A special celebration for that special man

It was hubby's 44th birthday today, and I planned a great meal for that special man in my life. The preparation was quite tedious starting a day ahead, baking the hummingbird cake and marinating the meats for the paella. On the very day, with no helper (Along was called to work, Anga went shopping @ Auckland)...I spent the whole day in the kitchen. Well, Ain helped out in icing the cake...the rest was a solo effort.

I wanted to present something different than the usual, and it took a while to come up with the menu list. Coleslaw, shepperd's pie & the garlic bread were planned this morning while I was on my way sending Along to work.

Here are some pics taken and some recipes of the meals I prepared today. I think I put on 2kg today! Enjoy!

The gifts we got for dad...a Rugby 2011 cap from Anga, a fishing bait box from Along, a box of choc from Ain & a Kenneth Cole watch from me.

Hummingbird cake from Foodtv. The filling was chopped banana, pineapple & pecans. Tasted great!!!

Menu list...I didnt set up dinner at the dining...as we had the guys over...tak cukup tempat...

My kids love shepperd's pie....since we have additional guests to hubby's small bday party, I decided to make one, to add up to my original menu. Unfortunately, I ran out of mince and was too lazy to run to the Halal butchery...and too lazy to take my food processor from the box (* I don't remember where I stored my food processor...), so I used my blender to make my beef turned into pieces.....anything can do!

My shepperd's pie...(I think I might have posted the recipe in my blog before.)

Paella is a rice dish from Spain and is well-known around the world. You can use just about any kind of ingredient that goes well with rice! My paella contained chicken, mussels, prawns, peas and peppers. But I reinvent my recipe as hubby wants something spicy.
Here is the recipe, credits to Rachel Ray.

Rachel Ray's Paella
Olive oil
Garlic
Onion
Some beriani powder
4 cups rice
Saffron threads
Bay leaf
Chicken stock
Thyme
Red capsicum
Water

Cook the above as you would cook Nasi Minyak....then add the ingredients below

chicken (marinate one night & fry earlier)
beef (marinate one night & fry)
seafood mix (marinate one night & fry)
Turks chicken sausage (fry & add black pepper)

Garnish the paella with parsley, spring onions or anything edible that you like...

This hot chicken thighs appetizer actually might originate from Buffalo, New York (too lazy to google). I wanted to make Buffalo Chicken Wings but the Halal Butcher ran out of nibbles and wings so I substituted that with thighs instead. Well, there are many recipes that you can find on the net, but this one, I used Barefoot Contessa's recipe.

Buffalo Chicken Thighs

16 chicken thighs

Cayenne pepper

Tabasco

Salt

Sour cream

Worchester sauce

Black pepper

I mix everything and marinate them overnight before grilling/baking them in the oven.

This is hubby's bday cake. I took the recipe from FoodTV network. Yummm as it uses cream cheese icing (my favourite!)

Hummingbird Cake

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup pecan pieces

3 ripe bananas, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple ( I used canned pineapple)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

For the Frosting:

2 packages cream cheese

Butter

Icing sugar

p/s: the vocab for today is "too lazy..."