New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve with Marianne and Luke, we wanted to push the envelope a little. We decided to do an Iron Chef! Luke, Luisa and I picked the ingredients and judged and then Llew and Marianne cooked together. Not a competition, just a challenge. So the ingredients were decided Tuesday night - Macadamia nuts and lychees. Wednesday saw shopping then chopping!

Start with the stock.

Pork and lychees - ready to be made into something marvelous.

Duck and lychees - ready to sizzle.

Ground macadamia nuts - adding crunch.

Hmmm, cake, brandy, lychees, jelly...?

If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen... add a fan to the airconditioning! It was still 30C (86F) despite the extra measures, but it was worth it.

Meanwhile, the judges kept their cards close to their chests.

Champagne - well, it is New Year's Eve.

Cracker of a time.

Ready, steady,

GO!

First off was a lychee puree champagne - great.

Combined with macadamia cream and pomegranite glaze on crackers. Wonderful.

Pork and lychees was nice, but can't beat the lychee glazed sweet potato chips!

Eating the pork.

Duck breasts with macadamia fennel dust and a lychee chutney. Went well together.

Duck leg with lychee sauce and honey macadamia nuts - all specially presented.

Lastly, lychee and macadamia nut trifle.

Absolutely delicious!

All up, a great meal and they scored really well. Some new flavours introduced to our lives and some great things to remember. Best of all, it managed to keep us awake until well after 11pm! So we only had a short while to digest before the fireworks on TV, party poppers here and wishing everyone well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Later Christmas day...

Not safe for gingerbread men,

And Santa seems to have missed the gingerbread house.

About 2pm we went to friends' place for drinks, food and cricket! It was Luisa's first time playing cricket. She got the hang of bowling really quickly.

Get him out!

And she was a natural with the bat.

Time for serious stuff - shoes off.

Then as all good Aussie backyard cricketers, a hard earned coldie.


A bit later and it was time for dinner.

First up - prawns.

Then baked ham - huge.


And turkey.

Then grandma's plum pudding and custard. It is flaming - just can't see it.

Boxing day saw "My Bar" sign go up.

The 28th saw a lot of wood chopping in the kitchen and the installation of the new induction stove by Luke. Llew had to cook on it straight away.

After it all, Peanuts was exhausted. Just let me sleep! But who wasn't like that?