ISAYHELLO: What makes my CNY complete.

Just had reunion dinner with my family!
I sure hope that you had a good one with your families as well..
It's my happiest meal every year because everyone gets to sit down together and dine together.

As you might have seen on my twitter feed,

I've been tweeting photos of some pineapple tarts which I've made!

;)

It's part of the tradition in my family to make pineapple tarts for CNY...

I grew up eating the pineapple tarts which my aunts make,

which in my opinion, are unrivaled by any other store-bought/homemade pineapple tarts.

Of course, it all boils down to personal preference as to how every individual likes their tarts.

For me, I like the crust of the pineapple tart to be buttery and melt in the mouth.

The pineapple jam has to complement but not overpower by being too sweet.

Which is something which store bought pineapple jams cannot achieve,

because they taste like mouthfuls of sugar..

So when I make my own tarts, I put in extra time to cook the jam as well.

It is quite a tedious process cooking the jam, in case you don't know!

The pineapples have to be grated,

followed by filtering the juice from the pulp,

and cooking the pulp together with sugar for 4-5 hours until it forms into jam.

The time taken to cook is for 10 pineapples.

So as you can seen, we usually make quite a large amount of pineapple tarts!

Good thing that the jam can be stored for a few days,

because I could only spare a few hours per night to make the tarts.

It's my third year making them (after learning the recipe from my aunts),

and I'm pretty sure they taste better with each year.

HAHA.

And the best part about making tarts?

Getting to sit around with my sisters and chat about the most random and irrelevant things.
It's also the only CNY-related activity which makes my dad happy.
Haha.
He's super enthusiastic about us making pineapple tarts,
all the ingredients are bought by him!

Getting ready to go into the oven!

Don't they look like cheery sunflowers??
:D

One batch of these makes around 80-100 tarts,
and we made 4 batches this year!

Packed into containers waiting to be gifted to our family and friends!
:)))

I'm definitely not boasting when I say that they're one of the nicest pineapple tarts around.
Also affirmed by most people who are lucky enough to have tried it before!
Lucky because...
We don't usually bake enough to give away that many bottles, hahah. :p

Another of my favourite CNY goodie!
Chocolate almond shortbread squares!

Jolene ordered it from her ex-colleague,
and it's so yummy that I've been munching on them every now and then.

Gonna learn how to make these next year!!!
LOL.

Organised a TTR reunion steamboat lunch just yesterday,
which didn't turn out very well because 1) Kat forgot that she had a conflicting hair appointment,
2) Erica had to rush a major project last minute,
3) Dings forgot that she was supposed to be at her grandma's place for reunion too.

LOL.
Fail in terms of attendance but we had a good time still!