Forget Me Not - Sinful 6 Layer Cookie Bar

By Lu

Don't you think it's about time that we give you another recipe to try out?! I'd say, and I got one that is just so scrumptious, you will want to make it as soon as you're done reading this! Did you read the title of this post? Yes, it is definitely sinful, and I think by now you get my fetish of layers. I don't know why, I love complex things where I can feel its depth and peel it layer by layer - either for figuring it out or for appreciating how several items can morph into a balanced concoction of another yummy goodness. We always need a mystery in life to keep things interesting. That is why I love my layers of stuff.

This cookie bar has 6 layers of various sinful ingredients and yet combined together, they morphed into heaven in your mouth. I first tasted it, at my friends' Dipak and Brady's Super Bowl party a couple weeks ago. Most of the people in the party were all foodies and the common thread that tied us together was that most of us are members of Six Degree of Dipak's Food Club. Just imagine, a foodie Super Bowl party...you betcha it was filled with great foods, and more great foods! Let's see what were on the list: Marilou's fried lumpia, Tina's Mom's famous kalbi, Dipak's spicy and yummy lamb curry stew, Brady's pork tenderloin sliders, Korean chicken wings (I didn't make this, I bought them...oups), Texas-strength Margarita, Kelly and Matt's Cochinita Pibil, Scott's pizza roll, Rebecca's handmade spaetzle and many more.

However, one thing that really stuck with me was Ranaa's 6 Layer Cookie Bar. I saw her fighting with the spatula trying to cut it into little pieces. I looked at it from a far, and when she got a couple bars cut out, I snagged one. It didn't look particularly beautiful; but, it smelled soooo rich and good! When I put it in my mouth, it tasted even better. After that, I saw a lot of popped eyes each time they just got done chewing one of these bars. I asked Tina.."Did you try Ranaa's dessert?" She popped her eyes..."OMG..so good!" in her usual Tina's fashion. Yeah, the sentiment about the bars continued that way. After shamefully swallowing 4 of these bars, I had to ask Ranaa for the recipe. She emailed me the recipe right then! Oh, I was so happy.

Her original recipe called this the 7 layer cookie bar as it included an extra layer of peanut butter (that Ranaa did omit, and I also agree to exclude it - but you can add it if you want to).

The best part is - even if the only thing you are good at around the kitchen is to boil water, you can make this with no trouble. Further, if you bring this to any party, even one filled with foodies; you will come out on top.

I tweaked her recipe a bit to fit my taste:
Note: on this recipe, for those outside the US who do not have cup measurement, just loosely translate the cup with "handful." It's really hard to screw this one up.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter, melted
1 1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs (you can buy the ready crumbs, or make the crumbs yourself. Indonesians - you can use Marie Regal Biscuits to make the crumbs.)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (or more) sweetened coconut flakes
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnut
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit/ 180 degree Celcius. Then, smear butter on the bottom and side of a 13 inch x 9 inch baking pan (30 cm x 20 cm). Cut a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom and sides of pan. Make sure they stick to the pan.

Mix melted butter and crumbs together, and sprinkle on the bottom of pan evenly. Press down firmly with spatula so it will form a crust for the bar. Pour down condensed milk all over and make sure it covers everything.
Sprinkle coconut first, walnut, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips. Baked for about 20 minutes to 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool, and start the struggle of taking it out of the pan or cutting it out into bars!

Really, the hardest part is cutting it, or taking it out of the pan easily and nicely. I had a hard time myself even after I layered the bottom with parchment. Thus why, I suggest you coat the side with either butter or non stick spray, and parchment it if you can. I think a well greased springform pan would work the best. However, no matter how it looks, you would forget about that it may look ugly after you taste it. Simply sinful.

