Christmas in New York (2014)

If you asked me a year ago what I would be doing this Christmas I would have most likely said "stay at home in Sydney and catch up with family and friends over lots of feasting".

But that didn't happen. Instead I am in the city of New York spending Christmas with my travel mate JN. A few weeks ago, back in Sydney, we were trying to work out where we would be having our Christmas lunch and JN discovered Tocqueville through the US Time Out website.

So here we are sitting down for lunch over a 3 course fixed price menu of USD95, not including drinks.

For drinks we had the Pear Bellini and JN also had the Eggnog Cocktail though it didn't go down well with her taste wise.

Before we were served with our dishes, we were presented with an amuse-bouche. They were Caponata cakes and utterly delicious. After some googling, I worked out what we had. They were made of eggplant, olives and onions seasoned with herbs.

We started with entrees (or Appetisers as the Yankees call it).

Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup with black truffle royale. When they served the dish, there was a small circle of food sitting in a large soup bowl with no soup in it. JN looked horrified and was suddenly thinking "is this all I am getting?". Within ten seconds, someone came around to slowly pour the soup into the bowl in a slightly theatrical manner. You should have seen the look of relief on JN's face! I was laughing my head off. I wish I was quick enough to take a picture of her face!

Verdict: Super smooth, creamy and thick soup. The black truffle royale was superb!

House Cured Terrine of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, greenmarket quince and toasted brioche. The terrine was so smooth and packed full of flavour. It was deliciously creamy.

For mains (or Entrees as the Yankees call it), I had the Moroccan Spiced Braised Lamb Shank, with crushed potatoes, olives and fine herbs. The lamb was literally falling off the bone as I cut into it. I enjoyed the rich, earthy flavours from the Moroccan seasoning. The serving was quite large and I did struggle to finish off the plate. But I found it to be quite delicious.

Christmas Day 2013

I wasn't intending to blog about this year's Christmas but upon reflection I thought to myself 'why not?'. After all, my blog is in a way my diary and this year Christmas was so relaxing I had to share it.

For the past 7 to 8 years, I have been spending Christmas with EF and her family. It has become a tradition and one I am happy to have continue. This year EF's cousin PL and his wife LL were hosting so we all adjourned to their home.

Most of us had not seen each other for a year so it was just nice to chat, hang out and enjoy each other's company. It started to rain from about noon and continued right throughout the day.

Our lunch was held outdoors, just at the patio of their home. We managed to stay dry but sitting there enjoying lunch and watching the rain was quite peaceful actually. I could have sat out there for hours watching the rain and feeling the cool breeze. It was a nice change from the past few days of stifling heat.

Place cards lovingly made by NL (PL's daughter)

We started with a platter of cheese, this time I brought the Cambozola, Tete de Moine, and Reblochon. All were popular with the group but the star was the Reblochon. It was absolutely oozing with cheesy goodness! I didn't take a close up of the cheese but I am putting up a selfie taken by LL. Not something I would normally do as I dislike seeing photos of myself but it is Christmas, so once again why not!

We had more than enough food to keep us going for 3 meals. There was the traditional ham, turkey roll, bread, Pearl couscous salad, Caesar salad, garden salad and vermicelli salad.

Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic 2013

This time last year my friend CW was telling me about the Christmas picnic she got invited to. It was by invitation only for Sydney food bloggers. She had decided not to attend as she had other commitments but I immediately felt very left out. I thought to myself 'why wasn't I invited? Am I not considered a food blogger? Is my blog so insignificant?' After all, at that point in time, my blog was a year and a half old. Big mental sigh at that point in time! But I got over it as I knew it would take a while for any blog to have any form of attention.

I really don't know what makes a blog more popular than another. I suppose there has to be a point of difference for readers to visit regularly. But over time, my blog has started to pick up more readers and it literally has a life of it's own these days. All I do is contribute to it. :)

Okay, enough postulating I think! So this year when I got contacted by chocolatesuze through twitter as she could not find any way to email me (information not on my blog) I was very thrilled! Suddenly I felt included and part of a community of people I had yet to meet!

The designated day started by being cloudy then sunny then stormy and windy. Seriously, one minute I thought yay the picnic is on and another minute I thought it cannot be on when the rain was bucketing down Parra way with thunder and lightning to boot!!

