Party food!

I attended my first Happy 40th Birthday party of the year. My friends and I are all turning forty this year. It was hosted by my friend Jenny for her BFF Jerry at her house. The spread was incredible. It was buffet style and there was a bit of everything. I can't even begin to list all the food. The plate above was my first helping with fried instant noodles, sweet and sour pork, homemade spring rolls, chicken wings, shrimp, and spicy pork chop. YUM!


The birthday cupcakes...40 cupcakes with 40 candles...took forever to light and almost set off the fire alarm. They were delicious. Chocolate cake with a shortbread cookie.

This platter above is un-named...I have no idea what it is....kind of custardy...jello-y...slightly sweet with cookie crumbs for dipping. It was interesting but I like something a bit more decadent.

This was my contribution. Triple chocolate Ghiradelli brownies. It's made from a mix that I buy from Costco. Everyone always raves about these brownies. I love them 'cause it literally takes 3 minutes to mix and then 45 min. in the oven and you have pure heaven on a platter!

Chicken Fried Rice

I think the theme this week with the foodie blogs is fried rice. I've seen at least three different blogs with three different kinds of fried rice. I've made it myself twice this week. Fried rice is so versatile...any kind of leftover meat...some fried egg...salt...and some soya sauce and you've got a delicious and quick meal. I usually scramble a couple of eggs with a pinch of salt, cut up the leftover meat in small slivers and quickly fry it quickly to heat. Set it aside. Fry the rice until heated thoroughly and add soya sauce and salt to taste. Done.

Here are two other blogs that have fried rice this week...

Spoon it on - Shrimp Fried Rice

Mochachocolata-Rita - Spicy Green Chilli Fried Rice

Meatballs at Ikea

My kids love the meatball dinner at Ikea. I love that they eat it without any complaints! I took my daughter there for a playdate this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised that the meatball dinner was only $2.99. What a deal! We ate 'til we were full and it only cost me $5.65. The deal is on for the whole month of March so I guess we'll be eating there at least once a week. Hehehe...

My friend and I like meeting up at Ikea because we can have a relaxing lunch, then throw the kids into the childminding, walk around in peace and then grab ice-cream and coffee before leaving. Btw, snackbar has pretty good deals too...coffee and cinnamon bun $1.00, two hotdogs and drink $2 or a hotdog for $0.50. In these recessionary times how can you go wrong!

Greek Salad and Zucchini loaf

Had a delicous healthy lunch for a change. I bought the Greek Salad from the Superstore this morning. It was marked down for a quick sale and since I was going to eat it for lunch I decided to give it a try. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it and it was delicious. It was 50% off the marked price so it was only $1.90 and saved me all the work of chopping the onions, cucumbers, and red peppers...and I didn't have to buy a whole container of feta cheese and olives which would have gone bad since I don't usually use feta and don't really like olives. I think this is a great way to get my veggies and save myself the work.

Chinese Bakery

One of my favourite no fuss lunch for the kids is buns from the Chinese bakery. I love going there and smelling the freshly baked breads and buns. My favourite is actually the egg tart...a sweet egg custard in a flaky pastry. There are so many different kinds of buns to choose from...curry beef, bbq pork, hot dog, spam and egg, ham and egg, tuna, and even plain. My kids love the hotdog buns. I'm partial to the curry beef or tuna.

Today I saw these pastries all wrapped up and looking so pretty. I'm not sure what they are called but I'm guessing they are "wedding" pastries. They usually have lotus paste, red bean or wintermelon. It's a bit too rich for my tastes.

Vietnamese Grilled Chicken

I asked my cousin for her recipe for Vietnamese Chicken. The recipe is quite simple and the results are amazing. The chicken is tender and very flavourful. I think it's the lemongrass that gives it that little bit extra. I think my cousin's was better...maybe because I only marinated it for half an hour before pan frying. I will be adding the recipe to http://www.screaminmama.com/ soon.

The kids loved it and couldn't stop telling me how yummy the meat was. I think it would have been even tastier grilled and can't wait for warmer weather to try.

Potluck with the cousins

It was potluck lunch with the cousins today. There was a wonderful turn out with 8 women and their children getting together for great food and company. Menu today started off with cheese and liver pate with crackers and then we moved onto the main course of Vietnamese chicken, broiled garlic shrimp, coleslaw, sugar snap peas served with long grain white rice.

Surprisingly we still had room for all the delicious desserts. We had the good...healthy fruit... along with the bad...sweet, decadent cake and cookies. Most of the food was homemade. I love these opportunities to try new recipes and to test the other girls' cooking skills. I have to admit that my cousins are much better cooks than I.

Needless to say I will not be eating much dinner tonight.