Well Feb 14 heralded the Chinese New Year which this year is the Year of the Tiger.
Since I was invited to my first Chinese New Years Dinner I have been making paper cut outs of the animal from this lovely copper card I have piles of. I make two at a time, one for his family and one for me to keep. The first year was the pig and since then there has been a rat a cow and now a tiger.
In the first year I just traced over a papercut out from a reference book I had but since then I have been slowly adapting the designs. This year is my most original piece. I took from the book the basic outline of the tiger though changed the bottom of it to grasses as I didn't like the original design of wheels. I also didn't like the way the original design just had lots of flowers and odd circular cuts. I threw all of that out and went for a striking zigzag style instead.
Lots of fine cutting with a scalpel later and I have my brand new tiger to add to the collection...
The other tradition is that everyone must bring a plate and I've designated myself quite firmly now amongst the dessert ranks (I don't dare compete with the chinese dishes). This year it was a lemon yoghurt sponge cake with marsala poached prunes, morello cherries and fresh berries.
