A Frugal Way to Celebrate New Year

On the last day of each year, everybody prepare for a major celebration: Count down.

Even though a new year is approaching, that does not give us the excuse of spending a lot of money to celebrate it. We can still have fun even on a budget! Last year, we welcomed the new year by making it a potluck dinner gathering at Glenn's place, so that everyone did not have to spend too much money and we get to sample everyone's homemade creations! By hosting the gathering at one of your friends' place will also save you the hassle of going out on New Year's Eve. You know how crazily packed everywhere would be.

So, here's how we celebrated New Year with everything costing under $50!

What?! Really?!! (Sorry Esther and Hazel, this is too funny I just had to!) 

Generous portion of aglio olio prepared by Chef Lovell and his Assistant Chef Rui Xuan! Spending only about $11.30 on the ingredients, both of them whipped up 9 big plates of restaurant standard, chicken mushroom aglio olio for all of us! 

So good that the guys could not resist eating from the pan!

Tip to keep your guests occupied after dinner: Bring card games. Although this is quite a popular game, if you bring Cheena games then all you'll do is just spend the night trying to figure out what the card does. 

Chef Jia Wei prepared 7 rolls of sushi for us and with each roll serving about 20 pieces, we had a sushi feast! I only managed to eat 2 pieces of sushi though, because the guys were like hungry ghosts. Jia Wei mentioned that he used Japanese cucumber, egg, carrot, mushroom and crab stick as the main ingredients in his sushi. As much as I love my mushrooms, I preferred the egg and crab stick combination! All these for less than $20! 

Tip from Jia Wei: Buy your ingredients from Sheng Siong. They are cheaper there. 

Chef Glenn wanted to re-create his own Blackball dessert with taro balls but he made some glutinous rice balls with grass jelly instead. The grass jelly costs $2, while the glutinous rice balls were made from leftover flour from last time. Everyone agreed that it tasted better with the canned sea coconut that I brought. Hehe.       

            

I decided to contribute by getting canned longans and rambutans stuffed with pineapples because I have zero cooking talent (shame on me I know) unlike the guys. Add some ice and water, viola! You have the world's easiest dessert. Hahaha. 

Lovell very kindly got us this Mont Blanc cake from River Gauche Patisserie. Mont Blanc comes with traditional vanilla layered with smooth chestnut filling and whipped cream, finished with chestnut cream and Japanese chestnut. A really unique cake apart from the other cakes that we have tried before.

What better way to end a year, and start another one with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Based on James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name, this movie will surely get you thinking about what you're doing with your life.

Wishing everyone a belated happy new year!