Happy Dragon Year to all of you! Yay! I kept my baby inside long enough and he is actually a dragon now! =)Even though I am on bedrest, I couldn't hold the urge to celebrate this most important Chinese holiday the traditional way. Well, I cannot really clean the house inside out, but I could do the laundry (even though I am not supposed to, according to my OB). Man, why did I let them sit for a week? I had to wash 3 big bags while cooking. Too much! But I really cannot let the dirty laundry gets to a brand new year. Traditionally, new year's eve dinner is the biggest. Family gathers together, eat delicious food and watch the parties on TV, and enjoy the fireworks around midnight. We normally have at least 4 cold dishes, 4 warm dishes, and dumplings. And we have to have fish, which represents abundant wealth in the coming year. My mom and my aunt normally cook some shrimps, slow cooked pork, fish and lots of different vegetable dishes. Sooooo good!
Well, I don't have enough energy to cook that much, and we didn't invite any friends over. So this is what I came up with after 4 hours hard work in the kitchen. Oh, don't worry, those are not wine, just some cranberry juice.
Here are the cold dishes. These are just store bought smoked saugages, sliced and arranged nicely. 
Pan roasted peanuts
Thousand year eggs and hardboiled eggs (slow cooked with soy sauce, tea leaves and other seasonings). I appologize for this mess. This is what happens when you have a toddler helping you set up the table! At least she loved the tealeaf eggs. 
Here are the hot dishes. To cut the stress down, I baked the baby back ribs the day before, and started preparing dumplings in the early afternoon. Don't these ribs look delicious? My friend came up with this recipe, and everyone loves it, now we all cook it.
This flunder came out surprisingly good. I used the marinating sauce for the ribs instead of soy sauce. It has more flavor and the fish is not overcooked and kept its shape. Yeah!
Here is just some simple stirfried vegetable. Not my favorite, but Stubborn loves it! Isn't that the point? To feed and satisfy your family?
And here are the dumplings. For the new year, I made them from scratch. Lots of great stuffs in there, Chinese cabbage, green scallion, ground pork, shrimp, eggs, smoked mushrooms, with soy sauces, five spices, and sesame oil. I made the skins too, they don't look that good, but so delicious! I put so much energy in them, so imagine how sad I was when little caterpillar won't even try them! Well, what can I do? She is a very stubborn toddler. At least she loved the ribs and fish. 
And here is a pic of my little girl with mommy! Such a rare oppotunity, Stubborn offered to take a picture of us. Sorry I cannot show you the faces.
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, holiday or not. And hope you all enjoyed your dinner like we did. Wish you didn't have to cook as much. I was exhausted! But it all worth it!
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