What’s your favourite Christmas dish?

*Lengthy post ahead, but please read till the bottom. A surprise awaits you at the end of this post 🙂 *

Hi all, year 2010 is coming to an end and it’s just 2 weeks away from Christmas. Are you celebrating it? Will you be cooking up a storm for your family to feast on this holiday season? My family don’t celebrate Christmas, but because it is such a fun and happy festival, sometimes we’d do a pot luck, or a BBQ session with some relatives and friends and have some Christmasy (or sometimes not at all) food. The biggest Christmas feast I ever had was when I was in Sydney. My housemates and friends did a pot luck and had TOOO MUCH FOOD!!

No wonder I got SO SO SO fat there. Not kidding :/ Check out the spread below.

Check it OUT!!! It’s not a VERY traditional Christmas dinner but, well, nobody said it has to  be traditional!! We had a big fat leg of ham, Puddings, Roasted RIBS!, mango salad, hugggeee turkey, gingerbread house, ice creams for dessert and a cake, and cookies and presents and so much more! It was fun. I only helped glaze the ham and made the wasabi and black sesame ice cream, and some lebkuchen cookies. The rest of the food are made by my amazing friends back in Sydney. Oh much missed 🙁

Oh these are Lebkuchen which I made (they’re German Biscuits made during Christmas, flavours quite similar to a gingerbread cookie) And would you believe, we have pot lucks like these all the time!!! Not just for christmas but during birthdays, other festivals. But of course, no big turkey and ham; as they’re considered Christmas-y.

Not just that, but because I went to a baking school, we’re bound also to make Christmas-y cakes!! Buche de Noel (Yule Logs), Panettone, Gingerbread houses, chocolates and ok, I’d go on a whole day listing out things. But I shall stop here.

Panettone is a yeasted type of cake which is usually enjoyed during Christmas season. Despite their large image, it’s a very light cake. The lightness and aeration of the cake come solely from the yeast in it. For some, the proofing of the dough may take a couple of days. It contains dried fruits such as sultanas, raisins, orange peels and zests. Some variation may come with chocolate or just plain!. And it’s originated from Milan.

Bûche de Noël is also known as a Chocolate Christmas Roll / Yule Log. It can be made with or without the inclusion of alcohol. Components of this Christmas Roll includes a Cointreau mousse, Chocolate mousse, Bombe mix, Nut Dacquoise, Cointreau stock syrup and chocolate glaze. Or it can be just a swiss roll for simpler steps.

I remember this was one of my favourite cakes during my time in LCB.

And when you spend so much time in the kitchen together with your coursemates making lots and lots and lotsa of cakes and desserts, there isn’t gonna be much hatred around. We make fun of each other, poke, laugh, talk, gossip, eat, drink, play, cook, bake together. I mean, what’s not to love 🙂

Ok there, digged one of the older photos of my fellow classmates. There are more but I just have to dig in the old computer. Lol. Everyday after we make something, we’d pack or cut the cake to smaller pieces, then give them away to other friends (could be from the Cuisine class) or housemates, security guards, random ppl on the street and/or just keep them in the freezer (until further notice !! HAha) It’s just like Christmas; season of giving 🙂 Btw, that was mango sorbet we’re holding.

Oh oh!! and Chocolates!! yummeehhh. You really can’t find these moulds here in Malaysia. I bought them in Sydney; I don’t know where but somewhere. Probably in some shopping malls selling silicon bakewares or something. I made ’em chocolate truffles for my colleagues in Sydney. I was also working part time there to score some extra pocket money to feed ME!! Aren’t they cute!

Ahh.. after writing so much, I really miss Christmas in Sydney. See the pic below and you’d know why

Taddaaahhh !!!!! So during Christmas, there would be houses in different suburbs lit up with tremendous amount of Christmas lightings. Each corner of the house would be cladded with lights!! I guess these people need a room to keep all these lights for the rest of 11 months of the year! But aren’t they pretty and fun!! But honestly, I wouldn’t do it on my house Hahaha It would take weeks for me to do so, or even months. Not easy I tell ya!!

