Pot luck "LUNNER" (lunch and dinner)

Usually during long holidays, Wendy of "Table for Two or More" will come to KL which gives us the opportunity to meet up, catch up, taste each other’s food, and eat till we drop. Over the recent holiday we had a pot luck “LUNNER” (Lunch and Dinner) and the theme was finger foods. We were reminded by Wendy to make small portions because what we wanted were varieties not quantity. Swee San of "The Sweetspot" kindly offered to host the “LUNNER” in her beautiful home. 

That morning I was  full of anticipation  and got up very early to prepare the food shown below to take to the feast. 

Goody bags for each of my friends - Almond Crisps

(click on any picture to get the recipes)

For finger food, I made pancetta wrapped prawns with gorgonzola cheese

to go with lemon tahini mayo dip dressing

This is another variation for serving the prawn as a starter

(You may click on the photo to get the recipe)

I made two desserts

American soft chewy big thick chocolate chip cookies

using my mother-in-law's recipe

(You may click on the picture to get the recipe)

Apple tarte tartin

(I have not posted the recipe yet, it will be up next week)

Here are the contributions from all my friends. Every dish was made with passion that shines through, don't you agree?

Prepared by Wendy of "Table for Two or More"

Cucumber cups with dried prawns sambal

Mieng Kam Kadok

That is how you eat it. 

Prepared by Esther of "The Fuss Free Chef"

Meat balls

Dragon fruit jelly

Prepared by Sharon of "Feats of Feast"

Shepherd pie

Crackers with caramelised onion mayo

Scotch quail's eggs

Prepared by Swee San of "The Sweetspot"

Double baked potato skins with guacamole

Cassis pear milk chocolate entremet

Prepared by Shannon of "Just as Delish"

Stuffed grape leaves

 and finally Prepapred by Yen of "Eat Your Heart Out"

Moist Brownies

We all agreed that we planned the portion of foods very well this time and there was not much left to “tap pau” (take away). This is the way to go for all future pot luck “LUNNER” so when is the next one?  LOL!

I wish to thank you all for the delicious foods and especially Swee San for being so gracious to host this gathering in her home. And a big thank you to Swee San's mum for taking this group picture for us.

We came, we saw, we wollop!

What a good excuse for people who love food to meet up and share their passion. Well, my good friend, Arthur Wee of ‘Still Crazy All These Years” was in town last weekend. We all met at Ah Lye Curry Fish Head Restaurant and had a feast. The delight in these gatherings is greeting some old friends and making some new ones. The highlight of the evening was not so much the following food as delicous as it all was.

Lower left: Arthur brought the kompia all the way from Sibu

Lower right: The achar was kindly contributed by Jocel's mum

The real highlight was all these homemade desserts that were shared.

From left: Homemade chocolate truffle by Shannon of "Just As Delish", homemade pineapple tarts by Ping of "Ping's Pickings", Store bought cream puffs contributed by Yee Ling of "Ling in De House"

I was also eager to take a dessert to the dinner. Arthur has said he loves my macarons and he cannot get Hokkaido Chiffon Cakes in Sibu, so I made these and brought them with me to the dinner. The filling for the macaron was kumquat, chocolate, chestnut with Cointreau liquor. For the cupcakes I made a whisky, orange, vanilla custard cream filling. I am thrilled to see people enjoying what I made, and in the end, isn't it what all of us interested in baking and cooking want?

Macarons with kumquat, chocolate, chestnut, cointreau filling

(click on the picture to get the macaron recipe)

Orange Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with vanilla whisky custard filling

(click on picture to get HCC recipe)

It was a great bloggers get-together and "makan" (eat) session.  We had so much food and dessert that we all were stuffed. Later Ping wrote on Facebook that our fullness could be the reason that she bounced off Arthur's tummy when she gave him a hug to say goodbye. I laughed out loud when I read this because I had this instant vision of all of us saying goodnight in the parking lot and bouncing around.  LOL!  Here we are after calming down.

Back row from left: Quay Po, Arthur Wee of 'Still Crazy All These Years", Kathy and son of "Small Kucing", Shannon of, Ping of "Ping's Pickings", Jocel of "Food and Travel"

Front row: Abby and daughter Yee Ling of "In-house Ling" and Alice. Two camera women not in the picture: my best friend Peng and Arthur's good friend, Mandy.

We all should be happy especially when Santa came to town early this Christmas. Each of us get a bag of these goodies from Santa Arthur. LOL! Thanks Santa, hope you return to Kuala Lumpur again soon. 

Bad foods should be shared too!

Pork Kebab by Miss "M"

Bad food should be shared too but not the recipe, we share what is wrong with the food so that others won’t make the same mistake.

Tonight I was lazy to cook a full meal so I let Miss “M” do part of the job for me. You must be wondering who is Miss “M”. Me and my group of line dancing mates call money Miss “M”. We used to have tea after our dancing class and we take turns to bring some snacks so when someone in our group whom we know does not cook, bring a nice snack, it must be Miss “M” who did it. LOL!

My food critic was very disappointed with Miss “M” for using the part of pork that is chewy for the kebab but he likes the kunyit (tumeric) raisin fried rice that I made and complimented on the honey garlic rosemary gravy that I poured over the kebab. He advised that if I were to make pork kebab, I should use pork tenderloin.

Look at the picture of the kebab, the meat looks tough too right? We live and learn and the best lesson here is pick your ingredients wisely.