Year of the goat/sheep

Happy new year! I'm not actually sure which animal it is this year (it might even be a ram) but for sure it's a four legged hoofed animal. And yes, it's official, I have no desire to gamble. Well, I take that back. I still love to make other bets, those that will cost you your pride and dignity. My bets will always involve some sort of embarrassment. But playing regular games for money, I've lost interest. So who wants to make a bet with me?

Tet (Lunar new year) was on a Thursday so naturally the festivities were planned for Saturday. It was a long day because Jacob had a robotics tournament all morning (I'll post about that soon). Then my parents had a get together for my side of the family in the afternoon. And then at night we got together at Lynn's grandparents' house for Tet with the in-laws. Oh, and Jacob caught the bug that Tyson had earlier in the week so he was overly tired (and whiny) by the end of the day. And now, the sickness has spread to Lynn and me. Dammit.

The two non-sick boys posing with their li xi (lucky money).

So my mom had asked me to make grandma's raisin cupcakes for Tet and I gladly obliged. This was my third attempt at making them and each time is different, only because I don't have the exact recipe. My mom poorly transcribed it on her tiny, raggedy notebook and then attempted to translate it to me. So basically I have the gist of it but I'm tweaking the amount because well, I'm really not sure how much to use of each ingredient.

The taste was there, it was good. And at least it rose, unlike my first attempt. But look at the first picture and the raisin-less top. They ended up sinking to the bottom. Oops. And the tops had a slight, crispy crust, which were very unlike grandma's but I liked it this way. I think I'm really close to getting this down.