My Life, My Child and My Food

Washington DC

2012-01-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

We visited Washington DC over the winter break,and this time, we remembered to visit Lincoln memorial,The White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest Washington, District of Columbia 20502,and Washington monument,

Homemade bread

2011-12-30T06:13:00.001-08:00

Lately, I have been baking homemade bread. It started when we bought our used bread machine at the warehouse sale. My intention was to make a gluten free bread but I did not get to make it, instead I baked many loafs of multigrain bread. I found an excellent recipe online that use no dairy. It is an easy recipe and it will make a beautiful bread like the fancy bread at your local grocery stores

Hummus

2011-12-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

I have been changing my diet and my family's diet recently. We are eating more beans and less red meat. The changes happened naturally over a few weeks. It started with an introduction of Quinoa to our diet then I added in beans like red beans, pinto beans and garbanzo beans. This new diet is perfect for me as I do not like to handle meat whether it is chicken or red meat. We are still eating

Fall is here!

2011-11-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

As much as I miss summer,I still love the color of the leaves in the autumn. My two maple trees are changing color but their colors are not as fascinating as other trees.A few days ago, my husband raked our front yard and piled the falling leaves for A to play. I could not help but to grap my camera and asked A to pose and throw the leaves all over her.Seeing those yellow leaves and feeling the

Presque Isle state park

2011-10-26T12:06:00.001-07:00

I was once asked by my friend, Nehal, to take some pictures of Presque Isle state park whenever I visit the park. I knew Nehal while studying at Behrend college. She is now living two thousand miles away from Erie, PA.A little bit information about Presque Isle State park from Wikipedia.com,It is a 3,112-acre Pennsylvania state park on an arching sandy peninsula that juts into lake Erie in the

Cold

2011-10-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

The weather in Erie has been wet and gloomy these days. It is a sure sign of colder months approaching. I have been craving for warm soup these past few days. For dinner tonight, I made vermicelli soup with chicken and mushroom toppings. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of our dinner. Tomorrow, I am planning to make tofu soup that I usually made during the winter. Luckily, I found

Green bean pastry

2011-09-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

I love most of Chinese pastries. One particular pastry is my favorite, green bean pastry. Unfortunately, I can not buy them in my city. So, where can you buy these kind of pastries? well, the nearest store is about 100 miles away from Erie. Luckily, one of my Indonesian friends is an self-taught pastry maker and she always share her green bean pastries with me. I know first hand that making

Mochi

2011-09-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Mochi is one of my favorite snacks. I remembered when I was small, whenever we passed by Cianjur, a small city on the way to Jakarta, we would stop by a snack store and I always requested my father to buy me mochi. Many times, the mochi in Cianjur was also sold by individuals who approached us. My father was always discouraged me to buy the mochi from those people. However, most of the time, I

A in the summer

2011-08-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost over so before it is really gone, I took some photos of A playing in the backyard. and

Video on how to make paper doll

2011-08-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Roti Sobek or Tear Bread

2011-07-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

The weather has been hot and humid in Erie lately. This afternoon's temperature went up to 90 F. Ideally, I should not bake, but I could not resist trying my used but new to me "bread maker". This new assistant of mine's jobs are to mix the ingredients and to rise the dough. So this afternoon, I prepared the ingredients, put them in bread maker pan and waited for the dough to rise. It only

Paper dolls

2011-07-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

My plan was to make an Indian sock doll but I ended up making an Indian paper doll and other nation paper dolls. These paper doll were inspired by KiraKiraHoshi who sells her paper dolls at EtsyI do not sell mine, if you want to buy paper dolls, please go to KiraKiraHoshi.

Strawberry season

2011-07-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Strawberry season is here. We went to two strawberry farms this year, Finnell farm and Mason farm. Last year, we picked our strawberries at Finnel farm and blogged the story here.This year, I do not take any pictures of us picking strawberry but I photographed some of strawberries that we picked.What did I do with them? well, we ate some of them and freeze the rest.For more information of where

Meeting friends in Botanical garden...

2011-06-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

We went to Buffalo, NY again...This time to meet our dearest friend, Amie, her husband and her two energetic sons, Gio and Breetzy.I knew Amie for very long. We first met in Rochester, NY and from then on, we continue our friendship. Unfortunately, we live in different cities now and it is hard to meet. So we try to meet somewhere in the middle between my city and her city and we picked Botanical

Amanda's version of Sio Bak Chang song

2011-06-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

We finally managed to video Amanda singing Sio Bak Chang,Enjoy!

