Our Chinese New Year

Before I proceed, I'd like to thank familyfirst, eugene, merryn and barb for leaving comments on the cheesecake and cupcakes. Thanks for 'seeing me up' , lol ! I can't bake such nice cakes, those pics accidentally uploaded before I complete my post.

Few friends asked why I have not been blogging lately ? I am just simply tired and then I did not take a lot of pics during the New Year. No mood to take pic, all I wanna do is chill out and have a nice cuppa joe.

Since I've downloaded the photos today, I'll run thru the new year with pictures of what we did.

**Eve of the new Lunar Year**

I find anticipating the new year more fun than celebrating the new year itself. We balik kampung on the eve of the eve, keeping up with the family tradition of going to the night market with MIL to get roast pork, fatt kou and fishballs for prayers and reunion dinner. Our Chinese helper, nearly could not make it to cook reunion feast for us. Her father passed away and the funereal was on eve of the eve but the dear aunty promised MIL she'll cook for us on the eve. Bless her kind heart, else I really don't know what to do with a freezer stuffed full of kampung chicken, pigs' maw, trotters, sea cucumbers and lots more other stuff, enough to feed an army. ;o)

I helped what I could before going out for late breakfast with hubs and the girls. Yuen Wen Cheh Cheh followed us for breakfast. Handling 2 kiddos is a challenge and the naughtier one is none other than my own princess.


After breakfast we chilled out at Secret Recipe, the only place I could get a fresh cuppa coffee at Tampin. Wanna see what the kids were up to ? Read on :

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Shoes off, climbing over the display chiller..

and what did I do ? Scold them ? Nah... it's CNY !!! I need to chill out too.


Then to get them seated quietly (for a while, just a couple of minutes) I asked for a couple of candles and pretended to 'celebrate their birthday'.. LOL !!!



Some other snapshots of their funny moments on the eve :


Pretending to wear a hat with my sunshade cover


The 2 cutie 'pirates'




We had a big reunion dinner (no pics, too lazy to take pics this time around) but Amber was asleep and she only wanted 'Maggi Mee' when she woke up. Haih.. with a feast fit for a king, she had 'Maggi Mee' for reunion dinner


**The Big Day - Chor Yat**

Cooked our usual hinghwa misua for brunch. Yearly tradition of hubs family. The aunty cooked us a big pot of soup on the eve and we only needed to boil the noodles, add abalones and fishballs. Bless her again.. for preparing the yummy soup

Misua.. must have for the New Year.


Then we gave ang pow to Amber and the kids.

Then, we leave for BIL's house to 'pai nien'

Like their CNY clothes ?


BIL lives at grandpa's old shoplot and hubs showed Amber grandpa's pic. He is Papa's Yeh Yeh and also Yeh Yeh's Papa. I think the little girl was confused

In keeping up with the Ong tradition, we headed to Malacca to watch a movie (all 18 of us). Traffic was so bad, the jam started from Ayer Keroh , all the way to Dataran Pahlawan. We vowed to break the tradition and no more movie from 2011 onwards. LOL !!! After all , CNY is all about getting together, chatting, eating, chatting and more eating. Anyway, we watched True Legend, not too bad, much better than those non-sensical CNY movies like Alls Well Ends Well (which we've watched a couple of times previous CNY)


Hubs was soo sleepy from driving, we made a quick dash to Starbucks for our coffee.

** CNY Day 2 - Chor Yee **

This year we changed plans a little and went to Kluang Johor to visit hubs good buddy, we were again greeted with a feast of :


Homecooked lunch ! Nothing can be better than mom's own cooking. Amber loved it so much, she took 6 bowls of soup (yes, 6 bowls, no kidding)

Surprisingly, Kluang was not as hot as KL or Tampin and the little one was happy to be in a village home with chickens, dogs and vegetables

Running around the field.

Nice and warm homely feeling at our friend's house.

Then, at Kluang, must stop for coffee right ? I wanted to bring Amber to the original Kluang Station at the railway but was told it's no longer like before and the owner branched out to open Kluang RailCoffee, somewhere in town, and so that's where we went :


Set up like the original Kluang station


We had coffee and she had hot lemon honey. I must say the coffee is much better than Kluang Station. I hope they don't go franchise and end up like Kluang Station with lousy high acidity coffee

** CNY Day 3 - Chor 3 **

Hubs met up with his classmates and we returned to KL around 3pm after getting caught in a long crawl from Pedas to Seremban. My plants almost 'died-ed' from extreme heat. Watered the plants, fed the fish and off to my dad's place for dinner.