I cursed myself today hating that I have a really strong memory as even after I tried to forgive, I can't usually forget. It is hard in life sometime even though your heart has the immense ability to forgive someone or a situation, your mind might not let go. It is the same situation with this cookie bar. I forgave myself for my trespasses of having 4 helpings of this cookie bar a couple weeks ago against my better judgment; yet, my mind can not let go of how good it was. I made it last week against my better judgment again but I brought it to Sandrine's Hot Pot party to share with friends. I've seen some very happy faces when they saw the bars..."Wow, again?! Hell yeah! oh, this is sooo good!"

Forget Me Not - Sinful 6 Layer Cookie Bar - it is a mouthful of a name. Well, you get my drift :). One thing I know for sure in life, something sweet and joyful usually isn't difficult.


Thanks to Ranaa Ansari for sharing this decadent recipe!!! I thank you though my waist does not!

I Speak Korean...Bulgogi, Kalbi, Bibimbap

By Lu

Kalbi, on the charcoal grill

That is the extent of my Korean vocabulary. Well, I actually can also say "how are you," "good bye," "thank you," "I'm thirsty," and lastly.."I'm hungry!!" However, don't ask me to write them. I wouldn't know how to spell these words in Korean characters nor the Latin alphabets. It's good enough that I could pronounce them!

However, the most important words are the trifecta.."Bulgogi, Kalbi, and Bibimbap!" I hope you know me well enough to know that these are definitely food items. Bulgogi is thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce based marinade, and then grilled or pan fried. Kalbi, is short ribs of beef, also marinated in the same concoction. Bibimbap is the equivalent of fried rice for Koreans, except this is a melange of rice, vegetables, meat, a fried egg on top, and seasoned with Korean red pepper sauce (kochajang), usually served in a hot stone bowl.

People who aren't familiar with Korean food may not think that Korean cuisine would be that delicious. After all, it isn't as well known as the Japanese's sushi or the Chinese's General Tso Chicken. Yet, if you get yourself familiarized with Korean food, you will learn that it is so tasty, and on top of that, it's really healthy. My ex husband, Mark, used to only eat pepperoni pizza, pretzels, and taco. Now, he can say that he loves Korean food. That's just a light year ahead from what he was before.

Dining at a Korean restaurant is an experience in itself. It is so much fun! Koreans are known for their barbeque..and when you go to a Korean restaurant, more than likely you will get something extremely fresh and hot, right off the grill.

I first had Korean food back home in Indonesia. My parents are big foodies. My mom is quite prominent in the Jakarta culinary world, having been pegged as the Indonesian traditional cake (kue basah) expert. She teaches various classes in several culinary centers in Jakarta and Bandung. My dad, he loves to eat and to try out new restaurants. He first took us to a Korean restaurant (Gang Gang Su Lai) when I was in junior high and that was the first time I saw a grill on the table.

Tina and me

Then, I got even more familiarized with the cuisine when I met my friend, Tina years ago. Well, she's Korean, and her mom cooks crazy delicious Korean delicacies. She was the one that taught me those words too. Her mom at times even forgets that I am not Korean. She will speak to me in Korean until she realizes that I have that deer in headlights look on my face.

I've known Tina for years and through her, not only I expanded my fondness of Korean cuisine, but I also expanded my circle of friends. I'm grateful that through Tina, I got to meet Sandrine, Rebecca, Marilou, Scott, Dipak, and all my other foodie friends.

Tina's mom taught me how to make Kalbi, Bulgogi, and Bibimbap; and, I will never forget it. She taught me once, and I can make it without looking up the recipe.
Here's the marinade recipe (for about 2 lbs of meats):

• 2 cup soy sauce (light soy sauce if you prefer to stay at the healthier lower sodium style)
• 1.5 cup regular cola soda (between 3/4 of a can or a whole can depending on how sweet you want it).
• 5 stalks green onion/scallions, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbs toasted sesame seeds
• 1.5 tsp sesame oil
• salt and pepper per your taste

Remember, no exact measurement here, and you can't go wrong. All you have to do is mix all the ingredients, and then marinate the meat in it. Just make sure the marinade covers your meat. To ensure that, use a container, and lay the meat one by one. On each layer, pour some marinade. That way, you know that every piece will be seasoned. If you don't have enough marinade, make more!

