Day 2 of Chinese New Year 2009

The 2nd day of the Lunar New Year started out with...

"Mama, take my picture with B!"

Then we headed over to the Mall of America where this week's Toddler Tuesday activity was Chinese New Year. There were Lion Dancers, crafts and snacks (glutinous rice balls).

CiBaby was very curious about the lion.

At one point the lion was right in front of us. We even had an opportunity to have our picture taken with the lion, CiBaby lead the way. We had to show her there was a person inside, but was still very apprehensive.

See her clutching the rice ball?

She was still so curious about that darn lion.

After the festivities were over, we did a little shopping and playing.

We even stopped at a fountain to "throw coins."

It was a great day in the life.

Today we're laying low and having jammie day (like my friend Kar calls it). I need to finalize my dinner menu for Saturday and I feel like I'm coming down with something. I woke up feeling like I had a terrible hangover, but there was no alcohol involved! I've popped an Airborne, so hopefully I can nip it in the lotus bud.

Year of the Ox

Happy New Year!

Today we celebrated the beginning of Chinese New Year...the year of the Ox (which happens to be my sign as well!) which will continue for the next 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival.

The day began with a very fun playdate with 9 other mom friends and their 11 children, it was a full house. Fun was had by all. In an effort to minimize stress on myself I made nothing except for coffee. I did buy some fun treats at my FAV Asian market...trying to keep to the New Year traditions (and still be American kid friendly) I got green tea pumpkin seeds, sweet candies and taro filled wafer cookies*.

After the house quieted and was tidyed up, I set to preparing our meal. It was a simple dish but delicious and very easy to make, which was served with Yu Choy. G-Mama and Bopa joined us for the festivities.

Xinjian Rice Pot with Lamb
san geung yeung yuk faan

(copied from Food of the World - China)

This wholesome dish from Xinjiang Province is known in Uygur as "poluo rice" which means finger-food. Thus is eaten with the fingers rather than chopsticks* or spoons. This dish is always served at weddings, funerals, and traditional festivals, including the first day of Chinese New Year.

Serves 6-8 (generous servings)

2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil

10-1/2 oz/300 g lamb or mutton, cut into bit-size cubes

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

2 onions coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppers, lightly roasted and lightly crushed

generous 2 cups short- or medium-grain rice

3-3/4 cups water

In a large casserole, heat the oil and stir-fry the meat for 1-2 minutes, or until the pieces are sealed on all sides. Add the carrot and onion and stir-fry until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Add the salt, ginger, and Sichuan peppers and mix well.

Finally, add the rice and water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all of the water. Serve alone or as part of a meal.

We cracked open a bottle of wine

we picked up in China, and put some
traditional Chinese music on the stereo.

CiBaby was so proud of her chopstick skills,

even though there were near misses!

Wishing you all the best,

CzaMama, T-Daddy and CiBaby

*If you see Durian fruit wafer cookies by Garden Company, run fast and far. Horrible. They smelled so awful and tasted just as bad. The coconut and peach were good, and the taro (by I-Mei) were good too. All not terribly sweet...like american wafer cookies.

**We used chopsticks...Bopa wasn't too excited about using his fingers to eat.

China Reunion, the Hebrew Nationals and the harvest begins

This morning T-Daddy, CiBaby and I hopped into our fuel efficient car and headed on over to our adoption agency's China Reunion.

There were crafts, vendors (I bought some great books and stamps), a silent auction, music, food, stairs...

It was a very fun event.

But what was almost more fun is that we got to see some friends* we made on our trip to China last year...the Fabulous Ds! (The Ds have 8 children...remember what I told you about the number 8 yesterday?) They are such a great family. (And no, I have no idea why we're so far away from the others in the pic, it's very odd.)

The guys picked up where they left off...

And the kids have all gotten so big and changed so much in the last 9 months.

It was a very fun, and exhausting morning.

This evening before dinner, I went out to the garden to pick some veggies. There were gorgeous cucumbers and a bounty of tomatoes (although I had a hard time keeping the cherry tomatoes in the bowl once CiBaby discovered where I was and what I was picking.)

For dinner we had a wonderful tomato salad, my fav, cucumbers and Hebrew National hotdogs (T-Daddy requested these yesterday at TJs...he likes the commercials)...what can I say?! Can you believe, CiBaby ate 2 1/2 hotdogs for dinner?!? (sans bun, she's low carb-ing it you know, minus the noodles, rice and crackers she eats all day long).

Between the beginning of the Olympics last night and this morning I really want to go back to China. Hey did I mention T-Daddy has softened up to the notion of adopting again?

It was a very good day in this life.

*Unfortunately our other friends were not able to attend this year.

Why can't we all just get along?

This pains me to post this, but I feel it necessary.

I recently* found out that during the very fun Dragon Festival, some very hateful people defaced a beautiful sculpture with very racist remarks and symbols at the very same park.

Why?

Why would someone hate someone else so much just based on the color of their skin? Aren't we really all the same? We're all daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers, who laugh, cry, live and love.

Why?

Is it a superiority complex? Get over yourself, you're not that great.

I don't understand.

I weep at the thought that someone could hate my beautiful daughter so much as to call her such ugly names, or worse. I weep for all of those before me that have had to ask themselves the very same question...Why?

So for those who think we've come too far in race relations to think that hate crimes don't still exist...or "not here," think again.

*Yes, I keep myself in a news bubble. Why bring yourself down with all of the bad that's reported? The media needs to find the good out there too.

Dragon Festival

This weekend was the Dragon Festival where there was a very cool opening ceremony to awaken the dragon; which included the dragon dance, a blessing, opening of the dragon's eyes, a reading of an ancient Chinese spell, and a welcoming Hawaiian dance.

The Dragon Boat races...

Cultural performances...

CiBaby especially liked the Taiko Drums, she was entranced by them.

(I have a video of CiBaby watching the Taiko drums and doing a little jammin', but the file is too large to post...too bad, because it's so cute! If someone knows how to post a larger file, please let me know :-)

Mom and daughter tattooing...appropriate symbol, don't you think?

Family and friends*...

(CiBaby's little swinging buddy)

We went both days and it produced one very tired CiBaby**.

*For some reason I missed getting pictures of Grams and our friends J & O, sorry! And unfortunately T-Daddy wasn't able to be with us this year...the Navy had other plans for him.
**CzaMama is beat herself, goodnight!

It's 4706

...do you feel old?

Today we celebrate Chinese New Year, the year of the rat.

How are we going to celebrate? CzaMama is making dinner! We are having Barley and Vegetable Soup, Soy Roast Chicken with Ginger and Spring Onion and Cashew and Chili Fried Rice, all from the Chinatown cookbook, and some Big Bowl egg rolls (from the freezer section ;-). Then after dinner, CzaMama is running away to a Tupperware party (LOL!).

T-Daddy is celebrating at work today, they are having a Chinese New Year celebration, but it's only for employees (boo!).

Along with our celebrating we will try to bring ourselves good luck and keep away the bad luck. I will briefly open the door as it's only 9F degrees today (remember, it's the tundra). It's a good thing I bought new shoes for Saturday's wedding last weekend and that I already have the pants I'm going to wear. Oh shoot, I can't sweep today...darn. Although I don't think I can get away with not cleaning at all...I guess we just won't have as much good luck as possible. It also looks like I can only spruce up my hair as I don't want to wash away my luck.

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. - Chinese Proverb

Happy New Year!

**All of the recipes were absolutely delish!