Homemade Char Siu - Worth the Effort!

On my last trip to the butcher, I spied a truly beautiful pork shoulder - plump, marbled and deboned. Our usual go-to recipes for pork shoulder are jerk pork or pulled pork... however, with the weather being decidedly wintry, asking hubby to smoke pork for six+ hours in the snow seemed a bit absurd. Undaunted, I bought the almost four pound shoulder anyway reasoning that we would find some way to eat that pork.

Sweet Soup Dumplings (湯圓)

Mmmm... sweet soup dumplings. Chewy and warm and not too sweet. In our family we usually enjoy these around the winter solstice, but I know that a lot of families enjoy them during the new year and specifically to celebrate first full moon of Chinese New Year.

Usually, I make these every year with my father and sometimes my brothers if they are available. I have such fond memories of sitting around the dinner table with my family and making dumplings, pot stickers, spring rolls, etc. This year was extra special because it was the first time I made them with my family. 

Reversible Superhero Cape How-to

I made some reversible superhero capes for my son's superhero-themed birthday party and let the kids decorate them with some iron-on felt letters and shapes. They turned out really cute and the kids loved them. Here are the capes that I made for my sons... these have the emblems sewn on so that they'll tolerate multiple (multiple) washes.

I know tutorials for superhero capes are available ad nauseum, but I took some pictures as I was sewing so [crazy, overtired mommy in her threatening tone] now you get to see them.

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

Yesterday, while dropping my second son off at preschool, I realized that it was Valentine's day and that I'd run out of the house without even giving hubby a kiss goodbye.

"So this is where we're at, huh?" I thought to myself.

Though, we've never made a huge fuss out of any special occasion, being in too much of a rush to give my DH a kiss seemed a far cry from our young and wild days of early marriage when everyday would be like Valentine's day... And while we weren't going to have a extravagant dinner or drink wine until we were silly, I figured that we could at least get into the spirit with something of the season.

A Super Fifth Birthday!

Like some kind of clockwork child, my eldest son is now into superheroes.
His current favourite? Batman.
Why? "He has a cape and a mask and spiky things on his arms."

Ahh, accessories. Men love them too. Just in a different way. (For instance, my husband said he always wanted to be a hockey goalie because of the cool pads and gear... but that's a story for another day.) Today's story is about my son's super fifth birthday.

Recipe Review: Sweetapolita's Fluffy Vanilla Cake

Do you dream of light, fluffy, super vanilla-y white cake? I do. And the epitome of wonderful white cakes? [Head bow in shame] The boxed ones. Nothing homemade could really come close to that boxed white cake mix... Or so I thought until I got a chance to try this recipe.

Back on track?

My goodness! It's has been too long since I've read my blog list or posted to my own blog. Christmas was crazy as always and then I had some personal things that I had to get sorted out which more or less took up most of January. But I'm going to try to start again... First things first though, I need to go and sort through all the photos that I took for intended blog posts and sort through them. Be back soon.