Cooking Up A Storm....Tomorrow

I've done all the prep work for my big feast tomorrow....Have been cutting...cutting...cutting vegetables, meat and seafood non-stop like there's no tomorrow!! All, I need to do is cook, cook, cook! There's also the need to assemble my "Yee Sang" platter. It was a lot of work hunting and preparing the ingredients for the Yee Sang, but I'm sure it will be all worth it! Honeydew Sai Mai Lo & Lychee Jelly for desserts are already made and are being chilled in the fridge.

I'm doing all this work in advance so that I can go watch hubby play in his league tomorrow morning and to have more time to entertain my guests. We will be back by noon and I will cook up a storm in the kitchen, while hubby dear make sure the house is spotless, cleaning every nooks and crannies!

Oohh......it's gonna be so much food...so much fun!!

CNY Party Checklist

CNY Party Checklist:

• Gaudy CNY decorations - Check!
• Loud festive CNY songs that most guests cannot comprehend - Check!
• Supply of cookies! - Check!
• Plenty of food & drinks - Check!
• Guests RSVPs - Check!
• Energy to make all these happen - Check!

Husband and I are organizing a CNY Dinner Party tomorrow night instead of Sunday night so that everyone can enjoy drinking and hang out later into the night.

I've been doing grocery shopping for 2 days, running from one store to another to get the stuff I need for my planned CNY Dinner Menu! I'm glad where we live, Asian grocery stores as well as the regular grocery stores are within 5-15 minutes drive. We do not need to head down to Chinatown to get our Asian grocery!

I made more pineapple rolls last night and have finally emptied my container of pineapple jam. Now I have 3 containers filled with pineapple rolls. With all my CNY cookies stocked up, they are ready for my guests to sample tomorrow! =)..Who knows, I can start a cookies business in the future! haha!

Anyway, we're expecting about 10-12 people to show up tomorrow and most of them have never experienced a CNY celebration. I suspect my husband will be blasting some CNY songs he bought from Malaysia tomorrow. We will also have some gaudy CNY decorations that I picked up yesterday and put them around the house!!After all, it's Chinese New Year...... so do expect to see pieces of flashy red & gold stuff around the house!

Tomorrow's Dinner Party Menu, everything will be prepared from scratch by me and maybe my sous chef, husband:

• Vegetarian Fried Noodles
• Shrimp & Pineapple Fried Rice
• Seafood Dumpling
• Vegetarian Sping Roll
• "Pie Tee" (**Not sure yet)
• Seafood Korean Pancake
• Baby BokChoy with Chinese Mushroom
• Curry Leaf Shrimp
• Belacan Chicken or Chicken Satay
• Yee Sang
• Honey Dew Sai Mai Lo
• Lychee or Longan Jelly
• Beer, Wine, Soda & Juice

I'll be slaving in my kitchen trying to prepare as much in advance as I can today so that I have more time to entertain guests tomorrow!

Best Buy = Never In Stock!!

That's the definition of BestBuy! Haha! Have you ever run into this problem with BestBuy? I don't understand why BestBuy would advertise something in their flyer and NEVER have them in stock? I guess, it's just my luck!!

Well, tonight was one of the "not in stock" nights again.....husband wanted to get a laptop featured/advertised on their flyer, and this was the second time we were at the same location! Last Sunday, we were at this BestBuy location in NH and asked about 2 items; a Samsung LCD TV which their advertised and printed "Minimum 2 per store" and a Dell Laptop also advertised in the same flyer.........Both "Sorry, No Stock" situation. The TV, we've happily bought it from Sears which will arrive next week and I'm crossing my fingers real hard they won't disappoint me. As for the laptop, we asked one of the BestBuy employees about the availablity and that incompetent fella happily said for us to come in on Thursday night (which is tonight) and that they have 20 units coming in! So, we came in tonight.....spoke to another INCOMPETENT employee who told me that the laptop shipment is still on the truck which will unload later!!!! My husband went to ask another associate, who was by far the most helpful guy as he keyed in the SKU and told us that there aren't any in stock, in truck or enroute in the next shipment!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to him and his help! What a waste of time and gas to drive 15 minutes up there, because we were put on hold forever on the phone when we tried to call and check on stock!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not just irked by this incident......I had another painful experience with BestBuy. I bought a Washer and Dryer for my new home about 2 years ago through their online website. The credit card charge was immediate, the stock NEVER arrive!! The scheduled shipment never made it, nobody knew anything, communication between the online store and the dispatch store was ZILCH, I was put on hold forever.......etc etc......They eventually credited my credit card......but I think I wasted 2-3 weeks of my time trying to "find" my washer & dryer!