Ok so now what’s this post about?

Let’s get to the point, shall we??

I’m hosting a giveaway for this Christmas. And what are the prizes ?? They’re pretty good I may say.

Nigella Christmas and Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food

Books are sponsored by BookXcess. Incase you haven’t know yet, it’s THE place to get books without paying for its full price. Of course the selection may not be as vast as many other places but you’d be surprise on what you can find inside! I bought ALOT (I think about 50 by now just from them) of cookbooks since I found out about that place, and it’s just growing and growing and growing. I don’t have sufficient shelf space to put my books now. They are all stacked on the floor. Let’s not get to how many books I actually have (easily more than 150..). I will count it when I relocate next year.

So since I always get books from BookXcess, I thought it’d be nice to share with everyone else about this place. So your collection of books can grow and make more amazing cakes or savoury dishes. Located in Amcorp Mall, BookXcess not only has cookbooks to offer. If you browse in their webpage or FB page, you’d see alot of fiction books, children, non-fiction, business, classical, beauty, young adult, chic lit and even imported magazines at only RM9.90. Btw, the books are not 2nd hand. They’re brand new. I just updated my latest buys on the top right corner of the sidebar. Plus, if you’re out of ideas on what to get as Christmas presents, check them out!! I’m sure you can find some book which you’ve always wanted to buy, but never because it was out of your budget. You can now 🙂

BookXcess are having a Christmas Promotion this month long.

• 20% discounts on 100 selected titles
• Book Bundle Specials (two books at a better price!)
• Pre-wrapped awesom books as Christmas gift picks
• Annual Charity Book Drive
• Free RM20 worth of BookXcess voucher with purchase of RM200 nett in a single receipt
• Free gift wrapping services with very merry wrapping paper designs, gift tags and ribbons all in the package!
• Blog Bonanza Christmas specials and Christmas edition of Receipt Stories

So for this giveaway, I am giving away these 2 books

from Nigella Christmas

from Gordon Ramsay Fast Food

Excited yet?

To stand a chance to win either one of these 2 books, all you need to do is,

1. Post up a recipe of a Christmas related food that you have made or will be making for Christmas this year.

2. Write a relatable story about it.(short / long, it doesn’t matter)

3. Put up some nice pictures.

4. Include the excerpt anywhere in the blog post “This is my entry for the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot“

4. Send the link of your blog post to me by 2nd January 2011, 11.59pm (KL time)

5. To swee.san AT g m a i l DOT com with the subject titled “Christmas Giveaway”

Because I will be paying for postage, this contest is only open to Malaysians,  Singaporeans and Australian readers, with the exception, if you are residing overseas but has a valid Malaysian / Singaporean / Australian postal address, you can join too. If you do not have a blog, you can email me the entire post.

The topic is really wide, you could write about the first eggnog you drank when u were 11, and decided to remake it, or a Christmas turkey with awesome stuffing recipe which is a must for your family tradition, or a Yule Log that you used to buy outside, but now wants to make it yourself, a Gingerbread House and/or edible Christmas ornaments made with your children together, or the brownie which was the first thing that you ever made for an occasion like Christmas and how much it means to you, or the vegan Christmas meal you prepared with your family, or your most favourite glazed ham recipe that you HAVE to make every Christmas, or how the chicken replaced the turkey on the Christmas feast table because all you can find was chicken in the supermarket, or how skeptical you are on the minced pies you first ate, but found out it was not as bad and wants to make it at home… etc…

So so so many things. I will personally pick the winners, the first winner gets to choose which book he/she wants, then the 2nd winner gets the other book. Fret not, both books are awesome.

You now have time to plan out the things you want to cook /bake for Christmas, and actually cook /bake and serve them on Christmas day itself, then write a post about it, and send it to me! I certainly don’t want you to be cooking / baking Christmas stuffs a week before Christmas, doesn’t make sense. But if you want to, you may.

You can submit as much entries as you want from now until Jan 02, 2011, 11:59pm (KL time)