Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

In December, our gorgeous Big Boy turned 21!

It was a fortnight of celebrations, starting with a party at the oh-so-cool Stitch Bar in town (for him and twenty of his mates, we weren’t invited), followed by several nights of dinners and French champagne with family, friends and neighbours, and culminating in dinner at Ristorante Pendolino in the glitzy Strand Arcade.

We also opened a bottle of Cullen Margaret River 1992 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot that I’d been saving for him since it was released in 1995. It was glorious…

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December was filled with chocolate – several plates of assorted goodies went out the door…

My friend Carol, temperer extraordinaire, made gorgeous chocolate Christmas trees. The moulds can be purchased from Candyland Crafts (item C-171). I went over to help her assemble them…

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We ate a lot of sushi in December – it was the perfect meal for our hot summer days and a wonderful accompaniment to celebratory Bollinger…

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Christmas pudding necessitated microwave custard, and I turned six leftover egg whites into nine friands, using the last of the cherries that Pete’s sister Penny brought us…

Four of the friands went around the corner to our friend Luca, and I added a handful of chocolate chips to his…

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We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve at home. I fried up a large platter of Hokkien noodles for dinner – the dish was filled with prawns, leftover Christmas ham, backyard eggs, butternut trombie, and our first two snake beans. My mother always says noodles at New Year are lucky…

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On the recommendation of our friend PeteV, we gave this Spanish paella cooking base a go. It was expensive – $16 a litre – but claimed to be able to create an authentic paella (for four) in just half an hour with very little effort…

It’s hard to pass up something with such an awesome (and preservative free) ingredients list (note the snails!)…

The thick stock didn’t contain any pieces of snail (or rabbit, duck or chicken, for that matter), so we topped it with the grilled peppers that PeteV and Nic gave us for Christmas. It was quick and easy and really quite good – not as tasty as my Pete’s paella from scratch, but certainly much easier…

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Hope all is well in your world, and you’re enjoying the start of the new year!

How was your December?

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Only a couple more days to go!

The tree is up, filled with a mixture of bought and homemade decorations. The big glass baubles are a new addition this year, but old favourites, like this wee pig that my friend Annie from New Zealand made me a decade ago, always have a branch…

Last minute chocolate making is underway, although with our hot summer days, the tempering bowl has been cooling in the air-conditioned lounge room. We’ve made feuilletine-filled dark milk chocolate in the shape of dragons…

Twelve Days of Christmas..(the feuilletine often results in a few air bubbles)…

A new Nutella ganache truffle, dipped in a blend of dark and milk chocolate…

I didn’t end up using the Santa bags, but instead packaged the nuts, mini fruit cakes and an assortment of chocolates into small plastic bowls…

Finally, here’s my Christmas drink for the year, the risque sounding “Sex on the Beach” (I didn’t pick the name, it’s a well known cocktail)…

• 30ml/1 oz vodka
• 30ml/1 oz peach schnapps
• 90ml/3 oz each of orange juice and cranberry juice
• lots of ice

It’s over 30ºC in Sydney at the moment, and this is perfect sipping as we slide into the silly season…

♥ Wishing you all a joyous, blessed Merry Christmas!  We’ll see you in 2014! ♥

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Here’s the plan for Christmas…

There will be mini fruit and nut cakes…

Almond rochers and a new hazelnut praline truffle (with a smooth cream and chocolate ganache centre, surrounded by dark praline chocolate)…

Christmas rocky road, filled with cranberries, marshmallows, macadamia nuts and Crispearls. I’m hoping to get a chance to temper more chocolate in the coming week…

Our spiced mixed nuts are a Christmas staple. We make them every year and they’re always popular! This year’s mix includes hazelnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds and macadamias. I’ve seasoned them with molasses sugar, Maldon salt, cumin, smoked paprika and Kashmiri chilli powder…

The nuts have been packaged in heat-sealed bags. Each of the Ikea Santa bags (top photo) will be filled with a bag of nuts, a slab of rocky road, a mini fruit and nut cake, and an assortment of chocolates.

In addition, a few bags of nuts have been wrapped with Turkish bowls as a special gift…

Rochester Ginger is Pete’s favourite (non-alcoholic) tipple, so I took advantage of importer Indigo Green’s very special email offer of a 20% discount plus free delivery. They were kind enough to wrap six of the bottles for me for gifting…

I’ve “made” a few Turkish tile trivets as gifts…

…they’ve been double wrapped in gorgeous Costco tissue paper…

Christmas feasting will involve quince jelly glazed hams…

…and jammy dodgers (the dough is made and tucked away in the freezer)…

So…that’s the plan thus far. There are still Christmas day accompaniments to think about, dishes to cook for the street Christmas parties, more baking to do and definitely more chocolate to temper!

Tell me, how are your Christmas preparations going? I’d love to know what your plans are! What will you be eating on the big day? And have you been buying or making any interesting gifts?

PS. It’s a very busy time of year – please excuse me if I haven’t popped by your blog for a while, or responded to comments. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on it all in January!

Linking up with lovely Jason’s Christmas Traditions!
(Don’t Boil the Sauce)

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It’s a crazy busy time of year.

Between all the end of year appointments (optometrist, accountant, hair cuts, dentist) and getting ready for Christmas, it’s been hard to find time to come up for air.

When life gets like that, I always think it’s important to find time to unwind. So when our friends Cliff and Kathy asked if we’d like to go out for dinner tonight, I immediately said yes. Spending time with close friends with whom we can relax and completely be ourselves is remarkably therapeutic.

We went to Spanish Tapas in Glebe and shared the $40/head banquet menu, which included a selection of tapas and paella for four, accompanied by garlic bread and salad. It was tasty and great value…

Then the entertainment started! The owner’s wife runs a neighbouring flamenco school, and every night in December, they have a performance. The dancers were so good that I tried taking a couple of videos for you – please excuse the low light and shaky camera handling (I promise I only had one cocktail)…

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After dinner, we wandered across the road to Grand Gelato. They have the most unusual selection of flavours…

I think this one is only for the true bacon afficionado…

All the sorbets here are delicious, particularly the chocolate and lemon. All dairy-free too…

Cliff and Kathy loved the popcorn and caramel gelato, but it was too savoury for me…

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I’m flat out at the moment, so I’m not spending as much time online as I normally would. But it’s a very good busy – December is always a joyous time of year. I hope you’re all having a wonderful month as well! x

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I’m taking a short blog break, folks.

It’s school holidays and we’re busy with family and friends. I’ll be around, checking comments and updating the IMK listing, but there won’t be any new posts in the week or so.

Take care and have a great week! ♥

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