Busy eating weekend

Weekend was fabulous but quick. The title has already explained why it was so. =)

On Friday, Jo and I went to my friend's place for a dinner party. I didn't know how many people would be there but definitely didn't expect 15 people there! I'm not so much of a conversation maker in a big group so I felt pretty awkward at the begining. But since everyone was so friendly so it was not too difficult to mix in and we ended up having quite a good chat with a lot of people. There were like 7 countries among 15 people so it was really interesting. I think there were 2 Germans, 2 Americans, 4 Spanish, 4 Australians,1 British, 1 French and 1 Thai which is me, hehee. =D

My friend and her friend made German and Spanish dishes which were all really good. The Spanish food includes Tortilla which is like a thick omelet of potato slices and onions and fried crumbed chicken and boiled eggs which I don't know the name. The German dish is, of course, the famous fried sausage (brastwurst)with sour cabbage (sauerkraut) and mashed potato. In addition, there were also salad and the yummy desserts. We ate a lot but there still were so much food left so we got some sausages and sauerkraut to take back home too. =)

Saturday, I invited Jo's colleaques over to our place for dinner and partially to contribute to my research study as well. =P But food comes first, of course. I was going to clean up a bit but then Lew and Gemma rang me up to invite us to see the unit they bought which is nearby so I went there, poor Jo had to do some stuffs at uni so he couldn't come. Then I went with then to do the shoping, first for the dishwasher for their unit and then the stuffs we need for dinner. We went to Indooroopilly for that which has a very big shopping centre but it took forever to find a park. We came back to my flat at about 2 pm, Lew started making the pastry while I went off to the uni. There was an Indonesian Fair on that day and it happened to be on my way to the campus so I dropped by the food store there and ordered 'mee bakso'. It's a typical Indonesian dish that is made of noodles and meat balls (I assumed it was chiken). I put on some sauces and the chilli which was said to be 'very very hot' by the Indonesian lady that sell the food. I was glad I put only half a teaspoon of that stuff because it was extremely spicy, it made the soup taste much better though (even Jo agreed with me).

After lunch, I started cooking the dinner, that was about 3 pm. The menu included massaman curry with mutton, chicken satay, and sticky pork (I just got a recipe from recipezaar). The cooking wasn't done until 6.30 pm and I managed to add one more dish which is blanched bok choy with ginger soy sauce. I was a bit nervous about the food partly because I wasn't sure of what I was doing and also because most of the people who I invited for the dinner are quite good at and probably know more than me about cooking. Anyway, everyone seems to like the food and we even had a dessert prepared by Lew. It was blood orange tart which was a real treat. Then we sat down and have German schnapps to healp burning down all the food we ate. Hur, such a hard life. =P

Sunday, I did some cleaning and vacuuming since I didn't get to that before having people over for dinner on Saturday. Jo's friend, Shuan, whom he have know from Sydney was coming to our place to catch up and have a BBQ. The plan was T-bone steak on the coal BBQ which we got the idea from the last camping trip at Binna Burra with Micha and Wiebke (Jo's brother and his girlfriend). Jo got garlic bread and fresh corn to go with the steak while Tom made the spinach and pumpkin salad asa supplement. The meal was superb not mentioning the riverview under the warm afternoon sun from our balcony. We also have Tom's friend who dropped by and joined us for the nice afternoon tea as well.

It was such a relax and enjoyable time that makes me realise how lucky I have been. Although I wonder sometimes if it's just the luck or also the attitude of how people live their life...