We Wish You Could Cheer

I guess "special occasions" make us think of the past.  I was thinking about funny things the kids used to say/sing when they were little.  Kate was really funny, precocious and advanced for her age in speech, probably part due to the fact that she was an only child with just me to give her all my attention for the first four years of her life.  She'd sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and instead of  "we wish you joy, we wish you good cheer" she'd sing "we wish you could cheer".  Don't we all?  And of course the ever hilarious "Reddolph the Rude Nosed Reindeer".  And my Ali who would sing "oh what fumitz" when she sang "Jingle Bells".  Katy also had such gems as "Pooey the Bear" for Winnie the Pooh and "The Young and the Breastless".
Our anniversary dinner was fun.  We had planned to do some marinated prawns in wonton wrappers, deep fried.  We've made them before as a Christmas Eve appetiser thingy.  Woolworths supermarket here sucks, they are on a cost cutting drive with staff apparently, the shelves are badly stocked and they seem to be missing what are now, basic grocery items.  Like fucking wonton wrappers.  None to be had although there was a space and a price tag where they should be.  Barstards.  Nor did they have canned green peppercorns.  And their strawberries were abysmal.  I suspect they import a lot of their so called fresh f&v whereas IGA seem to source local stuff.  We found the peppercorns there, they had two varieties to choose from where Woolies had none.
So we got some green prawns (frozen of course) and marinated them in sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, chilli and Chinese cooking wine.  We had bought rice paper wrappers when we couldn't get the gow gee but in the end decided to wrap them in puff pastry and bake them.  Phill did himself proud, he patted the marinated prawns dry and cut up pieces of the pastry to wrap them in, delicately brushing the sides with egg wash so they would stick, then brushed the outside and sprinkled them with some sesame/seaweed sprinkle that we bought for sushi and baked them in a hot oven.  They turned out perfectly, we served them with a sprinkle of fresh coriander and some sweet chilli sauce.  Much healthier in the low fat pastry than deep frying too.

Phill had requested steak as a main course.  We got two rib eye fillets, I am addicted to them at the moment and I researched a sauce to go with them and found an excellent green pepper sauce.  It was easy, simple and really tasty.

Steak with Green Peppercorn Sauce

These steaks are huge, we pan fry them and finish them off in the oven.  The sauce recipe also had a cute idea for individual potato bakes.  It was just thinly sliced spuds mixed with cream and salt and pepper and baked in muffin pans.  I added garlic and was going to sprinkle some grated cheese on at the end but didn't get to that.  They were very good though, and just some grilled asparagus to serve.  The kids didn't eat with us, although they did really, they both shared in the prawns and I cut some of my steak off for Josh to try with the sauce and he loved it.  I made cute little curry chicken burgers for them with small tiger rolls and chicken mince mixed with red curry paste, garlic and lemongrass rolled into kofta.

I made red velvet cupcakes this year instead of the usual mudcake.  The strawberries were meant to be chocolate dipped but the microwave wasn't playing nice and I gave up trying to melt the choc bits.

Phill went out and picked roses from the front garden.  It was a pleasant evening and we reminisced about our wedding day and other anniversaries.  We told the kids they will be throwing us a party for our silver wedding anniversary in seven years time.  Wonder where we'll all be by then?