Where to begin? Let's start off with, 'Happy New Year and May You All Stay Strong and Healthy in the Year of the Horse!' I kicked it off by inviting a few friends for crispy roast pork, stir fried broccoli and pineapple tarts last night.
So, I had been feeling very bleh lately when it comes to my home life and when the weekend arrives, it takes all of my self will to drag myself out of bed to do something ... just anything. Winter doesn't help, I hibernate, hating myself for wasting the day away but at the same time telling myself I'm saving the environment. I only learned the latter last week when my flatmate, who concerned by my guilt, told me bluntly I was doing a great thing by staying in bed. I don't use up electricity (I have no TV), I don't use transportation or spend unnecessary money on shopping and plastic bags, I don't irritate people, I eat all the food in my cupboard so nothing goes to waste, and basically, I'm a heroine! I looked up with great reverence at my oh-so-wise flatmate and told myself what a lucky person I was to find people who understood me! Very lucky indeed. :D
Anyway, I had been planning to do something for Lunar New Year, I even spoke of it to my friends but when the weekend came around, I didn't feel like doing anything. But then, I had to go to the supermarket to buy bread and I saw they had lovely pieces of belly pork on display. After 2 or 3 minutes of indecision, I told myself, 'What the heck? You may want to cook something nice for tomorrow after all.'
Come Sunday, I still hadn't decided on calling anyone over for a meal. I was leaning more towards eating by myself. I had also been planning to make these pineapple tarts (or cakes as some people like to refer) and finally, I got started on them. I took the recipe from here:
http://suziesweettooth.com/tag/how-to-make-taiwanese-pineapple-cakestarts/
and they turned out great! I baked 2 dozen of them and by the end of the night, only 4 remained. There were only 4 of us at dinner. Oh yeah, I ended up inviting some close friends after all. In fact, it was Aigerim who took the initiative and messaged me around 4 PM with, "Hey Lin, did I miss Chinese New Year at your place or what?" At that time I had the pork roasting in the oven, and the pineapple jam bubbling on the stove with still no plans to invite anyone over to eat. After seeing her message though, I thought, 'What the heck,' and called her and a couple over to join me at 6.30 PM. I'm so glad I did! There is nothing more enjoyable than being able to hold quality conversations with great friends over nice food and wine. It took a friend to show me that last night.
About the pineapple tarts, I never follow any recipe exactly - in this case, I included one fresh chopped pineapple along with the stated quantities of canned pineapple, I used an extra yolk for the pastry and I substituted a quarter cup of honey for the corn syrup. You will end up with more jam than pastry but the results are worth it.
Anyway, I had been planning to do something for Lunar New Year, I even spoke of it to my friends but when the weekend came around, I didn't feel like doing anything. But then, I had to go to the supermarket to buy bread and I saw they had lovely pieces of belly pork on display. After 2 or 3 minutes of indecision, I told myself, 'What the heck? You may want to cook something nice for tomorrow after all.'
Come Sunday, I still hadn't decided on calling anyone over for a meal. I was leaning more towards eating by myself. I had also been planning to make these pineapple tarts (or cakes as some people like to refer) and finally, I got started on them. I took the recipe from here:
http://suziesweettooth.com/tag/how-to-make-taiwanese-pineapple-cakestarts/
and they turned out great! I baked 2 dozen of them and by the end of the night, only 4 remained. There were only 4 of us at dinner. Oh yeah, I ended up inviting some close friends after all. In fact, it was Aigerim who took the initiative and messaged me around 4 PM with, "Hey Lin, did I miss Chinese New Year at your place or what?" At that time I had the pork roasting in the oven, and the pineapple jam bubbling on the stove with still no plans to invite anyone over to eat. After seeing her message though, I thought, 'What the heck,' and called her and a couple over to join me at 6.30 PM. I'm so glad I did! There is nothing more enjoyable than being able to hold quality conversations with great friends over nice food and wine. It took a friend to show me that last night.
About the pineapple tarts, I never follow any recipe exactly - in this case, I included one fresh chopped pineapple along with the stated quantities of canned pineapple, I used an extra yolk for the pastry and I substituted a quarter cup of honey for the corn syrup. You will end up with more jam than pastry but the results are worth it.