For the past few years, my mum has stopped cooking for the reunion dinner. That's because she is getting on with age.
You know my cooking isn't any where near peranankan standard though we are both Bert and I are from the Straits born background. Cooking isn't exactly my forte, and the girls hardly eat hot spicy food...just a teensy bit of chilli.
This year, I'm so glad my 2 dishes did not receive any critical remark, unlike the previous year. My family hardly gives praises, so no negative remark means it's good! Now that I know what kind of personality I am, I realise I need praises, so I probe for one from my mum, who eventually, almost reluctantly said with pride that "you passed lah".
As the custom requires us to cook sufficient amount for the reunion dinner with leftover for the next day's family gathering of the other in-laws, I was asked to cook a lot. So I really cooked A LOT, that there was enough food for my household, and for my mum's household for 3 meals -- reunion, next day's lunch plus dinner! Mum said I cooked too much. Aiyo, how to estimate when it's done only once a year? Better to err on the more than the less, otherwise, kana scolding even worse, right? My sis-in-law was smart, she only cooked 1 dish (the leek which was all finished at the reunion) and ta-pao the other 2 (yu-sheng and braised duck). My hubby said don't bother what my mum say, as only my 2 dishes were enough to bring over to the next day plus a little balance of the duck. Next time, I think I'll cook just 1 dish and order the 2nd.
So what did I cook? There's this lovely honey pork-rib recipe a friend gave me. It's easy to cook. Just marinate and then cook it in the slow cooker. Only trouble was, all my cookware are meant for a small family, so I had to cook it in 2 batches, and also marinade them in 2 batches, an cooked 1 batch whilst we went to church, and then the next after we got home.
This is one batch of the honey prime pork ribs. 2nd batch in the slow cooker (below):
The second dish was simple too. Soy sauce chicken with tau-kwa pok. I marinaded this when I got home from church (it being Sunday) and managed to squeeze everything into my usual daily sauce-pan. Had to go buy the huge caterer kind of disposal containers to hold everything, so squeezed into the crowded supermarket to buy them.
The soy sauce chicken with tau-kwa pok and wine (below):
Can't afford to try anything too complicated as there wasn't time, plus I have problem with the size of my hardware! :) I was like panicking when I realised my prime pork ribs were too HUGE!
So kia-su, I bought the biggest of 2 types of containers! (below):
My proud hubby, displaying my hard-labour of love (below):
The reunion with family tossing yu-sheng (below):
As an added bonus, I was in the mood, so I baked a fruit-cake, just for fun and to try it out. Made mum try it, and she said it was good. My I personally think it's far from it, as I have tasted far better ones. So if my mood sneaks on me again, I may try another fruit-cake recipe and let my family try it out :)
My fruit-cake, made a few days before the Reunion (below):
Doing the taste-test (below):
Hmmm...yummy fruit-cake baked for 1.5h (below):
Love Theresa
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