Andrea over at Remains of Day, asked if we would like to join her and her family along with another family for a celebration. I did a little research and found a recipe for Nian Gao. Nian Gao, is also known as Chinese New Year Cake. It is considered good luck to eat this during the New Year festivities. The recipe that I found was for baked instead of steamed cake. Yes, steamed cake. I'm not really sure how one is to steam a cake, but given that the baked version looked insanely easy, I opted for that. If you make this, be sure to read the reviews and be prepared for the beans to mix right into the batter, the recipe says to layer it, but the batter is actually quite thin (and I even had to add more cooking time).
On the way over in the car, Aiden asked me, "Was I born in 2004?" "Yes", I replied. "Woohoo! I'm a Monkey", he shouted. When I asked him how he knew that he said that he learned it from watching Jackie Chan, then followed it with, "You just never know what you'll learn from Jackie Chan." Indeed you don't. (Just incase you're wondering, it's this Jackie Chan, not this one.)Then, I asked him if he knew what 2012 was the year of and he said, "Yeah, the Black Water Dragon." It was then, that I realized, either my first grader knew more than me (I was going to say, "The year of the dragon."), or he was embellishing the Dragon.
When we arrived Andrea was busy making homemade fortune cookies! I was blown away by her ambition. I always try to make as much as I can at home, but I would never have even thought to attempt fortune cookies. She looked at me and said, "My boys keep saying that this is the year of The Black Water Dragon?!?!?" Obviously, this is an occasion that I needed to make Google my friend. As it turns out, the year 2012 is, in fact the year of the Black Water Dragon. I could try to explain it to you, but since my 7 year old knew it before I did, I'm thinking you might as well read about it yourself here.
Andrea mastering the fortune cookies. |
Eliana with a tambourine. Sadly, I have no pictures of them banging away on the drum set. |
The delicious dinner: Egg rolls, broccoli and rice, peanut noodles, two different kinds of tofu, and kimchi. |
Eliana and her completed dragon. |
The boys working on their dragons. |
After the dragons were complete, we all sat back down for dessert. We could finally sample Andrea's fortune cookies and the Nian Gao that I made.
Aiden about to break open his fortune cookie. His fortune: You will like green vegetables. |
Eliana showing me her fortune: You will be lucky. WOW! Good one. |
My dessert plate, with my fortune after I took it out of the cookie. "You will be happy." Preston's fortune said: You will grow 2 inches. |
I can't remember why, but Andrea is doing "The Robot" and quite beautifully I might add. |
Me with Andrea right before it was time to go home. |
幸福的新年 (Happy New Year)
Coming Soon: We're "heading back" to Cuba to do one more thing before the end of the month, then we celebrate Cuba.
I just started a facebook page, if you haven't already, like Mamacita Spins The Globe and see what's going on in between posts.
You are adorable :) The food looks great and now I'm starving!
ReplyDeleteHa! Thanks :) The food was great, I have been thinking about those egg rolls ever since and I want to eat more!
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and leaving such a sweet comment. I'm so glad you did, I love your blog and I'm following you back.
ReplyDeleteYou're night looks wonderful. I host a blog party called AfterSchool (on Sundays) with a group of mom bloggers and we are always excited to find blogs like yours. I invite you to link up to the party.
Thank you, Kelly! I will definitely check it out!
ReplyDelete