2010: A reflection of what I have learnt

The past year has proven to be a busy ride punctuated by fun times, learning experiences and many delicious moments. For example, I learnt from just last night that if you stay up late playing mahjong whilst drinking sake with friends that you will then wake up rather late and start wondering whether you’ll get a blog post done in time… Good friends, laughter and being entertained by such things as a black helicopter with “turbo boost”, however, are always definitely worth it.

Over the course of the year I have also learnt:

1. Personal cooking challenges are easily set but not so easily completed on time due to such constraints as starting a new job, planning a wedding and general mischievousness. A kind request for a recipe contribution can always be accommodated though.

2. A simple food such as an aubergine can provide much hilarity.
3. People preparing food need to pay more attention to food presentation, and perhaps those consuming it need to keep their thoughts entirely innocent. 

4. I do not shy away from invitations to sing in public – even when the audience is a crowd of food-bloggers whom I’ve largely not met and who are dressed up in not their usual attire.
5. Food-bloggers are exceptionally talented people who are capable of making you not only drool over their photography and food descriptions, but also their creations. Quite literally.

6. The dismembering of some animals can be an enjoyment to watch. 

7. There are lucky ones in this world who can pull off wearing short skirts. Repeatedly.
8. Celebrating your blog’s birthday, your husband’s, or your own are all valid excuses to indulge in a special meal. 

9. Breaking your own sugar (hits) consumption record is something to be proud of! 

10. Good friends will bring you quirky gifts from their travels. Even better when they are food or food-related.  

Hopefully you’ve been rewarded by your experiences this past year and have many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for lovely people who take time during their day to read my ramblings here and often leave kind words. I am also most thankful for good friends who act as my surrogate family and who come to my aid when I most need them. These are the people for whom I will continue to express my gratitude through food.

happy new year & (more) happy eating!

Christmas 2010

*knock knock knock* “Hello? Anybody home…?”

It’s been a month of non-activity around here but all that means is that other parts of life have been far from quiet. Just when I thought things were returning to some semblance of normality, someone made a last minute decision to head overseas which resulted in rushed arrangements. Then someone else fell ill – a trip to a hospital emergency department, urgent surgery and a one-week stay in hospital, a few days discharged home then back to the emergency department followed by a few days of in-hospital observation before, thankfully, being discharged again partway through Christmas Day. In between were many visits to the hospital, a cancelled weekend trip to Melbourne for a friend’s wedding, a cancelled family dinner for Winter Solstice and a pre-Christmas party with friends being rescheduled to a post-Christmas one. *exhale*

It’s been hectic. It’s been harrowing. It’s been exhausting for Monsieur Poisson and I, but it really rings true that good health plus family is a combination for happiness.

Christmas lunch in the Poisson/Délicieuse household was served at almost 4pm after we had collected someone from the hospital with the good news they were allowed to go home. Food was much the same as Christmas last year and seems to be the only time when I cook a rolled chicken roast! This year, however, was the exciting addition of it being served on a proper dining table instead of the small round table-for-two in the kitchen corner.

A party for friends planned for Christmas Eve was delayed until a couple of days after Christmas and was the first event staged on the new dining table. It was filled with retro prawn cocktails, roast chicken drumsticks – some with skin and some without (hello, Dr King…), roasted vegetables, salad and kransky-topped roast potato with garlic, onion and rosemary.

Sweets in the order of coffee macarons (made with this recipe but with instant coffee in place of cocoa powder, and Tia Maria in place of the Baileys), raspberry friands and gingerbread (recipe from Phuoc’n Delicious) decorated with white chocolate heralded the start of our blind Kris Kringle. It’s always a fun exercise to see what creativity comes of having to choose a purposeful, unisex and sometimes quirky/funky gift in keeping with the price limit and not knowing for whom you are buying. Monsieur Poisson scored this cute-as cherry-pitter from Mistress for which, of course, I ultimately benefit! I haven’t brought myself to take it out of its box yet, as the packaging is adorable in itself. And the red, felt, stencil table-runner on which it’s sitting? A most thoughtful gift from Mistress for our new dining table.

So that wraps up Christmas for another year but the decorations will dot the place for a little bit longer still.

a belated merry Christmas & happy eating!