Kirbie's Cravings

Chinese New Year Candy

If you visited your local Asian grocery store these past few weeks, you were probably treated to a section full of red decorations and various Chinese New Year treats.

I can't help but stop at the colorful display section, and even though no one in my family really likes the overly sweet chinese new year candies, I always get a box.  This year I chose a small one since I'm about the only one in my family that will nibble on these treats.

Chinese New Year candy usually consists of heavily sugar coated dried fruits and vegetables.  You'll usually find sugared yam, ginger, lotus root, kumquats, coconut, winter melon, water chestnuts, just to name a few.  Some other treats you will usually see in the display are ready made Chinese New Year Cake (Nian gao), dried whole persimmons, and peanut cluster candies.

A lot of the times, the candies are put in a display tray like the one pictured.  This was the smallest tray that Ranch 99 had to offer.  The bigger the tray, the more items included.  Usually I'll buy a small tray, and then maybe buy a small bag of the items I like that are missing and add them to the tray.

My favorite treat is definitely the winter melon.  It's crunchy, and inside it tastes cold and watery.  A very refreshing taste and you can see where the winter melon gets its name when you bite into these candies.  I also like the lotus roots, yams, and water chestnuts.

In my tray, I have colorful shredded coconut, candied ginger (the light yellow one), candied winter melon (the white block/sticks), candied kumquats (orange wrappers), and the middle section are soursop gummy candy.

Christmas Desserts Roundup

I was so busy trying out different dessert recipes for Thanksgiving this year, that I completely forgot Christmas was just around the corner.  So while I had almost two months to try out Thanksgiving recipes, I only had about three weeks to try out Christmas ones.  As a result, I didn't get to try out nearly as many recipes as I wanted.  I will probably continue to test out more recipes throughout January.

Much like Thanksgiving, my family has a gathering with our extended family between Christmas and New Year to celebrate the holidays.  I provide the desserts just like during Thanksgiving.  We used to do a potluck, but the last few years we've been going out to eat.  So no one misses out on Christmas treats, I still bake a lot of goodies, which I give to each family to take home. So for anyone who is curious as to what made my list this year, here is a roundup of the holiday treats that I made (Since I've already done posts on these desserts, I didn't retake photos):

Red Velvet Rose Cupcakes

Gingerbread family cookies

Soft sugar cookies

Green Tea Christmas Shortbread Cookies

Thanksgiving Recap

<

I was excited to celebrate Thanksgiving this year more than other years because I now have a blog and a fancy new camera.  I was planning on taking pictures of the Thanksgiving feast to share with you all.

Each year, I celebrate Thanksgiving with my immediate family as well as almost my entire dad's side of the family.  Thanksgiving dinner is held at my aunt's house and we do a potluck.  It's definitely a blend of East and West.  We have the traditional turkey, potatoes, yams, as well as delicious chinese dishes such as red bean soup, sausage with glutinous rice, etc.  All my aunts and my mom are wonderful cooks.  But no one really bakes.  So I decided to take on the baking.  In the beginning my baked goods weren't very good.  But over the years, I've spent more and more time testing out Thanksgiving desserts.  (Hence the mad baking these last few months).

I always bake the night before, with the help of my Baby Bro, and it's one very long night...

Usually, I fly home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday night.  This year, my siblings and I decided to fly home on Thanksgiving day, saving us a whole lot in air fare.  We figured we would arrive just in time for dinner.  Unfortunately, our flight got delayed.  And so we were late for Thanksgiving dinner!

As a result, I didn't get to take the beautiful pictures I wanted to.  I didn't even get to arrange my desserts like I normally do.  Instead, they were basically haphazardly placed on some large platters.  I debated taking pictures of the half-eaten side dishes, but decided against it.  We were in such a rush and everyone was starving.  I did manage to snap some pictures of the turkey.  (My family was in charge of bringing the turkey cutter, so the turkey remained untouched!)

Here's a very quick, and not so pretty shot of the desserts:

So for anyone who is curious as to which dessert recipes made the cut for this year's menu, here is a recap:

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Sweet Potato Cupcake Roses

Strawberry mochi cake

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Muffins

Chewy green tea cookies

Zebra Cake

Whew! Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to work on Christmas desserts!  I'm excited.  The green and red colors that symbolize Christmas means I'll be able to try out some more green tea creations.  I've already got a few ideas in my head for new Christmas treats. I can't wait to get started!