To make Bulgogi, you want to choose beef that are thinly sliced such as those intended for Philly Cheesesteak or Italian Beef. Kalbi meat are usually sliced thicker and it has the rib bones. The easiest way is to go to a Korean grocer, as they would have the meats cut purposely for these applications. But if not, you can always make do with any type of beef. The cola is a great trick that Tina's mom, Soon, shared with me. The fizz helps break down the meat so it is tender, and the sweetness adds to the flavor. Plus the sugar from the corn syrup helps the caramelization when you grill them.
Once marinated for at least 1 hour (overnight is best, and you can always freeze the marinated meats), you can cook them on the grill or pan fry it on a stove top. Best way is to cook them on a charcoal grill of course!

When you go to a Korean restaurant, it is so much fun as you will have to grill the meat on the table. You have to take shower and febreeze or wash your clothes afterward since you will smell like smoke, but it is part of the experience. Yes, you have the choice for the restaurant to cook it for you in the kitchen, but what's so fun about that? The pleasure of eating food so freshly cooked and hot off the grill is also unmeasurable.

Panchan/Side Dishes

Further, you will get little side dishes to eat with your meal. They will bring a whole bunch of these tiny portioned of various offerings and you would be like.."Uh, I didn't order those." Relax, they're free and must have. These side dishes are called "panchan," and mh..mh..mh...they're good. It can be pickled radishes, or boiled spinach dressed in sesame oil, fish cake cooked in soy sauce, anchovies cooked in chili sauce, sea weed, potato salad, and the most famous one is kimchi. Kimchi is pickled napa cabbage that has been fermented and spiced. It is an acquired taste, but for those who like it, you can't eat Korean food without the kimchi.

Dolsot Bibimbap

Dolsot (means: served in hot stone bowl) Bibimbap as I have mentioned above, is basically rice, and they add the bulgogi or kalbi on top of it, some of the panchans, vegetables, a sunny side up egg on top and they will serve it in a stone bowl that was heated and sizzling when they bring the dish to your table. The idea is the rice keeps cooking as you eat it so it stays hot, and also make the rice on the bottom crunchy to add to the texture of this already layered dish. To spice it up, you mix the kochajang red pepper sauce to it, and just mix it well. It tastes superb! You can get the stone bowl at a Korean grocery store if you would like to make this dish at home. Tina's mom taught me that before using it for the first time, you want to boil them in salted water for a couple hours to condition it. I have two bowls and I use them often! However, even without the stone bowl, Bibimbap is still yummy.

I do have to thank Tina for all the exposures I received in enjoying this delicious cuisine through the years. Also, I'm grateful for the friendship she shares with me for all those years. She is convinced we are all friends with her only because of her mom's cooking. Well, I think it has something to do with it, but I believe it is more because she is as good a friend as Korean food. If I go to a Korean restaurant alone with non Korean people, I think they tried to be easy on us, and serve only some panchans so we didn't get scared. But if I went with Tina, the panchans could fill the whole table! Yes, it is the same as my pool of friends since after I knew Tina, it has expanded as the panchans expanded in quantity on the table! No complaints there.

I can say Korean food is on top of my list of cuisines I love. I even made Bulgogi and broccoli panchan for my host parents' Dale and Cherryl's wedding. I made loads of it and every body loved it.

If you live in Chicago, San Soo Gab San in Western Ave in Lincoln Square neighborhood is one of my favorites. My other favorite place is recently closed down..but I hope they will re-open. It is called Kang Nam Kalbi at Kedzie and Lawrence in Korea Town. Kang Nam used to serve spicy and non spicy Kimchi. They also give you a complimentary pancake (which I love and at times go there just for it). I took my cousin, Joanna, and her husband, Josh, to San Soo Gab San, and they were thrilled. I think Josh agreed with me that it was an experience all by itself.

