I apologize for the lack of posts. Between our travels, celebrating the holidays with our families and mandarin classes, there hasn't been much time for blogging. There is so much I want to catch you up on, but I will start with a photo journal of our first Christmas in Hong Kong.
We found great decorations at Ikea and the Hullett House Christmas Market to add some Christmas spirit to our home.
We had to buy 2 Christmas trees this year. The first tree from Ikea died the day after we received it because it did not get it a fresh cut before delivery. I guess we learned for next year.
Here's a picture of our partially decorated first tree from Ikea.
And the 2nd, much healthier tree from Anglo Chinese Florist in Soho. We were fortunate to have M's mom in town to help us decorate our tree. And a special thanks to our Aunt Titania for all the wonderful Christmas tree decorations!
And here she is all lit up!
I took Christmas Eve off from work to do something I really enjoy, which is cooking and baking. I made Smitten Kitchen's braised short ribs and mash potatoes. For dessert, I made Martha Stewart's lemon mascarpone crepe cake. All of the recipes were a labor of love, but in the end it was worth it.
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| Prepping the meat with thyme and pepper |
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| Preparing the braising sauce |
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| The braise is made of balsamic, red wine, port wine and beef stock - smells so good! |
I modified the recipe slightly based on the ingredients available in Hong Kong. I substituted kale for Swiss chard (I literally laughed out loud thinking about how to locate Swiss chard in this city) and small red onions for the pearl onions.
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| The onions and kale |
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| The mash potatoes |
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| Voila! Let the feast begin |
I also made a cake, because what is Christmas without one? I had seen the lemon mascarpone crepe cake recipe in Martha Stewart's Living December magazine and couldn't get it off my mind. If you plan to make this recipe yourself, I highly suggest you invest in a crepe pan. I didn't have one and as you can see, my crepes were far from perfect circles and came in many different sizes.
The batter yielded 19 crepes, but I had to discard 2 being new to crepe making.
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| Lemon curd frosting |
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| Putting the cake together one crepe at a time |
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| The crepe prior to being frosted |
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| Frosting the cake |
The crepe cake is really nothing special until you cut into it. I wish I got a better picture of a slice, but these will have to do for now.
On a sad note, my Great Uncle Jul passed away today in Minnesota. My mom was with him holding his hand as he passed away peacefully. I will always remember his hearty laugh and wonderfully thick Minnesotan accent. He never passed up a game of domino's or my mom's chocolate chip cookies and adored spending time with family. He was a great husband and Uncle. He will forever hold a very special place in my heart.
