MAT's birthday barbeque

Da's niece, MAT will be twelve years of age on 26 August 2009. As her birthday falls on a weekday, her parents decided to celebrate her birthday today with a barbeque.

I was "home alone" this morning as Da had to work. We had arranged for a plumber to come to our home to clear the clog in our toilet sink and the shower stall drain. While waiting for the plumber, I had a quick breakfast of cereal with mixed berries yoghurt.

A few days ago, FIL had given Da and me four small bananas. As the bananas had become overripe, I used them to bake some banana berries muffins.

I also baked a cupcake version of the muffins using the same recipe but varying the baking time.

My last attempt at baking tuna puffs did not go very well because my family and I did not really like the pastry. I used a different recipe today and the puffs turned out fine. Phew! My mother had given Da and me some tuna mayonnaise last night and I used this as the filling for the baked tuna puffs.

Feeling adventurous, I also baked some otah puffs using the famous Muar otah.

I had some cake flour left and I debated what to do with the cake flour. The quantity was not sufficient to bake a cake. In the end, I mixed the cake flour with some plain wheat flour and I baked walnut biscotti.

Today is a day of "puffs"! Since I was in a "puffy" mood, I proceeded to bake some peanut butter puffs. I have also posted the photograph below in my facebook.

When SC came to our home on 8 August 2009 for a baking session, she helped Da to sort out the items in a hamper that I had been given during Chinese New Year this year. One of the items was a small packet of unsalted macadamia nuts. Whenever Da and I visit Perth, Australia, we would patronise a souvenir cum snack shop located at "E" Shed in Fremantle Market and place a special order of unsalted macadamia nuts. This item is not sold at their shop but they will, at our request, make special arrangements with the supplier of nougat to pack for us 1 kg packets of unsalted macadamia nuts. Seeing the small packet of macadamia nuts today brought back fond memories. I think a visit to Perth is long overdue (hint! hint!).

Anyway, I roughly chopped up the macadamia nuts and used them to bake macadamia nut brownies.

Da and I have arranged with WC and SC to meet up with them at GIC's home in the late afternoon. As such, I baked a loaf of tomato sausage bread so that I could give some to GIC. GIC (SC's mother) is my godmother-in-Christ.

GIC lives in Tampines. When Da and I arrived at her apartment block, we had difficulty locating her apartment unit. There are several lift shafts in her apartment block and some lifts are only accessible to some of the units. As such, we went up and down two different lift shafts before sheepishly contacting SC to ask for directions to her mother's home. As it turned out, it was another lift that we had to use.

I had packed some homemade goodies for GIC.

GIC had invited us to her home today. She had double-boiled some birds' nest soup for us.

This is the double-boiler that GIC had used. It looks very "retro", doesn't it?

GIC had also cooked some fried rice. When I commented to her that the Chinese sausages were sweetish, she explained that the waxy layer of the Chinese sausages should be removed before slicing the Chinese sausages and frying them with the rice.

WC had just come back from a working trip to the United States of America ("USA"). He gave us a long kitchen mitten that he had bought from USA. It is very thick and is perfect to be used to remove trays from a hot oven. I have several scars on my arm from burns that I suffered when removing trays from our hot oven and as such, the long kitchen mitten that WC gave us is certainly godsend. A thought just occurred to me - due to the design of the mittens, when not using the mittens to remove trays from the oven, I can probably use the mittens as a hand puppet! *grin*

WC and SC had also been invited to MAT's birthday barbeque. As such, the four of us left GIC's home around 6 pm and proceeded to the development where FIL and MIL live. MAT's parents (TYK and GN) had booked a barbeque pit there for the party.

There were three chefs for the barbeque today - TYK, GN and TYK's ex-colleague.

Here is the birthday girl, MAT. Hmm... what are she, WC and DA looking at?

Another mutual friend, JK and his family (FK, FKQ and GKW) were also invited to the barbeque party. We had not seen them for some time. Goodness me... GKW is now taller than his mother (FK)! How time flies.

Drinks were aplenty at the party, including beer. GKW requested for green tea but it was not available. He had to settle for little sips of the Tiger beer which Da and I brought to the party.

GN had tossed a large bowl of salad. The slices of pineapple were sweet and I could not resist eating more than one slice. I normally do not eat pineapple because more often than not, the pineapple is sour (yucks!) but when I do come across sweet pineapple, I am more than happy to eat it. Several years ago, I had a colleague (who has since left our company) who ate a slice of pineapple every day, even when she was pregnant. If you are wondering what is wrong with eating a slice of pineapple everyday, it is because the Chinese belief is that eating pineapple during pregnancy puts the mother at risk of a miscarriage. I guess she proved the old wives' tale wrong.

MAT's sister (SCT) wrapped some cauliflower in aluminium foil and TYK barbequed it. Hi girl, did you add cheese or cream to the cauliflower? It was savoury and hence, I believe that you may have added something to the cauliflower. Do share your recipe!

Have you ever tried a purple-coloured sweet potato? This is the first time that I have tried it and I must say that the taste is rather unusual.

No barbeque would be complete without the usual staples such as chicken wings, sausages, beef steak, satay, etc. All were barbequed to perfection by the Head Chef, TYK.

I am not fond of squid (although I must confess a weakness for the fried squid legs sold at the dim sum restaurant in Chinatown in Perth, Australia) but I gamely tried a slice of the barbequed squid rings and found it tasty.

GN also cooked a large portion of fried rice.

After such a sumptuous meal, the first thing I did upon reaching home was to boil some hot water and brew some Chinese tea.

As I sat at our computer table to blog, I heard some movement in our kitchen. It was Da, scooping some homemade peanut butter ice cream in a glass. How could I resist? I added a slice each of the macadamia nut brownie and walnut biscotti to the ice cream. What a sweet way to end a wonderful day!

Shaloam,