Xmas 2013 at 76 - Part 2

48 hours have passed and I am still feeling the pig-out paunch. 

Every year, we only have one goal - to make sure people don't go home hungry. 

Two packs of Ruffles ("my preciousss") sat forlornly in the cabinet as I served these Mackie's chips instead. 

My mum made two awesome Asian salads - a spicy pineapple and cucumber salad as well as a pomelo and shrimp salad. 

Unfortunately, she ain't no food blog trawler so I can't pass you guys the recipe links. 

My younger sister made roasted chorizo sausages with onions and balsamic vinegar. These supposedly were made with goose fat but I couldn't taste it - kinda makes me feel better. 

One of the dishes I made was this salsa verde chicken nachos. All I can say is, I will NEVER again use (dry and stringy) chicken breast. 

It's karma, I am telling you. I hate chicken breast to begin with and some supreme higher up power was punishing me for serving this to my guests. 

The other dish I made was pasta with slow-roasted garlic using Rick Bayless's mojo de ago recipe. 

KW taking care of party business the night before. You should have seen my face when he told me he had to get a syringe for his brisket. 

Voila, after 10 over hours, the final product was a thing of blackened beauty.

The maestro and his masterpiece. Silence, please. 

Burnt ends, anyone?

And after all that, we had to make room for five desserts! I am not quite sure what happened - there was supposed to be two desserts but we ended up with five. 

Bailey's Tiramisu 

Chocolate Rum Bundt Cake 

Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake 

Chocolate and Coffee Brown Butter Cake 

Skillet Blondie with Macadamia Nuts

I am not responsible for any sugar crashes and extreme heart palpitations. Well, maybe just a teeny-tiny bit… 

We did well, people. 

I was uber thrilled my skillet blondie was cleaned out by the end of the evening. Credit goes to Smitten Kitchen. And after living in my sister's baking shadow for so long, I will officially proclaim blondies as my thang. She is still the baker extraordinaire in our family, but when it comes to blondes, I am your woman.  

We dropped it like its cold with four pints of ice cream. Maple Treehugger and Couch Potato for Team Ben & Jerry's, Macadamia Nut Brittle and Rum & Raisin for Team Haagen Daaz. I am still on  Team Haagen Daaz - no doubts about that. 

Pretty sure we all needed help walking after such epicness...