Holiday Meals 2012

Before January comes to an end, here’s a look back at some of the memorable meals we’ve enjoyed over the holidays.

In November, we had a Thanksgiving Dinner with a group of friends.  Food was by M Catering, and everything was delicious!  We had two turkeys, one by Chef Ed Quimson, and another from The Oakroom.

Early in December, Jacob and I went to my nephew Tyler’s first birthday party, which turned out to be the best kiddie party I have EVER been to.  Super fun!  More on this later.

To celebrate Jacob’s 4th birthday, we prepared dinner with my family, then lunch with John’s.  For dinner, John grilled steaks, and I made Iberian Chicken ala Cheat (S&R rotisserie chickens baked with baby potatoes + garlic gloves + rosemary + EVOO).  For lunch the next day, we simply ordered platters from Conti’s.

On Christmas Eve, our family had a Japanese-themed dinner catered by Classic Chef.

After dinner, we went to Church, dropped by my dad’s side of the family, then tucked our sleepy little birthday boy into bed.  At midnight, we had yummy Noche Buena snacks.  And then on Christmas Day, we opened all our presents, then took our maids for a day at the mall, where they wanted to catch a movie at the Metro Manila Filmfest.  Happy birthday Jesus!

On December 31st, I was up bright and early for breakfast with my cousins Yen and Beth, my sister Audrey, and brother-in-law Richard.

Chicken Pastel from Magic Kitchen.  My favorite!

We also had Auntie Irene’s famous tapa and “Farmer’s Breakfast” eggs that she copied from Denny’s.  Noms!

A couple of hours later, we were in Nanbantei High Street for lunch with John’s family + Cake Club for dessert.  I’ll be turning a year older in a few hours so of course we ate at my favorite places!  For New Year’s Eve, we had a really good catered family dinner by Classic Chef again.  Food was a lot better than what we had Christmas Eve.

The kids started playing with sparklers after dinner, and more food was served around 11pm.  We had the most amazing strawberries, which were large and gorgeous and sweet and juicy (!!!) along with other tasty treats.

We rushed home just before midnight, and snacked on sushi and chocolate.  This time, Jacob stayed up to watch the fireworks display from our balcony.

Isn’t this so cute?  I saved all our used Starbucks Frappuccino bottles and we use them for drinking.  Okay, I actually bought the Frappuccinos for this very purpose.

The first day of the year also happens to be my birthday, and this was my birthday breakfast.  Grilled Mary Grace ensaymadas, vienna sausages, homecooked birthday noodles, fresh Persimmon, coffee, and vanilla soy milk!

We then had family Mass and a potluck-style lunch with my mom’s side of the family.  My mom brought lechon, I brought paella and chicken pastel, and one of my aunts brought fried pigeons which were to die for!  Too bad I wasn’t able to take pictures of anything.  For dinner,  John and I decided on Paseo Uno and this is what I ate:

 

For my birthday cake, I dreamed of nothing but Hizon’s ube cake.  I told John that because I am a simple and low-maintenance wife, he wouldn’t even have to get me a gift so long as he got me this cake.  I was so disappointed when Hizon’s informed us that they weren’t making ube cake for the holidays as they didn’t have a good supply of ube halaya.  So I settled for a new bag and a Costa Brava ube cake instead.  Puwede na rin.

Happy 2013 everybody!