Anyone can build a patio? Tina said if someone can build a patio for her, she will make her mom cook some delicious Kalbi and have a patio building picnic this summer. Anything for Tina's mom's Kalbi :D

I hope I inspired some of you to try Korean cuisine. Not only that it's delicious, healthy, and fun to eat; but you can also brag that you're so sophisticated and learned a new language. Bulgogi, Kalbi, Bibimbap!

Kamsa Hamida (Thank You).

Banana-Choco Muffins

By Crivenica

I was chatting with my sister, Lu, the other day and it made me think about sharing a little habit that David and I have.

Lu: So what are you doing?
Me: Oh, just cleaned up my freezer to make room for mom’s challah bread David brought from Jakarta. And I found these frozen bananas, so I think I’ll make some banana muffins today.
Lu: Frozen bananas? Why would you freeze bananas?
Me: They’re old bananas that we didn’t get to eat so instead of dumping them in the trash, David and I just throw them into the freezer until we feel like doing something with them.
Lu: Oh. I've never thought to freeze bananas.

It really is a simple habit that came out from not wanting to waste food. If Lu never thought to do that, I thought maybe many people didn’t think to do that, either. It’s a great way to keep an ingredient handy for a loaf of banana bread or in my case that day, Banana-Choco Muffins. All you have to do is to let the banana thaw and you can be munching on fresh-baked goods in a couple of hours.

Here’s a simple Banana-Choco Muffins recipe which I have modified from Better Homes And Gardens New Cook Book's Banana Bread recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups mashed medium bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil

2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel or vanilla extract (optional)
1 1/2 cups chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips

Grease the bottom and sides of a muffin pan or muffin tins. You can also use individual muffin baking paper liners. Set aside. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and add 1/4 tsp of salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Set aside.

In another bowl combined the wet ingredients and if you’d like add the lemon peel or vanilla extract. I usually use vanilla and there are times when I use both. I love smelling the fragrance as the muffins bake. Add the wet ingredient mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Don’t over stir, the batter should be lumpy. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Some people also add 1/2-3/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, but I’d like to focus on the banana and chocolate this time.

L: Mixed wet ingredients R: Mixed dry ingredients

Mixed batter - Fold in the chocolate

Spoon batter into the prepared pans. Bake in a 350º F/180º C/ oven gas knob 3 for 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then you can remove the individual muffins from pan and cool on rack. Make 16 medium size muffins.






Enjoy!

A Perfect Wedding Gown

By Lu

What is every girl's dream? Yep, I'm sure many girls would agree with me that each and every one of us spent a good amount of time when we were little, daydreaming about our wedding day. There's something about being a princess for a day and marrying your prince charming that just makes your heart throbbed with anticipation, right? Well, because it should be the happiest day of your life, or so you envision. You want this day to be perfect and there are so much to plan! Like Shania Twain utters in her song "No One Needs to Know".... She wants the bells to ring, the choir to sing, the white dress, the guests, the cake, the car, the whole darn thing! Whew!

Yet, I believe, the most important element of all is the white dress. Looking like a million bucks for one day, so pretty you want your future husband to cry at the altar because he's so overtaken by your beauty, would be the cherry on top!

I didn't get so lucky. I married my sweetheart, but he didn't think I looked better than usual that day. I didn't either. I hated my dress, my make up, my hair. It didn't matter that we had 600 guests and five feet high wedding cake. It wasn't how I envisioned it. The fact that we are not together anymore also says something about it. I should have seen it coming :D.

