White and Gold Celebration

Happy New Year everyone! Today, the 6th of January is celebrated as The Epiphany in the Christian world. It is also referred to as “The Three Kings Day”, the day when the magi visited the infant Jesus. Growing up in a Catholic country, this day was celebrated and as far as I can remember, marked the end of Christmas season. Decorations and trees were put away in the storage for next year’s celebration. Unless of course, you had a real tree (like us this year) in which case, you are still waiting for council green waste pick-up.

My family had a quiet, relaxing and enjoyable Christmas day. Truth be known, we don’t always put up the tree. Last time we did was three years ago. We also go out for Christmas lunch. Just the three of us, which has become a tradition sort of. This year however, my son got me into the Christmas spirit and requested for a tree ( a real one or don’t bother, he said). I thought, why not? So, we bought one and I started putting out the ornaments stored away for years. But it didn’t stop there. I got into it, like really got into it that I decided I will have a theme. A gold and white Christmas table setting. Next thing you know, I was buying gold-rimmed plates and tumblers and table top decors for my “tablescape”. Then two days before Christmas lunch, I decided I will have a mini Christmas village. I bought more miniature trees, houses, candles in shape of a Christmas tree, a tiny deer and an edible gingerbread house! It was so fun and come Christmas day lunch, I couldn’t contain my excitement when I saw everything in place and I had a gold and white table setting. My husband even joked and asked, “Where’s the food?” I can assure you that we had all our favourite foods on the table. You see, we’re not really turkey eaters. Hubby likes ham but the son doesn’t like it. I’m flexible so we all agreed on having what we all love to feast on – seafoods! Confession time here. All the foods I prepared, the recipes I found online. I made a few twists with the ingredients but everything was inspired by recipes online. We all enjoyed the edible wreath made with puff pastry, brie, cranberry sauce, fresh thyme leaves and pistachio. It was a pretty and perfect way to start the feast followed by skewered king prawns, which were marinated in Australian pepper berries, palm sugar and fish sauce. Brushed with macadamia oil while they were grilled then squeezed with fresh lime juice just before serving. We all love lobster so there were lobsters cooked in butter and fresh thyme. Simple but delicious. Main course was Australian barramundi fillets served on top of braised green beans and fennel. Now, dessert. Years ago, I made the Christmas pavlova wreath, which became a favourite especially for festive occasions like this. But for this year, we had fresh peaches and vanilla rum custard trifle. The original recipe was meant for a big trifle dish but I made individual serves. Yes, I bought new mini trifle bowls especially for this year’s dessert. They were divine and too pretty to eat! We enjoyed it that for New Year’s eve party at the cousins’ place, I made the big version of the trifle.

Please indulge me while I showcase here some photos on that day. I have also included links to recipes of the foods served. And oh, I have to make special mention of the Santa Claus tree ornament with moveable arms and legs. It was made by my son when he was about nine years old ( he is twenty two now ). I still have it of course and put it on the tree after the star tree top. Saving the best ornament for last.