Love having you around…

I love having people around and it’s the same too even in the case of my daughter. Ever since she left for her further studies in 2007, there would be just my missus and I at home and it is not easy to cook for two, that’s for sure. Most of the time, we would have leftovers and would have to eat that for a few days on end and we would not be in the mood to cook or bake anything special as well.

With Melissa working now and presently home for the holidays, even though it is just an addition of one person, it sure makes a lot of difference. We are always thinking of where to go to eat or what to cook or bake. ..and on one of the days when she was around, she baked these lovely cupcakes/muffins…

I don’t know exactly what cake it was but I think she had white chocolate and chopped dried strawberries in them…

…and they sure tasted great –  a bit sweet, probably because of the chocolate, but everyone loved it.

On another day, we decided that we would like to have pasta for lunch so Melissa cooked this superb spaghetti bolognese with generous chunks of beef and carrot added…

…and we had some satay beef from the day before in the fridge so we used that as an alternative sauce for the pasta as well…

…and the fusion turned out very compatible. It was very nice indeed, I must say.

On another day, we decided that we would like to have a Vietnamese roll-meal so I got all the stuff ready…

We had big tiger prawns, peeled and steamed, some lightly-blanched taugeh (bean sprouts), thinly-sliced omelette, glass noodles (Melissa said she would prefer that to mihun), lettuce and the special gravy of hoisin sauce, peanut butter, fish sauce and prawn paste.

We certainly had a great time piling everything onto the soaked and softened Vietnamese roll paper…

…and adding the sauce and the pounded chili…

…before rolling it all up and enjoying every bite of it…

Yum! Yummmmm!!!!

I went to buy some croissants to make sandwiches on one of those days but we were early and they did not have any yet at the time. In the end, I decided to just get their herbal French baquette instead…

…and had it stuffed with tuna, mayo and cheese plus sliced tomato and lettuce. It was nice but I found the bread kind of tough and rubbery and not really to my liking.

Later in the day, for tea in the afternoon, Melissa took what was left of it and cut it into slices and covered them with my tuna spread and added chopped tomatoes and grated cheese…

…and put them in the oven for a while to toast until the cheese had melted. Ooooo…it was a whole lot nicer and we finished the lot in one sitting!

Sighhhhh!!!! The week is coming to an end and the school holidays will be over in a couple of days. How time flies when you’re having fun!!!