** Chor 4 - CNY Day 4**

Hubs went back to work and I went to my aunts house to 'pai nien'

Again, another homecooked feast with Hakka char yoke, misua and the lots... Yummy !


Amber didn't have such good appetite this time but she like Chiro, the house dog very much..


Then in the evening, hubs attended a party, spouse not invited and anyway, I grabbed the opportunity to hang out at Annie's, much more fun than going to some party, meeting people I don't know. She texted me and said she'll prepare steamboat.. Whoa... really grand dinner for just me and her family. I happily feasted again and must really thank her for a lovely yummy dinner and we had so much sambal chilly flakes - Tiens brand. Must remember to buy and keep !

** CNY - Day 8**

After feasting on Chinese platters of pork, noodles and chicken, we yearn for something local and spicy.. nasi lemak and teh tarik.
Amber likes ikan bilis and I coaxed her to eat some nasi lemak with ikan bilis.



Then I add in some fiery sambal, just a tiny little bit. She cried pitifully.. very hot ! lat lat ! HOT !!! Cruel mummy here wanna introduce slightly spicy food to Amber and she hates it.

Hot ! HOT ! I want water...

While visiting hubs aunty, I spotted these miniature Russian nesting dolls, Matryoshka . 15 in a set !!! I've only seen 5 in a sets but thise is indeed special, purchased from Russia. Anyone knows where I can get more nesting dolls in KL ? I'd love to collect them



We headed to Pavilion hoping to spot some lion dance but nothing. Amber was disappointed, she was hoping to see some lion dance around.

I had some dining vouchers at The Carat Club (yes, they do serve food, amongst the diamonds) I needed to cash out before the month ends.

Amber had the kids menu which was free for every adult meal ordered.



The dining area was overlooking the front entrance of Pavilion, we got a very good view


Then I spotted her legs. . notice how vain she is ? Apart from nail polish, she wore her bracelet over her ankles



Bling bling pillows in the bling bling shop

She scribbled and said it's her 'signature', she is signing something. I think she must have gotten the idea watching hubs asking his clients to sign documents.



Our food, we had pasta, pasta and pasta. Taste - ordinary but the ambience was good.

It was a quiet Sunday and I had time to finally organize things at home.

Since I didn't buy any CNY flower plants, I picked up some flowering pots from my garden and prep up my living room a bit.

Orchids... my favourite home flower. I can't tell what kind of species they are, too many names and details, all I know is dancing ladies. LOL ! Oh well, I hope to bring in more orchids to add to my collection.

Then I filled up the cookies and placed them in the living room :


Some cookies were homemade, some from MIL's purchase in Tampin. All are NICE !

I also placed 2 homemade nien gao to decorate my long table.


Then in the evening, my friend Josephine dropped by with a block of cheesecake. Really nice and thoughtful of her.

I accidentally posted these pics up and my blogging buddies thought I baked them. tenkiu ! tenkiu ! LOL !!!
Chor 8 came and went too quickly. I stayed home all night, we had friends over for beer and chit chat too.

** CNY - Day 9**

Hubs family gathered for dinner and MIL gave these beautiful cupcakes to Amber. She was at a relatives open house and plenty of niceties and sweets.


These cuppies are soo pretty. Too pretty to be eaten in fact..

And the momentoes.. chocolates for the guests.. nice isn't it ?


That's my CNY wrap for the moment. In a couple of days, we'll have Lion Dance at our office. Looking forward to that too !

C2 Green Tea Drink

Last Monday night, the rep from C2 called me to collect 3 cartons of C2 Green Tea drink. I welcome this drink with open arms as it came very timely for me. I had a full day of baking, baking and more bakings (yes, I did say I 'sau tong' but last minute orders came in) and I wanted to gulp down a refreshing drink to chill out more than anything else.


C2 came in 3 flavours.. Lemon, Green Tea and Forest Fruits. Available at 7-11, Mydin, Giant and Jusco, C2 Cool and Clean Refreshing Green Tea Drink is now set to take over Malaysia by storm.

We used to gulp down cartons of soft drinks for Chinese New Year but not anymore, now we opt for a more refreshing and healthier option. C2 is a good choice, thirst quenching and taste good too. Packed with cathechin, a powerful water soluble antioxidant found mainly in unfermented green tea leaves, C2 is brewed and packaged fresh on the same day, therefore retaining all it's antioxidant goodness. Green tea is known to reduce the risk of four of the major health problems such as Stroke, Heart failure, Cancer and Diabetes and those who has Rheumatiod Arthritis, Cholesterol, Infection, Impaired Immune Function ought to give this beverage a shot and it's also good for detoxyfing too.





