Christmas Before Christmas

We had about 40+ people over for dinner last night, mostly church members and their friends. It was a pot luck, and there was so much food. I only did the turkey with chestnut stuffing and a light fruitcake with plenty of rum (rum just goes so well with butter cakes). I have been roasting turkeys for well over 20 years now (first one was to impress my then boyfriend and in-laws to be) , about 2 birds for each Christmas, so turkeys are truly the easiest things to cook for me. It's just an over-sized chicken. Stuff it, push it into the oven and forget about it until 4 hours later.

I didn't have as much success with my petit fours. The light fruit cake turned out delicious and I topped it with a thin layer of marzipan. My intention was to make pretty festive petit fours with Christmas trees and stars for the grown ups and pipe the kids' names on their fours. But it turned out that glace icing is not easy to make. I didn't use the usual water and icing sugar recipe. I consulted books and websites on the pouring fondant or glace icing for petit fours. And I was SOOO upset when the glace icing turned transparent, and worse, hardened before I could even use it. I warmed it, but it turned grainy. Does anyone have any advice on this?

In the end I just served the cake with the marzipan layer on. I was disappointed that many of my guests just peeled off the marzipan, thinking it was just sweet icing. It was lovely marzipan from England, and it cost me a bomb because it came in a 2.5 kg slab.

Am kinda stressed. There are many things I need to do before next week's many holidays (we get 25 & 26th Dec off only but many businesses are winding down as people get into the festive mood) so I will post my turkey recipe this weekend. Btw, if you haven't yet got your turkey, I'm not sure if you should get it from Hong Seng because mine was from there and last night's turkey had a strong refrigerated smell that most people didn't notice! They probably thought turkeys should smell like that. I've never had such a bird in all these years. If my MIL hadn't already got another Norbest turkey for me, from Merdeka Supermarket, I'd go for the Butterballs in Tong Hing. I've never cooked a Butterball turkey and I remember the ads in Canada & US where they zoom into the turkey as the knife cuts in, and the juice drips out and the meat falls off to reveal moist tender flesh...ah, next year I'll get a Butterball.


These cymbidium orchids are from Taiwan. They don't grow well here because it's too hot. I love orchids, they are so extraordinary in their design. Their irregular symmetry is so artistic.


I love red roses at Christmas. So romantic and autumy.


Year after year, I use the same door wreath a friend bought from Germany.


This year the chairs get the poinsettias.




I completely forgot that I'd given our old tree to Vero two years ago. Yi came up with this gorgeous creation one hour before the party. It really is the best tree we've ever had! She was going to complete it today but the painter came this morning to repaint the TV room and took everything down--she doesn't know it yet, she's out.








I imagined that this was a female turkey so I dressed it with whatever fruits I had.