TURKEY!!!

why?

It's Christmas!!! And I had a party for my dear YWAM classmates as they would be spending Christmas out in the mission field. What's a Christmas party without the gigantic bird?

failure?

I was utterly mad to buy a bird that is 6kg and expect to prepare it and finish roasting the turkey within 6 hours! I started preparing the turkey at 2pm but the turkey was only ready for the oven at 3pm. I weighed the turkey after the stuffing and it came up to a whopping 11kg!! I was stunned and after calculations, the turkey would need 7 hours of roasting. Of course I was worried that the turkey wouldn't be ready when everyone got here. Thankfully, the turkey was sort of done when we were ready to eat. I say 'sort of' because nearing the bone areas were still raw. But, the turkey was so huge that for the 15 of us, the 2 legs, wings and a quarter of the breast filled us up. We didn't even get to the 'raw' parts of the bird. It was only after everyone left, LR and myself started to shred the meat and pack the bones that we came upon the raw bits. So into the oven for just another hour to be packed and ready for left-over recipes to come.

success?

I had a lot of fun preparing the turkey with the help of my classmates. What I particularly liked about this Jamie Oliver's recipe was that the stuffing instead of going into the cavity, was distributed under the skin of the bird. Really an unusal touch that produced a surprisingly juicy and well flavoured turkey meat. Slicing the breast meat brought immense satisfaction as well as the meat with the outer layer of stuffing mimics that of really pretty terrine that I only see at expensive restaurants! The stuffing was a mixture of dried apricots, minced meat and celery with herbs and seasoning. Super yummy, I would definitely roast my own turkey next year with this recipe but with a much smaller turkey.

Cordon Bleu

Carrot Cake

why?

I wanted to make something to bless my classmates at YWAM(Youth With a Mission) and of course an excuse to bake. Why not? Haha

failure?

I should try to make my cakes thicker like those sold in the shops. Purely asethetic :)

success?

Wow, even I was surprised at how moist and yummy this cake came out! I should have baked more. I baked 2, stored 1 in the freezer, took it out a week later, thaw and heated it in the microwave for 2 minutes, and amazingly, it was still 'juicy'. This one is a keeper, so here is the recipe that I tweaked a little from allrecipes.com.

recipe...

Ingredients

4 eggs

177ml vegetable oil

118 apple sauce

200g white sugar

200g brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp ground cinnamon

330g grated carrots

120g chopped pecans

1 can of crushed pineapples (drain out the liquid and use a food processor to blend briefly)

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Grease flour and pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white and brown sugar and 2 tsp of vanilla.

3. Mix in flour, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon.

4. Stir in carrots and pineapples.

5. Fold in pecans and pour in the pan.

6. Bake for 40-50min. Cool in a pan for 10min and then unto a rack to cool completely.

Frosting

1. Beat -

115g of butter, 225g of cream cheese, 300g icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Packed and ready to bless!

Silent Night

Santa and trees

Silverbells

Gingerbread Galore!

Mommy

" Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severly, if anything but death seperates you and me"
Ruth 1:16-17

The book of Ruth is close to my heart, because everytime I read it, I am struck by how the relationship between Ruth and Naomi is so similar to mine and my mom's. My mom's life was never easy like Naomi, through it all, as mother and daughter, we clung on to each other. It was not just each other that we clung on to, we clung on to God together to find much joy through the sufferings.

On the 8th of November 2007, we were seperated. On that day, God decided that it's about time that I continue my journey on earth without clinging on to my mom. It was, is and will be tough to manage, but I place my hope in the God that I cling on to and I know He never leaves nor forsake me.