Year of the Snake

My Tuesday night Community Group celebrated Chinese New Year with a Chinese pot luck. I know we are a month early but we use any excuse to cook up a feast! Everyone brought their A game and we has tons of delicious food - fried rice, mu shu pork with rice pancakes, honey-cashew chicken, egg drop soup, and veggie stir fry. I made homemade fortune cookies. I have to say, I probably won't ever make them again. Fortune cookies are a pretty mediocre cookie and the homemade version is not any more spectacular. Because you have to fold them when they are hot out of the oven you have to bake the cookies one at a time! Talk about time consuming! They turned out kind of soft so they weren't really like a normal fortune cookie. Everyone liked them though. People suggested folding them in a different shape, such as rolling them into a tube and dipping them into chocolate for a new cookie. I think they would be pretty good that way. Here is the recipe if case you feel ambitious. 

Fortune Cookies

Ingredients: 4 egg whites 1/2 tsp. vanilla ¼ tsp. salt

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Write fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.

Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture. 

Place 1 spoonful of the batter on a square of parchment paper and place on a cookie sheet. Use the spoon to move the batter into a round shape about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Only make 1 at a time, because the cookies have to be really hot to form them and one they cool it is too late and they will crack. 

Bake for 6 minutes or until the cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While one sheet is baking prepare the other. 

Remove from oven and quickly remove the cookie from the parchment. (I tipped the parchment square upside down onto another square of parchment, and then I carefully peeled the parchment off of the cookie. 

Quickly place the fortune on the cookie and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin to hold their shape until firm. 

So, this is the year of the snake. I don't know much about Chinese astrology but I looked up the year of the snake since we were going to be celebrating it and discovered that I was born in the year of the snake - 1977 makes me a Fire Snake. According to the great wisdom of the internet Fire Snakes can be a bit loud, speaking their minds and smothering you with their opinions. This does add a twist to her dynamic and vibrant character, as she is quite the extrovert. These Snakes have a great wisdom. They are intriguing communicators who leave you breathless after a conversation. Fire Snakes can change even the most obstinate mind with their powers of persuasion, convincing you their opinions or ideas are better than yours. This does make them a little self-centered, but you can’t say they aren’t driven for success.

Loud? Opinionated? Extroverted? Obstinate? I am not blind to my faults, but these aren't them! I really can't think of a less accurate description. Oh well, at any rate, this is my year! I have high expectations  Bring it on 2013!