My Christmas Table to welcome Santa
Christmas Zuccotto

This Christmas is the fifth Christmas I am away from home. I still remember how excited I was every time Christmas came in Vietnam. When I was a kid, my aunts usually took me around the city to see people decorating their houses with Christmas trees, snowmen, Santa Claus, Snow flake, and Reindeers. I love hearing the Church bells jingle and the colors red and green. As I was older, I love exchanging Christmas cards with my classmates or riding to Duc Ba Church in Ho Chi Minh city in the evening. All of these sweet and wonderful memories about Christmas make this holiday the most favorite one I am always looking for during the year, although I'm not a Christian.



When I come to the U.S., Christmas was not as excited for me as I thought it should be. In Christmas Eve, American people gather with their families at home and celebrate. All the stores are closed, and the streets are dark. Without family and friends, I felt so lost and lonely in the first Christmas I spent in the U.S.

This year, I want to do something different. I'm living a new chapter of my life, remember? I know how to cook and bake. I also want to make my friends feel cozy and happy in Christmas Eve. Therefore, I invite the remaining friends, who do not come back to Vietnam this Christmas to my house and celebrate this very special occasion (to me). We will eat, write cards, exchange gift, and play Kinect Adventure


These are the presents and dessert I prepare for Christmas party. I should post the appetizer and main entree first, but you know me - a dessert person , so this Zuccotto shows up first in the list.


Ar first I intended to make a Red Velvet Cake because Red and White a the main colors of this cake and also of Christmas, but I run out of red food color at home and was so lazy to run to the grocery store, so I made a chocolate Zuccotto and decorated it with chocolate and Christmas Candies.

Here come the Cranberry & Chocolate Parfaits

During this Cranberry season, this fruit is so cheap and look so yummy. But don't be fooled by the color! Fresh Cranberry is SUPER sour . I didn't know that when I bought it, so I must make the Cranberry preserve or jam (whatever) and end up with an extra dessert

For this parfait, I used the whipping cream with some drops of green food color (You may not recognize the color in the photos because of the light) and the chocolate cake crumb from the Zuccotto to accompany the Cranberry jam

... I still save some little fresh and cute cranberry to put on top, at the center of the chocolate spider web

It's best to eat it when it's chilled one day in the fridge.

I will continue to post the entree and appetizer tomorrow before the party starts. So excited! I can't wait
....

Okay Christmas is here Woohoo.....!!!! As the promise, here are the appetizers and entree I made to my friends and me on Christmas Eve. Feast Your Eyes here Hope you like them:

The appetizers include my special Pate Chaud (ba'nh Pa-te-so)Yum.......

I specially love this variant of Pate Chaud. Instead of using pate and ground port only for the filling as the original recipe, I add cubed carrots, sweet corns, and onion (I also don't use pate to reduce some fat) so that the filling is more juicy and full of vegie

The Soup is another appetizer I made: It includes some ground pork, sweet corns, carrots, white fungus and cilantro

Here is the "Tien Vua" Salad, in English, you can call it Royal Salad ("Tien Vua" means for King or Royal in Vietnamese ) Goi Tien Vua

Another main entree is "Ga Nau Nam", which contains Chicken thigh, carrots, potatoes, and 2 kinds of mushrooms (the main ingredients)



This entree is served with my home-made White Sesame Bread. At first, I planned to make bread knots, but the dough rose too much that my bread are bigger than I expected. Whatever, as long as the bread is risen well, I love it!

Here is the recap of the whole Christmas Party Table without the Cake and Parfaits:



That's pretty much it....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all