Twitter was my main mode of comm that morning. There were tweets between jeroxie, the adventures of miss piggy, myself and grab your fork. Finally Helen of grab your fork tweeted the picnic was on irregardless!!

Traffic was heavy driving into the city but I eventually got to Centennial Park and was only 20 minutes late. Not bad for all that happened that morning!

The organising committee of Helen and Suze bought tents so the food could be protected. They even bought larger tents for us adults in case the rain returned. How sweet and thoughtful of them. I cannot believe their commitment and can only thank them for being who they are.

The weather turned out beautifully, there was sun shining down on us and a slight breeze throughout the afternoon. There was so much food brought by everyone who attended. I could not possibly eat everything so I picked a few and was very happy with my selection.

I couldn't get my hands on ramen raff's macarons! Darn it! Missed out on love swah's cupcakes which looked so pretty! And I saw a picture in Instagram of a dessert served that day which I didn't even see in person! Darn, darn, darn! :)

Christmas Day 2012

This will be my last post for this year and I thought to myself, why not end on a good note?!? Let's talk about the lovely day I had on Christmas.

I had lunch at E and N's place this year, and N's side of the family joined us for the celebrations. It was a strange weather day. Normally Christmas is warm, sunny and hot. This year it was cold, grey and wet. How bizarre! It wasn't a day to be out in the backyard pool or horse around playing cricket.

But we still had a lovely lunch filled with a few salads, glazed ham, chicken rolls stuffed with apricots and herbs, roast potatoes, home grown cherry tomatoes. Of the salads, there were 2 new types that I had not seen or tried before. There was the mango, avocado, rocket leaves salad served with caramelised balsamic vinegar. And there was a kale salad which was finely chopped and served with a balsamic vinegar dressing, shaved almonds and grated cheese. Both were delicious.

Early Christmas Lunch 2012

This year, EF's side of her family is hosting the lunch. As it is the year that the lunch is to be on a non Christmas Day, it was decided that the lunch would be held in early mid December.

We all congregated at L and P's lovely home. A long, long table was already prepared at the patio. I have been to their home before, it was 2 years ago but that time it was on Christmas Day itself.

We started with a cheese platter which comprised of a French brie (Fromager D'Affinois), a New Zealand mature cheddar and Cambozola. The cheese went down quite well, good sign!

Then we eventually adjourned to sit down for the spread. There were salads, beautifully cooked ham, sausages on the barbie (very Aussie indeed!), and bread rolls. There were also lots of conversation going on with the annual catch up with other family members.

Christmas Day 2011

My Christmas Day was spent hanging out with my dear friends (part of my family) and their extended family. This year it was EF's turn to host her extended family. All in all, there were 17 of us, 6 of them were children under the age of 15.

The weather turned out to be warm, mostly sunny and absolutely perfect for Christmas. After our long and leisurely lunch, some of the younger kids jumped into the pool to cool down.

It was a lovely afternoon of fellowship, food and laughter. The nibbles included bread served with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dukkah. In addition there was chips and dips. But the highlight of the nibbles were the various cheese served on a cheese board. I think I outdid myself with the cheese selection because everyone loved the cheese. They were very popular.

The lunch spread included led of ham, roast pork with crackling, turkey roll, 2 kinds of salads and beans. The sweets consisted of Christmas pudding, pavlova, mango pudding, the gingerbread house, baklava and pecan pie.

The following photos are a reflection of some  but not all the dishes we were served with.

Delicious leg ham

Turkey roll - moist and delicious

Roast pork (from the BBQ)

J's special salad of feta, pumpkin, pine nuts, olives and rocket

Pavlova with lots of fruits and what a lovely colour!

N's Pecan Pie - it was a hit!

The kids were so looking forward to breaking down the gingerbread house (see Gingerbread House 2011) and by the end of the day, 2 walls were eaten plus the roof and almost all the lollies. Great job kids!

The dishes were courtesy of various people in the group, so credit goes to all contributors.

We were all so full by the end of the afternoon but what a lovely and relaxing time we all had.

Thank you EF for hosting a lovely Christmas lunch!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad