Family party

This weekend we hosted an early Christmas get together for Bert's side of the family. His oldest brother and his family were going to Maui for Christmas, so we had to move up our normal gathering a week early. I offered to host because #1) I am a control freak and #2) I enjoy hosting, baking, and cooking for family and friends and #3) I didn't want to have to drive anywhere! Yeah, pretty selfish of me, but hey, I really do enjoy hosting these events. See that pretty flower centerpiece? THANK YOU to Bert's office party! Free!

I ripped off this salad idea from California Pizza Kitchen. A few weeks ago, Bert,TC and I were at CPK at the Otay Ranch mall for a YMCA fundraiser and we ordered this salad. I thought it was easy to pull off. One bag of pre-washed spring mix, a handful or two of sliced red seedless grapes, slices of green apple, candied walnuts (I made those too) and on the side (for my sake), crumbled blue cheese bits and balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. I don't know about you, but the blue cheese is absolutely vile...It smells like stank feet. Ugh! I am not a fan of any type of smelly cheese. Isn't cheese just the by products of controlled milk spoilage? To think that you're eating mold too just grosses me out. Well, the bits were out there for those who wanted it! By the way, the salad dressing for original Waldorf salad is supposed to be mayo based but CPK gives you two choices - a creamy dressing and/or a vinagrette.

I made the candied walnuts from a recipe on the internet. It didn't turn out as good as I thought it would be. For some reason, it wasn't as sweet, so I added more sugar on the nuts (okay, insert dirty joke here) after I took them out of the oven. We used our fine china from our wedding. Yeah, the china that we bought ourselves because no one (save one person) bought us any place settings. Cheap Filipinos. Ha ha. I ended up returning the lone place setting and buying in bulk (service for 12) at the Mikasa outlet (way cheaper that way). The pattern is Mikasa Wedding Band Platinum.That whole week, Bert and I worked on cleaning our house and making it presentable. We finally hung up some pictures frames that had been lying there for months. We also replaced some of the photos with more updated shots of TC. The day before Bert recycled our cans, bottles and glasses and got $50 out of it. It also helps that he gets rid of the recyling stuff at his work too. So, with the $50 (it wasn't cash but rather a Ralph's voucher), he got the supplies on our list.

I wanted the meal to be super easy so that it could be made either the morning of, or the night before. I didn't want all of the dishes made in the oven either. In the case of these two side dishes, one was just frozen peans and corn (I added butter after it was warmed up in the good ole microwaves), and the other side was sauteed mushrooms (white button and crimini) with shallots and carrots with a reduction of balsamic vinegar. You could see the Saran wrap still! I woke up at 5 am to assemble the pot roast. Yeah, you heard that, 5 fkn am. The lunch was scheduled to be at 1 pm so I had to time it right. The meat was a 2 lb roast from Matilda, the butchered half cow that Lotus and Thor picked up in Monterey. This part was easy, just dump in the meat with the carrots, and celery that I cut earlier that day. Bert peeled and chunked the potato for me, as well as halved and sliced an onion. I added a packet of Lipton French onion soup mix, a little bit of water and put the lid on the crock pot and went back to sleep. I had it on High for 4 hours, then turned it back to Low after we got back from church that morning. Damn, this turned out pretty good.

The salmon was the only dish I baked in the oven. Actually, I baked the salmon in my Corningware first, then transferred it onto my nice china platter. You can't really tell but the transfer wasn't seamless, so I covered the breaks with the oranges.It's fillet of salmon with sesame soy ginger marinade topped with Cara Cara Navel orange slices and scallions. These are a variety of orange with a slightly reddish orange flesh, but not as deep as a blood orange.
Not shown (because I forgot to take a photo) is my Gambas al Ajillo (or Shrimp Pil Pil). For a photo and the recipe, click here

My sister in law (oldest bro in law's wife) brought two types of marzipan filled stollen - one with cranberries and nuts and the other with just marzipan and nuts. She bought this at Trader Joe's and it's a German brand, Kuchenmeister. I liked the marzipan filling and the sugar coated topping.She also made a German bundt cake (she has a German friend who taught her this recipe) with a chocolate biscuit cookie filling (she used Ritter cookie bars). There's a piece that I just patched on because the cake didn't come out of the bundt mold cleaning. No matter! It tasted fine nevertheless!This cake would be great with coffee! You could also sprinkle powdered sugar on this, but I was out.

My Lemon Cheesecake Bars . I'll be making more batches of this for my co-workers and the folks at the main office. Notice, I kept the corners for myself.

The dessert tray: the top tier has my lemon cheesecake bars while the middle tray has Uraro cookies which are one of my favorite Filipino sweets. I remember my parents used to make this; my mom had a special molds that had flower designs. Another one of my aunts had one with one of the saints on it. The bottom row contain brightly wrapped polvoron, another one of my favorite Filipino sweets. It's made out of milk powder, butter and flour. These are ube flavor and the brand isn't Goldilocks. I really like these because they are powdery but they can really dry out your mouth if they're not made right. You can order a polvoron from Goldilocks here . Last year one of my relatives sent us a few boxes of this. I also had "cookies and cream" flavor which you can't buy here in the U.S. Mmmm....okay! Here's a link on how to make polvoron . Seems easy, but I'd need the polvoron molds to do this.

I have another triple tiered display with more treats. The top has a variety of sweet puffed rice snacks from Japan, the middle has those Japanese cookies shaped like mushrooms and pinecones dipped in chocolate, and the borrom plate has Andes peppermints, Lindt dark chocolate truffles and chocolate bells. Yes, candy galore...more for display purposes. Gotta love the Japanese packaging.

Not pictured was my Watergate Salad which I call my "50's Housewife Salad" since it's so old school and "white trashy" since it has a powdered pudding mix, a canned ingredient, and the old processed standby, Cool Whip! Ha ha. I got the recipe from a former co worker and have made it every holiday since. It's so easy to make (here's the recipe) and it does taste good!

I was happy that the gathering went well and our planning paid off. It was effortless for the most part. It was nice to connect with my brothers and sisters in law and TC had a blast playing with her three cousins. It was cute because they were playing "Explorers" and "Detective" and wearing mismatched bits and pieces of TC's costume odds and ends. Next weekend, a tapas party with my educators lunch/dinner group. Gotta plan that small bites menu!