Another weekend of home dinners

As Ko-ko was still having exams, we opted to dine in. We'd run out of ideas and in the end decided on chillie beans with sausages and bun (with cheese and sour cream toppings):

Forgot to take a picture of the bun. So here's the un-bitten portion, but my sour cream looks a bit yucky because I had mixed it into the beans. 

On Sunday, Ah Ma planned to cook fish and chips. So we had our equivalent, grilled fish with mashed potatoes. This round daddy added (quite a lot) of truffle oil into the mash potatoes. Heavenly... 

Evelyn's Pet Cactus

We decided to go out for brunch today since daddy was not playing golf. Ended up in Maccallum Connoisseurs which I had called and was told had tables available. 

While waiting for our food, you noticed that they were selling plants; cactus and succulents. You had spotted the cactus and after we'd eaten, I said that you could have it if you'd buy with your allowance. Of course, you happily agreed to that. 

Our brunch:

But I told you that it was your responsibility to take care of the cactus: watering, talking to it and petting it. You gave me this bewildered look when I said that you needed to pet it. 

Here we are at home with you unboxing it:

*If you look carefully, Ko-ko's reflection can be seen. He's goading you to pet it!

But you did pet it in the end.. much to my laughter and finally admitting that I had tricked you that the cactus needs to be petted.

 

Weekend of Yummi-ness

We'd decided to cook this weekend. Lasagna on Saturday and dumplings on Sunday (Chap Goh). 

Ko-ko licking up all the Bechamel sauce

Look at the cheese he sprinkled on top

Lasagna... drool

Evelyn and Ah Kong had spaghetti with bolognese sauce, Mei-mei eating the beef version (from the lasagna) and Ah Kong having the pork (sneaky daddy added some beef unbeknownst to him).

On Sunday, since it was Chap Goh, we decided to have something everyone enjoys. Dumplings. As usual, the final number of dumplings wrapped was around 180 (including cheese and chicken dumplings).

Dumplings all arranged and ready to be fried

Two fryers makes it faster and we also learnt to fry and eat then fry more to have warmer and nicer dumplings

Dumpling and Japanese Sochu!

We ate around 100 pieces of pork dumplings today. Our amazing fry-masters did a great job.

Happy Birthday, Ah Ma

We had an earlier celebration on Saturday. Ah Ma heard from her friend of the delicious "birthday noodles" in Mum's Nyonya. So she pre-booked the noodles which we enjoyed thoroughly. Too bad Mei-mei didn't join us as she had already agreed to attending Yuen Ting's birthday party. 

But we did wait for her to come back to sing the birthday song and enjoy "looking" at the cake. Unfortunately the cake turned out to be with peanuts, so she was treated to ice-cream from the freezer. 

Chor 3: Time to go home

As we expected the crowds to be here, the plan was to eat leftovers for lunch. Again, breakfast was yam cake and seung wan yuen and whatever we found in the kitchen/fridge.  

Love eating this

Daddy and I went out to Thean Chun in hopes that the uncles selling chee cheong fun would be open. Too bad, they were the only stall in the coffee shop which were still closed.

But... we were well prepared. Knowing that Ah Ma would be cooking curry chicken for the 2nd day's dinner, we bought dehydrated noodles to eat with the curry:

Ah Kong and Ah Ma left before lunch. While we planned to leave after dinner. So while Ko-ko studied (or played games in the room.. I do not know which), daddy and Ashley and Yvonne Kor-kor played mahjong.

Dinner was delicious roasted/smoked chicken, noodles and fried rice from Tong Hoi again. We packed up and soon it was time to head back to Penang. 

Unfortunately, the traffic this year seems different. We'd usually encounter smooth traffic heading back and watch the heavy/non-moving traffic South bound. But this year, there were a couple of stretches where we came to a full halt!

Finally arrived in Penang exhausted, but happy from a nice gathering with family. 

The Ban Generations

Took some pictures:

Youngest generation

Our generation

Oldest generation

Chor 2 of CNY

This time our second day of the Chinese New Year was a bit more hectic. The lion dance was expected to arrive at 11am. So here are the 2 "workers" with their "supervisor":

I woke up early as I planned to add the flour to the seung wan yuen but when I got down, Tiger Chim Poh was already working on it. She said that she was fine doing it. I took over for the last 10 or so, as she needed to go out to pick up with pork. 

Here is our family favourite, the seung wan yuen:

Mei-mei helped Yvonne Kor-kor to set up the basket which I had prepared the night before for the lion dance. You added the "gold ingots" and flowers:

Finally the lion dance troupe arrives. Coming into our house:

Offering prayers to the alter/ancestors:

The "band":

Sneaked a wefie with daddy:

Everyone busy videoing the dance:

The lion climbing up the pole for the lettuce and ang pow which daddy had  hung:

The other lion "preparing" the "gift":

Ta-da.. it rearranged the fruits in the basket:

When the troupe left, it was time for lunch. Our customary shredded chicken and scallop porridge:

Soon Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis arrived with Smoky. After a short rest, it was time to fry the chu yoke yuen (it takes a long time to fry up all 200+). The first few also needed to be taste tested.. guess who is our official taste tester for this year? (This is a hot job with many willing volunteers! *grin*)

3 hard at work: shaper, stirrer and picker

And again, here is our amazing dinner spread:

While daddy and Ashkey Kor-kor sent the maid home then went in search for ice, everyone at home started "happy hour":

When they arrived home, we let go of the last fireworks. It was drizzling, but we were again feted with the spectacular fireworks:

The lasted later tonight.. even Smoky had fun.. here he is with his "favourite" snack provider:

Welcome! Year of the Rabbit

This year, we had woke up to a leisurely start of the Chinese New Year. The lion dance which is usually on the first day is to only visit the house on the second day. So we woke up, had a slow breakfast and then got ready (i.e. shower, make up, dress up).

For Mei-mei, you were given an assignment "To serve tea to her parents". So we took a cup of tea to the living room and prepared for the "ceremony". Daddy was shocked when you kneeled down to serve him tea. But that was what was apparently taught/briefed to you at school before the holidays. So we went ahead with that: 

Serving daddy's tea

Then time to give out ang pows:

Family picture

Then we went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Kor Poh already had the soup starting (or done..), Yvonne Kor-kor fried the eggs, I cooked the mee suah and Mei-mei cut and squeezed the lime for the chilies:

Always so delicious

Did I tell you that we seem to have a very relaxed Chor Yat this year? Well, we were sitting around the kitchen, and as we started to prepare for dinner, I took out the fruits to cut for our lou sang. What did I have to do? Break a mug and cut my foot! So daddy had to clean my wound, kakak had to sweep the floor and Doctor Chek Kong had to come earlier to clean and dress the wound. So my doctor gave me an "MC" from the kitchen for the day. The rest of the family including the 3 girls who were not cooking helped to cut and make our rabbit lou sang.

This was the rabbit

After my wound was covered, I hobbled to the kitchen to check out the lou sang. Slightly tweaked it and we're ready for dinner. Here is our dinner spread:

Lou Ahhhhh...

And of course our night entertainment were playing fireworks (big and small ones):

I wasn't ready for the big fireworks.. only got a partial recording.

Headed back to the house where the kids entertained themselves and the adults dared each other to try out Ah Chor's antique wine.. (claimed to be deer pen*s wine)

Can you see the contents clearly?

And so that is how our first day of CNY ended.