Christmas Dinner Recipes

Merry Christmas everyone! Last night we had our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. This year for Christmas I decided to do everyone's favourite dishes and this year's guests were my family as well as cousins and uncles. Come and take a peek into our family Christmas!

The last few years have been whizzing by in a daze and this year was no exception and I don't think I'm the only one that is grateful for the Christmas break.

Along with a break, this Christmas also brought us a wonderful surprise- something we've been waiting for for a long time. Our dream to have our own dog has come true and we are now the proud owners of Mochi, a Maltese Shih Tzu. Officially registered and everything!

(Alas that doesn't include approval from the meddlesome strata committee but hey 2016 right?)

I have mentioned a couple of times about Mochi's life and now that she is ours I thought I might share it. For the first four years of her life Mochi was treated with extraordinary cruelty by people who lived in North Ryde who neglected and malnourished her - she still has health issues caused by this. One day around when she was four years of age and so malnourished that she could have been picked up with two fingers, there was a fierce Sydney thunderstorm. Builders working on a neighbouring property huddled for shelter and then looked down at the adjoining house below. They spotted a tiny white fluffy ball sheltering and shivering. When the storm abated they knocked on the door.

Snowflake Christmas ornament from Little Event Boutique

"Do you know that there's a dog there?" they asked. The owners said, "You can have it if you want, stupid dog". Not wanting to leave the tiny pup in such circumstances the group of builders huddled for a conference and called their partners and mothers. One woman worked as a shopping lady for a lady in the Eastern Suburbs and Mochi then lived there for the next four years. The lady has poor sight, little mobility and had a hoarding problem and wasn't able to properly care for her only giving her a walk once a week by hired help so while Mochi was no longer abused she didn't exactly flourish. She only visited the vet twice for cursory examinations. When the woman had to spend three months in hospital she needed someone to look after Mochi.

Enter Louise, the lady who lives upstairs from us. She rescues dogs and volunteered to look after her. Alas Louise's husband didn't want a permanent dog in their lives. And because fate trades in magic, one night Mr NQN was coming up the stairs and Louise was coming down the stairs holding Mochi to take her out for her nightly walk. Louise introduced Mochi to Mr NQN.

"You should see this dog, you'd love her!!" said Mr NQN excitedly as he returned to our apartment. And when Louise walked back up, we opened our door and peeked out and saw Mochi. She was shy, meek and downtrodden due to her previous households but we fell in love with her right away. She is older than we wanted at 8 years old but if you look at shelters they are full of loving and lovable older dogs.

We started looking after her, first just while Louise was at work and then overnight. Then after a couple of months Louise saw how attached we were to Mochi and asked if we would like to adopt her. There was no question, we wanted to give this little lovely the best life that she deserved all along.

Mochi (named after the small, white Japanese sweet) is the calmest, sweetest dog I have ever encountered. We take her on drives to the country so she can roll around on grass and on the rocks in Clovelly Beach which she adores. We have also discovered her favourite food is Peking Duck. We learned this when I bought one one day and this usually very polite and obedient little lady couldn't stop pestering us for some even licking our well washed fingers for any final traces of it. She loves it more than her favourite dog food treat-in fact it IS her favourite treat!

This is Mochi's first Christmas with us and hopefully the start of many more. She has some huge health issues that require a lot of tests, especially due to her age and neglect but she is ours and we're never going to let her go.

Christmas present wise this year we decided to go a bit low key this year. An unexpectedly astronomical vet bill meant that we had to channel our present fund into that. So I thought that the best idea would be something fun and inexpensive like framed photos. We made Mochi calendars for my family and I gave Mr NQN a photo collage with pictures that I had taken of her.

Then I remembered another picture that I had promised to have framed for Mr NQN. It was from a few years ago and long time readers may remember it. I affectionately refer to it as "b&^chface". It was from a media trip and everyone in the pic is smiling and I didn't realise the pic was being taken and I have a natural b&^chface (I can't help these things) so I am the only one ruining the picture. I actually love this photo and so does Mr NQN so I framed up b&^chface and gave it to Mr NQN. B&^chface rides again!

Anyway back to the food! As far as food was concerned, there was a lot of it and there would be 10 of us sitting down to dinner in our apartment. My uncle Sam and his partner Lian arrived 15 minutes early because that's their thing. Of course Mr NQN was in the shower and I was trying to exterminate a fly and chasing it while wearing heels. Not clever.

Then my cousin arrived-there was Roger, his partner Catherine and their two kids Natalie and Jason. Uncle Sam had given them my parents' address so they had been there just before. And then my mother arrived by herself. "Where's father and Blythe?" I asked. "Rice," my mother answered, You see my father had to go home and make rice to bring to dinner. Because my dad is scared of there not being rice!

"But I made rice," I said. And then he arrived with my sister Blythe and two big containers of rice because well, that's my dad. Then smiling he handed me a gift. We weren't exchanging presents until the next day so I was curious. He had painted a picture of Mochi!! And then finally my other cousin Richard arrived (also having been told that dinner was at my parents house) and then everyone sat down at the table straight away because Chinese families don't mess about. We're here for the food.

This was one of the most popular dish along with the dumplings. I also had a bit of a drama and an argument with the fish shop guy who insisted that a tuna loin was a tuna steak. It's not the same and Mr NQN joined the long queue at the fish shop this morning.

Our first course was Peking Duck pancakes which was a good sharing course! And the second course wasn't soup or pancakes but....

Dumplings! Holy heck, please make these! You know when you have a dinner and people don't do the passing thing so one dish sits unloved and neglected because it's in a "dead zone"? I was worried that nobody liked these but it wasn't until someone tried it and then they were all gobbled up. The trick is the browned butter crispy bottoms and the soft duck centre!

Seafood is a no brainer in Australia for Christmas and we all love those huge, fresh Pacific oysters. Instead of lemon I served these with balsamic pearls that I bought in Italy and they were sublime. I only wish I had more!

This is a dish that I will make time and time again because it is super easy. My uncle was convinced that these were Chinese noodles and I had to explain that it was angel hair pasta. I didn't want to start a "who invented pasta" conversation (we'd already discussed Trump) so I let that trail off...

I got this idea from the lovely Sarah just a couple of days ago. I thought that this would be a great side dish as it is so versatile. She used goats cheese and parsley, I used Persian feta and chives! It completely disappeared too.

I adore asparagus and this chopped egg topped asparagus is creamy and tangy. Plus it can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge.

Originally I wanted to stuff the Peking duck with this rice but I completely forgot about it! So I served it cooked as it was. Even with his two huge buckets of rice my father ate this instead. "Good, good", nodded my father in the only positive words I've ever heard him utter about food apart from "It's okay."

Then after I came back from clearing the dishes Catherine leaned over and said, "Funny but the second you left the table, the compliments about the rice came flowing." I laughed, that is the Chinese way, or at least the way of my family. "That was no mistake, it's his way of saying he enjoyed it," I answered.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my little corner of the world. Some of you Dear Readers have been reading for many years while some are new to the blog and it means so much to me that you choose to spend your time here with me! :)

I dearly hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and even if you don't celebrate Christmas, similarly I hope that it's a relaxing, wonderful time!

And tell me Dear Reader, what are you having for Christmas dinner? I want to hear the whole menu!! :D

Lots of love,

Lorraine (aka b&^chface haha!)

xxx