Rice dumpling or Bak Chang

2011-06-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

Rice dumpling, zongzi or Bak Chang as we called it is a combination of cooked glutinous rice stuffed with different filling and wrapped in bamboo leaves. There are many kinds of rice dumpling. The one I like most is made of long-grain rice stuffed with ground beef seasoned with sweet soy sauce. Once, I was in Toronto during the rice dumpling season and the Chinese grocery stores there sold many

Pisang Bollen from Bandung and a trip to Pittsburgh

2011-06-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Last month, my friend posted in Facebook that she was about to enjoy her pisang Bollen and that make me thought of my hometown, Bandung. I remembered my friends always asked me to buy some pisang bollens every time I went home.Pisang bollen is a must to buy bakery when you visit Bandung. The famous pisang molen is sold by Kartika Sari bakery store. This place has been selling traditional and

Jumping!

2011-06-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

We went to the gorge again this week and these were the pictures I took,Erika jumped!Amanda jumped!Two girls jumped!

Buffalo, I thought I knew you well.. and Pound cake

2011-06-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

"Let's go to Buffalo!" my husband said two days ago. I was not too excited to go as we visited Buffalo often. Buffalo, NY is our neighboring city and it takes us only one and a half hour to drive there. Over a few years, we knew some friends in Buffalo and thus we visited Buffalo many times. This time, my husband said, we are going to see a folk festival. It was held in Nia-wanda Park, in the

Wintergreen gorge

2011-06-01T07:38:00.001-07:00

Most of the time, the hot scorching days come in the summer but this year, it comes early. These past two days had been very hot and humid. So where did we go to escape this heat? We went to the Wintergreen gorge. We found out about this gorge about two years ago even though we have been living in Erie for more than 10 years.Here are some facts about Wintergreen gorge, (taken from Wikipedia)

Watermelon Juice

2011-05-29T18:56:00.001-07:00

The weather across the US has been very unfriendly. So far, this month alone, we had tornado, flood and heatwave. Many cities had been devastated by tornadoes in the south and the mid west while some cities are still braving for flood in the south and for us, we have lots of rain and hot weather.Today was especially hot. And that makes me think of watermelon juice. It is a perfect drink for a

Spring flowers in Erie...

2011-05-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

We started our Spring rather late this year. I guess, we cannot complain as we are living in the northern part of the US. So far, we have a few sunny days and a lot of rainy days. Fortunately for me, I have a chance to take some pictures of early spring flowers.Cherry Blossoms in our neighbor yard: It was cloudy that day but my husband asked me to photograph these flowers as soon as they

Pot Stickers

2011-05-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

We called these dumplings, Kuo Tie/Guo Tie in my house and in my country but in the US, these are called Pot Stickers.Kuo tie have a long history. They do not originate from my country, Indonesia.According to Wikipedia,The guotie is said to date back over four millennia. However, the first mention in literature dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1280 AD) in ancient China reporting the guotie as

Singapore otah/otak

2011-05-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

We called it otak-otak in my country. In Singapore and Malaysia, this dish is known as otah or otak-otak. Fortunately, the name does not say anything about the dish itself. Otak/otah means brain in Indonesian and Malay. And there is no brain meat in any of the ingredients of this dish. I hope you are glad to hear it. Why it is called otak or otah then?According to the famous Wikipedia,The

Char Kwe Tiaw

2011-05-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Cooking char kwe tiaw or fried kwe tiaw is not difficult and yet this is my first try. We do not cook this dish very often. And whenever we need to cook it, my husband will be the one who cooks it. I do not know why I did not bother to try to cook this dish in the past. Well, that attitude changed when I saw a picture of fried kwe tiaw from a friend in Facebook. It looked so delicious that I

Fried Cassava

2011-04-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Most mornings I like to call one of my Indonesian friends here in Erie and chat about food.A few days ago, she told me that she just bought a bag of frozen cassava. Mind you, it is not easy to find cassavas here. Many times, we have to go to Cleveland/Buffalo Chinatown.In Indonesia, fresh cassavas are easy to find and they are relatively inexpensive. I grew up eating lots of food made from

A singer and two dancers

2011-04-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

Amanda performance in Erie Asian Festival,Please visit Erie Asian Festival to know more about this festival.

