One of our contributions to this years Christmas lunch at Aunty R and Uncle J's is Almond Cake. Round about 1st quarter of this year I have shared the recipe for Flourless Almond Cake. To dress up the cake I covered it with chocolate ganache icing and decorated it with chocolate dipped cherries and chocolate leaves. I tried to using white chocolate for the cherries and leaves but unfortunately I had burned the mixture. Since I made the cake a day before, I didn't get the chance to buy another lot of white chocolate. H told me it still looked fantastic. Tasted great too. When I get the chance I will attempt to make white chocolate version. Good thing about making icing from scratch, there will always be leftovers for me to gorge on.

 

 

My apologies for not being able to update my blog. I've uploaded photos taken on Christmas Day at home and at the Sagner's residence. Inspite of the muggy weather the whole day went well. We all ate up a storm!

 

I hope that your Christmas has been great too.

 

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy Healthy New Year.

The seafood gods were probably happy to see me when I went to Sydney Seafood Markets with P and J. We stuffed ourselves silly! All those seafood just made my mouth water. Especially the mudcrabs, I had visions of how to cook them if I had bought them brought them back to Brissie. There was one crab that would have probably be bigger than my plate at home. I assume that alone would be more than a kilo, and they are quite dear as well.

I flew to Sydney to so I can attend my interview with the US Consulate for my visa. You might think that having lived in Australia for almost 5 yrs, I would automatically acquire Australian citizenship. But because we applied for a fiance visa, it took me longer to get my permanent resident visa. And even when I got apporved for it I have to wait for 2 yrs before I can apply for citizenship. I told H, as soon as I hit my second anniversary, lodgement will be done as fast as I can get my documents together. I was advised by my girlfriend to apply a month prior to my anniversary, apparently it takes a while before you get naturalised. Yesterday's news said something about the government planning to set up a citizenship test. What it is and if it pushes through, I do not know. But hopefully it won't be difficult. I've done my hard yards and I need to be rewarded. Ok, it will be a privilage to became an Australian Citizen.  Australia has a fast growing economy and the government looks after it's citizen. Hmmm ok, that last statement is dependent on who you ask about how the country is run at the moment.

Aside from the being spoilt rotten by H, we have a car at Brissie. I had to take public transport at Sydney. All the walking and commuting last friday would last me at least a few months. But, it is one sure way of tiring yourself out and getting to bed early. What I didn't realise was P's house was farther from Parramatta. She said that on a normal day it takes them 1 hr to drive into the city. But somehow the traffic was terrible and we were stuck for 1 hr and 1/2. Next thing you know I had to hop on the train again on the way to Rockdale. I was lucky to be accomodated by Aunty H, and yes, I was fed well. I tried to pick her brain on leb recipes, I keep forgetting them. Maybe I should have written it down. All I can remember is the cabbage salad. Which I will try to make this week. There's nothing like not having to cook dinner and breakky for yourself! Saturday morning P was gracious enough to drive me and aunty around town so I can get some baqlawa and krispy kreme. Having not tried krispy kreme before I was just purely curious on what makes it the best around. When I got my hands on them, I finally understood why it can be addictive (I bought a box home by the way). The baqlawa was a hit at my son's christmas party. Will posts on that soon.

Despite bad bit that had happened to me at Sydney, it hasn't deterred me from going back again, see more sights and hopefully stay a wee bit longer. I did almost get a panic attack when I got off the train station on James Street. MASSIVE is all I can say about the CBD compared to where I live.

PS
I was harrassed by my cab driver, but because I was too bugggered, I could not be bothered switching cabs. I just wanted to get to destination B and be done with it.

PPS
My passport was sent back to me last monday, stamped with the visa. it's all systems go to NY 2007!

Kudos to N and D for throwing such lovely dress up party at their humble abode. That was my first dress up party, hopefully there would me more to come. H and I got drunk, as what you woud expect! The games was spot on. A lot of work has been put into making it all go ahead as planned. The food was good, especially the birthday cake. The drinks just kept on coming, oh boy!
Can you guess what our characters are? The theme was to be either N or D character.