From us to all of you,

A friend and A cake

I often meet most of my Indonesian friends in the US through other friends but with Keke, it was not the case. I did not remember when I first met her; it could be in 2001 or 2002. So how did I meet her? through our husbands. My husband was her husband’s teacher at Pennstate Behrend. It was a day before thanksgiving when they actually talked about their wives. James, Keke’s husband was the only student who showed up that day. It was a bad habit of most college students to skip classes a day before. Since James was the only one who came, my husband decided not to have a class instead they talked and their conversation led to their wives’ hometown. And guess what? Keke and I are from the same city, Bandung. After the talked, my husband called me and asked me to call Keke and we met. It was a joy for me to find a friend who came from the same city and after we met, we realized, our parents lived close by.

A few days ago, I met them again in Youngsville, PA.

It was wonderful to meet old friends and recalled how we first met. We stayed with them for a day and had tea and bakeries at Mug Café.


Taking about my hometown, I baked an Indonesian green cake called Chiffon Pandan cake.
It was my first time making it. The cake was supposed to have a spongy texture but since I did not have a Kitchen Aid mixer, I did not mix the batter until it reached soft peak. The green color of the cake came merely from the pandan essence, which gave a pleasing aroma to the cake. Nevertheless, the cake came out lovely and delightful.
This cake can be enjoyed with a spread of butter and a cup of hot tea or if you wish, it can be eaten just the way it is.


The original recipe was from Vania Recipe and modified by Dwiana Kitchen

The recipe for Chiffon Pandan Cake

Ingredients :
2 tsp of Pandan extract
50 ml of water
125 ml of coconut milk
50 gram of margarine (melted)
6 eggs
225 gram of granulated sugar
250 gram of all-purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda

Directions :
Combine water with margarine, coconut milk, pandan extract. Set a side
Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set a side.
Mix eggs and granulated sugar until creamy and fluffy (soft peak). In a medium beat, gradually add flour mixture and liquid mixture.

Pour the final mixture to the angel baking pan. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until the toothpick inserted come out clean.

Chocolate Pudding

"Mama, I always have room for dessert". That is what my daughter will say every time after her meal. It's our habit to have dessert after lunch or dinner. Many times, our dessert will be as simple as fruits but sometimes; I will serve cakes,cookies or puddings. Amanda loves puddings, not the store-bought puddings. She only likes certain kind of puddings, the one I made. We call it "agar-agar". What is agar-agar? it is a food, made from seaweeds and full of fibers. To know more about it, Wikipedia provides a long and complete explanation of agar-agar.
I, myself, grew up eating agar-agar as a dessert in Indonesia. Of course, it is easy to buy agar-agar powder back in my country. In the US, I have to go either to natural food stores or Chinese grocery stores. Fortunately, with internet, I can buy them online. So since Amanda likes agar-agar so much, I always have some of them in my kitchen. It is easy to process agar-agar, you can make many kinds of dessert with it.
One kind of agar-agar that Amanda loves is Chocolate agar-agar.

Recipe of Chocolate agar-agar

Ingredients :
800 cc of 2% milk
100 gram of granulated sugar
1 agar-agar (I used swallow brand, white color)
25 gram of cocoa powder
1 egg yolk, beaten lightly

Directions :
Put together milk, sugar, agar-agar and cocoa powder in a deep pot and boiled. Lower the fire after boiling. Take 1/4 cup of the liquid mixture to a beaten egg yolk, stir well. Add in the egg yolk mixture to the pot and boil it again. Pour to any containers you have (you can use glasses, shape molds or just glass bowls)
Chill it in the fridge overnight to be solidified.
Amanda is growing not only her body also her ability. She is able to read and write by herself now. Recently, her father taught her to sing Christmas carols and since then, she has been humming carols everyday!


And for Erie, it is still cold however the daylight is getting longer. I am hoping for sunny days and warm days to be here soon. Meanwhile, please enjoy my silhouette of my candle cat. I took it a few weeks ago. As Erie has been cloudy, I did not have the chance to take a silhouette of beautiful birds, people and tree so I had to improvise.
Hope you like it!