Erie Asian Festival 2011

2011-04-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was our 2nd time participating in the Erie Asian Festival. I am always very excited when I get to show my country, my culture and my food. So this year besides displaying cooking utensils and jewelries, I thought it would be fun to let the people of Erie taste Indonesian tea. We gave away two different kinds of tea; Jasmine tea and Black tea.The tea stand was a hit. We managed

Pumpkin Pot de Creme aka Pumpkin pudding

2011-04-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Pot de Creme...I love the name of this dessert. A few weeks ago, my friend, Ira posted her beautiful pictures of pumpkin pot de creme. They were so beautiful that I wanted to try making it. And also as my husband and my daughter are pumpkin pie fans, I thought I would delight them with this dessert.So when I went to Wegmans a few days later, I tried to search for can pumpkin. Guess

Spring is here!!

2011-03-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter cookies

2011-02-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

There are days when I am into baking and that was the day when I made these delicious cookies. Peanut Butter cookies were my choice simply because these cookies were easy to make. That day was also a homeschool day thus I included Amanda to help me with shaping the cookies with cookie cutters.The recipe was taken from my friend's blog, Lidia with a slight modification.Recipe for Peanut Butter

Asian Children festival

2011-01-26T16:26:00.001-08:00

More pictures from the Asian Children festival. This is our 3rd year of participation. There were six countries volunteering this time; Indonesia, China, The Philippines, Pakistan, Japan and India.And since this festival is aimed to introduce each country's culture to children, we need to provide crafts to make it fun. Last year my craft were making shadow puppet (Wayang), making kuda lumping

Amanda at Children festival

2011-01-24T04:47:00.000-08:00

Every year we participated to introduce Indonesia culture to Erie Children. This year I included Amanda as a singer. She sang two songs, Bubuy Bulan dan Rek Ayo Rek. This event is organized by GE Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF). For more information please visit Erie APAF.

Sayur Asam/Indonesia vegetable soup

2011-01-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

I was about to recommend this dish to my vegetarian friend, Nehal when I realized that I have not posted this recipe in my Blogspot's blog yet. These food pictures were taken long ago. It was too long ago that I had a hard time trying to find these pictures in Flickr. Vaguely, I remembered I had posted the recipe in my other blog.Erie has been so gloomy these past few weeks. Winter, for me is

Po Ka Tiam

2011-01-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

While I was in my hometown, Bandung, I dined out all the time. One of the places I patronized a lot was Po Ka Tiam.Why? Do they have delicious food? Well, actually, no. Honestly, the food is not to our satisfaction, especially to my husband who is accustomed to real kopitiam food.By the way, Po Ka Tiam is an Indonesian version of Ko Pi Tiam which is popular in Singapore and Malaysia. If you

Kolak Pisang

2011-01-18T17:44:00.000-08:00

Kolak...you must be wondering what is Kolak? Kolak is an Indonesian banana and sweet potato stew in coconut milk. This dessert is available at all time in Indonesia but more commonly found during the Ramadhan season.Honestly, I do not use any recipe for making this dessert but this posting will not be complete without a recipe, so I borrow a recipe from another Indonesia blogger, Kedai Hamburg.

Soto Madura

2011-01-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have been watching some cooking videos in YouTube recently. It is amazing that now, you do not need to have any cook books anymore. Internet provides all kinds of recipe from Korean food, Chinese food, Vietnamese food to Indonesia food. And for those who are beginner in cooking, YouTube cooking channels let you watch step by step cooking direction and the cooking process. So what do you do

Food pictures

2011-01-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

Food made and photographed by me.

Papa and me

2011-01-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

My sock dolls

2010-12-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

New buddies,made from socks, inspired by Daniel's book and Handmade with love.

Erie, Winter wonderland

2010-12-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Erie is cold and wintry,and this was what we did to enjoy this cold, windy day,

Who I saw in Toronto

2010-12-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

Reading newspapers inside the mallReading newspapers outside the mall

Penn State, The Behrend College

2010-11-25T19:41:00.001-08:00

I have known Penn state Behrend for many years. I started to know this campus as a wife of a faculty then as a student. However, I have never noticed that this place is beautiful until recently. A few weeks ago, I brought my camera to school and snapped some pictures of the beautiful campus and Amanda.A little history of this campus. The Penn State Behrend campus was donated in 1948 by Mary

Erie - Warm and sunny last week

2010-11-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Erie had been very sunny and warm last week. So we tried to take a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the warm weather every day after lunch. As the weather was seasonally warm, dandelion and roses were still around for us to enjoy. And I could not resist taking this picture of Amanda trying to blow the dandelion.

