Quiet Christmas…

Unlike those wonderful days in my younger years, we had a quiet Christmas, no open house, nothing, just a simple lunch, all in the family.

We took out the asam pedas oxtail…

…that my cousin brought all the way from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to give to me and it was really very very good! He said that he went to the hotel known far and wide for this dish but they said that theirs was not ready at the time so he went to what they said was the original chef, the guy behind the recipe at the hotel, who has since left to branch out on his own.

I enjoyed it so much that I could not resist going for a second helping of rice. It went so very well with the rich and thick and super-delicious gravy. I know! I know! I should abstain from red meat but never mind! After all, it was Christmas! The oxtail was fall off the bone tender and was simply out of this world!

My missus also grilled the gourmet sausages…

…that she bought from here when we stopped by there that day for lunch and yes, they were very nice too. Yes, I should refrain from eating processed meat too but they did claim that theirs were free from preservatives, no nitrates or whatever…and anyway, I only took a bit.

My missus did not go out marketing but she managed to put together this bowl of salad…

…and we had our family’s traditional salad dressing to toss it with and it sure was good, better than most, if not all, of the salads at the cafés and restaurants in town.

My girl cooked this very nice mushroom soup…

…which was definitely as good as the better ones around town and as always, we asked my sister to join the three of us for our simple lunch that day. She brought along this pumpkin cake loaf with cinnamon cream cheese frosting & a little sprinkle of chocolate flakes…

…that we could enjoy for dessert. It was sweet, of course! I’m sure with pumpkin as the main ingredient, it would be sweet even without adding any sugar. Anyway, I just had a slice, that was all.

Ooopsss!!! I forgot completely about the panettone that my cousin made and gave to me. It sure looks like I shall have to save that for New Year’s Eve…or for Chinese New Year – that’s just round the corner, mind you!