Chinese New Year celebration

旺旺旺…年！

年初一早上，一定是素食。

我媽在時，雖然她不是真正的佛教，但她信觀世音，每月的初一、十五日持素至下午五點。

一大早年初一，她就準備素食菜給全家，要我們至少持素至中午。那時代的素食還不盛行，她就買罐頭素料，如素鮑魚、羅漢齋…

我的兄姐各自的家庭都跟隨她的傳承。

我也不例外。

炒絲瓜蘑菇九層塔，煎豆腐、素白帶魚。

吃着吃着… 配上絲絲的念親.. 味道。

對了，給紅包。我的洋相公也有傳承.. 

每年，他有給我紅包，我也回給他紅包。

Steve: I wanted to cook something for Chinese New Year, so chose a very traditional dessert - chocolate financiers! (Okay, so maybe it's a French petit-four, not a Chinese dessert, but no one has complained yet.) Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen recipes have never let me down.

"Mise en place" - everything out and ready to start mixing.

Dry ingredients ready.

After mixing the molten chocolate, butter, and espresso powder into the dry ingredients. Now, the batter sits for 20-30 minutes.

Time to fill the mini-muffin pan.

Fresh from the oven.

It's so hard to wait for them to cool before sampling. All should have a little dome in the middle, like in the upper right corner. I don't know what went wrong with some - I'll just have to keep making them until I get it right. :-)

Steve: I have no idea what the texture of a financier is supposed to be like. These turned out slightly crispy on the outside, like the edge of a brownie, and a little like fudge on the inside.

Steve 做了甜點，叫什麼 chocolate financiers，很甜，我不喜歡。

每次告訴他要減糖，他就不聽。

盆菜，近幾年馬來西亞流行新年吃盆菜。
好，就來做一做。噢不，是做二做。

這麼巧，各有两位朋友邀請我們去慶祝新年。

一家三點的因有某些素食者，所以我做一盆全素的。

另一家五點，我做一盆葷的。

除了两位 ang moh 及小弟弟在美國出生，我們都是馬來西亞人。
噢，還有两隻狗狗，是美國狗。
We had a wonderful Chinese New Year celebration dinner in Ling & David's house.

Happy Dog Year

今天才想到做一點年餅。

杏仁餅。
Almond butter cookies.

新的一年又來了，反省回想過往，也許我的言行，我無意中，不知有否曾讓人造成不舒服，若有，請原諒。

一個人的除夕火鍋。

父母還在時，我們的團圓飯是火鍋。所以我愛吃火鍋，感覺很温馨。

紫胡蘿蔔及藥材湯底，火鍋料有素有葷。

我生長在檳島，吃海鮮成長，魚蝦蟹很誘惑我的食慾。

明天大家一起又增多一年歲了，共賀。

恭祝你及家人 ~

身體健康 事事如意 吉祥！

Valentine's rolls

♡ Happy Valentine's Day ♡

我的早餐通常是麵包，自己烘的有機全麥麵包。

做慣了，很多材料就不用量了，麵粉也是 agar agar，用手感。

揉呀揉，玩一玩。揉麵團是可以減壓的，雖然我沒壓力。

Organic whole wheat with flax seed meal rolls.

應節，做♡形的，給我的情人。

祝大家有情有愛，情人節快樂 ♡

Vietnamese New Year Event

 

去看看越南人的新年團慶，跟華人的，是有一些不同。

我認得..桔，還有冬瓜條，其它就不知是什麼。
Mandarin oranges represent Luck.

我有問小女孩的媽媽，讓我拍照。

Cute girl

The altar is non-denominational, as religious leaders from several denominations helped lead the event, which was held in the gymnasium of a Catholic high school.  The gold flag with red stripes is the old flag of South Vietnam.

儀式開始~大家起立播唱美國國歌。

接着播唱越南國歌，一半時播放中斷，男司儀臨急應變，自己領導大家清唱。

Flag Ceremony & National Anthems

我猜這是像華人的民間傳統的祭拜。
我問了一位越南朋友，她說是老子（道教）的祭拜儀式。
果然沒猜錯。
Traditional ceremony for the New Year.

A local kung fu school preparing for the lion dance.

 舞獅。

No New Year's celebration is complete without a Lion Dance.

跪拜

The lions paying their respects before beginning to dance.

我以爲這是財神。
越南朋友說是，灶神。
A guy made up as the Kitchen God. Not a Santa Claus.

大人物派黄包
Lucky Money Giveaway. There were not enough kids for all the yellow packets, so the adults started lining up, too.

Later, everyone enjoyed a buffet. 

兒童玩棋
Chess. Each player pays 1 ticket to play. The winner of each game gets 20 tickets, but there is a 15 minute time limit on each game.  They had both western chess and Chinese chess (xiangqi), but it looked like no one tried playing xiangqi.