Black and White barn

2010-11-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Photographed this barn while walking with my husband and kid last week.

Moon

2010-11-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

Crescent moon picture. Taken after sunset....

Sky is blue!

2010-11-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, the sky was still blue and the weather was still warm. We went for a walk and these were the things I saw,and here is Amanda trying to balance at the edge of the pavement,

A rose in november

2010-11-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

It is November now and the weather is still rather warm. The sky is always blue in the afternoon and the rose is happy...

Chimmey

2010-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

What I saw this afternoon.

Indonesian snacks

2010-11-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Indonesian snacks are some of the things I missed the most from my hometown, Bandung. One of them is Combro. Combro, if I have to translate in English, will mean cooked fermented groundnut and soybean inside ground cassava. Back home, I usually bought this savory snacks at the vendor behind my house. These snacks are usually deep-fried and best eaten with bird's eye chili peppers. What did I

Slippers

2010-11-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

Amanda loves these slippers but I had to throw them away because they were too small for her feet now..

Jurong Bird Park, Singapore

2010-10-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Visiting one of the largest bird park in the world was a mere coincidence for me. I was invited to go by Michael Toh, Singapore's best landscape photographer. And it was worth my while. Jurong bird park is one of the best bird park I have ever been even though I have not been to any other bird parks before. So I was there not just to enjoy the birds but also to learn to photograph moving

What I saw in Bandung

2010-10-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Internet cafe, "browsing for 2 hours, get 1 hour free"

What I saw in Bandung...

2010-10-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

A small store selling snacks and beverages.

Singapore

2010-10-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

Singapore at blue hour, I was coached by Michael Toh, one of the best landscape photographers I've known from Singapore.We continued our photo session to the night... Singapore at night,These photographs were taken from the top of Esplanade building in Singapore.and this is the famous Esplanade of Singapore,Last but not the least, the street in Singapore at night,To see bigger version of these

CSN giveaway and Indonesian eats cook-up's month

2010-09-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

This month is CSN giveaway and Indonesian eats cook-up's month. This event is hosted by my friend, Pepy Nasution of Indonesia Eats. I was planning to participate and started to browse her recipe as we are required to cook dishes from Pepy's recipe. I did cooked one of her dish, sambal baso however I did not photographed it. My decision to participate was rather a late minute decision. I am

Singapore trip 2

2010-09-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

Remember the story I wrote before about Amanda. She fell asleep right before her ice cream came. Well, the story happened in Cabliari Cafe in Amara hotel of Singapore.I did not have a chance to enjoy the food in that cafe as I was sleepy from the jetlag. However, I enjoyed the decorations and the atmosfere this cafe provided. This cafe served Peranakan cuisine . A little history of this

Trip to Singapore 1

2010-09-01T14:22:00.001-07:00

We were in Southeast Asia last month. We flew to Singapore and Indonesia in July and stayed for 25 days. For the first few days, we lived like nocturnal animals. We woke up at 2 or 3 in the morning and went back to sleep around 4 or 5 in the evening. Since we only had limited time in Southeast Asia, we tried to get over our jet lag as fast as we could by going out and did some exercises.I even

Strawberry smoothies

2010-07-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

It has been super hot in Erie, PA and across many of the cities in the USA these past few weeks. The day time temperature goes up to 90 F in Erie and we try to stay indoor as much as we can. We also try to stay at home most of the time because Amanda and I have been feeling unwell this week. It means, I have not cooked anything lately thus I do not have any food I can photograph and post.