Yet, looking at bridal magazines and how girls just look absolutely breathtaking in the white gown always give you a little hope - that every girl deserves that one perfect day, even the Bridezillas.
Both of my sisters had perfect weddings. They both looked spectacular and happy on that day. The sweetest thing I heard a man said to a woman was when David told my sister, Ri, she could wear her stilettos even though she would be taller than him as he wanted her to be happy on her wedding day. Oooooh, how can any man be sweeter than that? She did look for shorter shoes awhile, but she was fixated with the pretty white satin with silver embroideries stilettos that were ridiculously tall. When David saw her walking down the "aisle" towards him and saw her on those shoes, I thought I heard him mouthing.."are you fn kidding me?!" LOL! That was so funny! I wasn't sure if it was directed to the fact she looked so tall or that she looked so beautiful he couldn't believe it. Ri said that the heels didn't matter as she sank into ground anyway.

David and Ri, on their wedding day

They got married outdoor at the garden of La Bonne Auberge, a French Restaurant that occupies a 200+ year old farm house in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It was a lovely spot with a really beautiful flower garden. Yet, a few days before the D day, a couple of deers came and ate all the flowers in the garden! We actually had to buy tons of mums to decorate the garden so it didn't look like it had just been devoured. However, it didn't change a thing. It was still perfect.
Annette got married recently in 2009 and she was also a gorgeous bride. We both envy her as she has a great bod. Ri and I always have to work on it - dieting, watching what we eat - and we're still bigger than her. Annette can eat junk after junk and she stays thin and lanky. I think she's the neighbor's daughter as we surely didn't share that gene! Yet, she shares a distinct physical trait with my dad so we couldn't deny that she's our sister.

My goofy sister, Annette

Annette is the baby, the artist, model, designer, advertising exec, crocheter and lastly a cook. Oh, but she's also the difficult, moody, pouty, pain in the butt, lippy little sister every one has. I saw her transformed from the goofy kid (Ri's words not mine), to the dorky grade schooler (this is mine), to a goth who loved Daniel Johns from Silverchair, complete with tattoos and piercings, to fashion and career conscious girl, and to the woman she is today.

She's a woman with so much personality and whimsy and I didn't expect any less from her on her wedding day. I still remember Werner, her husband, telling me that it was the happiest day of all his life. Werner said it was perfect that we were all there coming from all over the world, his parents dancing with huge smiles on their faces, his brother was there from Prague, all of his friends, and that he got to marry Annette. Yes, I'd say that's a pretty happy occasion!

From the invitation, menu, table setting, favors, name cards, flowers, venue, they were all done with taste and simplicity. It was a small intimate wedding, shared with close friends and family. They got married in a church that was 700 some years old and we were singing The Beatles' "Let It Be," instead of any church hymns. But, the coolest thing was her dress.

Not every girl could pull this dress. I certainly couldn't. When she was planning it, she kept on sending me all these simple, demure, cute dresses that I, personally, would like. My sister was larger than life, still is, and she needed something that just screamed "Annette!!!!" Those dresses weren't her.

Then one day, she sent me a picture. She said she found her gown. When I looked at it, I 1000% agreed.

The dress, featured in a Magazine

The dress was made by a young talented up and coming Indonesian designer named Mel Ahyar. Mel was Annette's senior at ESMOD, a French Fashion Design School. She was so talented and got many awards for her accomplishments as a fashion designer. She even got an award for her work from Ungaro. Good thing Annette knew her, as if not, she wouldn't get married in that gorgeous dress. The dress was featured in many magazines including Harper's Bazaar. Look at how intricate the layers were, and each of the layer had little pearls sown on it. Annette took out the handmade roses and the neck treatment, as she thought it was too much. She made the gown her own. I couldn't believe she found a gown that shared her personality - layers and layers of it!

Going down the church steps

Knowing my sister, she didn't spend much time planning her wedding, as she's a last minute type of person. Yet, and thank goodness, they pulled it off. I was so happy for her, for finding her prince, married him, and for once in her life, I see her now a little more at peace and molding into routine we so call life. I can now talk to her like friends as now she shares some of those aspects of life I've been doing for decades or so - working, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, laundry, and watch some TV if I'm not too tired :D.

