So what did you do to herald in the new year? Did you have a big party? Mine was a very muted night. I had two Singaporean friends over for dinner at my place.
Preparations started on the night of the 30th for the winter stew where I marinated the pork shoulder cubes with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Then I peeled the chestnuts that I was going to put into the stew. Early on the morning on the 31st I chopped the carrots, celeries and big onions, coated them with plain flour, salt and pepper, and threw everything into the thermos pot. Then I pan-fried the pork cubes with some garlic until lightly brown and threw those into the pot too. Poured in the vegetable broth and left it to sit and then went out for a hike in the afternoon.
When I got back, all I had to do was to add some corn starch to thicken the broth and voila, dinner was ready. I also prepared some kailan (Chinese kale) and cooked brown rice to go with the stew. My food tasted pretty good if I may say so. :p
After leaving my pots and pans pretty idle in the past few months out of sheer laziness, I’ve decided that I have to cook at home more. It’s healthier and also I’m getting a little sick of the usual food outside. The thermos pot is such a fantastic thing – it does such a fine job of my two favourite foods, soups and stews. So I’ve resolved to make more use of it.
Dessert was some lovely macarons, strawberries and cherries. After which, one of my friends and I went to watch Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I, which served for pure mindless entertainment. Movie’s nothing to boot about, but if there’s anything really good about the Twilight movie series, it has to be the soundtracks. Awesome alternative rock and soft rock tracks on them.
The movie ended at 11.35pm and then we thought, oh well, let’s just head home to bed and forget about the countdown with just the two of us. So we said goodbye and by 12 midnight I was already ensconced in my bed off to welcome the 2012 in a slumber.
Several hours later I woke up to a gorgeous winter’s day which I hope will set the tone for the year’s weather. I was then off to a yumcha branch in Fanling and with our hungers sated, we went strawberry picking!
So my year has started off on a rather muted and low-key note. But then again, I’ve never been a person prone to big parties or bashes so I guess this suits me fine. I can’t bear the thought of squeezing with crowds.
I read the book Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli recently, about the author’s sojourn in Bhutan where she volunteered to help out at the country’s first youth radio station in her professional capacity. A seasoned radio professional back in the US, she takes up this volunteer stint at what is known as the world’s happiest country in the midst of her own mid-life crisis as a woman in her early 40s. There she discovers truths about herself and what really constitutes happiness.
In one part of the book, she wrote about an exercise she was told to do in a workshop she had attended in the US. It was a mental exercise for the mind and soul and it required one to write down three things one was thankful for everyday. I think it’s a pretty good thing to do to remind ourselves of the little things we should be thankful for in life. So I shall attempt to do it every day on this blog.
So starting from yesterday, Jan 1, my three items are: 1. I had a day out with a nice bunch of people. 2. I got to know two new people at the outing yesterday. 3. The weather and sunshine was gorgeous!
In any case, I hope you have had a good start to the year and let’s hope 2012 has good things in store for us. Happy new year!