Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! Yeps its been busy busy around my home with the cleaning and the cooking and all those preparations! This year is the year of the Ox/Cow! My three little Meekiyus above are inspired by the new year!

Cows/Ox are known to be diligent, patient and rather remain silent. They are consequent and reliable as friends. But also easy to irritate and tend to be stubborn and obstinate. Stubborn as an ox some say?
Best matches are persons born in the Year of the Snake, the Rat or the Rooster.
The Year of the Ox 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009

Wonder if all that is true? Who knows? My boyfriend is an Ox and I'm a Rat and we get along well... then again he's a Virgo and I'm a Sagittarius and that match is supposedly bad. lolol. There's a saying that relationships are both sour and sweet. =D

That's the lucky decorations my sister and cousin make out of Red Envelopes. Red Envelopes contain money that you give out to your friend's children or young family members. Supposedly if you're married or over a age you're suppose to start giving instead of receiving. Only people older then you can give to you so you're not allowed to bust your little siblings for Red Envelopes. The point of Red Envelopes is that if you're generous to others it will come back twofold though the year. Thus the more you give the more you receive.

Actually we have all these Red and gold decorations everywhere around the home. Both are lucky colors. Most of the words are the same "Happiness, Longevity, Health, Wealth" all that jazz. Also there's this thing where you have to the leave the lights on in your house not including bedroom lights on for the night, this supposedly scares "bad luck away" and "good luck" which is attracted to light comes to your house when you sleep. Sort of like Santa Claus... I guess... he's red too so... =D
Oh oh all the food. The picture above is only an inkling of all the traditional food prepared for the two week long festivities. There's always roast pork where the skin is thick and crispy, boiled/seared chicken with the head on and for some reason a dried date in it's beak. The ones above I've numbered.

The first one is the staple bok choy which is stir fried and slightly steamed with a bit of garlic and dried shrimp. It has this fresh taste with a slight tinge of garlic.

The second and fourth is the same dish of chicken stir fried with cashews and I love slightly cooked cashews. It retains the taste but is softer and it's great extra crunch to the softened chicken.

The third is tiger shrimp with I think chives and I love how it's butterflied because it allows the juice and flavor to be cooked into the tender meat.

The fifth is this noodle that's made of plain clear noodles and soy sauce with chives, dried shrimp and some other things. I absolutely love it because it has such a unique flavor. The noodle itself has this ability to be either soft or crunchy so it's like a surprise each time. They only make this during the New Year. =(

The sixth and last one is cuttlefish with celery. Cooked just right the meat is tender and no rubbery. If you say eww to cuttlefish, octopus or squid you really need to try it stir fried with the right seasonings. If the looks of tentacles freak you out just close your eyes. =D

Until next time... Happy Chinese New Year!