Well, maybe someday, I will share one more thing in common with my two sisters: have a wonderful wedding and marry the man of my dream. Yet, even though I feel I want that day to be so perfect and redo what went wrong last time with the dress, make up, hair - I think I will spend more time planning my marriage, and hopefully I will have a great lasting one. I saw many people repeat the same mistake for being too hasty and did not take the time to plan, or analyze of what actually is important. The last thing I want would be another divorce or being stuck with the wrong person for years. I vow that when I do make another vow, I know that I've done all I could to make sure I saved the best of me for him.

I changed my mind - the dress isn't the most important element after all.

So, Monique Lhuillier or David's Bridal? When the day comes, if I have my family with me, my two sisters by my side, my friends in attendance, and that man God made just for me, standing there waiting to take my hand, I think it wouldn't matter a bit what I wear.
Thanks to Annette for the photograph of the dress. It's really a top shelf gown.

The Sun, Warm Clothes & Hot Water Bottles

By Crivenica

Winters in Nepal are on the borderline of being unbearable. Compared to other cold places, it may seem nothing. The temperature doesn’t get lower than 1º C (34º F) at its lowest nor does it snow here in the Kathmandu valley where David and I live, but the winter here can be really tough.

Cloudy winter day in Kathmandu

Every winter, we hear news that a certain amount of people have died due to winter cold in Nepal. This winter alone, the number has reached over 80 people (there are several figures in the dailies). And with the cold spell that has been on us these past few days, I won’t be surprised, but very saddened, if the number rises.

These deaths are mainly caused by the lack of access to heat. Poor people rely on burning wood, but those are not always readily available. More fortunate people may have access to portable gas heaters or electric heaters. However, LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) that is used for the gas heaters can be pricey and it’s not seldom that its supply diminishes in the winter months. So you think, use electric heaters, right? Well, electricity is also scarce in this country with its daily rolling blackout. As of this week, we lose 12 hours of electricity per day and we may lose more as the winter continues. Last winter, we topped at 16 hours of daily blackout. Oh, and people whose houses have fireplaces are lucky! Our rental house has a fireplace, but of course the structure of the chimney makes it dysfunctional so we cannot use it. It would be so great if we had a working fireplace.

So what do you do to survive the long cold winter days? We worship the sun during the day. I am a girl from the tropics and most of my life I took the sun and its warmth for granted. Never again. Like most Nepali people, I camp out under the sun in the daylight because it gets really cold inside the house. Some people often complain that they can’t find some government officials at their offices in the winter because they all will be somewhere outside sunning themselves. I don’t blame them, really. Who can concentrate on work when you’re freezing your tushies off? So, I really did miss the sun when it disappeared these past few days. And for its role in keeping me warm during the winter days, I would say that the sun is on my list of surviving-Nepali-winter must.

I bet many of you who live in subzero winter area, like my sisters Louise in Chicago and Annette in Stavanger, would say somewhere along the line of “34º F is nothing! Grow a pair!” I can understand that. I’ve lived in Illinois and Wisconsin for years myself, so I know all about bad winters. The thing is I also always had central heating in the house that kept the inside temperature in the comfortable range of 18º-21º C (65º-70º F). We don’t have that luxury here in Kathmandu. At night, the temperature inside our house is as cold as the outside temperature, while during the day, the inside temperature is colder than the outside. Imagine working, living, showering and sleeping in constant temperature of 1º-6º C (34º-44º F).

This is me at home.

We could remedy it with gas heaters, except that we don’t like smelling the gas fume. We do have electric heaters, but every time we fired up those machines our electric bill goes through the roof and we don’t have electricity most of the day anyway. So we survive by putting on many layers of clothing. I am writing this wearing a pair of leggings under a pair of jeans, wool socks, wool shoes, a Patagonia Capilene, a Patagonia Better Sweater, David’s Italian wool sweater, a pashmina scarf and an over-sized men’s thick and cuddly cashmere sweater that my father-in-law, Steve, gave me. Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m also wearing a wool hat. I am a sight. I wear less clothes than this when I go out! Surprising, right?

