This weekend my sister, her husband, Mike, and their new baby, Lily, made a surprise visit to check in on my dad’s recovery after knee replacement surgery. Lily is my first niece and I love her spiky hair but she is a cry baby. When she last visited, she cried the whole time so we couldn’t go near her. Thankfully, she is older and doesn’t cry as much so we were excited to be able to hold and play with her.
We pulled out the Bumbo chair both Baby and Princess used when they were babies from the attic. It was a whole new world for Lily now that she could sit by herself.
While we ate a pizza snack she sat in the middle of the table and shook hands with my dad.
Listened to my mom sing her favorite songs. My mom lived with my sister for 5 weeks after she had Lily and she sang to her all day. Lily is 4 months old and she still remembers my moms singing.
The girls gave her toys to play with. They are still trying to figure out how to play with her.
The girls thought since she isn’t big enough to play with them, Lily might like to watch them play. So they moved her to the floor.
Welcome to the Cool Cousins Club!
The Dumpling Mama xo
Today we made an unexpected visit to Rockefeller Center because my mom needed a ride to a wedding in Midtown NYC. My dad would normally go with her but he is recovering from a knee replacement. This was the first trip to Rockefeller Center for the girls. Even though it was short, it was a fun adventure.
We strolled by Radio City. There was a very long line outside of people waiting to get into the 
The girls were hungry and grouchy so we bought them pretzels and that somehow cured everything.
We stopped at my favorite chocolate shop, 
Last, we stopped to see the tree. It just arrived this week and was in the process of being decorated. Even though the tree didn’t have any lights, I started to feel the holiday spirit.
There were probably at least 987,234,122,222 Elsa’s this Halloween. Here were 3 of the prettiest walking in Princess’ school Halloween parade.
This past weekend we went with friends to a Pumpkinfest at 
The went around and around for 5 minutes like maniacs.
Next was the obstacle course with the high slippery slide. No matter how you started at the top of the slide, you always ended up head first at the bottom.
Baby held hands with her friend T while standing in line for the inflatable obstacle course. T’s mom and I are hoping one of her 3 boys and my 2 girls will marry one day. I will make sure to show this picture at their wedding.
Baby walked up the wall of the obstacle course. She was the littlest one in line.
But had the best time.
While Baby was on the inflatable obstacle course, Princess was on line for Cliff Hanger. This slide was so steep. Half of the children walked up and back down because they were scared. At the top, there were ropes to hold on before you slide down. Princess usually loves this kind of stuff and she even said she wouldn’t go on it again.
After the inflatables, the girls played spin-the-wheel for a prize. Since the line was short, they played a few times and the game attendants let them pick whatever they wanted.
The girls went into the “pumpkin patch” and picked a pumpkin. I tried to encourage them to pick a small pumpkin since they wouldn’t be the ones carrying it.
Next, onto basketball. Princess made a lot of baskets.
Baby was able to at least throw the ball and get Grouchy Husband to smile.
We ate churros while standing in line for balloons. It was a windy day so we lost a couple but thankfully the line was short and we were able to replace them quickly without any tears.
We ended the day with ice cream.
And a group shot with the scarecrows and pumpkins.
The girls had a great time! I was exhausted after only a few hours of inflatables, games, and fresh air!
Longevity (寿, shou), or long life, is an important goal in Chinese culture and considered good luck. The symbolism of longevity can be seen in Chinese art, decorations, and even tattoos. My Grouchy Husband has the character for longevity on his ankle. He got this tattoo in college and luckily it IS the correct character for longevity because he doesn’t know how to read Chinese!
Because good health promotes a long life, natural remedies, internal exercise, and stress management are a big part of Chinese culture. The foundation of a Chinese diet are foods with high health benefits such as fresh vegetables and fruit, bone broth and rice. My Grandmother is the most health conscious person I know. For genetic reasons, she has always been on the boarder of having high blood pressure and blood sugar so she skims every visible piece of fat from her broths, adds only trace amounts of salt to her food, hardly ever eats food made with sugar, and does a morning exercise routine with her friends in the courtyard of her apartment building. She is over 80 years old and has been able to avoid medications because of her healthy choices.
The long length of noodles (also known as “long life” noodles) and long leaves on leafy greens are eaten to symbolize long life. They are always eaten during holidays and celebrations, and almost everyday in my house.
Bamboo is a symbol of longevity because it can survive the harshest natural conditions and still stay green all year round.
We picked red and golden delicious apples. The kids really got into picking. They jumped to pick apples.
We rented long sticks with baskets at the ends so they could pick apples at the top of the tree.
Here were the “Dads”. Don’t they fit right into the orchard with the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and iPhone!?
This was the youngest apple picker in the group. It was hard for him to smile because he was a little under the weather.
This was our apple sorting station. I had a peeler, knife, and wet towel to taste test the apples. I made sure we only took home the best looking apples with their stem. The attached stem helps the apples stay fresh longer. Any apple left behind would be picked up by the orchard and made into apple cider.