Amanda's new hairstyle

A few weeks ago, Amanda came to me holding her hair, "Do you like my new hairstyle?". I was shocked her hair was so short. Fortunately, her hairstyling was not as bad as I thought. I heard many stories of children cut their own hair and had to be rush to a hair saloon for repair and so I was surprised when I realized Amanda's hairstyle was not ugly at all.
The scene was too funny to be angry about so I took pictures of Amanda and told her never cut her hair without my permission.

Earl Grey Muffins

Drinking tea has been viewed as a good habit for our health. I was not a tea-drinker while I was in Indonesia. True, Indonesia is famous not only for its coffee but also for its tea. The tea plantations are everywhere in west Java, where I was from. After I got married, my tea-drinking habit became a daily habit as my husband liked to drink tea too. My brother-in-law also influenced my tea-drinking habit. He liked English tea so I was introduced to Earl Grey tea and English breakfast tea. I often prefer to drink Chinese or Japanese tea.
I drink tea as part of my relaxation. I love to drink tea while reading books or watching TV. By the way, I drink my tea straight, in other word, no milk and sugar.
As I got older, I restricted my intake of caffeinated tea and now, I tend to drink herbal teas like chamomile, peppermint and rose tea.


A few days ago, I came across a recipe of Earl Grey muffins by Rita from Hong Kong.
This recipe intrigued me, as I have not made any muffins with tea as an ingredient.

The recipe for Earl Grey Muffins,
(yields 6 cupcakes)

- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup tea (made of boiling water + 1 bag of earl grey tea)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 egg white

Make your cup of tea first, make it richer than what you would normally drink, let cool. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl; mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix dry and wet ingredients together with a whisk (should not take long, batter should be a bit runny, if too solid, pour a bit more tea). Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups, bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not over bake, as the cake won't be as soft and fluffy.

Two days ago was my daughter’s birthday. We did not have any celebration however; I used my muffin as a birthday cake. Nonetheless, she was happy as she was surrounded by people who love her, her parents.

Hot and Sour soup

I have never heard of Hot and Sour soup when I was in Indonesia. It was my first year in the US when I encountered this soup. A small take out Chinese restaurant which was frequented by University of Rochester’s graduate students had it in its menu. My husband and his friends were some of those students. This restaurant owner let us had unlimited amount of this soup for a very cheap price. One of my husband’s friends was so addicted to it that he had to buy home at least two containers of this soup. Over the years when I traveled in the US, I saw this soup in many Chinese buffets. I tried it once and it did not taste like the Hot and Sour soup in that particular restaurant.
Nowadays, I tried to cook soup for meal without special reason! I believed a bowl of soup could warm our body in this nasty cold weather. A few days ago, while I was remembering the Hot and Sour soup we had in Rochester, NY, I found the recipe to make it in my old recipe book.

The recipe for Hot and Sour soup,
For 4 to 5 servings

Ingredients:

3 or 4 dried Chinese mushrooms
¼ chicken
2 bean curd cakes
1 scallion
1 egg
2 tbsps of cornstarch
¼ C of water
2 C of chicken stock
1 C of mushrooms-soaking liquid
1 tbsps sherry
2 tbsps white vinegar
¾ to 1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of soy sauce
¼ tsp of white pepper
few drops of sesame oil

Directions :

Soak the dried mushrooms for 15 minutes in hot water. Reserved the soaking liquid.
Sliver the mushrooms, chicken and bean curd cakes. Mince the scallion. Beat eggs lightly. Blend the cornstarch and cold water to a paste.
Bring stock and mushroom-soaking liquid to a boil. Add chicken and mushrooms and simmer and covered for 10 minutes.
Add bean curd cakes and simmer, covered for 3 more minutes.
Stir in sherry, vinegar, salt, soy sauce and pepper. Thicken with cornstarch paste.
Slowly add beaten egg, stirring gently once or twice. Remove from heat, sprinkle with sesame oil and minced pork.

Source : The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cook Book by Gloria Bley Miller.


While the weather in Erie is going from bad to worse in the day time, at night, Erie houses warm our heart with their Christmas decorations. These are the deer decoration of my neighbor. Hope you enjoy them...Stay warm!

