and recipe of the food that she cooked that evening. 7th auntie, please feel free to correct me if any of the food and recipe were described wrongly.

4th auntie brought fruit salad, mixed with 8 different fruits ... mango, dragon fruit, green grapes, red grapes, black grapes, blueberry, cherry and plum. Tsu Mae pour a little of raspberry flavoured vodka to the salad and it brings out further the taste of the 8 different fruits. I just love the colour of the fruit salad.

Lastly, we sang birthday song and ate the marble cheese cake that I baked. I was worried that the cheese cake would not turn out well. Thank God that everyone loved the cake.

Cheese Cakes and Cards

I baked marble cheese cake on Thurs, 28 Aug. Its a working day and only started baking after my dinner at ~9pm . It is for 7th uncle's 60th birthday celebration on Friday.

I obtained the recipe from "Bake with Yen" book. Its a much simpler recipe and method compared to other baking books. The recipe is enough to make one big and 2 small trays. During my first attempt, I only bake a big cake and ended up the with a cheese cake that was very high, unlike the usual low height cheese cake. Honestly, it is much easier to consume a cheesecake as long there is not too much of it.

While waiting for the cakes to cool down, I decided to make cards to give along with the cakes.

This is the card I made for Jo. I tried using the paper trimmer that Hubby bought for me for my birthday. The "J" is from a chip board. I cut and paste pattern paper to it. The 3 layers flowers represent "O".

This is the card that I made for Jared's pre-school, Krista. The school celebrated Merdeka Day on Fri, 29 Aug and all the students wore national costume to school. The alphabets "TQ" is from die cut.

By the time the cakes were water-bath baked for 2 hours and cool before I could chill them overnight in the fridge, its already past 2am and went to sleep past 4am, to finish up the cards.

These are the 2 small cake that were given to Jo and Krista teachers. Jo sms me in the afternoon and said "Wow.. Your cheese cake is so yummy! Even my son loves it. We almost finish it already. You really have to teach me how to bake it".

Memorable things on a memorable day

Today, I am one year older. I am not getting any younger on this special day. I am determine that I would like to do something that I have been talking about, asking around, searching about but not getting to do it. Yes, I have created my own blog and this is my first post on my birthday!

Today, I am on leave. As usual, I dropped off my "soon to be 5 year old" son, Jared to Krista. If you ask Jared what's his age, he will tell you "I am almost 5, my birthday is in Oct".

I went to the wet market with Nina, my maid and my 18 month old son, Jaden. Yes, I have 2 boys, and I would love to have a girl. After getting almost all the things that we were suppose to buy, I asked Nina to choose some clothing for her birthday. There were price tags on each of the rack of clothing ... RM10, RM15, RM20 and RM30. Nina chose to look at those priced at RM10. I told her that there were nicer lots, she walked over to have a look and finally, bought the RM10 blouse. That's Nina. She will not take advantage of me though she knows I'll pay for it. Our last stop at the wet market was to buy banana for the kids. The owner of the stall adores Jaden and said that I am clever in giving birth to such a cute boy.

There were numerous birthday wishes sms from old friends and while clearing my message inbox, I saw the notice on Lego warehouse sales started today. The warehouse sales is at Dataran Hamodal from 27 Aug to 7 Sep from 10am to 6pm. I went there with hubby. It is advisable to go to the place via Section 14 and not via F&N. As we came from Eastin Hotel, we turn in to F&N and we caught in terrible jam. You may park you car along the roadside. Bought 4 Bionicle at RM20 each (usual price RM54.90), City Fireboat at RM85 (usual price RM109.90) and Digger at RM60 (usual price RM79.90). Total bill RM225 for 6 Lego toys, that's cheap, isn't it?

I met up with my friend, Jo for lunch. After lunch, we went to Papier to shop for more papers at Papier. As a member of Papier, we get 15% discount when we shop on any one day of our birth month. This time round, I would like to try out chip board. We bought numbers and alphabetical chips (usual RM39), Acrylic paint Manila colour (usual RM10) and more papers. Total bill came up to RM94.46 (after 15% discount).

Hubby gave me an earlier birthday surprise. On last Sat, he got me Paper trimmer (RM225), extra blade (RM45) and a Mini Albums book (RM84).

I had a good day! Thanks to my hubby, Jared and Jaden, Jo, my family members and friends. You light up my life!