Happy 4th Birthday, Jordan!

It was my neice's birthday on the weekend so the family got together to celebrate with her. She's a little too young to have a full blown kids party with all the screaming children, pass the parcel, pin the tail, red light green light, or jumping castles, farm animal themes or the worst ever would be a hired clown! No, that's saved for next year when she's in big school and has friends apart from her cousins.

And since it was more a party for adults, we got to have adult food (no fairy bread or baby frankfurts in sight!). Here's the menu:

Firstly, check out the awesome No. 4 cake. A great job by Chhay (she's really getting good at doing the numbers) and beautifully decorated by Aunty Amra. Butter cake with butter cream icing.....yum!

BBQ prawns

Tray of meat - sausages, chops, steaks...

Prawn Cutlets

Fried Rice - Chhay's mum made this and it was so tasty. Must remember to ask for the recipe

Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta - Amra's pasta is always a hit. I can never make it as good as her. She somehow has that magic touch....this was sooooooo good!

Grilled Vegetable Salad with Pine Nuts - my contribution for the party (recipe provided below)

Jap Chae (Korean Potato Noodle Salad) - My mum made this and it was very nice

And here's the birthday girl! Sorry the photo is dark but I just love her expression whilst we are singing "happy birthday" to her. First time in 4 years she didn't cry during the song hahahaha!

And the recipe for my grilled vegetable salad:

150g baby spinach leaves

2 sweet potatoes

1 eggplant

3 zucchinis

1 capsicum

Large handful of mushrooms

100g pine nuts

1. Wash and drain the spinach leaves and place them in the bowl you will serving from

2. Peel and cut the sweet potato into thin slices (about 2mm)

3. Place the slices of sweet potato onto a hot gridle pan (or in my case I use my George Forman Grill) - cook for at least 3mins on each side

4. While the sweet potato is cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables (wash, peel, cut)

5. After each batch is cooked, place them on a plate to cool

6. When the vegetables are all done, toast the pine nuts

7. Layer the vegetables on top of the spinach, with the pine nuts on last.

8. Serve with your choice of dressing the the side (I like to use caramelised balsamic vinegar)

Note: I always cook the sweet pototo and eggplant first because they take the longest. And with the capsicum or mushrooms you don't even need to cook them if you don't want to. It's all personal preference.

The longest this salad took me to prepare was 2 hours , the fastest was maybe an hour. It seems like a simple recipe but it takes so much time. Still it's my favourite salad.