Our cat, Sfac, bundled up.

However, even wearing this much clothing I still get cold after the sun disappears and the temperature drops significantly. This is the time when I whip out my last arsenal against the frosty temperature: hot water bottles. These are heavy duty rubber “bottles” that you fill with boiling water and keep close to your body for warmth. I usually fill up a couple of these bottles and place them under a blanket on the couch when David and I are watching TV. And when we’re about ready for bed, I would heat up more water and place three to four hot water bottles in bed under the down comforter and two fleece blankets. They are placed strategically on the foot of the bed and each side of the bed. They can keep us warm all night once the heat is trapped under the blanket. Even Sfac, our Indonesian tropical cat, gets a mini hot water bottle under her blanket in her cat bed.

Hot water bottles

These little hot water bottles are heaven sent. At least for me they are definitely one of my winter-top-shelf items. They provide long-lasting warmth and are cheap, sturdy and environmentally friendly (because I'm not wasting a lot of gas and electricity). I recommend them to all my friends here. And I even would recommend them to those people who have constant heat in their houses or apartments. They are a good way to save on that gas/electric bill! Even when/if we move back to the US where heating shouldn’t be a problem, I will still keep these hot water bottles with me because you never know when that furnace may just fail you on those freezing winter nights.

On top of that, for our female readers, these babies are also great to help remedy those backaches and cramps that visit us monthly. So I would definitely say get one! They come in different colors and some even have cute flannel or silk covers so they won’t burn against your skin. I got mine at our local supermarkets, but I’m sure you can find these in stores near you. If not, check out amazon.com.

All About My Favorite Breakfast Items

By Lu They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'd say it's my favorite meal of the day..but not for every day.
For awhile, I've never eaten anything regularly in the morning even though I knew it's bad to skip breakfast for your metabolism. I also learned from one smart lady that skipping breakfast could cause type B Diabetes in adults. And, why I keep wondering that I always have to work hard losing weight, I do not know. Ignorance probably would be the best answer. But now, for weekday breakfast, I drink the best (in my opinion) meal replacement shake in the market today, Isagenix. I love this product. It's easy. It's natural. It's nutritious. It tastes good for a shake. Morning is not morning anymore without me shaking my bottle and making rattling noise. If you want to know more about Isagenix, contact me. You will probably be glad you learn about it. But that's for another day.Today I want to talk about real breakfast! There's something about Sunday breakfast or brunch that's endearing to me. Talking to family or friends, as you chow down eggs and bacon, and sip some coffee just sounds like a great Sunday.

Street vendor making noodle

In Indonesia, we don't just eat eggs for breakfast. Our breakfast items are very hearty, filled with starch, meat, and more starch. My favorite breakfast items when I'm in Jakarta would be Mie Ayam (chicken noodle, that my sister just wrote about the other day) and Bubur Ayam (chicken porridge). Indonesians also eat fried rice a lot for breakfast and ketupat sayur (rice cake, cut up and served with veggies in coconut milk broth). Where are the eggs? Well, if you want those items above as "special" like "special fried rice," it will come with an egg :D.

The above favorite items are usually sold by street vendors or in small mom and pop's shops around town. There are so many varieties of Mie Ayam, but we usually would go to the nearest best ones to our home, and they are usually in Kelapa Gading area of Jakarta. The vendors are usually Chinese descent Indonesians, and their informal name usually would start with "A" and they will use their names for their noodle shops. So if the shop is called "Mie A Heng", "Mie A Loy", or "Mie A Cong", I can pre-guarantee that they would be pretty good!

Bubur Ayam

Bubur Ayam, though the Chinese vendors make kick ass congee/ju/porridge, I like the traditional bubur abang abang (regular on-foot vendors). It is white congee, with sprinkle of boiled chicken on top, scallions, celery, fried shallots, soy sauce, sliced Chinese bread sticks (cakwe), and extra colorful fried garlic chips for texture (optional). For 50 cent, you will get your breakfast of champion! Well, the cleanliness I can't guarantee. My abs might not be made of steels, but my stomach is! But if you don't have iron stomach like me and you're venturing to Indonesia for some bubur ayam, make sure you have some Cipro tablets handy.

