After a relaxing January, February is off to a rather hectic start. DH has been gone for nearly two weeks (one of the longer trips he's taken). Tomorrow, the kids will be home for exactly an hour after school, and they each have a thirty-minute piano lesson during that time, with the other thirty minutes spent getting ready for fencing/ballet. (They usually have lessons on Tuesday, but their teacher had a conflict this week.) About the time we take off to pick up T for fencing, DH should be landing at SFO. The plan is to take B to ballet, drop M & T off at the fencing school, have DH take the BART to the station nearest the fencing school, pick him up there, and drive him home so that he can attend the Boy Scout parent meeting at 7:30 while I pick up B from ballet.
A good chunk of today was spent trying to organize the weekend. M signed up for the Boy Scout ski trip, but I didn't have it on my calendar. When I realized that it was this weekend, and that the scouts who don't ski well (M has never skiied before) need to have an adult with them, I convinced DH that he should go on the trip. The poor guy will be home for less than twenty-four hours! Once we sorted out who was going, I rented skis for them online, and will be making a trip tomorrow to pick up the gear we don't have (ski gloves for one of them, ski pants for M). Oh, and I have a choir retreat all day on Saturday, so B is going to have to miss her pre-ballet class assisting this week, as I don't have time to drive her home during the middle of my retreat. (For some reason she wasn't very excited by the idea of spending the entire day sitting in a church listening to us rehearse...)
Tomorrow is also Chinese New Year, but we're putting off our celebration until Sunday evening. Kung Hsi Fa Tsai!
Showing posts with label Chinese New Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese New Year. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Happy Holidays!
Gong xi fa cai, and Happy Valentine's Day!
DH did make to to DC on Thursday, and today he arrived home safely. I picked him up at the airport this afternoon, and discovered that he and I had bought each other identical boxes of chocolate (See's one-pound Nuts and Chews). Great minds think alike!
After the airport, we went to the Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Star Trek Exhibit. The kids have really gotten into Star Trek this year: we started the ball rolling last spring when we insisted they watch a few episodes of the original series before going to see the new movie. M has watched all of the original series now, and I don't think B is far behind. The exhibit was fun--we had our picture taken on a replica of the original bridge, although we declined to pay $28 for it at the end. They also had a transporter set up, and we watched ourselves disappear on the monitor. Lots of props and models, and a long timeline of happenings in the Star Trek universe. I hadn't realized before seeing the timeline that Star Trek: Enterprise (the one series we didn't watch) occurred BEFORE the original series in the timeline.
By the time we got through the exhibit, we were hungry and tired, so didn't stay to explore the rest of the museum, although it looked interesting. After some discussion, we agreed to have dinner at The Fish Market in San Mateo, since it was on the way home and we hadn't been to a branch for quite a while. (It used to be one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in San Diego.) The wait for a table was 45 minutes to an hour, but DH got us on the list upstairs at The Top of the Market, and we had a delicious seafood dinner in honor of the two holidays today.
DH did make to to DC on Thursday, and today he arrived home safely. I picked him up at the airport this afternoon, and discovered that he and I had bought each other identical boxes of chocolate (See's one-pound Nuts and Chews). Great minds think alike!
After the airport, we went to the Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Star Trek Exhibit. The kids have really gotten into Star Trek this year: we started the ball rolling last spring when we insisted they watch a few episodes of the original series before going to see the new movie. M has watched all of the original series now, and I don't think B is far behind. The exhibit was fun--we had our picture taken on a replica of the original bridge, although we declined to pay $28 for it at the end. They also had a transporter set up, and we watched ourselves disappear on the monitor. Lots of props and models, and a long timeline of happenings in the Star Trek universe. I hadn't realized before seeing the timeline that Star Trek: Enterprise (the one series we didn't watch) occurred BEFORE the original series in the timeline.
By the time we got through the exhibit, we were hungry and tired, so didn't stay to explore the rest of the museum, although it looked interesting. After some discussion, we agreed to have dinner at The Fish Market in San Mateo, since it was on the way home and we hadn't been to a branch for quite a while. (It used to be one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in San Diego.) The wait for a table was 45 minutes to an hour, but DH got us on the list upstairs at The Top of the Market, and we had a delicious seafood dinner in honor of the two holidays today.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
New Year's Cakes
Current mental soundtrack: "Biggest Blame Fool" from Seussical
I don't do a lot of traditional stuff for Chinese New Year, but one thing I rarely miss is the chance to make Chinese New Year's cakes. Many years I manage to make dumplings for dinner, but I didn't get to the Asian supermarket last weekend, so we're going to have an American New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow (steak or roast), followed by Chinese New Year cake.
It's taken me a while to get the dessert recipe right, but I think I finally have it down. My mom always made one big one that had to be steamed for hours, but last year I figured out that it was much faster to make a bunch of small ones. Plus, that makes it easier to freeze the leftovers.
-----
2 pounds sweet rice flour
4 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups water
Lightly grease 8 custard cups (I use Pyrex ones) with shortening. Melt brown sugar in water over low heat until completely dissolved. Mix with rice flour, adding additional water as needed until dough is wet and sticky. Scoop into custard cups. Steam for 1.5 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Slice into thick slices, and pan-fry in oil until lightly browned. Serve hot. Leftover cakes can be tightly wrapped and frozen.
I don't do a lot of traditional stuff for Chinese New Year, but one thing I rarely miss is the chance to make Chinese New Year's cakes. Many years I manage to make dumplings for dinner, but I didn't get to the Asian supermarket last weekend, so we're going to have an American New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow (steak or roast), followed by Chinese New Year cake.
It's taken me a while to get the dessert recipe right, but I think I finally have it down. My mom always made one big one that had to be steamed for hours, but last year I figured out that it was much faster to make a bunch of small ones. Plus, that makes it easier to freeze the leftovers.
-----
2 pounds sweet rice flour
4 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups water
Lightly grease 8 custard cups (I use Pyrex ones) with shortening. Melt brown sugar in water over low heat until completely dissolved. Mix with rice flour, adding additional water as needed until dough is wet and sticky. Scoop into custard cups. Steam for 1.5 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Slice into thick slices, and pan-fry in oil until lightly browned. Serve hot. Leftover cakes can be tightly wrapped and frozen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
