Sunday Bakes

We invited my in-laws' to my place on Sunday. Parents-in-law, Brother-in-law & Sister-in-law. I was busy baking and preparing for the dinner on Sunday. Whenever we had guests over, whether it's my family members or friends, I felt obliged to bake and make something nice and good for them. And it's not just one item, it has to be at least two or three items. I also felt pressurised to make special foods. Okay, maybe what I made is normal, but all these really took some planning to accomplish.

These were the foods I did, in chronological order of when it was accomplished (morning or afternoon).

1. Cranberry Cheesecake: I adopted the recipe from All That Matters' Blueberry Cheesecake. I replaced Blueberry with Cranberry. It was the first time I tried making no-bake cheesecake and found it more tedious to make than those baked ones. I'm not sure if I will attempt this again, though it's quite nice. :)


2. Bak Kwa & Cream Cheese Buns: As usual, I had to bake some buns, for our breakfast on Monday. Since I still have quite a big block of cream cheese in the fridge, I've decided to bake some cream cheese buns. They taste really nice and good. Unfortunately, the following day, the buns were quite tough. I blamed it on the "expired" yeasts. :p


3. Rosemary & Olive Oil Baked Rice: I marinated chicken breasts meat with chopped fresh rosemary & olive oil. Then I fried my rice in olive oil, added the chicken pieces, french beans, fresh button mushrooms, raisins and more chopped fresh rosemary. Topped them with mozzarella cheese and baked them in the oven. The rice was really healthy & tasty!


4. Mashed Potatoes: Recipe from my sister. She baked this before and my family loved it. And because my hubby kept asking me to make this, we had bought a baking dish specially for me to bake this. Although I have used the baking dish many times, I've not baked this mashed potatoes dish. The potatoes were boiled, then mashed. Cauliflower were blanched and added to the potatoes. I also cut some smoked ham into it, added some black pepper and cream. Topped them with mozzarella cheese and baked it. This dish was a sellout!


5. Garlic Breads with Rosemary: Chopped garlic finely, mixed with chopped fresh rosemary and add butter. Mixed them up and spread on hotdog buns. Grilled them till crispy. Another sellout!


6. Chicken & Ham Quiches: Quiches are pretty easy to prepare. My quiches consisted of shredded chicken pieces, smoked ham, fresh button mushrooms and cauliflowers. I cooked them before distributing them into the blind baked crusts. I mix cream, milk and eggs and pour them over the mixture to "hold" them together. Topped with sliced tomatoes to give them a more colourful look.


You see, actually planning for a meal is not too difficult. Many ingredients can be "shared"-cauliflower, rosemary, smoked ham, button mushrooms etc. However, time factor is important as each dishes have to be prepared in sequence, not concurrent as my oven can only bake so much. As busy as I can get, I'm really enjoying them. Otherwise, I would not have suggested dinner at my place right? ;)