I would've loved to put out a lavish Chinese New Year feast tonight if time allowed...

I'm curious to learn about what, if anything, other people are doing to celebrate the occasion.

hmmm, I overspiced some taco-meat yesterday, so today we used it to make spaghetti sauce, and with it we had asparagus sauteed with balsamic vinegar then sprinkled with romano cheese :D

practicallydone,
sigh....the perils of not having a holiday on Chinese New Year. I'm also not celebrating in a culinary way this year, but I usually host a dumpling party. It's low key and easy to do on a weeknight.

Stock up on wrappers beforehand, make some pork filling the night before, have a few friends over to stuff dumplings. I usually make hot-and-sour soup and some soup noodles to accompany. Everyone gets to eat heartily and take home dumplings to freeze for later consumption.

Michelle,

I've not heard of a more brilliant idea. Honestly. Thanks so much for sharing!

Practicallydone -

Here's another option:

Most places have a dumpling store -- a place to buy freshly-made frozen dumplings. The one in Ottawa even has soup dumplings... And then just get a lot of bamboo steamers and 2 woks (one for steamed, one for fried) for the honours.

My wife told me that not cleaning is something Chinese practice on their New Year.

I guess I celebrate Chinese New Year all year round!

Fried dumplings...excellent...

We should all collaborate more often, me thinks.

art,
Chinese new year is surrounded by a multitude of traditions or superstitions, depending on how you see it. Not cleaning during the new year celebrations (actually three days long) is preceded by a complete and thorough cleaning of the house beforehand. It's part of the whole "out with the old and in with the new" thing....

I definitely don't celebrate Chinese New Year all year round!

However, armed with this new knowledge, I can impress my wife next year by going into a cleaning frenzy a week before the New Year. She will be impressed.

I can't wait for steamed fish with garlic chives tonight, and salt and pepper prawns, and crispy tofu, and...

I received a brother es2000 sewing machine and has issue now...the thread won't catch on the the fabric at all, as i sew the fabric goes through and the needle goes up and down on it...but the thread never ends up sewing the fabric.

do you know what i'm doing wrong?
anyone ?

callbob-
I'm not much of a sewer but are you sure the thread from the bobbin is also properly threaded to the needle? I have vague memories of what you described happening when I tried to use my mom's sewing machine as a kid, and it was always because the bobbin was out of thread.

J-
thanks, that did it.