Drink chilled, preferbly on the rocks (my choice), it's a welcoming new drink for the New Year to neutralize the copious amount of unhealthy food and cookies we consume during the festive season.

I'm not the only one crazy over this beverage. Amber beat me to it and she gulped down the whole bottle of Apple Flavour yesterday. Mmmm. chen hao wei... if Amber likes it, then it must be good, my fussy eater is very picky over her choice of food and beverage. This beats any other sugar packed zero nutrition soft drinks.




Hurry, go grab a carton to share with your friends and relatives over the festive season.

Pineapple Tarts

Last night, I was at Jo's house , assisting her to bake pineapple tarts. It was her first attempt making tarts and I am kinda excited for her as I also have some jam in my fridge, cooked weeks ago but I have not gotten around baking, coz : 1) I have no time 2) I don't really know how to bake. I love tarts and can whack jars of it but always afraid to attempt making them.

So, last night was an eye opening experience for me. She cooked the jam and I brought along my tart shapers.

Working hand in hand is so much more fun.


One of us will press the dough and the other roll the fillings


Rows and rows of pretty tarts


Baked.. yummylicous ! Makes me wanna go home and bake my own tarts immediately.


While baking tarts, we also chomped on some CNY cookies.


And the kids we running around, shouting and screaming, basically, just having fun.


Her kids and mine.

Baking with a friend is so much more fun !

Calling It A Year

We are moving office TODAY (yes, today, 5 Feb 2010 marks our last day in office. We are relocating and the building will be torn down for redevelopment). Everyone's in a frenzy, packing, discarding stuff etc... and I'm blogging.. coz I'm done with my packing and I went to the new place over lunch hour to unpack some of my stuff.

We leave this place with a heavy heart, been so used to the current environment and we just hate the new place. No choice, company is like that,, love them and stick with them or just leave.. that's their policy.

Our colleagues arranged for lunch, our usual 'sau gong chau' before moving to the new office. Then the management also presented us with :



In spirit of chinese new year, we each received a crate of 'kum' for properous wishes

Then we went for lunch at Hakka Restaurant at Jalan Kia Peng :


My nice colleague sponsored us wine and pu-erh tea and we ordered the CNY set :

Food nothing much to shout about but in spirit of CNY, it's nice gather for lunch and toss to the new year.

A new office, a new year, a new beginning and betterment for all !

Baking Frenzy

I finally 'sau tong' on my baking for sale. I had last minute orders for 10 tins of chocchipchocchunk walnut cookies and I got all done on 1 Feb, Wilayah holiday. 15 tins in all, from 9am to 4pm, with toilet breaks and maggi mee lunch breaks in between. Fast eh ?

Then I also delivered another 6 fruitcakes to a lady who wanted to give away as gifts to her friends. I halved the fruitcakes for her and this is what I did this time :

Wrapped and ribboned up


Fits nicely in a 6x6 box (so difficult to get, I went all over town, from Melawati to Cheras and finally found the cake box and pans at Chun Yip, Jalan Petaling)


Then, bagged them in the Giant Recyclable bags.. I so love these versatile bags..

I missed out taking pics of the chocchipchocchunk cookies. Soo many tins and my whole house smelled like a cookie factory. :)

Then the past few evenings, I squeezed in some time baking for family :


chocchipchocchunk walnut (mini containers), corn flake cookies and almond flakes for family. I didn't bother much on the packing though.. once open, makan only lah.. no need fancy packing.

With CNY 1 week away, I still have so much to do. Moving office this weekend (gosh, I so hate our management, choose the most inappropriate time to move, smack in the CNY last minute shopping jam)

Lemme see.. I still have the following to bake list :
- pineapple tarts
- more fruit cakes
- cornflake cookies
- coconut cookies

Maybe I'll wait till after CNY !!! LOL !

The Things She Does

We were back to Tampin last weekend. A good break for me, been baking almost every evening.
Amber is always cheeky and loud at Tampin, very 'yit lau' with her Mama, YeYe around, she's most happy.

I caught her with this :


Using the mosquito netting she used as a new born. She pretended to be a baby and baby talked.. yadaa.. aaa.. naa...nooo... and bla bla bla.. Looking back, seems like only a while ago my little baby was sleeping with the mosquito netting. Now, she gotta fold her legs before closing the netting over. Time flies.. and fast too !

Then we went for our usual jalan jalan to Tesco Malacca. I stopped by Bata to look at some shoes. I turned around and found her at this :


not only this.. and more of other shoes .. she just loves shoes and I think the Bata ladies were annoyed too. LOL !