Party Animals in KC (2/3)

Last weekend was really hectic (2 parties in a row). My body is catching up with my age (getting old) and I wish I manage to survive this week. To make it worse, I have to write analog control loop descriptions for some valves today (In short, some boring jobs lah). With the help of a cup of strong mocha (that is a lot of caffeine for non-coffee drinker like me), lots of gums, sour Ice-Breakers and my i-pod, I managed to stay awake and finish my job. Talking about last weekend, the parties were really fun (For those who missed that, let me keep you posted).
On Saturday, we had a baby shower party for Yeen Lee. It was no ordinary Baby Shower; it was the Malaysian Baby Shower. As usual, Malaysians arrived late. The party was supposed to start at 3pm and the guests started to show up one by one after 3:40pm at our house (we were the proud hosts). Normal lah...
For the party, Yeen Lee provided lots of finger food. I prepared "Keropok" aka shrimp crackers. Frying keropok was quite a task without the right tools. I was using the disposable bamboo chopsticks picking up piece by piece from the wok. All the hard work was worth it as the keropoks were really yummy (can't even find the crumbs in the 3 big containers) . Of course have to thank my auntie Jessica for sending the keropok from Malaysia. Because the weather here is cold we can't dry the keropok under the sun before frying (my mom used to do that), so the trick is to pre-warm in the oven. That way the keropok is easier to fry and won't absorb too much oil.

Then while frying keropok, I was baking "Char Siew" aka roast pork. Ladies who tried the char siew had asked me how I made it (I was flattered). I am no cooking queen but it turned out pretty good looking and quite yummy (may be it's just me thinking that way). So to whomever want to try my "easy recipe" at home, the recipe is to marinade overnight the pork (about 5 strips of pork shoulder or pork butt) with 1 packet of roast pork powder (can get it at oriental/Korean grocery stores, I like the one from Korean store better), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup hoisin sauce. Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F. Bake 35 mins, move to rack and brush on honey generously. Switch your oven from bake to broil, then broil on low until a little burn at the edges turn to other side and brush on honey and broil till burn on edges. Very easy!!

On top of that, I made some chinese donuts (Athena's favorite). I have received lots of comments (of course good ones) on that and they were curious to know how to make it. Well, it's easy. Use the homestyle biscuit dough (can get at any grocery stores), cut each roll into half and fry in medium-high oil till golden. Sprinkle lots of sugar to serve (high Cholesterol and heaty, you know?). But anything fried is good. The easiest dish became the most popular one and Jeffrey wanted to get more. He volunteered to go buy more. Lena, Carol, Angela and Patricia got too creative and made the dough in different shapes to fry. It probably brought back their childhood memories of playing playdoh. That was fun!!
Then we played 2 baby shower games. What's a baby shower without games, right? We played Charades, everyone took turns to act out the baby themed actions for other to guess and team that had the most points win. Angela and Tharu won in that game. Some difficult actions were Electric Swing, Huggies Diaper, Bottle Warmer and the most hilarious one was Breast Feeding (guess who acted out that one..Ha Ha).
The 2nd game was pin the diaper on the baby. Besides diaper, I added bottle, booties, pacifier, ribbon and a bib to make it more challeging. Patricia said the baby I drawn was cute leh...hee hee. Jeffrey won in that game. He managed to put 5 out of 7 at the right place. Some of them pinned the diaper to the face and bib to the bottoms (can't blame them as they have no clue about baby..they were blind folded)...was quite a blast too!!
The next highlights of the party was open gifts. Lots of presents to the soon-to-be parents. They were really blessed to have friends that care. I should say our group of Malaysians are more like family than just friends....
Then the guys continued playing Xbox 360 and the girls continued talking. Talked about food (what else? Malaysians love to eat..ha ha) as well as planning for the Chinese New Year party. We were going to have a BIG CNY party..hee hee (because we are party animals).
Guess what time the baby shower ended? Yeah, it ended at 1:30a.m. That's why I said it's a Malaysian Baby Shower. The longest flag pole, the tallest twin towers,...and the longest Baby Shower....Malaysian kiasu lah! Ha Ha...