Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Chinese New Year!

Happy Year of the Ox! Yesterday was Chinese New Years, and at the last minute I decided to throw a Chinese New Year's Dinner/Party. We celebrate New Year's every year, but this year I decided that there was a lot of food that I wanted to make and not enough people to eat it. So I invited a couple of families over. Then I spent pretty much all weekend preparing! I was so busy that I almost forgot to the get the girls New Year's outfits. It's Chinese tradition to wear a new outfit for the New Year's. Luckily I remembered on Sunday, and so we went to pick them up. Then it was back to the kitchen for me! I ended up making so much more food than I realized. One of the dishes that I was particularly proud of was my Chinese egg custard tarts. They ended up tasting just like the ones I've gotten from the Chinese bakeries. Of course I had to make dumplings because that is also a tradition. I really pushed it with those because I didn't even wrap them until yesterday afternoon. Then I pan fried them and turned them onto a plate. They sort of look like a moon made of dumplings :-). I also made some steamed rice cupcakes which were a really big hit with the kids. Truth be told, I love them myself! I guess it reminds me of my childhood :-). And besides, how can you resist anything so beautifully colored? My shaomai was struggling a bit to stand on there own there, but they were still tasty! In the end, I had made all of those dishes and more! Steamed pork buns. . . clear noodles with shrimp, roast pork lo mein, tofu pudding with fruit, chinese vegetables, radish cake, and new year's cake (which you HAVE to have for New Year's). I can't believe I made all that food. When Andrew asked if this was more food than I made for Thanksgiving, I definately had to answer yes to that one! Needless to say, my kitchen was CHAOS after that. But it was definately worth it! I was a little scared that no one would like it because they were all pretty traditional Chinese foods. But everyone seemed to enjoy it, even the kids managed to find something they liked -- you can't go wrong with steamed rice cupcakes :-)

4 comments:

Maria and Rodney said...

I wasn't even hungry before I read this...yet all of a sudden Im starvingg

AB said...

teehehe

Sabrina said...

Sydney was still talking about the cupcakes today..."the blue one...the pink one" haha! Everything was delicious and we had so much fun. Thanks so much to you and your family for sharing the new year with us!!!

Professor Dru said...

Yum, Yum, it all looks so delicious. And the girls look so cute in their red Chinese outfits.