Gong Hee Fatt Choy!

Happy 3rd Day of the New Year!

We try to celebrate CNY here in Minnesota. I always snort when I consider that in China, CNY is called the Spring Festival. It would never work here, because we still have at least 2 more months of winter (if we're lucky) before there's any sign of any possibility of Spring turning up. And CNY here is a quiet affair - the stores are stocked with Valentine's stuff because nobody knows what CNY is. Which is fine by me, because the last thing I want is loud Chinese music, complete with cymbals and gongs, blaring over the PA system at the supermarket.

Still, I'm Chinese, and the kids are half-Chinese, so I feel obliged to do things during this season to show my roots, as they say. 

Food is always a safe option. Everyone likes food. 

We made pineapple tarts, using Mum's original recipe. 

Here's the jam. That container came from two oversize pineapples, chopped and cooked down to that miniscule amount. 

Here's the butter. I actually went out and bought European (okay, Irish) butter because it was more like the sort we use in Singapore. Here it is with a bit of American butter (the larger block of Irish butter is yellower and melts more quickly). Nothing wrong with American butter - and it's probably healthier than the sort we use back home, because it's less oily and fatty. But American butter only works with American recipes and European (or Australian) butter only works with the recipes we use in Singapore. Anyway, I used Irish butter, and it really made a difference.

The girls all helped.

And then they ran off and left me to finish up. 

But not before we'd filled quite a few trays together, of tart shells and balls of pineapple jam.

And then we baked them. Here are the ones I like (they have more pastry than jam)

and here are a few we made specially for the family members that prefer a higher jam-to-pastry ratio.

Yum.

And then we packed them away in the same kind of containers we use in Singapore. No reason other than they look more authentic this way.

We filled three containers. Er . . . they were full. They're not so full now.

Here's a tray showing evidence of the children having been part of the baking process. Do you see it?

Here - I'll isolate it:

Yes, it's stuffed-animal-sized tarts for favourite friends.

Unfortunately, family oaths prevent me from sharing the recipe here (or anywhere). All I will say is that we had some leftover egg whites, which we turned into macarons. 

Food apart, we did two other Chinese things.

One was to sew this blouse,

and make these buttons.

Very important aspects of culture - food and clothes. Far more important than language and customs and whatnot (especially since I am atrocious at both).

The last thing we did was to share our culture in school. Every year, I go into the girls' classrooms and do a short presentation. The girls are always very excited about Mum Coming To Talk About Chinese New Year, so I told them I'd do it until they or their teachers lost interest. We bring in our entire paper lantern collection, talk about customs (ha ha ha - I usually have to surf the net to get info), do a short quiz and hand out little clementines and red packets with chocolate coins. Some years I even dress up and wear my (ancient) traditional Chinese blouses. This year -hurrah - I actually had a blouse that fit. 

On to the new year, then! May yours be, like Christmas, merry and bright.