Chinese Lunar New Year

I want to start this post with a wish of Happy New Year to my special little Chinese girls (Anna, Mackenzie, and Grace Ingram), and a disclaimer: I don't know how to set a table for a Chinese dinner.  Where do these things all go?  I sort of went with the Western way of doing things here, but I'd love a critique!

This was so much fun.  All that I knew I wanted to do was use gold and black and red.  I had a consultant tell me that much.  Thank you Caroline!  And I had lots of these colors.

A simple white orchid moved to the center of the table.  Easy so far!

World Market's white paper lanterns are battery operated. The arms of the chandalier are perfect for them.  I'll switch them on for you later. 

Then I sprinkled these river rocks and coins on the black tablecloth.  At first, I thought the coins were all alike, but looking closer, I think they were from different dynasties. 

A simple gold charger was topped by this black and white dinner plate from Target.  It is from their basic Home line and is the Black Band pattern.

My trusty red salad plate from Ballard's was next.

These cute rice bowls from World Market have this pagoda design on the outside......

with the tip of the pagoda on the inside.

These tiny little sauce bowls are from World Market, too.  They are only about 2" across.

Porclein spoons can be found everywhere.  I like to use them for single tastes of appetizers and even desserts.

Simple white Palm Restaurant napkins wrapped with corsage bracelets from the floral wholesaler hold red chopsticks.  They show up well on the black tablecloth.

World Market again!  They come ten to a tube.

These old red glass stems are workhorses!  I'll probably be using them again this week for Valentine's Day.

Tradition has it that a red envelope.....

filled with coins bring you good luck.  Well, when isn't money in envelope good luck????

My favorite plates were these dessert plates that tied the whole color scheme together.  (If only I had remembered dessert!)

 We started with steamed pork dumplings and a tangy soy dipping sauce.

Next up was Mr. Pressed Pant's favorite, egg drop soup.

The main course was a double helping of chicken: mandarin orange chicken and ginger chicken in egg noodle nests.  Recipes for the meal will follow. 

How about this photo of the orchid at night?

It was fun and festive and Mr. Pressed Pants proclaimed it a "home run" meal.  Oh, yeah, I promised you the recipes.  Well........just go to Trader Joe's and you'll find everything but the egg nests.  That recipe came from "Tea Time" magazine in their January/February 2011 issue.  They give you a whole menu of tea food for this occassion. In very little time, I was serving!!!!!

This was stepping out of the box for me.  Not the food, (who doesn't order Chinese), but the table.  How'd I do?  

I'm linking up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Thursday Tablescape party.  Be sure to visit this for great inspiration!

betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com