Toronto trip 3 ( the end)

2010-06-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Back to my holiday story in Toronto. We finally found another place worth visiting. The Habourfront of Toronto. This place was quite a distance away from our hotel and as usual, a night before we went, my husband tried to google this place and wrote the direction on a piece of paper. The next day, after breakfast, we set out and felt very confident that we would find this place very easily. We

Beautiful gardens of Erie, PA

2010-06-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the only day the six best private gardens in Erie open to public. The event was sponsored by The Garden Conservancy. I found out about these gardens after seeing a postcard brochure in a Erie book store at 12 th street in Erie. The event was scheduled for Sunday, June 13 from 10 am to 4 pm. I had the opportunity to visit 3 private gardens. The first garden was Raku Place. We

Toronto Trip 2

2010-06-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Toronto for four nights which allowed us to explore other parts of the exciting Toronto. After visiting the farm, we decided to explore the Vietnamese town at Gerard St. The town started with a gate that had two white lions. My husband told me, the gate is the gate to the old Chinatown which was somewhat made sense as many of the shops in this town were owned by the Cantonese.I did

Toronto Trip 1

2010-06-03T19:55:00.001-07:00

I went to Toronto again! This time, I can surely say that Toronto is my favorite city in north America.Most of the time, our agenda in Toronto will be around food.You can say that we go to Toronto for its delicious food and many unique restaurants. Well, this time, I suggested something different to my husband. I wanted to see Toronto as a city. So before we headed to Toronto, we browsed the

SLF # 15 :Special Dessert

2010-05-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Still Life Food photography this month's theme is special dessert. Desserts are rather easy to be photographed. However, if you want to make them look beautiful, it is not an easy task.Cherry buns. Delicious with hot tea.1/80s,f/5.6,ISO 200Fruits pickles. We usually add chilly sauce to this pickle.

Watkins Glenn,NY

2010-05-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was at a friend's house when I saw three pictures of Watkins Glenn on my Flickr. She asked me, "what is this place?" I answered, "it is Watkins Glenn in Elmira, NY". She told me, it reminded her of some places in Taiwan. Last year after the trip, I wanted to write about Watkins Glenn but I kept postponing it. I was completely forgotten about these three pictures. So this is the short story

Almond agar-agar

2010-05-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

Amanda loves agar-agar. I usually mold the agar-agar into cute animal and flower shapes. However, this time, for photography purposes, I used yogurt bottles and decorated them with ribbons. This agar-agar reminds me of my late grandmother. When I was little, every time my siblings or me got sick, she would come to visit us and brought us agar-agar. Her agar-agar was often plain, she boiled

Toledo Botanical Garden

2010-05-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Our first trip in the Spring. We were on the way to Ann Arbor, Michigan and since it was a 5 hours driving, we wanted to split the trip into 2 parts. My husband and I do not like driving too long. Yes, 5 hours of driving is not long but since we have the time, we thought of having a relaxing trip. Well, initially, we wanted to stay in Toledo, Ohio but we found out that Ann Arbor was only 1

Pandan Chiffon cake and a note from Erie,PA

2010-05-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

Pandan chiffon cake is a very popular cake among Indonesian blogger. Many of my blogger friends have baked this cake at least once. It is easy to bake this cake, but it takes lots of time to cream the eggs and the sugar as it has to reach soft peak.I baked this cake once two years ago before I have my precious Kitchen aid mixer. I do not intend to boost but this standing mixer have been a great

Eggs

2010-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

The old pictures of eggs:and

Chinese buns

2010-04-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

I love eating buns but not just any buns. I like the Chinese buns. They are usually have fillings like red beans, sausages, cheese, chicken curry, pork floss and many more. So far the only place I can buy these kind of buns is in Cleveland's Chinatown. Most of the Chinese grocery stores in Cleveland have small sections of bakery near to the cash register . There is no attendant who will serve

SLF # 14 : Hot Drink

2010-04-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have the honor to host Still Life Food Photograph with Elsye this month. This time, we chose a perfect theme for the Spring, Hot Drink.Spring is still cold in Erie, even though it is so sunny this year. Some times, the sun makes me think the weather is warm. However when I go outside, I still have to wear jacket as the cold air is still around. And a cup of hot drink is perfect for this kind

Spring flowers

2010-04-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Spring always makes me happy. I love the sun, the cool air, the sight of people walking and the smell of early spring flowers. Unfortunately, spring usually comes with a day or two of winter. A week ago, we had light snow and hails which surprised even though the weatherman had warmed us of the possibility. My husband was confident enough we would not have snow in the month of April that he

