Dinner of Champions
I started yesterday morning with making the dessert and the starter. Like last year, I planned a cheesecake, but unlike last year, I went for slightly smaller portions and more decorative. So I baked it in a cake tin so I could press out shapes.
The starter was a combination of two tiny cream-cheese and ham pastries and two pieces of deviled egg. The pastry cups were store bought so I stuffed them with herbal cream cheese and topped it with prosciutto. I then boiled the eggs and made a mustardy filling.
By the time noon came around, the cheesecake was cooling, the pastries and eggs were in the fridge waiting for the evening, and all the vegetables (carrot, potato, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) for the main courses were sliced, diced, shredded and what not.
This left me enough time to have a cuppa tea and relax 😀
Later in the afternoon I finished the dessert by using a ring mold to cut out four circles and decorated it with blackberries on top and sliced strawberry around it.
After that, it was time for actual cooking. I started with a traditional oven roasted chicken and veggies. After quickly browning the chicken in a pan I put the sliced and diced carrots and potatoes in an oven dish, mixed with herbs and spices, spread the chicken on top and shoved it in the oven to forget about it until the rest was done.
Then I put the cut broccoli and cauliflower in another oven dish and made a cheese sauce. When that was done, I poured it over the veggies, and added this dish to the oven, also.
For the third dish, I stir fried shredded Brussels sprouts and cabbage with bacon bits and curry powder.
And finally, I made chicken saltimbocca: chicken covered with prosciutto, spinach and parmesan and then rolled up. First it gets cooked on all sides so it stays together better, and then the pan is filled with a chicken broth and it is boiled in that for a while.
While these were finishing up, I got the rest out of the oven/off the stove and on the table and starter plated up. Time to eat!
The food was well received, even Dad, who normally doesn’t really say anything about it but just eats, came out and said he liked it. Even the dessert, which I think he skipped last year, went in smoothly. I call that a win 🙂
Tonight it’s Nienke’s turn to do dinner. The plan is roast beef with broccoli and cream sauce and roasted potato. Sounds delicious!
When I got my iPhone last October, my old phone became my Mom’s new phone. However, I think I’ve dropped it a little too much over the two years I had it, since over the last week  the screen started shorting out. Mom figured this would be a nice time to get a new phone, so when I suggested we head to the phone shop together, she wanted to go the next day 😀
Then we hit the main shopping street, bought some clothes (shirt, t-shirt, hat), shoes, had lunch at Hema and then made our way back up towards the market.
After sorting, it was too late to fold everything, so I stuffed it all back in the closet just so my bed would be free and I could sleep. Nienke had sorted through her clothes a few weeks ago, but not yet put her stuff back either, so Sunday evening, after procrastinating all day we decided to fire up Skype, and both go about folding and putting our clothes back. Â It was much fun, although the whole process took hours. Photo was about mid-sorting I think.
Monday I had a day off. I messed around in the house, did dishes and such. Made a cake, made a painting and painted the paper maché leaf I bought on Saturday.