New Year’s Eve Dinner 2011

Happy New Year to everyone!! I want to interrupt my posts about my recent trip to the United States with this post on how my family celebrated New Year’s Eve.

Every year my cousins from my father’s side come to our house for dinner. Last year I had it catered and this year we were back to home cooked meals. I’m very fortunate that my store’s chef used to work in a Chinese restaurant and he cooked most of the dishes.

The first picture on top was one of my favorites from the Chinese restaurant. The filling of the sandwich was crispy bean curd skin stuffed with dried shrimp and other spices. A little hoisin sauce was spread on the bread. I call this dish vegetarian Peking Duck since it reminded me of it with less the guilt.

He also made this delicious fried tofu cubes in a sweet and spicy sauce. It’s yummy hot or cold.

Spicy Tofu

Asian Salad w/ crispy wonton strips

Everyone loved the sotanghon which I didn’t get to try since I didn’t eat anything last night. I was too busy to enjoy dinner.

Sotanghon

My mom bought preserved salted duck and duck liver sausage (lap cheong) in Hong Kong and we used it to make this super fragrant rice dish. This was the dish that tempted me most to eat carbs.

Salted Duck & Duck Liver Sausage Rice

My chef’s specialty is lechon kawali that will rival any restaurant in Manila!

Lechon Kawali

Hmm, where did all the skin go?

Baked Salted Chicken

The only thing I made was the mashed potatoes which all the kids (and adults love). If they only knew how much butter and heavy cream was in it. Well the whole head of roasted garlic was healthy.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Every year I buy a whole slab of prime rib from Santi’s and have them cook it. Two years ago the steak was perfect.

This time I was so disappointed that the beef was overcooked. It was well done already!!!

prawns

Garlic Prawns

Dessert was simple with a mango gelato cake from Cara Mia and some cookies we baked.

Chocolate Crinkles

Revel Bar

I dedicate this post to all my cousins around the world who couldn’t come home and celebrate with us.

For Jerry and his family from Singapore. The next two pictures are his siblings and their families.

For Jerome and Virgil in New Jersey.

For Angie, Benjie and Charlie in Taipei.

For Jim in Singapore.

Funny but my cousin Sha (mother’s side) and Chinggai (father’s side) are high school batch mates together with my friend. They had a mini hs reunion.

me, Chris, Sha and Chinggai

The year sure went by fast and it’s another year to start living our lives to the fullest.  For me it means going back to my diet to lose all the weight I gained during my trips to the US and Hong Kong. Have a good beginning to the new year everyone!

Here’s my lunch on January 1, 2012, leftover steak with crunchy garlic and a big salad. Even well done the steak was tender and tasted better with a little salt and lots of garlic.