"Twas the night before Christmas and, all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Yeah well, come morning, the lady of the house wasn't wearing a kerchief. I sure as heck wasn't wearing a cap. Instead, I was chasing around the kitchen with a chef's knife and multiple plates layered with plastic wrap and thinly cut meat. My better half and I had decided to organize a Chinese fondu (aka Hot Pot) for Christmas dinner.

On the menu:

• pork tenderloin (sliced)
• beef (sliced)
• chicken breast (sliced)
• stewed beef tendon (cut into bite sized pieces)
• nappa cabbage (shredded)
• watercrest
• fish balls
• cuttlefish balls
• beef balls
• fresh udon noodles
• steamed rice
• scallions (shredded)
• tofu

It was a smashing success. The soup afterwards could be best described as "essence of beast." :)

Well, another holiday season came and went. As with the past 3 years, the office Christmas party season saw me bake biscotti for my fellow unsuspecting cube dwellers.

This year's tweak:
I honey roasted the almonds and substituted the vanilla extract with Grand Marnier. I figured the boost of orange would set off the sweetened almonds. Happily the small amount of added alcohol didn't wreak havoc with the acid/base balance of the recipe.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...

Shortly before Christmas, a wonderful person furnished me with packaged and purchased lard-based pastry from a supermarket. With several cuts of pork in the freezer, including several tenderloins, my first instinct was to try my hand at pork wellington. However, when push came to shove, I found myself facing a lack of time, so I purchased a nice pork loin and proceeded to roast it.

The recipe follows:

More after the jump...

Welcome to foodiePrints!!!

My name is Don. I am the owner, primary contributor, and one of the founding members of foodiePrints.

foodiePrints is a blog that my better half and I put together to provide an outlet for my obsession with food.

Your host is a foodie. I love all things food from shopping for exotic ingredients to exploring foreign and domestic cuisines and cobbling together my take on various recipes in my meager kitchen. Please note that I am not a chef. I am not a cook. I have no formal training. I just feel that after eating for a couple decades, it is high time I learn a few things about the food I eat and develop my palate to better enjoy my growing list of favourite dishes.

During the day, I work as a mild mannered IT professional in Canada's capital, Ottawa. I happen to adore just about everything information technology afflicted. It was my first obsession. I hope my industry continues to build the tools with which everyone can share his or her cultural richness. Since I practice what I preach, I chose to let IT be the medium for sharing aspects of my personal experience with the rest of the world. Since, I spend most of my off-time thinking about things like how the perfect fish and chips should be, foodiePrints was born.

foodiePrints' inner circle includes Jenn, my better half. She is the editor of foodiePrints. She is the reason I learned to cook.

There is also Mademoiselle Ling and Abby. These two very forgiving people were amongst my first guests at the dinner table when I really started looking at food with interest and decided to try my hand at making it myself.

Be it food-related or just food-for-thought, we hope you find something tasty here.

To contact me, drop me an e-mail at blogATfoodieprintsDOTcom.

More after the jump...