Happy New Year, Happy New Blog Look!

To usher in the new year, I have completely revamped my entire site's layout. I had initially availed of the service of a really cool blog designer but the transaction did not push through because she had to temporarily put a halt to her blog designing business due to some urgent family matters. 


So with not much of a choice left, i had to muster whatever techie juices i had in my brain (which is not a lot) to somehow tweak the coding in my template and get the look i like. Thank God for Google i was lead to numerous websites that offered help in customizing a blog design. 

Of course much has to be done with the overall look of the site. I would still need to change the fonts, font sizing, layout, and add a few more widgets here and there. But for now, this is all my very limited html coding skills allows me to do and i would say i'm pretty much satisfied with how everything turned out (especially the signature i have added in all of my posts). Too bad though i completely forgot to capture a screenshot of my old blog's look for comparison. It would have been a great before and after transformation. 


Let me end this post by wishing all you lovelies... 

 

Merry Christmas Dinner!

Let me start this post with a Christmas greeting...

These past few days, I have been very busy preparing a Christmas dinner menu for 3 adults - me, the husband, my mom-in-law. For the past 4 years, every Christmas dinner menu is planned weeks in advance and prepared 2-3 days ahead. Yes, I am that OC. Since the days leading to Christmas eve was pretty busy for me, what with our company's Annual Strategic Planning, Business Review and Christmas Party all happening in one jam packed week, i had less time than the usual in preparing our Christmas dinner. 

Since i cook everything from scratch and am a bit OC when cooking, I personally handle the grocery shopping myself as i tend to scrutinize every ingredient that goes in the food i cook. Guess how stressful grocery shopping is 2 days before Christmas eve? VERY STRESSFUL. So anyhow, here is my final Christmas dinner menu for three: 

MAIN

Baked Ribs

Roasted Rosemary Lemon Butter Chicken 

Bakes Mussels

Lasagna

DESSERT 

No Bake Blueberry Cheescake

Fruit Salad 

I normally don't cook a lot of variety during Christmas, I tend to do this during New Year instead. So two days before Christmas, i had all my ingredients ready, save for the mussels which i wanted to buy on the morning of the 24th to make sure it's really fresh. Unfortunately though, i could not find any mussels AT ALL the morning of the 24th. I went to 2 wet markets and 3 grocery stores, and found NONE. Weird, all the mussels in Cebu must have decided to take a leave on this particular day. So, here's my Christmas dinner, sans the Baked Mussels. 

Here's my lasagna swimming in sauce and cheese. I know it doesn't look appealing, but this is how the husband likes his lasagna- very saucy, creamy and cheesy. 

My baked ribs that i am very proud of. It's so tender and yummy! I marinated the meat 2 days prior, and slow baked it in the oven for 4 hours. yep, that long.

And here's my Roasted Rosemary Lemon Butter Chicken that i marinated in rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, Kikkoman, and lemon  for 2 days. I then roasted it in the turbo broiler together with lots of whole onions, butter and baby potatoes. Very simple but very delish!

Here's my no bake blueberry cheescake made of crushed graham, cinnamon, nutmeg, cream cheese, all purpose cream, evaporated milk, gelatin and blueberry filling. It took me 3 tries to perfect the overall look of the cake. I am satisfied with the taste, but there's more work to do on the look of the cake though. 

Overall, i am very happy with my Christmas menu and how they all tasted in the end. The husband and mom-in-law loved it so much. The ultimate satisfaction of cooking is seeing your loved ones happily enjoying the food you prepared. Guess what my secret ingredient is in all my cooking? LOVE. lots of it! 

Merry Christmas everyone!  And a Prosperous New Year! 

P.S.

Here's my tentative menu for New Year's Eve: 

MAIN

Baked Creamy Carbonara

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Kebabs

Chilli Prawns

Garlic Butter Crabs

Hamonada

DESSERT

Mango Creme Pie

Oreo Cake

Lecha Flan

What was your Christmas dinner? What's your menu plans for New Year? 

♥ blushbaby