Weekend before our trip

It has been raining recently... this Sunday, our original plan to celebrate the belated Valentine's Day with Xin & Shwe by having branch at Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay was canceled . :( However, the gathering was still on while the venue has changed to a more low key one, The Original Pancake House in Los Altos. P'ng, Judy & KX joined us as well. The food is yummy!

Later, P'ng, Judy & KX came over to our place to hang out for the rest of the day. It was great! KX also got to take a nap at our place, played with Winston, and picked some lemons. :) KX loves Winston. Toro was such a 'chicken'... she was hiding in the bedroom. Toro loves P'ng though. She sat on his lap for almost 1.5 hours straight while we were chatting, & KX was sleeping. :)



Our trip back to Taiwan & Malaysia is just around the corner... can't wait!! I still need to finish our tax... we haven't done any packing yet! So much to do yet so little time... I miss the cats already! :(

Gong Xi Fa Cai

First, this is the eldest in our family, Ah Mah, saying "Gong Xi Fa Cai" to everyone.

To start the new year, we need to prepare some special home made goodies:

The first cookie prepared is cornflake cookies, Ah girl's favourite ;)

Then comes the Coffee cookies, Choon Ping's preference:

Not forgeting my all time favourite, the big Almond cookies.

This must not be confused with the Almond crisps which PeiSun is learning in US, also Choon Ping and Ah girl's choice.

This is the traditional 'Sungai Petani Ribbon biscuit'

Then again the old time favourite " Kuah Kapek" is a must for every CNY.

And the fairly rare Kueh Bangkit too....

This is the recent favourite 'Chi Ku chips'

And finally, mummy's once a year 'carrot cake'

And the ever popular 'pineapple upside-down cake'

Well, after all preparation, our new year starts with the usual re-union dinner last night, but sad to say, only 3 of us lah :(

Yet the CNY mood is strong at home.

3 is too small a crowd to have steamboat, so we resorted to cooking some 'New year dishes' for once:

The main chef, mummy started with a 'Braise dried oyster with fish maw and abolone'. This is Ah Bee's favourite ;) She cooked that in New York a couple of times.

Then She cooked a new dish, even for me, called "Nooi Ken", which can be translated into "steam prawn egg roll"

And we bought some very big prawns and mummy cooked 'Har Lok"

And a 4 hour double boiled soup ;)

Of course, I must play my part too :)

Mine is a highly specialised CNY dish. And it needs some lengthy explanation. You will find out why later;)

First I took 3 small mackerels, scrape the meat, blend in Kenwood chef using K beater for some 30 mins, and throw in chopped union, ground pork, add various types of marinates, add 'fa choy' or hair like vegetable and then beat for another 15 mins, till paste like.

Meanwhile, boil 12 big dried oysters for 40 mins. Keep this stock.

Take 1 each of pork and liver chinese sausage. Cut into 12 pieces each, slightly fry.

Then take the cooked oyster, 1 piece each of the sausgae, and a stalk of spring onion, wrap with the fish/pork paste. Make it look like a huge goose egg. Deep fry in boiling oil for 10 mins till brown.

Using the stock from boiling oysters, boil these fried ' egg shape staffs' for another 40 minutes, thicken with cornflour and serve hot!

Ha!

Finally.........!

Preparation cum cooking time is about 4 hours, but it takes only 15 minutes to consume :(

It's so good!

So, still worth the effort lah!

I have also prepare our family traditional 'steam turnip cake' And it is very good this year, hehe. This is our daily CNY breakfast.

So, this morning, we have the first batch of visitors, Pheng Koko and Phong nya Koko, with the 2 little boys.

Cheers............