Today is the Lantern Festival (or Yuan Xiao Festival), marks the end of the weeks long Chinese New Year celebration. I made red bean paste fillings of sweet rice flour dumplings (also called Yuan Xiao or Tang Yuan). Paired with homemade sweet rice wine and a pinch of Osmanthus flowers. A traditional food for this special day.
Chinese New Year Party 2012
Got together with my girlfriends and their families for the Year of Dragon! I made Sauteed green beans and Sichuan style cold cut pig belly. One of my friends’ coworker made a cake with dragon draw on top, it tasted great too.
I bought this silky blue top in Vancouver, Canada last Summer, saved it just for this Chinese New Year event :)
Picked lemons before cold front hit over
Before cold front moved in, Alan went to backyard and picked all the lemons from our only lemon tree. This year is the first year we harvested our lemons, I think we totally had picked over 200 lemons from this single tree, and they tasted wonderfully.
Christmas 2011 parties at friends’ home
This Christmas has been extremely busy for us, pictures at top: A group of us had Christmas dinner at Bill & Cindy’s home (the Candy Cane nails I painted myself); Middle (taken by my iPod): All seafood dinner at Alan & Estella’s home; Bottom: A Polish treat at Peter & Eva’s home (Eva’s parents and Katrina, the daughter of Peter & Eva)
Merry Christmas to everyone, wish you all have a wonderful time with family and friends!
Garden & Lemon Tree in Backyard
Clockwise: Lemons from our 5 years old lemon tree, Lemon tree, Collard greens, Seeds formed on Asparagus plants.
Old Photo Restoration and Repair
I am getting tired of posting our travel pictures… time for me to take a break. So here is an aged photo I restored today.
The original photo – took in 70s, I guess.
Christmas Party 2011 at our home
Had a party at home. We had been busy for a couple of weeks for this one. It was named as “When West met East”, because we set up a Western style buffet table at dinning room and 2 tables of Chinese style Hot Pot at breakfast area and in the lanai. It worked, and worked well. It was one of the best parties we had at home.
Halloween and Food & Wine Festival at Disney
Clockwise from top: (Food & Wine Festival in Epcot) Doll up in Japanese Pavilion, Hot Dog, Sausage and beer from Germany, Mussels with Roasted Garlic Cream and a Baguette from Belgium, Gigantic Turkey leg from US, Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote & Whipped Cream, Grilled Ribeye Taco from Mexico, Snails in Garlic & Parsley Brioche, Magic Kingdom decorated in Halloween theme.
Homemade Soba Noodle
Made scratch from buckwheat. It doesn’t freeze well as normal noodles or pasta, they broken easily while cooking after frozen.
Red Bean Mooncakes
They are tough to make. I successfully made 5 of them this year. Homemade red bean paste, I cut off lots of fat which mix into the red bean paste from regular recipes, but taste was great, fine and smooth, not dry at all. And the mooncakes hold their shapes very well as you can see.