Cooking Pleasure: Chinese New Year 2012

This CNY falls on 23rd January. My Ma's side will not be celebrating the new year because of my Pa's passing in October 2011. By CNY it is not even 100 days after his passing. Myself, eventhough my hubby's parent's side is celebrating the CNY, I am not in the mood because I really miss my Pa. Even while writing this post, I couldn't control my tears with the thought that this is the first CNY that I no longer have a 'Papa' to say 'KEONG HEE HUAT CHYE" [one of the chinese new year greetings in the Hokkien dialect] which I will usually say to him when I returned to his home on the second day of CNY.

For years, I have always baked various types of cookies, grilled meat 'bak kwa' and fried potato chips for my parents and parents in-law but this year I just don't feel like doing anything because for most years, my Pa will always remind me that I have to bake more of certain cookies for his visitors, such as peanut cookies for my cousins, butter cookies, potato chips and grilled meat for his grandsons and the sweet glutinous rice cake 'thnee kuih' for his Malay friends etc.

Hopefully, by next CNY 2013, I will be able to make the various CNY delicacies and share the recipes with you all.

Although, I am not in the mood to celebrate the CNY, I still have to carry out my duties as a responsible daughter in-law at my mother in-law's place. This year she has requested to prepare steamboat for CNY eve prayers [I think this will include several CNY traditional dishes], Penang Prawn Mee [Hokkien Mee] for CNY day lunch and many, many more lunches and dinners [I usually will get to know what to cook until almost near meal time] that I have to prepare for all her children, grandchildren and visitors. The cooking will go on for several days. Guess I just have to follow her orders to make things easier.

I will not be posting the recipes for the dishes that will be prepared because what ingredients used will depend on what my mother in-law has in her kitchen. I would not have the time to take pictures of the ingredients and the dishes because I am cooking for several families and I have no say of what to cook. It will be very stressful to cope with all these in one go and with the house full of people.