Happy Chinese New Year everyone:) We kicked off our celebrations this afternoon and evening with friends by enjoying a feast of food and getting stuck into some arts and crafts activities with the kids.
Red Ted Art has some really cute Chinese New Year crafts that are accessible to all. See here … We made paper lanterns and imaginative snakes out of TP rolls…
Our Chinese New Year Crafts
I tried to incorporate the main elements of a Chinese New Years Feast in to my dinner so basically we ate lots! I say elements because this celebration is really to share the traditions of other people with my family and friends and so although not authentic, I try to stick to principal elements. My research said that we should serve this and that, and that and also this and eventually I just had to remind myself that I was just cooking for 4 adults and 4 kids and we had to actually eat it all so calmed down and came up with a menu I could cope with! We started with Marbled Eggs (Recipe courtesy of Pig Pig’s Corner) Pork Dumplings and Vegetable Spring Rolls. Mains was a production of BBQ Beef with Fried Rice and Roast Chicken with Noodles in a spicy broth. We finished off with Pineapple rolls (Recipe by Food4Tots) which I have read are a must have!
The Marbled Eggs… In the end, because I was serving to kids and novice palates, I decided to just colour the eggs with cochineal food colouring (added during boiling) and because we had so much to eat, I just used quails eggs. They were sooo pretty after colouring that I almost just kept them as is for decoration 
I also just served them with the dipping sauces alongside the spring rolls and dumplings.
Marbled Quails Eggs
The Pineapple Rolls… Well in the end, I made these more according to principle rather than following the exact recipe. Besides time constraints, I also had to consider equipment or rather lack thereof and so adapted things accordingly. In the end, I halved the pastry recipe, used a food processor to “crush” the pineapple and a rolling-pin to roll the pastry. I also only used about half of the required sugar as I thought it was sweet enough! Notes for next time… Roll the pastry thinner and leave the cloves and cinnamon in to the end when making the jam (It will be ok!)
In between all the crafting and eating, there was of course, lots of chatter and laughter as we caught up with friends. A really relaxed, fun afternoon and evening. And now I am going to retire to the sofa to rest off the meal
Enjoy the celebrations
Lots of love x
