okra: Happy Year of the Pig!

We had a party last night in celebration of Chinese New Year. It was so much fun! I put up lots of decorations and made a ton of food. Unfortunately, much like last year, I didn't get too many pictures. I even put my camera out on the table, but I still forgot to take pictures before all of the food was eaten. I made sweet potato sesame balls with red bean paste filling, Chinese custard tarts, fried rice, pepper and mushroom stir fry (with lots of garlic), and I steamed some store bought rice buns. Keith did the frying for me, he's very good at it. He fried the sesame balls, as well as a few spring rolls I rolled up at the last minute, and some dumplings stuffed with tofu and veggies. Yum! Neil brought a very good "Buddha's Delight" Chinese soup that he made. It tasted really good with the dumplings.

{The custard tarts turned out very well. I grated fresh nutmeg for the tops.}

It snowed quite a bit on Friday night, so I'm guessing that contributed to a smaller turnout on Saturday. More than half of the people that said they were coming didn't show. But those of us that were there ate soooo much food. I don't have nearly the leftovers that I expected, which is good! I don't think I could eat all of it in time. The snow also delayed by plans to go to the grocery store. I was going to go Friday, but had to go Saturday afternoon instead. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't have enough time make everything, but it turned out to be the perfect amount of time. Everything got made, and on time, too. Yay!