Soto Bandung

Soup! I like to have it in the cold winter. Many people in this country will warm themselves up by sipping a bowl of soup. The soup can be creamy or clear. I personally like the clear soup. However whenever I made a pot of soup, I prefer to make Indonesian. This time, I made Soto Bandung. Soto Bandung is a simple soup. It has only a few ingredients in it; chunks of beef and slices of white radish.

The recipe for Soto Bandung,

Ingredients:

250 g brisket beef
1 radish, thinly sliced and blanched for 2-3 minutes
2 liters water
4 cloves of garlic, mashed
1 stalk lemongrass, crushed
3 cm ginger, peeled, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper

Condiments :

Fried shallots
Roasted soy beans
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 stalk Chinese celery, thinly sliced

Directions :

1. Place 2 liters of water in a pot, boil the beef with lemongrass, a pinch of salt, crushed ginger, and bay leaves until the beef is tender ( water reduce to 1 liter), drain, cut into cubes, set aside.
2. Strain off the beef stock and re-boil it by adding ground garlic, ground white pepper and salt.
3. Put the cubes sized beef into a pot and let it boiled until the taste is achieved. Remove from the heat.
4. Place sliced radish into a bowl, add the clear soup and the beef, add fried shallots on top together with sliced Chinese celery and roasted soy beans. Serve immediately.

This recipe taken from Beef clear soup

After we finished our lunch, I asked Amanda to play in our yard. That day, the sun was sunny and the snow had melted away. I managed to rake more leaves before they got covered by the snow. Today, we have another lake dumping effect again and our yard is white once more. We probably need to wait until April or May to see our green grass in our yard again. In the meantime, we have to live with the cold and the snow in Erie with a smile!
For your information, Erie average temperature in December is around 33 °F or 1 °C.

Black and White Doughnut Holes

My husband does not have any interest at all when it comes to candy, ice cream or chocolate bar. However when it is doughnut, his eyes will light up and his saliva will dirty our carpet. This devotion to doughnut has been going on for years since he was a little boy in Singapore. As a Singaporean, my husband grew up with a notion of “tea time” or “high tea”. Tea time is a tea break, which usually happens around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Well, nowadays, you do not have to have a cup of tea to have tea time, you can also have a cup of coffee. In Singapore, my husband would go to a hawker center and had a plate of fried noodles and a cup of coffee. Then, when he moved to the US, he tried to manage his “tea time” with the available restaurants and cafes. One of the best places he likes to go is a doughnut store. We have many of them in Erie; Tim Horton, Donut Connection, Mighty Fine Donut, Jack Frost and the bakery section in most of Erie supermarkets. Recently, he likes to go to Tim Horton. He claims that Tim Horton gives the freshest coffee as this place brews its coffee every 20 minutes. I am not very fond of doughnuts although I will not resist them if they are free.
A few days ago, I went to a library with a friend and I found a Williams Sonoma’s cookbook. One of the recipes caught my eyes; it was White and Black Doughnut Holes. I then decided to try to make them, as they would satisfy my husband’s sweet tooth. The recipe promised light as a feather doughnut holes if I follow the recipe precisely. (I made black doughnut holes too but they were gone before I had a chance to photograph them)

The recipe for Black and White Doughnut Holes

For light-as-a-feather doughnut holes, keep all the ingredients as cold as possible before frying them. If you decide to make doughnuts rather than just the holes, cook them for 5 to 7 minutes. This recipe will make about 3 dozens doughnuts.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground mace
Pinch of ground cardamom
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp. lemon extract
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

Directions:

In a large bowl, sift the 3 1/2 cups flour. Then sift the flour again with the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, mace, cardamom and salt.
In a bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat the eggs until frothy. Gradually add the granulated sugar, beating until light and lemon colored, about 4 minutes. Add the buttermilk, melted butter and lemon extract and mix well. Pour the egg mixture into the center of the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. The dough will be very soft; add an additional sprinkle of flour if necessary to form a soft dough. (For light doughnuts, do not add any more flour than necessary.)

Dust a marble pastry board or other work surface generously with flour. Scrape the dough onto the surface and dust the top with flour. Roll out the dough to about 1/3-inch thickness. Dip the center removable part of a doughnut cutter into a side dish of extra flour and cut out holes. Using an icing spatula, lift the holes onto an ungreased baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for up to 1 day.

