How many of you are still recovering from Christmas? I know I am. I unfortunately sustained an ankle injury and a massively bruised knee following a failed stunt performance with one too many Long Island Iced Teas on Christmas Eve. Yeah. Ouch. I did think I was still 21. So there I was on Christmas day, limping and hopping around the kitchen preparing dinner for our special guests, an intimate party of 6. How intimate? I guess you will find out later! But for now, food first.

This year’s menu was relatively simple. Once again Nigella Lawson’s recipe of ‘Spiced and Super-Juicy Roast Turkey’ was featured. The turkey was soaked in an aromatic brine with whooping 16 ingredients for 2 days before roasting, this way you’ll never get a dry turkey! The skin was also caramelised with a maple butter baste.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a proper carving fork so had to make do with kitchen tongs, works well too. The gravy was made simply with pan juice, already flavoured by the spices from the brine.

The dishes accompanying the bird were simple enough. I made two salads and the famous and super sinful colcannon. The pasta salad was a last minute idea, originally I had wanted to cook brussels sprouts but that had to scrape the dish since the ones I came across in the supermarkets looked small and pathetic. I’m glad I made this though as it turned out to be my favourite dish of the night!

Go make one yourself for a party. Almost no cooking involved, and quick to put together. Watch them disappear to your guests’ tummies. Mmmm.

Adapted from Pioneer Women’s Spinach Salad, this is not just a regular green salad as you can see, it’s carnivore-friendly with the bacon bits. The dressing was made of bacon grease and balsamic vinegar. Even the boys liked this.

Of course, a Christmas party would not be complete without potatoes. Traditionally, roast potatoes are served. But I had to make my Colcannon (Mashed Potatoes with Cabbage) by popular demand. It’s said to be orgasmic. The secret: lotsa butter, and lotsa cream. My potato masher is my best friend in the kitchen. It usually comes attached with Frank which helps.

As for the dessert, I’ve used David Lebovitz’ Chocolate Cherry Fruitcake recipe except I swapped the Cherry for Cranberries and added cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice berries. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a pic of it. It was infused with quite a bit of Brandy too.

All sounds like a very normal Christmas dinner, maybe?

Yeah, that was just a little sneak peak of what’s to come. I’ve requested my guests to dress up. Just to spice things up. But as usual not everyone dressed up! But fear not, I had a plan B.

We also played secret santa. My very clever Samsung Galaxy S2 has a Secret Santa app that allocates names and send out text messages automatically.

The girls were then led into my room, and we raided the special collection part of my wardrobe. This is when the party turned interesting.

Really interesting.

Hey, I have to say though, the sexiest babe of all…….

Of course, there are many more incriminating photos of us on facebook, so if you are interested feel free to stalk us there. Especially if you want to know which of the lucky guy got waxed that night. But do you really want to?

Thank you all for making my first Christmas in KL special. And special thanks to my kitchen assistant Frank too.

And oh. One last one.

View Louise’s write up about the party here.

Photos credit to Ren and Louise.