Rum and brandy Soaked Dried Fruits!

Dried fruits soaked in rum and cherry brandy...YUM!!!! I opened the lid to take a pic of the fruits and the smell was HEAVENLY!!!!

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Last year I made Christmas cakes and the cakes earned me brownie points with hubby and my friend, Joanne also said it was nice. I brought some home for my family and my mum and sister enjoyed it too and told me to make it again this year.

Here's a pic of my decorated christmas cakes last year. I had so much fun playing with the icing.



So here I am, soaking the fruits in preparation to make them moist and plump. I think the secret to a moist Christmas or any fruit cakes is to plump up the dried fruits first.

Well, I'm using a new recipe this year because I can't remember what I did last year and I can't remember which recipes I mixed and matched from. So this year, I will write it down! I Promise! (at this point, I should write down how much and what dried fruits I used!)

Will let you know how it goes!!!! Fingers crossed!

Highlights of My Trip Home - Part 1

Gosh! I miss home so much! This trip home was fantastic! Not only did we both go back, Rick was there with me for 2 and a half weeks and then I had another 3 weeks to myself at home! I so didn't want to come back here. But what to do...while i am busy being homesick, I thought I should remind myself of the highlights of this trip home...

Chinese New Year -  my favourite time of the year!!! Except this year I had to give out ang pows which dampened things a bit cos I was so used to getting them and not giving them! hehe... The ususal events...Reunion dinner minus my sister Michele who was heavily pregnant...Lion dance...we have the lion dance at our house every year cos of my dad's temple. every year so much so that we were getting a bit bored of the whole thing cos the troupe never did anything different, apart from the dance with the mandarin oranges and lettuce and pole climbing...

Much to our surprise, this year the troupe introduced a new type of lion - The Green Lion I think it's called. My brother and I googled it. It is apparently a lion dance of the Hakka people but we didn't even know it existed till now...hehe...cos we have never seen or heard of this lion before. There you go! The most interesting things you learn when you least expect it!  It's got a flat face and obviously it's green. This lion is very agile in its movements. It was flanked by 2 unicorns and according to the internet, the green lion is highest on the hierachy above the dragon! wish i had a better video of it but we were all too busy gawking at it.

One of the best parts of Chinese New Year is the dressing up and a chance for a family pic. Here's a pic of the gorgeous kids decked out in the traditional red bought by my sister, Sylvia. Aren't they just the cutest things??? hehe

Family pic time!!!!

Here are my other fav pics from CNY 2010

 oh and our instant family...

Christmas 2009

Well, the days leading up to Christmas have been hell...I was working more than 10 hours a day and I got flu right before christmas...it was not fun. I had no time to go shopping for christmas presents, Rick had to wrap his own presents...sigh...

but the good thing that has come out of it was the snowstorm before christmas...hahaha...it was so bad and sudden that the roads leading in and out of Reading were shut, and buses and taxis were stopped. People were snowed in and out of Reading. There were a lot of unhappy people that day. The worse part of when the snow started melting and it started raining. Urgh!!!!

Us coming home after he picked me up from work.

When we woke up, the car was snowed over. Our car is dark blue... hehe...

 

My poor flowers after i so painstakingly revived them before winter...sigh

Everything looks beautiful covered in snow, doesn't it?

We had Christmas dinner with Phil and Sati and their family. We had turkey and roast vegetables. Yummy!!!! And of course I had the job of babysitting Mili, their 5 yr old girl. this is the result of one of our games. Phil bought a set of Tattoo Glitter Pens from Boston and she used them on me...sigh...

Like my eye lashes? lol

Dragonboat festival

Today is Dragonboat festival. Every year I look forward to this festival because my grandmother would make rice dumplings for everyone. I only eat the rice dumplings she made and no one else's. hehe... I'm sure for those of you whose mums or grandmothers make rice dumpling,s you'd understand. But my grandmother was in the hospital last year at this time so she couldn't make any. My sister and I made rice dumplings last year hoping that my grandmother could try ours, but she passed away before she could. So now it's up to my sister and to carry on the tradition.My grandmother's recipe is using minced meat and crushed peanuts. She used to add salted egg yolks and 'sau nyuk' but we don add that cos of my dad's health-low salt diet. We started preparing the ingredients and soaking the rice since last sat. We wrapped it on sun. We wrapped rice dumplings the whole day, as you can see from the pic. We didn't use the dining table cos it was cooler and had more space outside. My grandmother used to do that too.Broke our backs making the rice dumplings but it was fantastic seeing my family eat them. Ours isn't as nice as my grandmother's but we are carrying on the tradition.