To fry the doughnuts, in a deep-fat fryer or a deep saucepan, pour in oil to a depth of 3 inches and heat to 380°F on a deep-frying thermometer, or until a doughnut hole dropped into the oil turns golden within about 2 minutes. Working in small batches, slip the doughnut holes into the oil and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Using a skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.

Sift 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar into a paper bag. Sift together the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar with the cocoa into another bag. Just before serving, shake half of the doughnut holes in the bag with the plain sugar and the other half with the cocoa-sugar mixture. Arrange on a platter and serve. Makes 9 dozen doughnut holes.
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Lifestyles Series, Brunch Entertaining, by Janeen Sarlin (Time-Life Books, 1999).
Well, my doughnut holes were not very light and feather-like and they became hard the next day. It could be because I put too much flour. This recipe is not hard to follow, but I do not think I will try them again. As my husband, he liked these doughnut holes; he ate 25 or more of them.


I had fun making them as I used the part of shaking the doughnut holes as an entertainment for my daughter. I told her, I would make magic as I could change the appearance of the doughnut holes inside the paper bag. She said she did not like magic on them; she liked them plain and brown.
For your information, one doughnut of medium size will give you 47 grams of calories and a doughnut hole has 14 grams of calories in it. If I have to choose, I will take a doughnut holes over a medium size doughnut.

As the snow keep falling in Erie and the coldness surrounds us, I leave you with a picture of December snow of Erie.


Happy Winter everyone!

Cocoa Puffs

As every mother does, I am always fussy about my daughter's breakfast. Until a few weeks ago, our morning breakfast will be a slice of bread and a spread of margarine and peanut butter. Amanda loves this combination and she will have it with milk. A few weeks ago, we went to a friend's house and she discovered Cocoa Puffs. I saw this kind of cereal in the supermarket many times but as I am not a big fan of chocolate, it did not attract me to buy. As I thought, she has forgotten about cocoa puffs, on our trip to Target, she saw it and asked us to purchase it.

Thus, from then on, Amanda's morning breakfast's routine changed, she will have a bowl of cocoa puffs float on milk and then she will have a slice of bread with peanut butter and margarine. I try these small brown cereals myself and honestly, I quite like them, although, I do not like the fact that they stick on my teeth. This late afternoon, Amanda asked for a snack time. I thought cocoa puffs with milk will satisfy her and it did. So now, I will try to make her eat her bread for breakfast and cocoa puffs for snacking. I realized that cocoa puffs are good for snacking but not for breakfast as cocoa puffs will not satisfy Amanda's breakfast needs.
Please understand, this posting is not to promote Cocoa Puffs cereals,
I am only sharing my daughter breakfast's story.

Oatmeal Crisps Cookies

We knew it would happen ! Snow again, this time, almost like a snow blizzard! So instead of going to the grocery store and the library, we stayed at home. My husband was off from teaching that day and he spent his time playing with Amanda which gave me some free time in the kitchen. I found a recipe hidden in Martha Stewart's magazine last night and I thought of giving it a try when I had free time.
I am not very fond of cookies however this cookies recipe caught my eyes as it does not require lots of ingredients and time. The picture in the recipe showed thinly flat cookies and as its name, Oatmeal Crisps Cookies, the cookies should be crisp and thin.
My first batch was a disaster as I missed read the number of rolled oatmeal I had to put in. The second was much better even though I could not make the cookies as flat and thin as in the picture.
Nevertheless, the cookies were a hit! my daughter likes it, my husband does not mind eating it and I enjoy it!

OATMEAL CRIPS COOKIES
Makes 24

Ingredients :

4 tbsps softened unsalted butter
3 tbsps sugar
2 tbsps all purpose flour
1 tbsps vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c rolled oats

Direction :

Preheat oven to 350 F; line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients except rolled oats until smooth. When all ingredients is incorporated, add in 2/3 C of rolled oats. Drop firmly packed teaspoons of dough, 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake until golden, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheet for 1 minute before transferring to paper towels to cool completely.