SLF # 13 : Local Beauty

2010-04-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

I love seeing beautiful and mouth watering food pictures.Prior owing my camera, I have never thought that producing a simple food picture will take lots of effort and time. There are many things you have to prepare to produce a single piece of food photography. A good spot for your picture taking is one of them. This place can not have too much light and can not have too little light unless you

Spring in Erie PA

2010-03-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

Spring has officially arrived in Erie, PA. And Spring comes with lots of rain. We have been having wet days these two days. Yesterday, we had strong wind and this morning Erie was foggy. My husband told me the fog was so dense that he could only see as far as one car length.Nevertheless, I love spring! Spring means trees are budding, Crocus and Tulips are sprouting and the birds are coming

Fish paste wrapped in banana leaves (otak-otak)

2010-03-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

These snacks look hard to make but the truth is, they are not. The most hardest part is to wrap them in the banana leaves and the rest is very easy. Otak-otak or fish paste wrapped in banana leaves are a very common snack in Indonesia. Why do I called them snacks? well, because we usually eat it without rice.In Indonesia, food street vendors make otak-otak by scrapping fresh fish but I made them

Peanut butter cookies

2010-03-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

Erie is sunny and warm today. Unfortunately, I can not enjoy it as I do not enough sleep. Having at least 7-8 hours every nights is a must for me. But last night, I was too worry about my daughter. She has been sick for some days. Fortunately, she is getting better. I am hoping to go back to my 7-8 hours tomorrow.Today is also the first day of an unofficial spring season. The official spring

Multiculture festival

2010-03-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Multicultural festival of 2010 happened yesterday. As usual, the Erie Children museum hosted the event. This year, I displayed Indonesian Children traditional games. I only have some pictures as I did not bring my camera.Mancala (Congkak)Mancala is a family of board games played around the world. Sometimes, it is called "sowing" game or "count-and-capture" game, which describes the game-play.

Handmade dolls

2010-03-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

_I am learning to make sock and glove dolls. My primary sources are mostly handmade dolls books. One of the books is Stray Sock Sewing by Daniel. I do not know if your local bookstores carry it but I am very sure, you can find this book in amazon website.I found his book not very helpful however once you master making one doll, I am sure you can make many kinds of sock dolls. Try to learn to

SLF # 12

2010-02-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

The theme of this month Still Life Food Photography is Fresh Fruits. Although, fresh fruits are easy to find, they are not easy to be photographed. And it does not help that I am a beginner in food photography. There are many things to consider in taking pictures, especially, pictures of food. Some that I can mention are the direction of light, aperture, exposure, white balance and metering.

Gudeg or Stew Green Jack fruits

2010-02-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

As I live in the a small city of the northwest of the US, it is not easy to find Indonesian spices, let alone Indonesian food. I am fortunate enough to know someone in Buffalo, NY who is excellent in cooking Indonesian food thus I am able to taste some exotic Indonesian dishes. One of this exotic dishes that I like to eat is Gudeg. In English is called Stew green jack fruits in coconut milk.

Kue Pukis/Indonesia coconut milk cakes

2010-02-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Whenever I long for Indonesian road snacks, I will try to satisfy my craving. Last month, I longed to have Indonesia coconut milk cakes. These cakes are easy to make however they need to be cook in a special mold like the above picture (the mold is on the right side of the picture).As I do not have the mold, I have to borrow my friend, Dwiana's cake mold. Fortunately, she lives nearby and thus

Can wait till Spring!

2010-02-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

I can not wait for Spring!

Findley Lake, NY

2010-02-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Findley Lake, NY 20 minutes away from Erie, PA.

Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies

2010-02-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

I was in the gym, cycling on the stationary bike when I came across a recipe of Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. To be honest, I was attracted to the recipe not because of the recipe itself but because of the picture of the cookies. The picture was in black and white with a very simple styling.This cookies recipe was posted in Cook's Illustrated magazine. I read this magazine before and it had

SLF# 11

2010-01-31T16:46:00.000-08:00

The theme for Still Life Food Photography for this month is Celebration. Since we do not do any celebration, it is very hard for me to come up with a set up for this theme. However, a picture of a party can be used for this theme as one friend advised me. Nevertheless, I tried to display some parties theme.This is a tea partyThis one is a game partyEnjoy...can't wait for the next challenge!

