Baker's Delight Loves Xmas Goodies and Giveaway

Bakers Delight #BDLovesXmas

This year I will be spending Christmas at our own home again like last Christmas. This is what we did last year in 2011. We had a white Christmas last year when the hail poured down. It was INSANE!!! Baker's Delight had kindly offered a chance for my readers to grab some vouchers to spend in their stores and provided their Christmas Delights for me to review.

So far this year I have already bought gifts for 3 Kris Kringles. One was for my Racing BBQ where I bought a Matt Moran cookbook and Lindt chocolates. For my work KK, I bought the Magic Mike DVD - and basically forced a male to pick my present which he kept! Also I have just sent off my Vogue forum KK and that was A LOT of fun to shop for. More important than presents, for me being Chinese, festive occasions are all about the food. It is always about the food where I am concerned. So I am sharing my menu plan for Christmas day. Bear in mind there are only 2 adults and 2 kids eating all of this. So feel free to holler and drop by :)

Yummy Christmas Menu PorkChop'sNest Style

Christmas Glazed Ham

Lobster

Oysters

Prawns, prawns and more prawns

Salad of mixed lettuce, bocconcini, tomato and avo

Baker's Delight Christmas Cake

Baker's Delight Mince Fruit Tarts

Glazed Ham a la PorkChop'sNest 2011

Check out last year's glazed ham! It was so big that it could barely fit it in the oven! I am salivating. Seafood will be served with Roza's Gourmet Remoulade sauce and Aioli Garlic Mayo. The lobster and prawns will be ordered through a friend's husband who runs a fish shop in Frankston. This means I can collect all my goodies from her directly and not have to fight the crowds at Victoria market. Last year we had a lamb shoulder as well. But we are not having guests come over (at this point) this year. Perhaps y'all should come down and join in my festive eating! Please remember to get yourself to Aldi and get some bocconcini balls from them. While you are at it, please go to the freezer section and check out the Turducken that I posted about on my Facebook page. I need to know someone is buying this and what it taste like. Please report back!

For dessert, we are having the Baker's Delight Christmas cake and mince fruit tarts withhhhh.... yummy vanilla ice cream. Someone had suggested on Instagram that I start dousing the Christmas cake in brandy. Anyone up for brandy Christmas cake? 

I am writing this post with my cup of tea and a mince tart. I can verify that the mince tart pastry is buttery and just how I love my tart pastry to be. I also love the mince fruit, it is flavoursome and definitely shouts out Christmas has arrived. I have started on the Christmas cake as well. The cake would be a fantastic item to bring to someone's house if they invited you over for Christmas lunch. It comes packed in a gorgeous tin with transparent lid and you can see it's topped with cherries and has a beautiful shine. It is moist and packed with the necessary Christmas fruit - cherries, currants and sultanas. Jump on Baker's Delight site for their Christmas range and recipes!

Now for the fun part, enter and win 1 of 2 prizes from Baker's Delight. The first prize is a $20 voucher and the second a $10 voucher. Enter below - Tell me where or what occasion you will be serving these Christmas yummies up. Are you planning a Christmas get together with your mother's group? Your work colleagues? Talk to me. Like my Facebook page and tweet about it to get additional entries. Happy Christmas menu planning everyone!

Ends 18th December Midnight and Judges decision (mine) is final.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: SeneGence Roseberry LipSense Start Kit

LipSense Roseberry Kit

If you are after a long lasting lip gloss, read on. I was asked by lovely @wtmontana  on Twitter who is a self confessed "Beauty Junkie" to review and swatch this for her. She is now a SeneGence distributor and you can contact her directly about any of the SeneGence products and her details are at the bottom of the post. I put my hands up for lip gloss and pink. You know I love pink :)

When I received this. I had no idea why there were 3 tubes in the pack. Then I went Ohhh... ok.. One is the lip gloss layer, one is the colour (roseberry pink tube) and the other is the Oops Remover. I did not understand why I needed a remover. That was until I tried it on.

LipSense Roseberry Swatch

The texture is quite liquid and sheer when you put it on. You will probably need a couple of layers. It is  liquidy out of the tube. Then dries and does not budge. I repeat. It does not budge. You need the oops remover if you had a mistake. When it dries it is matte, pop your gloss layer on and voila it is glossy.
LipSense is promoted to last 18 hours. I can guarantee that it does go the yards. See that swatch up there? I left it on as a test to see how long it will go. It lasted overnight and yes, I do wash my hands.

To make it work best on your lips.

• I had applied it very slowly. 
• Wait till the first layer was dry and set. Then do a second layer. 
• Use the eraser to clean up the small mistakes
• Top with the gloss layer.. Yay done!!