Now, I'm quite hesitant to buy things through BestBuy.Com and the retail store itself. I now rather go to other online (i.e. Amazon.com)/retail (i.e Sears)stores to get what I need, and BestBuy is my very very very last resort!

Pan Fried Tandoori Chicken

When I was going to school in Michigan, I remember using those Maggi Pre-Mixed Chicken Tandoori spice I got from Malaysia to make Tandoori Chicken. I always felt that it lacked something but did not know what it was and did not bother to find another alternative either. It was until my Canadian friend, Adil who's of Pakistani decent made some to die for Tandoori Chicken and I asked him for the secret recipe! It turned out, that it was super simple to make. That day onwards, I've been using his recipe with a little tweak and never looked back at any Pre-Mix Chicken Tandoori Spice!!!

Anyway, I've always oven-baked my Tandoori Chicken, until recently when I decided to pan-fry it with some butter! I thought it tasted wonderful!! The butter help brown and flavor the chicken a little more giving it a slight charred flavor almost like the Tandoori Chicken cooked in those claypot ovens. If you are able to grill/bbq it, go right ahead, the chicken taste even better with that smoky flavor!

Therefore, I'm sharing this easy recipe with you and I would highly recommend that you marinate this one day in advance :

PAN-FRIED TANDOORI CHICKEN RECIPE

Chicken Tandoori Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Sour Cream
• 2 tbsp Tandoori Masala Spice
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 pcs skinless chicken thighs (**recommended to debone and cut to half, as this shorten cooking time)
• 1 tsp garlic powder **Optional
• 1 tsp onion powder **Optional
• Butter/margarine

Garnish:

• 1 lemon, cut into 6-8 wedges
• 2-3 tbsp cilantro, roughly chopped

Method:

Stir and mix all the wet and dry ingredients except the butter and chicken in a large mixing bowl. Then add chicken pieces and make sure all chicken are well coated. Cover bowl with a plastic wrap or transfer it into a Zip Lock bag , store in your fridge and let it marinate about about 12-24 hours.( I prefer to marinate it for about 24- 48 hours to let the flavors infuse into the chicken).

Melt butter (approx 1-2 tbsp) in a pan and pan fry the chicken over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes on each side, making sure chicken is cooked all the way through. You can brown the chicken a little for the charred flavor. Transfer cooked meat to a platter, sprinkle some Cilantro and garnish with Lemon wedges! Serve with Rice or Naan. I hope this will be a palatable dish to most! Enjoy!

USPS's Loyal Customer!

I just mailed a couple packages to my brother and some friends today....Another $63 charged to my credit card! In about one month, I've contributed close to $200 just to ship packages and mail cards! USPS should start a reward program for loyal customers like me, or some discount on the rates! Haha! It seems like they are always raising rates ...=(....Oh well, at least they are quite reliable for sending stuff domestically and still cheaper compared to Fedex & UPS! Only drawback (unless it has improved), I find the tracking system for registered packages...err....lets just say not as efficient as UPS/Fedex!

Anyway, my darling brother......your care package with goodies from mommy & daddy dearest and cookies from sister dearest will arrive in 2 days! Ayu, the dress (I hope it fits and that you love it) is enroute to Denmark...you should get it in about 10 days, I hope!!... Ween, your "cupcake" surprise is also enroute to Malaysia.....and you should also get it in about 10 days or so!! And my other 2 friends....you know who you are, you guys should also expect Mr. Mailman to bring you something in about 2-3 days!