A Feast with Old friends...

I really love roses.... there is something very perfectly sweet about them... this breed above is called Flamingo hybrid tea roses - we got them from the rose farm and this blossomed in my very own garden!

Had a cosy dinner with some old friends last night - combined with good food, plenty of laughter and weird jokes and moments, it was a great way to end the weekend! The theme was Italian.. so we had lasagne, cheesecake, and even started to celebrate Christmas in July with Turkey, yum yum!


This was caesar salad - the full works! I pan fried chicken tenderloins which was lighted marinated with salt and cracked pepper and white wine, pan fry till golden in colour. Then with the remaining oil in pan, pan fry bacon strips (I used short cut bacon, has less fat!). Keep this warm in the oven whilst you prepare the rest. Anyway, basically it's caesar dressing, cos lettuce, hard boiled eggs and parmesan cheese! Although, I feel this isn't exactly cooking as I didnt really make anything from scratch, there is something really nice about presenting something green on the dinner table! And honestly, for a proper caesar salad, you must use fresh chicken and bacon - personally I prefer to buy the bacon rashes and slice them rather than the bacon bits from the bottle (eww!) or even the diced bacon bits from the deli... use fresh whenever possible! It's so worth it!



I made bruchetta (spelling?!) for entrees... there is something very healthy and refreshing about it... and to make things a little different, I used an olive bread instead of a sourdough... not bad :)


Photography wasn't so good last night - we just wanted to dive into the food! This is an eggplant pasta... it does taste better than it sounds!!! Really nice for a vegetarian pasta... to be honest, Im apprehensive about vegetarian stuff... ie I hardly ever will order a vegetarian dish, I feel a dish needs to have meat or seafood... if it's just veggies it should be an "extra" or a side dish... however, really this eggplant pasta can be quite the winner! I threw in some chilli flakes for extra kick!



Mocha tarts! This was the most work! I made this on Saturday night! But there is nothing as satisfying as baking or cooking something from it's raw form! I made the pastry from scratch, and I wont bore you with the details, it was fun for quite awhile... it is a bit like play dough, except you get to eat the end result! The filling was a rich chocolate and coffee mixture which you bake... this is totally baked... my friends liked it, so that made it all very worth while!

Hope you had a very happy weekend too!