Celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Tiger

This Saturday marks the New Year in the Chinese Calendar. Several years ago, my daughter, Raquel and I, began preparing traditional Chinese New Year Foods.

 I can think of no better way to appreciate other cultures than diving into the cuisine. In our mini study of Chinese New Year Raquel and I have learned that the foods often shared at the celebration have symbolic significance. Sometimes it is based on appearance. For example, serving a whole chicken during the Chinese New Year season symbolizes family togetherness. Noodles represent a long life; an old superstition says that it’s bad luck to cut them. Both clams and spring rolls symbolize wealth; clams because of their resemblance to bouillon, and Spring Rolls because their shape is similar to gold bars.Other traditional New Years Foods are prawns for liveliness, dried oysters (ho xi) for all things good; raw fish salad (yu sheng) for good luck; “fai-hai” an edible angel hair-like seaweed for prosperity and dumplings boiled in water to recover a long-lost good wish for the family. While raw fish salad and seaweed may not ever be on Raquel’s grocery list, we do enjoy making spring rolls and dumplings (wontons). We enjoy going to Asian markets for our ingredients to keep our celebration semi authentic.http://www.chinesefooddiy.com/appetizer_spring_roll.htm is the recipe that we have used.

 Paper laterns, tea lights and oranges are a simple but bold decorations. For more party decorating ideas I found Party411.com to have some excellent ideas from elegant to fun.http://www.party411.com/theme-chinese-new-year.html.

Rooster Sox What’s in a name? Destiny!

“You can’t get blood out of a turnip” I said to Lawrence as we drove up to the gas station. He and I were having some fun “one upping” each other on proverbial gems from our parents. Oh you know those one liners that contained wisdom and humor at the same time. As he got out of the car to pay for the gas ,an attendant was struggling to put a liner in the trash can outdoors. The wind was blowing the bag all over the place. It was apparent she was frustrated. No one was prepared for the quip that seemed to come from no where but actually came from the middle aged man walking to the store. “That fit likes socks on a rooster”, the man commented. I was sure I heard him wrong.  I confirmed his statement with Lawrence, “Did he just say socks on a rooster?”. We were laughing hysterically. He had certainly won the contest! All day long we referred to “socks on a rooster” and laughing all over again. Later that evening, the kids sat down with Lawrence and me to a dinner of Lawrence’s irresistable wood grilled chicken. Lawrence held up a leg and informed me, “When we start our business, we are going to call these Rooster Socks.” I was thrilled. Until that point I talked about the catering business that we would one day own. Lawrence used to give me those funny looks and never quite imagined it. That rainy and windy day in June of 2006 Lawrence named and claimed his business and signature dish. I later learned that in marketing a K sound at the end of a name makes the name fun and easy to recall. I will never ever forget how God whispered His plan into Lawrence’s ear a proverbial gem filled with His wisdom and humor.

Rooster Sox Smokin Chicken Salad

Rooster Sox Small Event Catering is a partnership formed in September 2006. The partners are Trina D. Tilson and Lawrence W. $cott. The mission of Rooster Sox Small Event Catering is to create a fun gourmet culinary experience for each client featuring wood smoked barbecue for a diverse, trendy, healthy menu expertly prepared by Chef Lawrence W. $cott. 

The smokin chicken salad like many of Lawrence’s unique menu items is a twist on a classic. The wood smoked chicken gives this chicken a distinctive flavor and texture. It is sure to please any crowd (if you can get it to the table).

Smokin Chicken salad is 1/2 gallon for $25.00. Order yours at www.roostersox.com