This pack retails for $72. Contact Dustyn at dustynrumble(at)gmail.com or visit her at http://www.wtmontana.com

Stalk my Weekend: Pancakes, Markets, Fried Chicken

I has Com

We went to Nunawading Farmers Markets on Sunday. This market is awesome for their food and we had not gone in ages. There was a big Filipino BBQ truck right at the door. I wanted some BBQ chicken sticks and D saw that they had corn. He said he wanted a corn cob and I was like this huh?? He never had a corn cob before. Mick said don't get it as he won't eat it. D replied, "Yes I will!" So what does Chinese Mum do? Buy the darn corn of course, anything for my son. Handed over  $3 for a corn and I gave it to him. He pulled it out of the bag and said this is the biggest corn I have ever seen. I laughed as well as it was really huge. Now you will recall that he has never eaten a corn cob before. I had to show him to turn it on the side and bite. He held onto that corn like his life depended on it.

Chocolate Sauce Waffles!

Another food stall that I had not seen before was a French Crepes and Waffles one. I think I pretty much ran like a crazed woman to the stall when I saw it from the distance. I have been trying to find a waffle maker that is decent. Does anyone have any to recommend? Driving me bananas! I think I am almost ready to give up. Doesn't this look amazing? D did not want to even look at it. He had a lick of a bit of chocolate and that was it. He went back to his corn. By this stage, there was nothing left of the corn. I think Pickles had a few bites, Mick and I had a bite each and D had eaten the entire cob! I am  now wanting some waffles again... I need to stalk this store!

I'm totes so hawt right now

D got upset as the sun was in his eyes and I could not find his sunglasses. He had to borrow Mick's. Which is very brave considering Mick had lost an earlier pair of Ray Ban aviators after D got hold of it. It has reminded me that it is now summer and I have waited one entire year to decide if I need additional window tinting. You would think that I would have organised this over winter. But noooo....

Pancakes and SuperHeros

Someone on Twitter gave me the heads up on these Peter Alexander PJs for Boys. I had been waiting and waiting for them to come out online. When it did I only saw 1 design and made a trip to Doncaster for these. Close to Christmas, weekend plus Doncaster Westfield = Frigging stressed at parking situation. But anyway $169 later! I bought 2 of these and 1 adult sized Superman one for Mick. Seriously $60+! He loved it so I let it go. But these were $50 and I nearly fainted myself. The Chinese mum in me just said let it go and let them have it. They did thank me for the PJs and actually they love wearing them. I am still crying in the corner at my credit card balance. 

We also had pancakes this weekend as we ran out of bread. This is D's first taste of pancakes, he hates it so much that he has always refused them. Pickles devoured like 2 of them, he is usually the sweets/cakes person. The first time I fed D pancake he was about 7months old. He had it and then vomited a bit later. Never ever again did I dare to offer pancakes or eggs for a long time. I guess I put him off pancakes.

Salt & Pepper Chicken Ribs

I leave you with King's Jade salt and pepper chicken ribs rice. You know when you just want fried chicken? And you know that KFC would be such a bad substitute that you do not bother to go get any? Well I was hit with the fried chicken craving on Saturday night. On Sunday it was a mad rush to go get fried chicken. Good ol' King's Jade and their Hong Kong menu. Yummy... hits the spot. 

Flower Temple QV Melbourne

I have been meaning to go to Flower Temple in QV for a LONG time. It used to be in Melbourne Central and I used to browse it quite a bit. It is just a little tucked away in the maze of stupid alleyways and wind tunnels in QV that I have not been there for a long time. I went in to get little ball like hanging glass air plant holders for my kitchen window. It had been on the plan for a LONG time... another one of the 10,000 plans that I have for my house.

But when I walked in, there were soooo many pretty flowers. The shop had a lot of peonies and they looked really gorgeous. I bought some as well and chose a half bloomed bunch. I know David Austen roses and Peonies were high up the list for some brides. But as I was missing the bridezilla gene, I pretty much flipped a magazine and pointed to one picture that contained Singapore Orchids and Roses. Yeah that'll do I told my girlfriend who was the florist. Something like that! I did not notice that they swapped the colour for something else that was better quality on the day. Dude - no bride would dare complain about her wedding flowers if they only cost $190 for the entire lot.  

These are the Peonies that I bought when I .. cough I mean Mick set them up in the lounge room. I wished that my vase was vintage so and so from an Op Shop like Kiki Chaos who is so talented in procuring pretty Op Shop scores. But it is a generic Krosnos. 

Do you have a flower budget? I have severely cut frills since I had children. Those two little money suckers cost me 2 pairs of Louboutins each month just for childcare. So these flowers were my perk of the week while they lasted. What flowers do you prefer? Tell me more, talk to me!!! 

Random Score: Australis Frock n Roll Eyeshadow

Australis Frock n Roll

Now everyone .. gather around. Has everyone missed Random Score or has everyone missed Random Score? I had to apologise to my Twitter followers the other day as I found myself joining the Retweet style competitions. Dude, ya gotta be innit to winnit. So I'm usually innit. Speaking of missing Random Score, I have another one to post but I shall leave you with this glittery abstract art beauty.

Now I think that Emma from EmmaBovaryBeauty has featured this before but I am obviously the eyeshadow noob. You see, I have A eyeshadow palette. Yes A. And that was bought with such fanfare that my beauty blogger girls rejoiced with excitement. OMG post your haul! My haul consisted of one item. LOL 

So check this out! How does one use this one? I think that I would add the glitter silver to my accent nighttime eyes. What do you think? Please help! Also will I look like a tragic 1980s Disco tragic with side scrunchie and crimped hair if I used the pink?

