Birthday Morning Tea Shout at Work

Work has an unwritten rule where if it's your birthday, you bring something in for everyone. I know, dumb rule! It's my birthday so I should be lavished with endless cupcakes and lavish trinkets... Anyhoo, I decided to make Oreo cheesecake and wow everyone with my amazing baking skills.

I feel like I've put on weight just from looking at the ingredients: The various apparatus needed for making the cheesecakes:

Luscious looking oreos before i ...

... crushed them into smithereens..

Mmmmm mixed with butter and smooshed down to make the base of the cheesecake.

4 pots of cream cheese, 1 pot of sour cream plus castor sugar equal instant happiness for my tummy...

Add in 4 eggs because misery (or fattiness in this case) loves company..

Chopped up oreos, ready to be mixed into the cream cheese mix.

Mmmmm.... imagine licking five used spoons of this. I felt ick after a while.

Sprinkle more chopped up oreos on top and they are ready for the oven.

Ta daaaaaa..... the finished product!

Add in some chips and dip and lollies and you've got yourself one heck of a morning tea...
What You Need:
1 pkg. (16.6 oz.) OREO Cookies,
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup Sour Cream
4 eggs

Make It:
Heat oven to 325ºF.
Line 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides.
Process 30 cookies in food processor until finely ground.
Add butter; mix well. Press onto bottom of pan.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well.
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended.
Chop remaining cookies; stir 1-1/2 cups into batter.
Pour over crust; top with remaining chopped cookies.
Bake for 45 min. or until center is almost set.
Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.
Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve.

Hate yourself for eating something so decadent. Get over your self-hatred and eat some more. Repeat cycle x10000.

=P

Birthday Dinner @ Kabuki, Stamford Hotel

Unless you're living under a rock, you would have heard about the daily deal craze that's sweeping the nation at the moment. There seemed to be a new website popping up every other day. It takes me a ridiculous amount of time everyday to scope these "deals" out. Anyhoo, months ago I bought 5 vouchers to Kabuki at Stamford Plaza, an upmarket teppanyaki restaurant. $45 for $100 worth of food. Score! So I booked for the weekend before my birthday and ordered everyone to clear their schedules for that night.

Viv took it to the extreme and went and got her hair done for the night. She obviously isn't familiar with the etiquette that you should never outshine the birthday girl. Tsk tsk tsk. To be fair, Fiona got her hair done too. Double tsk tsk tsk.

The restaurant rung up and said it was a full house that night so we needed to be there on time or the chef will start cooking without us. So we all rocked up on time except for the Tses who were half hour late. The blatant disrespect for the birthday girl is just piling up! The JJs came up from kampung for the night too.

The Shis with Isaac looking confused with his mother's hair...

I had to make an executive decision and order for Mel and Andrew so I just chose the ones that were the most meat-heavy. The meals are set-menus and you choose whichever one you like. There was a set which had lobster and it was $100. Fiona thought the objective was to choose the most expensive one and I had to burst her bubble and told her it's not a buffet!

We all basically ended up with similar sets and each set came with salad, miso soup, teppanyaki vegetables, fried rice and dessert.

Andrew: The Renge (Lotus) Set $71

Kobachi Appetizer, Hawkes Bay Lamb Cutlet, Szechwan pepper marinated Venison, Black Pepper Scotch Fillet.

Mel, Gavin, Jayden, Jason: The Kaede (Maple) Set $74

Kobachi Appetizer, Wasabi Prawn, Asian salsa scallop, NZ King Salmon, Premium NZ Eye fillet.

Me, Fiona, Jenn: The Botan (Botany) Set $61

Kobachi Appetizer, Wasabi Prawn cutlet, Teriyaki Chicken, NZ Beef Sirloin.

Viv: The Tsubaki (Camellia) Set $52

Kobachi Appetizer, Wasabi Prawn Cutlet, NZ King Salmon, Teriyaki chicken.

We started with the appetizer which was salmon with thinly sliced vegetables. Nice and healthy.

Next up we had the salad which was your stock standard salad.

Our chef then came out with a tray containing our meat. Hohoho meat gooood!

Our chef cooking the scallops and prawns.

Check out that big pat of butter sitting on top the succulent prawns.

The waitresses came around and put a paper bib around everyone of us as food was going to start flying soon!

Wasabi prawn cutlet with yum yum sauce .. this was gooooooood. Fat and juicy.

NZ King Salmon and Salsa Scallop...

Viv's set didn't come with scallops so her salmon looked a tad lonely.

The show started with the chef making us catch a rice bowl each and then catch a raw egg with the bowl.

Chef cooking the teppanyaki vegetables.

A mother's job is never done. Isaac's bedtime coincided with our dinner so Fiona had to sing to get him to sleep.

Took this pic not because I wanted a photo of the JJs but because I needed a sneaky excuse to take a photo of the couple next to them. They didn't talk to each other throughout the whole meal and looked so miserable. We guessed it was an internet date went wrong, ie they didn't look like their photos on their profiles. Haha...

It was time to sing for our suppers again and this time, we had to catch cut up omelet bits in our mouths!! Jason had no trouble at all..... hmmmmmmmmm wonder why?

Chef making a silly joke with the fried rice:

Finally, we had to catch the bowl with fried rice in it with another bowl in our hands.. Stressful!

Last but not least, the meaaaaaaats!!

My beef sirloin....

Teriyaki chicken:

I was so stuffed I had to give my teriyaki chicken to Andrew, the human garbage can. The dessert was goooooood. Pannacotta and a red bean mochi. Oh so good. Anything red bean is good in my books.

After dinner, we went home to have the cake Fiona bought. Because you know.. the food was pitiful and we were still starving. Not!

Apparently, my name is Tiramisu.. heheh.

Happy birthday to me...

Mel got me a cupcake book.... forgot to take a photo before I uploaded all my pics so this will have to do. The real book's cover is much prettier.

Viv got me a necklace because she thinks of me as the Queen of Angels... *aw shucks*.

JJs got me cupcake chocolates and a gift card to Smithys.

Thanks to all for my presents and for coming along to the dinner. Twas a good night. Yes mother, I will take you to a nice restaurant when you arrive.

Surprise!!!!

Monica flew in for my birthday!! So surprised and so touched....