Gong xi fa cai.

It’s the Year of the Fire Horse which is meant to be amazing and life changing and all sorts of other things!  A year of transformation, fire, speed, inspiration, breakthroughs and travel.

I say BRING IT ON!  Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, or maybe I’ve just been watching too many instagram reels but I’m excited for the year of the Fire Horse.  I probably should have paid more attention to what I was supposed to do before the New Year and on New Year’s Day, but hopefully the year will be fully of luck, fortune, and all good things!  

One thing I wanted to do before the Year of the Horse is to get rid of things I didn’t need.  It didn’t really work, but a baby step was to try a cookie recipe which had literally been on a browser tab for a year.  No idea what I was saving it for, but I decided to try the recipe and close the tab.  Well, spoiler alert.  I should have closed that tab a long long time ago, the cookies were not good.  They were a copycat recipe of my all-time favourite American supermarket cookies, Soft Batch Cookies.  They used to come in a red bag and were the best cookies around. So so so good.  These cookies, these imposter/copycat cookies are not good.  At all.  In fact, I’m tempted to put them in the bin.  Not sure, we’ll see.

In contrast, the other cookies I made, 5 Spice Crackle Cookies  in honor of Lunar New Year were some of the best I’ve ever made. These are on par with the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies.   So so spicy and good!  10/10 no notes!

Another recipe that I wanted to “close the tab” on was a Dark and Stormy Braised Pot Roast. I NEVER make pot roast, and I NEVER would have thought to make pot roast in the summer – It was in the oven for 4 hours.  But this recipe had been on my mind for a long time.  It didn’t disappoint.   The flavours were amazing.. And the meat was so tender.  It was a recipe the whole family loved and one I’ll definitely do again!

So that’s how we’re starting the Lunar New Year- with a big win and a big fail!  Hopefully I’m getting rid of the things that no longer serve me from the past, but also keeping the lessons learned and looking forward!