Welcoming 2-0-1-2!

Happy New Year to everyone who reads my blog! My new year although away from my family and friends in Manila has been an unforgettable experience. I drove 2 hours to spend New Year in Utrecht with HT Couple. The New Year's Eve dinner was simply a celebration of really good food with amazing company. So here's the tale of the food we have...

Some light snacks to serve the guest. Japanese mixed nuts served in Gaudi inspired bowl. HT Couple was crazy with these designs when we were in Barcelona.

Round 1: TAPAS

Some tapas were served as starters to everyone. We had chorizo with chicken in tomato sauce, crispy adobo flakes, gambas, and baked mushrooms with garlic cheese served together with some bread. I cooked the crispy adobo flakes and chorizo with chicken in tomato sauce. HT Wifey liked my chicken with chorizo. Yay! I'll be sharing recipes soon. HT wifey made the delicious gambas cooked in garlic and white wine. The baked mushroom is my favorite and this was prepared by HT Hubby.

Round 2: Meatballs with celery root mashed potato

Dish was cooked by HT Hubby. He had to prepare the meatballs the night before. The meatballs were very tasty. The uniqueness about this dish is it is served with this celery root mashed potato siding. According to HT Hubby, this is a Dutch dish. They use celery root and put in some potato to make their version of mashed potato. The celery root has this awfully bad celery smell. Okay, I'm not a fan of celery. In fact, when I was a kid, if possible, I take them out of any cooked dish. Amazingly, I liked the siding even if it is made with the celery root. I do have to take the recipe from HT Hubby and try to make my own. 


Round 3: Italian Pizza 

HT hubby has really good cooking skills. The pizza did not disappoint. It seems all the toppings are there from porcini, bottom mushroom, salami, ham, and bell peppers. We were already very full but we couldn't control ourselves from eating a slice of this pizza. Funny how HT wifey actually just ate the toppings and left the crust out!

Round 4: For the 1st round of dessert, we had Lapis.
Lapis, was brought by one of our friend. It is an Indonesian dessert made simply out of love and patience. According to our friend, you are not a true Indonesian woman if you don't know how to make one. Her recipe includes butter beaten for 45 minutes and 30 egg yolks beaten for 30 minutes and baked layer by layer. The effort put forth was worth it, very tasty and consistency of the cake is just excellent.

Round 5: Ginataang Halo-Halo. 
I forgot to take a picture of it so I'm not able to share it for now. I'll find a chance next time.

We welcomed 2012 watching fireworks of our neighbors. (Nice way to start the year saving money) Happy New Year again! How did you spend your new year? I hope you had a blast of fun like I did!