In honour of my Mummy – her name is Daisy! She is simple and pure like the flower 🙂
It’s a wonderful opportunity to tell that all important person in your life how much she means to you and to your children.
My Mummy is the best!
i am who i am because she was and still is always there for me. She taught me to always lend a helping hand whenever i can. She showed me that even when we disagree with someone we can still love them. She is such a strong woman, bearing the weight of being our everything with such grace, i’m in awe.
Thank You MUMMY! i love you!
Now i would like you all to hop over to Unlocking Love and help a wonderful teen in her project to help some orphans who are all in need of loving mamas – check out her #WheresMyMom? project…Â
Here’s my contribution to her project – the 3 boys i’m shouting out for are:
Andrew needs a loving family to help him through life. Can you help?
Click on their names or pictures to find out more about them and please SHARE their stories today via social media – the more exposure they get, the more likely their forever families is to see them.
… i think i have never actually devoted a post to Chinese New Year!
i have looked at the archives and have not found one post on this – which is strange considering how much i like the festivities of celebrating Chinese New Year. A celebration which traditionally lasts 15 days, but of course, in these modern fast-paced times, no one stops for that long to celebrate anymore.
When i was growing up, it was a huge thing. My mum started preparing 2 weeks ahead for Reunion Dinner (the eve of Chinese New Year), where all the extended family came to us for dinner. There is this special dish she makes only for Chinese New Year – Ayam Buah Keluak (Black Nut Chicken Curry) because you need to soak the nut for 2 weeks. Then crack a tiny slot in the hard shell, remove the flesh of the fruit, mix half of that with minced meat, stuff the mixture back into the nut and use the other half of the fruit-flesh to make the curry. So much work!
Then there is all the yummy Chinese New Year goodies – pineapple tarts (i LOVE these), Bak Kwa, Love Letters, Kueh Bangkit and so many other ones, along with all the mandarin oranges i could peel and eat as well as roasted peanuts, sunflower seeds and sweets. Also Yu Sheng – Fish Salad which we toss for good luck. Not to mention the kids all got red-packets (ang baos, filled with a small amount of cash).
We would spend 2 whole days visiting family and friends, exchanging greetings and blessings for the coming year. There are some people we only get to see during this festive season so it is indeed a special time.
Now that we have moved to a “western” country which doesn’t celebrate Chinese New Year and we no longer go back to Singapore for the celebrations (logistically not practical now with the school term), i miss them.
The dishes we had for Chinese New Year Dinner.
This year i decided maybe it’s time to highlight some traditions again, now that my boy is bigger and understands more. He really only remembers collecting the Ang Baos and not much beyond that cos he was so small when we did go back to celebrate with family.
So while i didn’t make Reunion Dinner, i did make a 1st Day of Chinese New Year dinner for the 3 of us. Cooking one of my favourite Nonya dishes – Chap Chye, and Cantonese Steam Fish as well as Stir-Fry Ginger Beef. It was a tiny affair but still…
And this year we also gave my boy an actual Ang Bao when normally it would just go to his bank account. He was glad about that cos now he gets to actually spend it, instead of mummy putting it into his bank.
So here i take the opportunity to wish one and all a very Blessed Happy Chinese New Year – it’s the Year of the Horse so may you gallop into peace and good fortune.
My parents are fantastic cooks and they taught me how to cook from as far back as i can remember. i remember standing on a stool,  as a little girl, trying my best to fry the perfect sunny-side-up egg, which my dad says is the ultimate test of a good fryer 😉
So i continue the tradition and have introduced the kitchen to my little guy as soon as i could. He started here and sometimes cooked with Daddy too. He has made pizza, baked a mini cake and made beef-patties. And other times which i have not written about.
This time round he used his Stars Wars Cookbook and made for us Tie-Fighter Ties and Tusken Raider Taters.
Here he is in action:
From Left: Preparing the sausages, cutting the dough…From Left: wrapping the dough, before going into the oven…From Left: cutting potatoes, mashing potatoes…Finally! Cooking done! We can eat!
In case the pictures aren’t clear, dinner was sausage rolls, which look like tie fighters and mashed potatoes which represent the desert landscape where the tusken raiders lived 😉
i’m so glad that my little guy actually likes cooking 😀
trippingdifferently 