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.

Cloth Store

Pretend play is one of Emily's favorite things right now. 

She does the usual: cooking, dressing up, being a doctor, 

builder, vet, superhero, damsel in distress, supermarket 

cashier, librarian.....

The past two days she has been playing Cloth Store. This was 

interesting to me because I had never considered cloth (or fabric, 

as I have learned to call it here in the US) stores particular 

interesting for pretend play. They are fascinating to me, of course, 

but only in the retail therapy sense. Over the course of our multiple 

visits to numerous cloth stores, Emily apparently has picked up 

some patterns (pun not intended) in how they operate.

First, there is the thrill of seeing all the wonderful, colorful 

fabric on bolts and rolls. 

Then, she gets to help choose fabric for different projects and 

put the bolts in the shopping cart next to and on top of the car 

seat containing the sleeping infant. 

Next, she stands in line to get her fabric measured and cut. 

Sometimes she pretends she is in JoAnn, and so I or Dave 

have to be the counter staff and render this service.

Other times she pretends she is in SR Harris, the fabulous 

fabric warehouse where she gets to measure and cut her own 

fabric and stick stickers on each piece, on which she writes 

(pretends to) the yardage and price. 

We set up Cloth Store for her two days ago, complete with battered 

cardboard boxes containing stickers, scissors and pens. She happily 

pushed around her shopping cart with her doll and, with affected tone, 

inquired, "Excuse me, madam, where might I find the fabric?" and 

instructed me to direct her to the correct "aisle".  Yes, I do that (minus 

the 'madam') when I am in fabric stores. I would love to browse but I 

often have three children with me, sucking on candy or eating large 

rice crackers to buy me time, and I need to get in and get out 

as fast as possible.

While deciding which Cloth Store to pretend to visit for the day, 

Emily asked me how many cloth stores there were that we knew.

"Not enough" I thought to myself, before dutifully 

counting them off for her.

Here is Kate, checking out the Cloth Store. Good training for you, Kate- 

get used to it because we will be going there a lot.

I am very pleased that the girls have been so effectively indoctrinated. 

It seems that not only are fabric stores interesting, fabulous and better 

than toy stores (Emily has never set up Toy Store, incidentally), but the 

experience of shopping there is worth reliving again and again at home!

Halloween

What a beautiful, warm Halloween we had yesterday! 

Emily and Jenna were out playing and dancing among 

the fallen leaves earlier in the day.  

Emily wanted to be a ballerina this year but the traditional tutu 

is not feasible for the cool October night here in the midwest. 

So here she is decked out in ankle-length fleece, looking more 

like Her Royal Pinkness than a prima ballerina. I posted more 

pictures of her dress on the craft blog here. Jenna is not in costume, 

since it wasn't planned for her to go trick-or-treating this year but 

here she is looking the disgruntled faithful lady-in-waiting/cake taster

/room-service attendant. Hmm, maybe she is in costume after all.

By dusk, our home was ready for the neighborhood's trick-or-treaters. 

Remember those pumpkins and candy corn crafts the kids did some 

weeks ago? We put them to good use here.

Emily got all dressed up to go out sweets-collecting. Last year, she 

and I made the rounds alone, leaving Dave and baby Jenna home 

to feed the masses that would come swarming to our door.

This year, and especially since it was a lovely warm evening, 

Dave took Jenna in her stroller to watch the fun while chaperoning 

Emily and a small group of her neighborhood playmates as they 

went door-to-door. A tutorial of sorts for Jenna, maybe, so that 

next year, she'd be able to do the real thing.

Kate was not very happy to be left behind with me but someone had to 

stay behind to dish out the treats when the doorbell rang.

It turned out that Jenna, after watching the big kids ring a few 

doorbells, was ready to join in. We'd brought along a tiny bucket

 just in case this happened, so Jenna jumped right in. Dave reported 

that she even wanted to enter people's houses after they opened 

their doors. We think that by next year, she'll probably get it all right.

And before long, both kids were home with their plunder which 

they poured out on the sofa for inspection. The more observant 

among you might notice Kate herself had a costume change 

- but only because she had supper earlier and, 

well, that's always a messy affair.

Hurrah! And with that, gentle readers, Halloween is over.

We appreciate that it is fun for the kids but we disprefer the 

somewhat macabre decor in the stores at this time of the year. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations are much nicer 

and the food is better, too!