Yay Yay! Time for another page outta my lil Chef at Home cookbook! 

One fine day, Verity and I decided to cook up some Asian cuisine for dinner – Black Pepper Stir Fried Beef

in the process! I like my meals with heaps of veggies 😀

Verity helping to chop more veggies! 

Lots and lots of garlic paste in the already-marinaded beef chunks!

Okay to be honest, the original dish was supposed to be Chicken Stir Fry.

But we changed it entirely to Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry! Then again, no one follows the cookbooks 😉

ESPECIALLY ME.

After putting everything in the wok!

Letting it simmer and absorb all the juices 😀 Omnomnomnom

Oh and you know what's our secret ingredient? Wine!  

Lots and lots of it!

After letting it simmer for another half an hour, I just gave it some more herbs and condiments to taste.

Used heaps of black pepper seeds too 😀 😀

Ta-da!! Almost ready!

Erin was on the other side of the kitchen, also busy cooking.

But since she's vegan, all her meals were strictly vegetarian – no meat of any sort!

*sizzle sizzle*

For dessert, we decided to bake a special chocolate cake. *wink*

Omnomnomnom. Ima chocolate maniac, if you didn't already know 😀 

Prepare all the ingredients needed

Melted chocolate, butter and yummy delish stuff 

Pour it in with chopped walnut chunks!

Ooooh look at that nutty chocolatey goodness 😀

As usual, this is what my friends and I do after I've finished pouring the entire cake mix into the baking tin.

Who wants to waste good chocolate? 😛
 

NOBODY. 

Popped it into the oven and waited for the magic to happen.

In the meantime, our Black Pepper Stir Fry Beef was ready to be eaten with steamed rice 

Bon Appetit!

Doesn't look really appetizing in the photo   Cos I was too hungry and couldn't give two hoots about taking pictures. Just wanted to gobble it! I was delighted when my friends loved it just as much as I did!

One of them said it was spicy as! *giggle* Well, toughen up! Get used to Asian spicy food 😛

This was Erin's vegetable dish!

She let me take as many photos as I wanted before she ate 😛 Yay!

After eating and got really full to the brim, it was time to bring out the special chocolate cake! 😉

Walnuts ahoy!

Don't know why we turned the cake upside down and ate it that way instead

Yay everyone liked it!

Okay speaking of which, I'm really darn hungry as we speak.

Imma head out for dindins with the bestie now.

And to all my Muslim readers out there, Selamat Berbuka Puasa! 

Good Friday and Easter Sunday has always just been a memorable occasion for me.

Well, we get public hollies and commemorate the resurrection of Christ. What's not to love?

But the whole idea of Easter Bunnies & chocolate eggs never really got to me

Until I landed in Australia, for my first ever REAL Easter.

Back on University rez, we even had an Easter Egg Hunt game! Anyway, for the week-long Easter Break, I decided to fly to Sydney to sight-see and pay a my extended family a visit 🙂

And I'm thankful I came; for they gave me the best Easter ever!

Chilling with couzzies Sam and Nick before dinner

Thanks for picking me up at the city, Krizzy! 🙂

I was taken away when I first entered their house.

It's beautiful! Have I ever mentioned that I love the architecture and layout of houses in Australia? I've been into some 7 houses now, and it's really different from the ones back in Malaysia.

Anyway, spotted a pretty candle holder hanging on the wall!

People here actually celebrate Easter.

Most of my friends here were busy with their own family Easter dinners today as well.

I simply adore Lindt's Easter Bunny chocolates! 😀

On to the foodsies! Prepare for noms ahead.

Not for the hungry 😛 I was amazed how we managed to stuff ALL the dishes into our tummies

But first, some appetizers & tid-bits before dinner!

Nachos, chick peas, feta cheese, pistachios, cookies and more

"Did I hear food? Can I come in too, pretty please?"

Dinnertime begins!

We were all helping out with the preparation and plating the food on the dining table

Caesar Salad!

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni!

More cheese! Popped it into the oven again LOLOL

Potato Au Gratin bake!

Roast Lamb!

Roast Pork!

My uncles took to carving of the roast meat

Yay! And then its time to drizzle the gravy all over

Easy now, slicing & cutting up the pieces of the pork chunk by chunk

Devour the scrumptious delights before they are all gone too soon!

Coincidentally, the 3 of us were wearing black tonight

On the dinner table with couzzies Adie & Krizzy

Here's my platter

Looks rather messy but who gives a !@#$%? Let's eat!

Eating medinner! Want some?

It was a fabulous home-cooked meal… without a doubt!

After dinner, we gathered at another table to chill and catch up 🙂

T'was so nice to rekindle with all my aunts and uncles again after quite some time.

We downed a few shots and neat drinks over our chitchats too

That's the way our family roll, no pansiefansie mixers – nadah!

Oh, how I love gathering together and reminiscing lotsa old-times!

Yes. I'm talking to you

After a few hours, it was time for  yummy cake!

Aunt Yi Ling baked us an Apple Tea Crumble for dessert

It was so good, this time with extra nut & cinnamon toppings!

Fancy a slice?

with ice-cream to jazz things up? Yes, please 🙂

Pastry dessert & vanilla ice-cream… delish!

It finished rather quickly as you can probably tell!

Now, how's this for pretty dessert?

Uncle Danny played around with the food and voila! haha

Needless to say, I had a fantastic time with the family.

Here's a piccie of my cousins and I… for the road!

Happy Easter 2011 folks!

Much love