Happy Chinese New Year (of the Snake)

I have been busy spring cleaning the house for the new year. And also baking pineapple tart goodies because that's about all the Chinese New Year festivities I can get here in Charlotte. The picture above shows my mother's masterpiece. The food I miss most during Chinese New Year food is her pineapple tarts. She would stand by the stove, stirring and boiling the pineapple pulp for hours. Now she buys the ready made jam from the store. Still, they taste just as fantastic. And somehow she always manages to get the pastry just right, so it looks glazed and pretty, but instantly crumbles and melts in your mouth.

She is my inspiration to make picture perfect yummy-licious tarts. I'm getting the hang of it. I need to get those pretty cookie molds to press my dough into. Right now I cut my dough with round cookie cutters and they look like this.

I'm just happy they taste pretty good. I'll work on the presentation bit next year!

If you celebrate Chinese New Year, GONG HEI FATT CHOY! GONG XI FA CAI!!!

Music Concerts / Festivals Bucket List

I am SUPER STOKED!!

Do you have a bucket list?

Well I do. I have a list of music festivals and concerts to go to in my life time. And I'm about to cross one off my list.

Dave Matthews Band is coming to Charlotte for ONE DAY in May, and I just bought tickets for them!!!! <3<3<3


Now I've listened to some of their "Live in Concert" CDs and man! These guys play a song FUR-EH-VER!!! See, they like to improvise and jam according to their mood, so sometimes you get an ultra long solo or an ending that never really wants to end. But I'm so thrilled to get tickets to see them. When I lived in Singapore, I always hoped that they would do an Asia tour. Who would have thought I'd move here and be closer to fulfilling some of my concert-going dreams!!!





Some others on the bucket list:

:: Kings of Leon ::

My very first concert in the US of A. Kings of Leon. They must have heard me scream my requests because they sang all my favorite songs! Then again, almost every one of their songs is my favorite. Especially "Use Somebody".

:: Bjork ::

When she was in China, she infamously ended her concert by chanting "Free Tibet" in her song "Declare Independence". Well, pretty apt for the song, but girl, you not going anywhere near the Great Wall in the next few life times.

:: Jason Mraz ::

Now this is one sexy man that can keep his beard and fedora. Watched him in Fuji Rock Festival 2008, where he whipped out a polaroid, took pictures of himself "with" the audience (while on stage), and threw the polaroids into the audience. Oh and his fedora too. Awesome showmanship, but the Japanese crowd was a tad too mild. I would love to go to one of HIS concerts.

::She & Him ::

Love Zooey Deschanel and her voice. She's got such classic charm, who can refuse. Sorry M. Ward, you know she steals the show.

:: Regina Spektor ::

I love her voice, love her tunes and catchy lyrics. The album that stole my heart was Songs. Fun songs in that album especially Aching to Pupate and Consequences of Sounds!!!

:: Jack Johnson ::

Picture this - Surfer dude who plays a guitar under the palm tree sitting on the beach in the warm sea breeze. What is there not to love?? This guy has the best job EH-VAH!


And the bucket list continues to list just about any other music festivals i can get my hands on!!!! Someday I will hit Glastonbury. Coachella and Lollapalooza seem much more attainable now!!

Who'd you like to see?

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Are you wearing lots of red to usher in the New Year?



Technically, the first day of Chinese New Year was 5 days ago, but it lasts 15 days so i'm not too late!

My New Year 'celebrations' this year included a Skype video call with my extended family on Chinese New Year's eve. My aunts, uncles and cousins came over to my parents' house for a reunion dinner so it was especially festive and noisy during the video chat!

It is a tradition for families to gather and visit each other during the new year. The older generation (married couples) hand out red packets (little red money envelopes, or "ang pows") to the younger unmarried juniors and children. Children wish their elders by offering a pair of mandarin oranges in exchange for the red packets. My aunts and uncles were waving red packets in the video call, as I 'offered' a pair of nectarines to them. It was hilarious, but heartwarming to participate (albeit fake) in age-old traditions.

On top of that, I miss all the Chinese New Year goodies too, like my mother's pineapple tarts (which I tried to recreate), kueh bangkit, bak kwa (BBQ pork slices) and all that candy!!

My family is huge, so the children's "ang pow" collection is always very substantial. This year I left Chinese New Year wishes on my relatives' facebook pages and i was like "Dang! This family is growing exponentially!"

My paternal grandfather had 2 wives. His second wife (my grandmother) had 12 children. If I am to be the dividing timeline, most of the cousins older than me are already married with at least one child. The photo below is a picture of my cousins who are younger than me. I'm having a hard time catching up with who has which child in their families!





Happy Chinese New year to all who celebrate this joyous familial tradition.
May you have an awesome Dragon year ahead!

On a side note, the Chinese revere the Dragon. So anyone keen on having Dragon babies, you have about 3 more months to make those Dragon babies! :p

Crafting: Halloween goodies and the Wonders of the Dollar Store!

Source: lilsugar.com via chuiying on Pinterest

Source: crafteecrafters.blogspot.com via chuiying on Pinterest

I wanted to give out some Halloween goodies this year for my friends at work. But i am useless in the kitchen and at baking. So the simple candy crafts will have to do to! And I found these simple ideas on Pinterest! Too cute!

