I have some little ones who try to grab the big pellets before the big fish get them, and sometimes succeed racing away with this big thing in their mouths - problem is they're too big to swallow so eventually the big fish gets them in the end. Very cute - enjoy your babies, they grow up too fast dont they!

Keeping room is just an old-fashioned term for a small seating area off the kitchen, usually with a fireplace. Some people have a kitchen table, as well as a few comfy chairs, maybe an ottoman. I'd like the table by a window, personally...and the little seating area by the fireplace. It really depends on your lifestyle. Do you entertain a lot of people, on the holidays? If there's not enough room for everyone in the kitchen (with all the cooking/baking, etc.) it might be nice to have the separate game table/dining table in the living room, for extra dining space. The keeping room is smaller than a family room or great room. Usually it's just a space to sit by the fire and visit with people in the kitchen. The main living area would not be in the kitchen...but many people with small children like to have all those functions in one big space. That explains the popularity of the 'great room' concept. Again, it all depends on how you live and what works best for you and your family :)

So the menu changed. We had: - Roast duck, finished a la propane torch - Spare ribs in black bean sauce, the usual pressure cook-refrigerate-deep fry-stir fry process - Steamed cod with ginger, scallions and sake, there were NO live fish to be had as seemingly everyone was celebrating Chinese New Year, even my friend whose sister owns a seafood store had to buy packaged fillets at Costco - but they steamed very nicely, on a bed of lotus leaves with ginger, scallions, soy sauce and ShaoXing wine. - Baked bao with pork filling, DD made these - Deep fried veggie dumplings, DD's and DS' work - Shao mai with pork and shrimp, also DD's doing - you get the picture, I managed to not do a lot of the cooking! - Red rice with beets, someone brought - Long beans, stir fried with sesame, rice wine and red pepper, it is a long food = long life thing - Long noodles, served cold with a sesame-vinegar-soy-sake dressing, more symobolic longevity - Tofu with snow peas, DD made - Char sui pork, very red indeed - Lo mai gai, sticky rice with Chinese sausage, chicken and shrimp, steamed in lotus leaves, rested overnight, then re-steamed, which didn't actually add much extra lotus leaf flavor - Daikon cakes, baked then fried, DD made these with the nasty gluten-free flour and she whined about it a lot - Gai lan, or Chinese broccoli, we needed token veggies - Chinese tea eggs, which turned out much worse than previous attempts, they always taste the same but I didn't get as much of the pretty marble veining We did not have: - Egg drop soup, my stock was too cloudy and I didn't have time to clarify it, so I had a hissy fit and abandoned the effort - if the stock isn't clear, the egg drop doesn't look good - Soup dumplings, we had everything made but DS took so long to pleat the fried dumplings that I didn't have time to make the soup dumplings (we only have one station for dumpling assembly), so I will make these during the week - Seaweed salad, it was going to be gross so I pitched it. And a friend of DS came and made us all espresso and lattes. He is on indefinite hiatus from college, working as a barista, and is going to give me lessons in latte art. No, I didn't sit down much, so the evening was in that sense a failure. But everyone had a good time so it's not all bad!

Some of our easiest meals: chicken fajitas, which is made in one pan, including the chicken and then we do peppers and onions, you can add other veggies if you like, such summer squash. Condiments include grated cheese, sour cream and salsa. Next up is braised cabbage, carrots and onions, with kielbasa or Italian sausage, and potatoes. I eat this meal with meatless links that mimic the sausages. Many ways to do the potatoes, we usually parboil then add in with the other stuff at the end to just finish off. We love this meal, and if we want to splurge, we serve it with pierogis from the freezer section instead of potatoes. You can use other veggies and even other greens such as kale if you like it. Applesauce is a nice side if you're wanting more. Polenta is a nice change of pace side other than potatoes, and if using polenta we'll go more Italian and add diced tomatoes of some sort and top with parm. Another vegetarian version of this would go meatless and add cannellini beans and maybe some cream cheese or neufchatel to make a creamier sauce. You can serve that version over rice or pasta too. Stir fry to use up any vegetable bits and bobs that we have, plus I like to use frozen snap peas too. You can buy special Chinese vegetables like bok choy if you like, but we usually can't afford those very often so just use our pedestrian choices like cabbage and broccoli. Serve over rice. Our favorite sit down meal is roast chicken. Or even baked chicken. My favorite sit down vegetarian meal is quiche and a salad. Easy to make if you buy prepared crusts. We also do enchilada and lasagne casseroles or baked penne. When it is cold, another one of our favorite meals is chili with cornbread. Edited to add that my favorite thing with curry is soup. We don't usually do a "soup starter" but I have sometimes done it, like curried squash soup, which is a favorite. We also like curried red lentil soup. If you're doing sit down, indulge yourself in some nice dishes and matching linens. Does not have to be super fancy or super expensive. Just allow yourself to set a nice table. Most of my stuff is dime store or Target, washable, with a few patterned things and a lot of plain stuff for mixing and matching. I also have a couple of seasonal centerpieces that I rotate, and some inherited salt and pepper shakers. Another inexpensive way to treat yourself is some fancy patterned paper napkins. There are lots of cool ones out there.