Anyhow, I’ll try to post when I can. I can still update Facebook since I usually do it on the iPhone which means I just need my right thumb! :)

Here are some photos from our family dinner. I hope will have more of them in the future.

The Year of the Dragon is here. Al and I would like to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous year. This is our first Chinese New Year after our marriage which means we’ll need to start giving red pockets! A few days before I went to the bank to get some new $5 and $10 bills as well as some red envelopes. While I was stuffing the red pockets, I feel a sense of “seniority”. Maybe it’s the concept of giving red pockets away or the fact that I will not be receiving them anymore (except from my grandparents and parents).

Aside from doing the red pockets, I have to make sure the house is clean. When I live with my parents I usually only need to clean my room. Now I gotta make sure the whole house is clean before the new year. Also now that we’re married, we gotta schedule our family dinners. Previously we only eat with our respective family, now we need have new year’s eve and new year’s day dinner with both sides of the family. That’s like 4 dinners in a row! Also I usually don’t bring anything over for Al’s parents when I visit them during the new years (拜年) but now I feel like I am obligated to bring something over when I visit (I was told a good daughter in-law should do that). The funny thing is both Al and I are not sure what we should be bringing over so we ended up calling his mom to ask what she would like to receive. Haha, she found it funny that we’re asking but hey, we just want to make sure it’s the right thing to give since there are so many do’s and don’ts when it comes to gifts giving for Chinese.

Fi Chai stayed with us for three weeks over the Christmas holidays. It was a good chance for Al and I to test whether we can actually handle a dog by ourselves. Previously when he stayed with us for a few days, it was very easy to take care of him as since the time we spend together isn’t very long. This time however, we were able to find out things that we like and dislike about having a dog. Some things might be the temperament of Shiba Inu and some might be how he was brought up. Either way, it really made us think again if Shiba Inu is the breed that we should start with.

The first few days when Fi Chai stayed with us, he was pretty normal. I thought he’d be looking for his parents whenever we go for our walks but he didn’t. The only issue I had was that he didn’t want to eat his dinner at Al’s parents house. Maybe there’s something on their kitchen floor that he doesn’t like? Also this is the first time we’ve left him home by himself. I remember the first day I was so worried and nervous and can’t wait to get off work to see if Fi Chai was ok. His parents reassured me that he’d be fine being home alone. I bet he was really bored while we were at work because every day when I came home, he’d jump up to greet me at the door.

Fi Chai also tried to test our limits during this extended stay with us. We forbid him from entering our bedroom and he knew this, since he was never allowed in when he stayed with us previously. However on the third night, he sneaked into our bedroom at around 4-5am in the morning. We woke up to find him sleeping at the foot of our bed. It took us a while to get him to leave our room. After this, he’d occasionally try to sneak in by putting his front paws inside our bedroom and look at us with his puppy eyes. We’d immediately say “No!” and he’d just look dumb and then back up a little so his paws are no longer touching the carpet. It’s kinda funny to watch but we didn’t want to spoil him, since if we let him in once, he’d always be coming in as he pleases.

At the end of the three weeks, we figured that we’d definitely want to socialize our puppy with both humans and other animals once he gets all his initial shots. Aside from getting house trained, Al also wants to teach him tricks and make sure he’s super obedient, which I’m not sure if Shiba Inu is the right breed for that. As for me, I’m just worried about the puppy messing up the house. I’m sure he’d be fine when he’s an adult dog but when he’s a puppy, it’s harder to control him. I don’ t want to come home from work and find a mess @.@ Maybe I should talk to other dog owners that doesn’t work from home to gain some knowledge about handling puppies.

In the past I’ve made caramel pop corn as Christmas gifts. This year I wanted to try candy making so I searched for a simple marshmallow recipe on the web. There seems to be two types of marshmallow recipes: one that uses egg whites and one that doesn’t. The one that uses egg whites seems a bit more complicated (and more work) so I’ve settled on trying the Marshmallow recipe from Michael at Cooking for Engineers. I love how he provides photos with step by steps instructions.Friends and family that have tried the marshmallows really liked them as they are lighter, fluffier and not as sweet as the ones from the grocery stores.  I’ve made some slight adjustments to his recipe and tried it with strawberry extract to make strawberry flavored marshmallows. I haven’t tried it with other extract that have colours but the strawberry extract were bright red and it turned the marshmallows pink! Considering that they take almost no time to make, I might whip up a batch of strawberry marshmallows for Valentine’s day.

Homemade Marshmallows (adapted from Cooking for Engineers)

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp Gelatin (unsweetened, unflavored)
• 1/2 cup Water
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2/3 cup Corn Syrup
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• Powdered Sugar & Potato Starch for dusting

Tools/Equipment:

• 9 x 13″ pan (or any other container, I used a smaller glass baking dish and an 8 x 8″ pan)
• Electric Mixer (I use a stand mixer with the balloon whisk)
• Sauce Pan
• Candy Thermometer

How-To:

1. Mix about 1/4 cup of potato starch with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar together. Use this mixture to dust your pan(s) thoroughly by sifting it over the bottom and sides of the pan(s). Make sure your pan is covered or it’d be hard to remove the marshmallows.
2. In a mixing bowl, dissolve the gelatin in 1/2 cup of water. Let the gelatin bloom for 10 minutes.
3. In the mean time, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/4 cup of water in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil the mixture, without stirring, until the candy thermometer reaches 240F (~12-15 minutes). Remove pan from heat and pour mixture in a small, steady stream into the gelatin mixture while mixing on low speed.
4. Once all the sugar has been added, beat the mixture on high speed until white, thick and almost tripled in volume. Add the vanilla extract and mix it for another minute or two.
5. Pour the marshmallow into the prepared pan(s). You can flattened the top with a spatula if you like.
6. Let sit in room temperature for at least 3 hours or longer. When ready, remove the marshmallow by running a knife along the sides of the pan and invert the pan onto a large cutting board dusted with the potato starch and powdered sugar mixture. Lift up one corner of the inverted pan and with fingers, loosen marshmallow and ease it onto the cutting board.
7. Trim the edges and cut the marshmallow into any shape and size you like. To make it easier to cut, I dust my knife with the starch and sugar mixture too. Toss the cut up marshmallow in the potato starch and powdered sugar mixture, making sure all sides are covered.  Shake off the excess and store the marshmallow in an air tight container.

Cooking Tips:

• Many recipes called for oiling the pan before dusting it with powdered sugar. I prefer to not oil my pan because I was afraid it’d leave the oil taste on the marshmallow (even though you trim the edges, there would still be oil on the bottom of the marshmallow). To make sure I can remove the marshmallow easily, I dust the pan completely with the potato starch and powdered sugar until I can barely see the bottom of the pan.
• You can use powdered sugar instead of the mixture of potato starch and powdered sugar for dusting. I didn’t want the marshmallow to be too sweet so I added potato starch to lower the amount of powdered sugar used for dusting.
• Instead of cutting the marshmallow with a knife, you can also use cookie cutters to make different shapes of marshmallows. Just remember to dust the cookie cutter first before cutting.
• I substitute the vanilla extract with strawberry extract (same amount) and it turned out pretty good. I would’ve added more strawberry extract so the flavour will be stronger but on my first try, the red strawberry extract turned the whole marshmallow batch from white to deep pink and it scared me! Next time I will experiment with a bit more so the flavour will be stronger.
• You can store the marshmallow in airtight containers for 1-2 weeks before it starts to dry out. Mine stayed fluffly and soft for 2.5 weeks before the edges and outside started to dry (similar to store brought marshmallows).