So i went to the Dollar Store and got some:

1) Lollipops and mints
2) White and black plastic table coverings
3) Fuzzy pipecleaners
4) Googly eyes
5) Glue gun

A $5 dollar craft? Hell, yeah!


Cut out squares of plastic table covering. For the spiders i cut out 3"x3" squares, and for the ghosts i cut out 6"x6" squares, and cut all my pipecleaners half in length.



Wrap the plastic squares around the lollipops like so.



I don't even tape them up, I just wrap them tight with the pipecleaners. I use white for the ghosts, and 3 black half-lengths for the spider legs. I made a spider with 8 legs, but it looked too cluttered. The spider looked better with 6 legs, so maybe I'm just going to call them ants.



Use a sharpie to draw on features for the ghosts.

Voila, spiders and ghosts all done!

But waitaminute! There's more! I'd seen these mints at the dollar store and thought if i added some googly eyes on them, maybe i can turn them into bloodshot eyeball candies? So i whipped out my glue gun and stuck eyes on the mints. I'm going to add a sign that says "Have a ball!" *sniggers*



You guys have a ball this weekend! Happy Halloween!!!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Via



I am officially homesick!

This is what is happening around the corner.
Firstly, on September 12, it is my dad's birthday. He is 58 this year (OMG! it never really sunk in how he is going to be the big 6-0!) In my mind, he is 48 going on 50.

On the very same day, it is also the Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest festival some 3000 years ago, which evolved to become a day of family reunions (much like Thanksgiving). The Mid-Autumn Festival takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. On this day, the moon is at its fullest and roundest.

Many legends revolve around this festival, the most popular being the Chinese empress who sacrificed herself by taking the elixir of life before the tyrant king had a chance. She floated away to the moon where she lived forever, lonely and miserable, with only her pet rabbit as company.

As i type this, i have a strange feeling I've blogged about the festival one year ago... I probably did, but i really miss home when this time comes around. Not to mention the traditional mooncakes that families gift to one another. These pastries are stuffed with red bean paste, lotus seed paste, and in these modern times, even ice cream (which i luuuuurrrve!)

Click on the above image to find a link to a mooncake recipe. I'm still wondering if i am brave enough to attempt...

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival m'dears! May you have a lovely reunion with your loved ones this day!

xoxo

NoDa All Arts Market

Lauren was telling me about this, and then I read it on Belle Terre's website. Sounds like awesome fun! I can't wait to go to this next Friday!

Come join us if you're in the area!

NoDa All Arts Market
Neighborhood Theatre
511 E 36th St, Charlotte, NC 28205

Natural food dyes for your Easter Egg Hunt!

Via Craftzine

Coming from a non-Christian family, I never celebrated Easter, did not really understand the significance of this day and associated Easter with chocolate bunnies and colorfully decorated eggs.

This Easter, however, the mother-in-law (MIL) invited J and I to go to church. Her son is about as un-religious as I am, but we like keep things cordial, so we oblige on special occasions like Christmas and now, Easter. "Girl, you're about to find out how big a deal Easter is around here!" was what my girlfriend had said to me.

So we were supposed to go BUY our Easter outfits with her tomorrow, but I checked my bank account, looked into my closet and then double checked my bank account, and thought it wise to wear something I had already owned. I did have at least 2 dresses in my closet that I have not worn ever. Knowing how conservative the dress code is (no denim, no dress/ skirt above the knees) I think I might be able to pull it off with a cardigan on my back and maybe a slouch to make my dress look longer?

Anyway, i came across this blog which excited me more than anything else about Easter excites me. The writer teaches you how to make natural food dyes to colour your Easter eggs, and even put flower/leaf patterns on it. It looks so fun, I just might have to try it out myself on -- yes, my next day off!

Here is the page and I hope you have a meaningful and fun Easter holiday!

Huzzah!

The boys have upped and left for Marion this weekend for an all-boys-only camping trip, which in my opinion is not fair. Why only boys? I want to go camping too. But no, this camp is only for fathers and their sons to have a male bonding session i guess. There are about 4 sets of father and sons going on this trip of campfire, fishing and sleeping in tents. Well, i guess while they freeze their butts off in the low 50s temperature, i will be all snuggled up under my covers on a king sized bed. Hmph.

So Mom has planned for a girls' night out to the movies while the boys are gone. We are going to watch a chick flick which otherwise would not have materialized if the boys were around. Tonight the girls will be going to the Marquee to watch the Betty White show You Again. I hope it's good. It looks fun but i will be missing my boy. :( Not to mention, I won't be able to take the car out this weekend, because I can't drive unless he is in the car next to me. Bleagh. Maybe I should just practise my three-point turns in the driveway.

And there is the grand opening of Mint Museum this weekend in Charlotte that i so wanted to go to. Guess I'll have to pass on that. But check this out, I want to go to the Renaissance Festival coming up next weekend. It's a medieval themed amusement park complete with a village, marketplace and an arts and crafts fair! Everybody there will be dressed up 16th century style and speaking old English! Whoo!




Via Carolina Renaissance Festival