Okay I know I owe you guys loads and loads of my cooking escapades!

If you are following me on Twitter, you would know that I've been cooking up heaps of stuff for lunches and dinner – often experimental and adventurous.

Cheesy Penne Pasta Potato Bake with Roast Chicken! 😀

Oh and, just so you know, I never follow recipes. So I have no idea how the "recipe" just popped up in my head!

Hmmm… perhaps all these years of eating or numerous food review sessions has subconsciously taught me a thing or two and honed my long-time repressed culinary instincts.

Anyway, that's what I made for dinner for my family in Sydney!

Feast up! Also, I will also show you a brief step-by-step on how to recreate the dishes.

Everything I cook is pretty damn easy, to me. If I can make them,  I don't see why you can't as well!

Ingredients used – potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, capsicums.

Chop 'em up, dice 'em well, slice 'em well!

Before you cut up your veggies, you might want to pre-heat your oven first to prepare for roasting.

Set it to about 180 degrees Celcius.

Marinade a whole raw chicken with salt, black pepper and barbeque/mushroom sauce.

Stuff the chopped vegetables into various parts of the poor thing.

Yes. That's my hand inside its asshole.

Sprinkle more condiments and your favorite herbs. I used basil and rosemary.

Remember to line your roasting tray with aluminium foil or butter it!

Take it out of the oven after about 45 minutes or how well-cooked your chicken is INSIDE.

Lay it to cool and carve it to shreds.

Boil potatoes and mash them with salt, pepper, milk and butter

Boil the pasta of your choice. I chose curls and penne.

Stir fry onions, garlic, spring onions, mushrooms, veggies and that shredded roast chicken

with your fave pasta sauce

Put everything together in a casserole dish layer by layer.

Mix the pasta evenly with the sauce mixed with everything you've fried earlier, and layer with mashed potatoes and grated cheese. Then pop it in the oven again to bake for about 30 minutes on 150 degrees celcius.

You want your cheese to melt into the potatoes and the layers below it.

Yadda yadda yadda preparation time in total would be about 2 hours +

Okay, everyone is hungry… let's eat!

Salad for appetizers!

Mix cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, avocados and lettuce with mayonnaise or mustard.

Have a good balanced diet!

Eat them together with the main meal. Are you hungry yet? 😀 😀

Ta-da! Portion for one.

We ended up getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th helpings!

I'm glad they loved it. Ahem. They better do 😛 😛

For it is cooked with love, by me

Whee I love to see a happy family enjoying my home-cooked dinner!

There was plenty to go around!

Not bad,. All gone! I've made another extra casserole dish… waiting for tomorrow though

Here's to hoping it will suffice for lunch tomorrow! 😀

Oh and, this also marks Episode One of my lil cookbook of homemade nomsters by me.

If you haven't tried making this, you probably should. Serves 5 and above 🙂 All the best!

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