I know that if you have been following me on Facebook. You would have already seen this. If you are not, why not?! Stalk me on Facebook. I swear funny in blog post translates to funny in Facebook too -> CLICK and Stalk. www.facebook.com/PorkChopsNest

Stalk my Weekend: Killer heels and Picnic

I still have not recovered from my weekend. My feet have packed up and left me. I was wearing my Louboutin Very Prive as they were the highest (non-stripper) heels that I had for my work Christmas function. I did not exactly want to be swinging around poles in a floor length dress on a Friday night infront of people I work with so I left the thigh high boots at home. The problem is they are slightly loose (don't ask) and I improvised with some packaging from the Leg and Foot Pamper gift received from La Clinica. Thank you very much for the pack! The foot scrub and gel definitely came in handy the next day.

Improvising so my shoes don't fall out

I put my makeup on while the boys were having dinner. I think Pickles was most suspicious of what was happening as he kept staring at my made up face. I wore Mac Girl about Town lipstick which was brand new - don't get excited as one of the boys already smashed it. Nars Deep throat - get used to seeing this name on this blog as this is now the ONLY blusher I own as I gave away the rest. Illasmasqua Neutral Palette and Mac Into the Light eyeshadow. PS.. if you like my eyebrows they were only $8 for threading!

Face of the night

We finally left at almost at 8pm as I was frumping about regarding the shoe issue. Mick followed up by I told you so, you needed to get the dress hemmed. When we got to the venue, I thought what on earth! It looked like an abandoned warehouse that was overrun by cobwebs on the outside and was right opposite the housing commission flats. All was ok after we turned the corner. I could see a red carpet rolled out.

New York theme

That was the scene inside of the warehouse. It was pretty nice and the food was sectioned off to different areas. There was also a front section which was quieter where they had jazz music and called it Central Park. As the theme was New York, we had burgers, hot dogs, slow roasted lamb, schnitzel baguettes and tacos. There was also a bakery section with pretzels, cupcakes and brownies. At least the bar was not as strict as Crown used to be. We were allowed to take more than one drink at a time. LOL.

Abandoned shoes

Check out someone else's abandoned shoes in the corner. LOL when we went back they had been taken. Ooohhhhh..I never found out who it belonged to. My feet were ready to pack up and leave me by 11pm. I could barely stay standing while Mick went to get the car. And honestly I could barely walk across the road. Someone on Twitter said he never understood why women keep wearing these uncomfortable shoes. My explanation is it's like childbirth. You forget and keep going back. Quite frankly I don't know childbirth and never experienced labour b

Smooze Frozen Treats

The next day was weird, hot and humid. We sat outside to have a mid morning picnic as D wanted some food. We had Kurrajong Kitchen Lavosh with cream cheese. These are yummy little lavosh style crackers which we had with cream cheese below. And we shared a Smooze freezer treat which was frozen coconut milk and pineapple juice. D does not like eating cold things like ice cream, he had a lick and handed it over to me. But Pickles grabbed on and would not give it up. It is just the right size for a small treat and definitely went down well on Friday and Saturday as it was so hot. Honestly have you been stuck with an entire large ice cream that you cannot finish? No you say? Well I have and these little packets are just enough for me. We were kindly sent these two items for review so thank you very much as the boys are ransacking the pantry for the Lavosh!!

Cream Cheese with Kurrajong Kitchen Lavosh

Strawberry Munching

D also wanted to go to the playground and there was a farmers market there by coincidence. We bought some strawberries, a pie, cherries and a packet of ravioli. I wished that I bought two punnets of them now.

So Hammy right Now

I leave you with what I found in Aldi last Saturday after the markets. If you follow me on Twitter you will get it. 

I love Aldi: Chicken Parma Review

What Aldi says it looks like

I bet you miss this series don't ya? Oh I am sure that you do. I haven't been able to face eating freezer meals for a while. I had this sitting in my freezer for ages! It was 3pm and I had not had lunch yet. I also had an event coming up in the evening and I thought this would do to tide me over until I get food again at 8.30pm.

What it really looks like

This could actually taste much worse. I remember a horrendous one in the past with chicken and I do not want to go back there. Now listen here.. only get this one if you can 'hack' a very unique and spongey yet chewy hard to describe type of chicken texture. I appreciate that it is not real chicken. So if you can deal with faux-ken this is not a bad one. Mmm Potatoes.. Mmmm spuds. This is slightly bigger than the normal range and I think in terms of size, it is a bit more filling.

Price: Tick $4.99 A WHOLE DORRAH MORE THAN THE NORMAL!! Outrageous. LOL
Appearance: Tick could look a lot worse, you get the normal weird bubble cheesey top from the microwave.
Taste: Not bad! The chicken is a little weird which is kind of expected of freezer "schnitz" meals. I mean it ain't a $11 Schnitz wrap. The sauce on the parma was a little sour but overall it was ok. The potatoes were quite yummy. 
Will buy again Factor: Yes this one is buyable

P.S: This is not a paid post. I had shelled out $5 for my own meal.