Here was the apple picking crew. As you can see, we had all experience levels and heights. Of course the mom of these three boys is a good friend, look at how well she dresses them!
I let the 2 oldest children use the camera to take our picture. They did a really good job!
The orchard was on a hill. Going down was not bad. Coming up with all our apples was a different story.
The fun continued after apple picking…
We enjoyed apple cider and donuts from the store at the orchard.
The kids raced each other while waiting for the inflatable play area to open.
Then they had a blast riding all of the rides and slides. There was an inflatable haunted house all of the kids were excited to go into. The concept of an inflatable haunted house is weird but apparently it was smokey and had more inflatable stuff inside. While waiting for the kids, we see a zipper in the middle of the house open up and Baby and Princess come out. Baby was scared inside and started crying and all of the kids helped her find the emergency exit (zipper) to get out. Picturing all of the kids coming together to help her…I love this story.
After all of the orchard fun, we headed closer to home to a brick oven pizza place for lunch. It was my good friend, J’s, birthday a couple days before so we celebrated with pizza and white sangria.
The symbolism of wholeness is seen in many Chinese foods. Have you ever been to a Chinatown and seen meat hanging in the window with its head, feet, and tail still attached?
Or have you ever wondered why the Lobster Cantonese dish comes to your table with the head? Even though there is little to no meat in the head, feet, and tail, they must be included so it is whole and complete.
During family gatherings there is an importance for everyone to come together. Growing up, my family always tried to eat dinner together. We would even try to wait for everyone to be home at the same time before we ate. At large celebrations like Chinese New Year, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, my grandparents expected all of their children and grandchildren to gather together. When there is a gathering and someone is missing, there is a feeling that the family is not complete. Recently, my small family (Grouchy Husband + two little girls) had plans to go to the 
As I learn more about Chinese symbolism, I have come to admire how integrated it is into celebrations, food, and life. When my extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) come together to celebrate holidays, everyone is there unless there is a special circumstance (like they live in a different country and just came to Thanksgiving the month before), and we eat whole 
This past weekend Grouchy Husband and I took the girls to their first baseball game. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law coordinated the outing with my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law’s family (haha…make sense!). Grouchy Husband and I aren’t big sports fans and would not have gone on our own so it was nice to share this experience with family. The girls were really excited because they didn’t know what to expect. We took a short train ride to the stadium. The girls love the train so that made the experience even more exciting.
Our tickets included a BBQ lunch. Of course, both girls insisted on sitting next to my sister-in-law.
Ice cream was the highlight of the BBQ.
At the very very few sporting events I’ve been at, I’ve always wanted a foam finger. All of the kids got one. I was a little envious but now I can borrow theirs. Baby looked so funny with the huge foam finger on her hand!
After the BBQ lunch, we watched the game. I was told we were sitting in a prime location for home runs. My brother-in-law (to the right of me) grew up playing baseball and was so excited to catch a ball. I saw how hard they hit the ball and felt bad sitting next to him hoping a ball didn’t come near me.
My sister-in-law is 7 months pregnant and looks amazing! I don’t remember being pregnant but I think God does that on purpose so you’ll do it again.
The girls had fun at the game. They were in great company, ate a lot of snacks, and saw the crowd go wild when the players hit home runs.
We left after the 7th inning and had some time before the train came so we went to the playground. Do you see the watch dog in the picture? While I appreciate him protecting the kids, I had to tell Grouchy Husband to move out of the picture if he wasn’t going to smile.
Thankfully, he decided to smile…
Start your steamer. A steamer can be any pot with a secure lid and steaming grate (the metal disc in the middle of the water). The pot must be bigger then the plate your fish will steam on. The lid must be secure enough to create a steam chamber to cook the fish. The steamer in the photo is a wok and a mismatched lid that was secure enough to create the steam chamber.
Place the ginger medallions 1 inch apart on the top and bottom of the fish. Cover the fish with the stemmed cilantro. The ginger and cilantro will flavor the fish while steaming.
Place at least one piece of ginger inside the fish.
When the water in the steamer is boiling, turn down the heat so the steam won’t burn you, then place the fish on the grate in the steamer. The water must touch the plate to cook the fish.
Put the lid on top and turn the heat back to medium high. From one of my favorite recipe blogs, 
When the fish is cooked, turn off the heat. You will know it is cooked when the skin has started to tear a little and the meat is exposed. Too much tearing is a sign the fish is overcooked. Crack the lid to release the steam and stop the cooking process.
To prepare the marinade, in a small pot or pan, heat up the fat/oil on medium heat. When it is hot, put in the ginger and garlic. They should instantly sizzle when they hit the fat/oil. Let them flavor the fat/oil for 1-2 minutes and should not turn brown.
Add in the coconut aminos, fish sauce and sesame oil and let simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Add the scallions, salt, white pepper and after 30 seconds, turn off the heat.
Sprinkle the cilantro leaves on top of the fish and then use a spoon to scoop the hot oil marinade all over, including the inside of the fish. Remember to pour some marinade on the cheeks because it is the best meat on the fish. Serve immediately.