Tomatoes

2010-01-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

I took these pictures in the summer and forgot all about them. To create a story about tomatoes is hard for me as I do not very fond of tomatoes. Well, I do like them to pose as my object in my photographs but not so much on my plate. They are very charming object because of their appearance and color.Many people questioned the status of tomatoes. Are they consider fruits or vegetables?To

Eliza's steamed cupcakes

2010-01-25T10:45:00.000-08:00

Steamed cupcake or Bolu kukus. I love making them since I don't need to use my oven to bake them. Currently, my oven is a storage for my pots and woks hence it will be too troublesome to unload all my from the oven.I had tried making these cupcakes many times and there were times, I failed to make them soft. Well, a perfect steamed cupcake has to bloom like a flower as Eliza wrote in her

SLF# 10

2010-01-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

Still Life Food Photography last month's theme was snack and appetizer. I like to snack which I may have to curb soon as my weight is increasing. Last month, I bought a box of pineapple cookies from Dwiana. These cookies are my favorite. And since I was too lazy to make them myself, I thought ordering was a good idea.There are many kinds of pineapple cookies. I believe many cultures have their

Over-due story

2009-12-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

This is an over-due story from my travel to upstate New York. We were there last summer and had a nice trip visiting Watkins Glenn and Stony Brook park.Stony Brook park was suggested to us by my friend, Amie. We went there after the park was closed so we did not able to explore Stony Brook park. That day was also a bit cold and the sunset was almost neared. We though we would not able to enjoy

Cooking book

2009-11-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

Cooking book for sale,

Autumn

2009-10-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Erie had a cold summer this year. I remembered wearing my coat most of the time during the summer. Then autumn came with a dust of snow. However recently, the weather has been nice to us and gave us some sunny days.Enjoy your Autumn everyone!

Click September 2009 - Heirloom

2009-09-16T14:58:00.001-07:00

My entry for CLICK: September 2009- Heirloom hosted by JugalbandiI found these vintage glass jars at a second-hand store in Erie and I found out that they were actually designed to hold coffee. These vintage glass jars were used in Your Host family restaurant which located in many cities in NY state. The back of the jars lists the chain's locations as : Amherst, Buffalo, Cleve-Hill Plaza,

Click 2009 : Allium

2009-08-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

My entry for Click event of August 2009 : Allium hosted by Jugalbandi"Making Omelette"

Trip II - Dansville, NY and banana muffins

2009-08-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

After Buffalo, NY, we drove to Amie's house in Dansville, NY. I got to know Amie while I was living in Rochester, NY. She was my classmate at Monroe Community college in Rochester, NY. She is the kindest person I've known. Amie would not hesitate to help me when I needed help communicating with other people. Mind you, I had just arrived in the US for a few months before I enrolled in the MCC.

Trip I - Buffalo, NY

2009-08-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost over but it does not mean the holiday is over. Since my husband has to teach for 6 weeks in the summer, we only have less than 1 month holiday before he has to start teaching again. So going on a trip needs to be planned quickly.For us, traveling is a big deal. We usually planned and organized places and routes we want to visit. However last week, we decided to have a

Summer

2009-08-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Summer is one of my favorite seasons. I got to enjoy sunny sky which is rare in the winter and my garden. Summer is also a time to travel and since we can not go home to our home countries, we decided to travel within the US. Many times, our travels were planned but this particular travel was spontaneous. Since I moved to the US, I began to love lavender and what a thrilled when I found a

Click event : Bi - Colour ( Tea eggs)

2009-07-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

My entry to Click event of July 2009 - Bi-Colour hosted of Jugalbandi

Asian Festival

2009-07-23T20:07:00.001-07:00

Asian FestivalGannon University, Erie, PAAugust 22, 200912 noon - 6 pm

Rochester, NY

2009-07-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great time last weekend in Rochester, NY. We went to an Indonesian party, ate delicious Indonesian food and made new friends.My husband had written a story of our trip and here is the story,Greece is a town very near to the University where I spent seven years of my life in. We drove to Buffalo (which is one and a half hours away) and our friend, Lucy, drove us to Greece which is only

Northeast, PA

2009-07-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

After I stayed in America for 12 years, I discovered some places in the US that became favorites of mine. One of them is Northeast, PA. This town is only about 10 minutes ride from Erie, PA.It is a fairy old town. The town was formerly a dense forest that filled of animals to hunt and fish to catch. The first person to settle in Northeast was Joseph Shadduck, who came from Vermont in 1794.