OT= Not your typical holiday family meal...

caliking · December 2018

No eggs were lit for this cook, but it sure was fun!

The fam gathered at my sister’s place for the holidays, and the kitchen has been a hurricane zone from day 1. Tempers and toilets are being tested.

Anyways, one of the planned meals was dumplings. Other items got added on along the way, and we ended up with some tasty vittles

Everyone was put to work assembling pork and cabbage dumplings:

Sister #2 banged out some scallion pancakes too. She lived in Shanghai for a few years and sort of spearheaded this meal.

Plated on the finest china- yang chow-style fried rice (courtesy of yours truly), smashed cucumber salad, scallion pancakes, dumplings.

Everything turned out well. And everyone chipped in - caliprince, usually sullen teenager niece and nephew, and the adults. Ended up being a fun meal to put together

Hope others are enjoying time , and good eats , with their loved ones as well.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · December 2018

Nice Cali! Happy New Year to you and yours. I see you are eating well

JohnInCarolina · December 2018

Was glad to see this post live up to everything I expected it to be. Happy New Year Ashish!

YukonRon · December 2018

I get what you mean by the testing of toilets and tempers, sir.
2nd day I was a plumber, days 3-10 fight referee, while being a cook full time.
Less than 24 hours left.....
The food looks outstanding, and I only hope your family visit has been at least as wonderful as ours.
Our best to CaliQueen and CaliPrince.
HNY.

Foghorn · December 2018

Outstanding. Love the family teamwork.

lousubcap · December 2018

Great cook and plated results right there. Full props to the organizer for shepherding all the cooks across the finish-line. No BGE's-no worries.

Canugghead · December 2018

Very nice Ashish, it was one of our family activities when the kids were growing up. We call it momos though

Happy New Year to you and family!

nolaegghead · December 2018

Beautiful!

Nice when you can get everyone to pitch in. One person doing the all the cooking usually results in some kind of rage for me (as the cook) if they're just milling around with a constant barrage of peanut gallery commentary.

theyolksonyou · December 2018

Not what a redneck thinks of first when you say dumplings. I guess my kind are dumplin’s

I love that kind to. Great family feast. I would love a plate of that, more bus the cucs

caliking · December 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Nice Cali! Happy New Year to you and yours. I see you are eating well

We are eating way better than one should! Happy New Year to y’all as well.

caliking · December 2018

YukonRon said:

I get what you mean by the testing of toilets and tempers, sir.
2nd day I was a plumber, days 3-10 fight referee, while being a cook full time.
Less than 24 hours left.....
The food looks outstanding, and I only hope your family visit has been at least as wonderful as ours.
Our best to CaliQueen and CaliPrince.
HNY.

Par for the course, right ? Whenever we are hosting, I make sure we have TP and operational plungers, before the menu planning even starts.

And thanks for the kind words. Best wishes to you and yours for 2019.

caliking · December 2018

Foghorn said:

Outstanding. Love the family teamwork.

It was great to see the kids pitching in. My niece and nephew lived in Shanghai and Singapore for a few years, so they are into this sort of thing. And caliprince is a good sport (usually)

caliking · December 2018

lousubcap said:

Great cook and plated results right there. Full props to the organizer for shepherding all the cooks across the finish-line. No BGE's-no worries.

Menu planning worked for about 36hrs. Chaos has reigned ever since. I had a spreadsheet laid out, but my sisters seem to think that it’s a democratic process

bgebrent · December 2018

Awesome food and family time! Happy New Year bro.

YEMTrey · December 2018

Enjoy the togetherness. Cheers!

caliking · December 2018

Canugghead said:

Very nice Ashish, it was one of our family activities when the kids were growing up. We call it momos though Happy New Year to you and family!

Thanks, Gary. Best wishes for 2019 to yours.

When I posted this, I did think “Knowing him, I’m sure Gary knows what this is like “. And I was right

We called them momos growing up in Calcutta too. For some reason, we associated dumplings more with Tibetan food than Chinese food there. In the US, Chinese restaurant staff know them as jao tze, and never seem to know what we mean by momos.

caliking · December 2018

nolaegghead said:

Beautiful!

Nice when you can get everyone to pitch in. One person doing the all the cooking usually results in some kind of rage for me (as the cook) if they're just milling around with a constant barrage of peanut gallery commentary.

I’m actually fine with cooking all meals for visitors. Because I can then plan and execute accordingly. A couple of years ago, we had a family reunion of sorts. I fed 20 people , 2 meals daily, for 4 days. A week or so before the horde descended, caliqueen asked what she could do to help, and I just said “take care of caliprince and stay out of the way. I’ll take care of everything else”.

The peanut gallery doesn’t bother me, because they are always welcome to go and figure out their own meals!

Mattman3969 · December 2018

Very nice and I would expect nothing less!! Happy New Year Cali

nolaegghead · December 2018

caliking said:

nolaegghead said:

Beautiful!

Nice when you can get everyone to pitch in. One person doing the all the cooking usually results in some kind of rage for me (as the cook) if they're just milling around with a constant barrage of peanut gallery commentary.

I’m actually fine with cooking all meals for visitors. Because I can then plan and execute accordingly. A couple of years ago, we had a family reunion of sorts. I fed 20 people , 2 meals daily, for 4 days. A week or so before the horde descended, caliqueen asked what she could do to help, and I just said “take care of caliprince and stay out of the way. I’ll take care of everything else”.

The peanut gallery doesn’t bother me, because they are always welcome to go and figure out their own meals!

I don't mind doing all the cooking if everyone gives me space, but you know how the kitchen becomes party central.

Also, your family is probably much less obnoxious than mine.

Photo Egg · December 2018

Looks better than typical!

Foghorn · December 2018

caliking said:

nolaegghead said:

Beautiful!

Nice when you can get everyone to pitch in. One person doing the all the cooking usually results in some kind of rage for me (as the cook) if they're just milling around with a constant barrage of peanut gallery commentary.

I’m actually fine with cooking all meals for visitors. Because I can then plan and execute accordingly. A couple of years ago, we had a family reunion of sorts. I fed 20 people , 2 meals daily, for 4 days. A week or so before the horde descended, caliqueen asked what she could do to help, and I just said “take care of caliprince and stay out of the way. I’ll take care of everything else”.

The peanut gallery doesn’t bother me, because they are always welcome to go and figure out their own meals!

Yeah, I usually leave the democratic process in the kitchen and run a dictatorial process out at the grills. Is that the mixing of politics and pleasure that we're not supposed to do?