Xmas Around the Corner...

Christmas....A time for merry making, sharing and spreading the joy of giving.

This is the time of the year where I kinda get in touch with my soppy side. Not really sure why, but I tend to cry at every single thing... trust me! Sometimes I tend to relate it to missing my grandma during this time of the year. She passed on the 26th of December 1989... I remember that day very clearly; the family had just finished attending midnight mass in church and we all headed into hospital to wish grandma a happy and blessed Christmas. Once that was done, she gave us 3 kiddies a peck on the cheek, some 'angpau' and shooed us all home requesting that my mom stay with her. Of course dad took us home and we spent the whole day opening presents and eating. Later that evening, mom called and told us she suffered from complications and sucumbed to her illness.

I actually miss all the preparation of goodies and food she used to do for Christmas. Grandma always started at least 2 months before just to get everything right. She would always start with the sugee and fruit cake along with the home made pineaple jam tarts.

Nowadays, people find it troublesome to make those 3 items from scratch resorting to purchasing them off the rack or ordering it from others that do. We at home prefer to make those goodies as it brings the young and the old together for the season's cheer and of course the older generation get free labour from us youngsters in helping them make those yummie stuff.

During the next few articles, I would be putting up recipes for the famous Christmas Fruit Cake, Sugee Cake and Pineapple Tarts just the way we at Casa Perez used to do it.

So do look out for the recipes and let me know if you succeeded. Let me warn you that it's more work compared to the easy stuff you find in the recipe books now....