Mother's Day

Rick and I met in KL for a fantastic week although it was a working week for him. We had to sit at a place with wifi for half the day while he worked so I got fat being bored and eating and drinking non-stop! But it was worth it!!! Then I had my haircut. I was trying to decide between two short styles. He said to choose the one that would shock him more so I did...

After a week in KL with hubby, we came back to KK to spend Mother's Day with my mom...it was very good of Rick to do so cos he asked for a week off to spend more time together with me.

Dinner was at Nelayan. As you can see...crabs, prawns, sabah veg...yummy!
entertainment of local dances...fantastic night!
But I couldn't sit beside hubby cos the kids both wanted him!!!

Christmas!!!

hehehe... it's been almost a month since Christmas and only now do I have the time and energy to blog about our Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Eve dinner is a tradition in our family and we almost always have dinner on Christmas Eve. As always, we had turkey for dinner...yummy!!!



And of course the whole family's home for dinner. So managed to take some pics with the kids.


But the best part of Christmas is always opening our presents. And now that we have all grown up, the part is watching the kids open their presents. This is a pic of Annabelle opening hers. Isn't she just adorable?


Rick flew over to see me on 26 Dec cos he couldn't get an earlier flight so the poor dear had to fly on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day on the plane and in a hotel in Johor cos the earliest flight out to KK was on 26 morning. He was exhausted cos he had been flying almost non-stop since November. We had such a wonderful time together and we even went shopping for his new clothes and books for us. I missed him so much since coming back here. And it was good for him too cos it gave him a chance to rest from work. He even managed to stop working while he was here!!! heheh.. he's just wonderful! Now of course, it's back to chatting online and sms and phone calls again...sigh!!!!

It's Christmas!!!

It's Christmas again... I love Christmas.... I have to admit the fun of Christmas is getting and opening presents and the food!!!! Yummy!!! And this year, Christmas is extra special because not only do I get to spend it with my family, but Rick is coming all the way here to spend some time with me!!! He won't get here till 26 Dec and the poor man has to spend Christmas eve and Christmas Day on the plane and at the airport. But he hasn't even said a word of complaint to me... Wonderful man!

And because Rick bought me my own camera, I took a pic of all the girls and women in my family, except me since I'm holding the camera. This is a rare pic of all 4 generations of women in my family on Thankgiving Day or 'Dong' which is a celebration that is more important than Chinese New Year. Hehe, this reminds me of Amy Tan and her books...

Mooncake/Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is Mooncake Festival where the moon is at its fullest(assuming u can see the moon). There are many stories associated with the Mooncake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival.

One of it is of the lady and hare in the moon. There was a beautiful woman called Chang Er a long time ago who was married to the Great General Hou-Yi, a famed archer. One day, 9 suns appeared in the sky and the emperor commanded Hou-Yi to shoot down 8 of the 9 suns. A Goddess rewarded him with an Immortality Pill for his deed. But his wife apparently stole the pill and was banished to the moon. She met a hare on the moon and built a palace and stayed on the moon. It is said that u can sometimes see her playing with the hare on the moon when the moon is at her brightest and roundest.

A story of the mooncake is during the Mongolian Rule in 1289 AD, the Chinese were treated as slaves in China by the Mongolians. So in 1368 during the August Moon Festival, the Chinese decided to have a revolution. Knowing the Mongolians don't eat mooncake, the Chinese Revolutionists sent messages in the mooncakes telling them to execute the Mongolians after the festival. And the Chinese were told not to eat the mooncakes until the 15th of the 8th Lunar month. So that's why we eat mooncakes on the 15th of the 8th Lunar month now.

The tradition of eating mooncakes while enjoying the bright round moon can also be traced back to the time when the Chinese especially the Han and minority nationalities because they used to hold ceremonies to welcome winter and worship the moon. The yolk in the mooncakes signify the beautiful moon and mooncakes were sent to family and friends to represent wishes of family reunion.

