2012 is here!

Well now, Happy New Year's (finally)!

Bert, TC, and  spent a quiet evening ushering in 2012...

We watched the ball drop in Time's Square and before that, watched bits and pieces of "So I Married an Axe Murderer" ("A piper is down!"), "The Wedding Singer" and our new Invader Zim dvd's.

We also tried to make a traditional Filipino dessert, Palitaw (also spelled as 'palitao'). Behold, our attempt at these rice flour dumplings rolled in shredded coconut, sugar, and toasted sesame seeds (recipe to follow in a separate post).

Filipinos believe that round things bring good luck, especially for the new year. Hence, my mom used to always make palitaw on New Year's Eve. She also had oranges and grapes on the table. In our case, we had some grapes. Bert had a few coins in his pocket to bring prosperity in the new year as well. My mom tends to go overboard - she also wears something with polka dots because the round dots symbolize coins or money.

Here are a few more "round" foods that were present at my parents' for NY Day lunch...Kutsinta (steamed rice flour cakes) to be eaten with freshly grated coconut (which was in the big white contained by the upper left).

My mom's palitaw (no sesame seeds) - so much nicer, rounder and fluffier than mine.

Sweet and sour beef meatballs:

Almondigas (pork meatball soup) - the noodles were Miswa (fine threadlike wheat noodles which cook in seconds; they have a silky mouthfeel).

And later on that day, more kutsinta along with Hopia (filled with yellow mung bean).

Among the other foods served: beef skewers (the meat was marinated for two days with soy sauce, brown sugar, pineapple juice and banana ketchup), turkey breast with gravy, beef and bell pepper stir fry, fried shrimp, smoked fish (pompano), and for desserts: suman (steamed rice cake wrapped in banana leaf), Filipino style fruit salad, the aforementioned kutsinta, the palitaw, and a few desserts that I brought (lemon bars, 7-layer bars, and chocolate mochi squares).

I hope you all had a fab New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! Here's to more good eats this year!