倉鼠進洞

Hamster roulette. Players place their tickets on top of the little houses. When the hamster is released in the middle, whichever house it runs into wins, and the players with a ticket on that house win more tickets.  

給小孩賭？

Game or gambling? Each game requires the player to pay in tickets.  In this game, the person representing the house shakes a container with three dice, and the winning player wins another ticket.

Game prizes. Players can redeem the tickets they won for prizes.

行動前的貪念

貪心，有大有小。
有時很小到我自己沒有察覺，被人打擊了，才感到很羞恥。

我在試吃品，好吃。
走了一圈倒回時，還想再吃。走向前要，那位給的人說：你吃了，留給别人。
我很不好意思掉頭走開。

感謝那人打擊我的貪，謹慎警惕自己以後要覺察行動前的貪念，須即刻熄滅。

Maple Sugar Festival

We just discovered this year that there is an annual Maple Sugar Festival in St. Louis at Rockwoods Reservation, one of the sites run by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Parking was limited on-site, so we took school buses from a local school parking lot to the venue. 

After a short bus ride, we arrive.  There are already several hundred people. 

There was a raffle.

People got hands-on experience tapping maple trees.  Here, a girl is drilling a hole in the sample tree to insert a spile, a small spout that directs sap from the tree into a collection bucket.

After the hole is drilled, the spile is gently tapped into the tree.  The hook on the bottom is to hang the collection bucket.

Carrying sap from the trees to the camp the old fashioned way!

At this station, guests were able to taste raw tree sap.  Since sap is mostly water, there is almost no noticeable taste at this stage.  To collect sap, nighttime temperatures have to be below freezing, but must rise above freezing during the day.

This is a more modern collection system.  Tubes run between trees with taps.  The tubes go into the shack on the left, which has a large container to collect sap.  This is much easier than checking and emptying individual buckets of sap on every tree.

After the maple sap is collected, the water content has to be reduced to concentrate the sugar and flavor.

Sap is mostly water, containing only about 3 percent sugar, so it is placed in an evaporator to remove water until the syrup is about 67 percent sugar.  It takes 40 gallons of sap from sugar maple trees to yield just 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Several stations with maple-related treats were set up around the site.  This one was serving kettle corn made with maple sugar.

This station was giving out little pancakes, covered with real maple syrup.

This treat, called "Sugar on Snow", was made by taking maple syrup that had been cooked to an almost candy consistency, then dropping it into shaved ice.  

The mix could then be taken out and eaten using toothpicks. 

Information booths were set up around the site where visitors could chat with knowledgeable people about maple trees, tree identification, tapping and making syrup, or just general information.  One booth even had information about "backyard tapping", for tapping trees and making maple syrup at home.

Samples to identify different types of trees. 

A small tent was set up where a band played.  Bales of hay were spread around for people to sit and relax.

Inside the cabin, several craft stations were set up for the kids.

《海墘新路》

《海墘新路》這部電影，戲的主角 Sunny，其實就是導演自己的故事，但由演員來演。他用電影呈現出他的故事，我覺得很像心理劇。

如果你知道什麽是心理劇，你就知道它是有團體心理治療的效用。不僅主角本身得到最大的療效，輔角（演員）也應有他/她角色扮演的換位思考體悟，觀衆更有觀後思維成長或種種療愈的作用。

我看到的是，從主角在孩童時，家庭父母姑姑兄姐對他的成長影嚮，對母親偏愛哥哥的不能諒解，到最後主角與母親的對話，才感受到母親的愛而能整合。這就是很重要的心理療愈。

不過，還是有不少人認為舊事何必去談，過去就讓它過去，什麼心理治療，什麽輔導，放下吧。不是的！不是所有人都能很理論性的說放下，就能放下的！我有遇到很'正信'的佛教徒，他/她說佛教也有心理學，佛教是最究竟的，他/她對那些'旁門左道'的輔導或心理治療不以為然。

這天。啊不對，是這夜，半夜，我突然醒來，想起前幾天在檳城時，在朋友 GS 家看了這部電影，看後没時間整理思緒… 半夜醒來，不知怎麽就回想起以上的感想。

然後，我自己問自己，佛陀在世時，除了說理說法，他是否有用心理治療的技巧？

叮！

有呀！那個婦女的孩子死了，她求佛陀救活她的孩子，佛陀要她去找問一户沒死過人的家庭，向那家人要來一些米，才能救活她的孩子。她真的去問了多户人家… 最終自己才能接受孩子的死亡，了悟。這不就是讓案主去探索問題，尋找答案，解决困擾的技巧嗎？

所以，如你覺得没有任何過去的經驗遭遇對你有任何影嚮，也請不要質疑别人為何要把舊事提出來，輕視别人有心理治療的需要吧！

https://vimeo.com/215485982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSI2Z-4NKQ