Thames Festival

We went to the Thames Festival in London along the River Thames yesterday with Rick's friend, Stuart and Michelle, and their friend, Andy. It was fantastic! We met up in a Park and lazed around watching Belly Dancing and listening to music and they were having wine and I had a Coke (cos I didn't want to turn red in public), and gorging on Thai Food and chatting under the sun. It was fantastic! This was the first time I have ever sat in a park and lazed around... There were so many people!!! Then we walked along the Thames looking at the stalls. Everything was for sale! There were food and drinks stalls, jewellery stalls, craft stalls from different European countries, street performers, everything... It was fun. Then we had dinner at a Turkish Restaurant which I didn't quite like. Turkish food is not my thing but it was nice catching up with them cos Michelle is going back to South Africa on Wed and Stuart will be joining her in Oct. And Andy was very nice to talk to as well.
At night, we watched the parade. We had to climb over the railing which was toooooooo high for me to climb over so I made Rick walk further down to to cross it. Poor thing! Then we watched the fireworks. It was fabulous!!! and We picked a spot right opposite of where they let off the fireworks so it was a sight to remember!!!! Stuart bought us girls bunny eyes which lit up and it was funny! The guys kept laughing at us cos if we got lost, all they had to do was look for 2 pairs of bunny ears! hehehe...It was a really fun night! It's amazing Rick can get up and pack for Slovenia this morning! He coudln't stay awake on the way home and we got home only after 12..hehhe

Longest Day- Summer Solstice

Yesterday, 21 June, was supposedly the longest day of the year. It's also the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere. When Rick told me it was the longest day of the year, i thought ...ok, does that mean the sun rises earlier and sets later? i actually waited till it got dark which wasn't much later than normal...cos when i woke up at 4.38am, it was light... hehehe...nope...at least not exactly on the same day... so anyway due to the position of the sun and the earth (or something like that) to day is supposed to have 12 hrs of daylight for the equator, 24 hrs of sunlight for the north pole and 24 hrs of darkness at the south pole... and some places may experience earlier sun rises while other places later sunsets...

and talking abt sun rises... did you know that the druids used Stonehenge as a calendar back 2,000 or so years ago? Anyway, on this day, the sun is supposed to rise exactly on one stone in particular-the Hell stone and this was supposed to be a very important day for them.And the druids also have rituals or celebrations to praise the sun and they light fires to strengthen(???) the sun cos days would be getting shorter soon. They do this on Midsummer's Day eve, which is only a few days after summer solstice (this part i can't figure out, why midsummer when it's only a few days after summer solstice!) They( the ancient and present day druids...yes, druids are still around) do a Summer Solstice Ritual/ Circle Dance (http://www.awakenedwoman.com/solstice_ritual.htm) where they light candles and praise and sing in a circle to give thanx and to ask for wishes to be granted, cos this is supposed to be the day when the Mother(earth maybe?) is at her strongest. Worth a try you think?

Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 and Zong Zi 粽子

Yesterday was the Dragon Boat Festival and people back home are eating zongzi and i don get to eat any...sigh!!!!...i miss my grandma's special zongzi cos hers are the only ones i would eat... grandma uses mostly lean pork with crushed peanuts mixed well together with 5-spice powder... and the zongzi she makes are by far more superior to any other zongzi in the world!!! and i don care what anyone says!!! Sylvia and mom teased me mercilessly cos i can't eat most of the zongzi they made with my grandma!!!!!

well, this prompted me to do research on what the Dragon Boat Festival is all about so I can explain it FULLY to Rick now ( like a true chinese!) lol...there are many versions to the legend but as far as i understand it, this is how it goes...


A long time ago, there was this very famous poet who was also minister or advisor to the emperor of that time. His name was Qu Yuan. So anyway, the other ministers were jealous of him and ganged up to persuade the emperor to ignore his advice because they were at war with someone else during that time. Qu Yuan was apparently so disappointed and disgusted by everything he jumped into the MiLuo River and drowned himself. When people heard, they raced across the river to look for his body but of course, they couldn't find it. Nobody wants the fish to eat his body so they threw rice dumplings into the river as fish food. From then on, we have Dragon Boat races and we eat zongzi to commemorate Qu Yuan.

This poem was Qu Yuan's last poem about how he felt.

Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair,
Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.
I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot,
And waited for the wind to come,
to sour up on my journey