Dimsum Cart

Dim Sum, however, is probably the most known Chinese breakfast. Dim Sum is a Chinese style tapas that usually is served in the morning with a big hot pot of Oolong Tea. They serve from delicate dumplings with all kinds of fillings, congee with thousand year old eggs and pork, shrimp rolls, BBQ pork buns, to chicken feet and tripe. Servers with little carts filled with these small offerings will swarm the dining room and will stop at your table at your bidding. It is definitely a fun experience for some and religious experience for many Chinese men and women. A lot of the older men would go there, sip their tea, and read their newspapers or chat for hours. Yeah, it's pretty similar to your local Starbucks.
My all time favorite breakfast has to be just a simple continental breakfast. What could be better than sitting at a Parisienne cafe, eating a fresh baked croissant with some butter and jam, and sipping cafe au lait. Je ne sais pa..mais, peut-être, rien! (I don't know..but maybe, nothing!).
Another item that came to mind is Legal Beans in Hoboken, New Jersey, for their Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich on a Kaiser Roll. It is out of this world! The Kaiser Roll just makes this sandwich. My brother in law, David, and I would certainly order this each time we go there. If you happen to be in Frank Sinatra's home town, do stop at the Legal Beans at the corner of Newark and Garden st. and get the sandwich. You won't regret it even if you have to work it off on the treadmill for at least 45 minutes afterward.
I also won't ever forget the breakfast we had in Norway each morning for 10 days. Ragnhild, my sister Annette's mother in law, would prepare this spread every morning for us - hearty whole wheat bread, lamb specks, smoked salmon slices served with scrambled eggs, Jarlsberg cheese block, a sweet Norwegian cheese, and home made jams of blåbær (blueberry) and bringabær (raspberry). I loved it. The lamb specks and real Norwegian Jarlsberg were especially magnificent.

Crab Cake Benedicts

Lake Park Bistro in Milwaukee serves a great 3-course brunch. My friend, Heather, and I love to go there for our once in awhile catch up date. They serve the standard french menu complete with the fritatta, omelette, croque monsieur, Eggs Benedicts, and quiche. Yet, the cool part is the view. You can see Lake Michigan so blue and calm from the french window of this bistro. It is one of Paul Bartolotta's restaurants, so now you know why it is delicious.

The view from Lake Park Bistro windows

One of the local favorites for me has to be Richard Walker's Pancake House in Schaumburg, Illinois. Yes, it is a chain and they also have a sister chain called the "Walker Bros." They had to be related somehow, but they are both good. The pancake they serve are nothing like the regular flapjacks. They serve baked cinnamon apple pancake, that looks like a deep dish pizza than a pancake. A Dutch baby and/or German pancake - huge elephant ear looking pancake dusted with powdered sugar. You have to be ready to eat when you come here. Even their omelettes have a different look and they're huge! When you go here on weekends, they have a line out the door you think you're in line for one of the rides in Disney World. However, this place is definitely worth the wait.
I went to "Orange" in Chicago with my friend, Anne, today/yesterday (since the clock is about to struck 12). They have several locations in the Northwest side of the city. We went to the one on Roscoe and Damen. We both accidentally ordered the same thing - French Toasts with Almonds and Orange Rosemary Cream. Though, it didn't sound good to me at first, it tasted wonderful, yet too rich for my taste. I managed to down two slices and the rest were wasted :(. I love Orange's Frushi, which is a rendition of sushi using fruits and coconut infused rice. I also love the concept where you can make your own blend of juice made of various freshly squeezed fruits.
Yet, a great breakfast won't be complete without a great bacon, and for the pancake and french toast eaters, the maple syrup. Top shelf bacon in my book is Nueske's Bacon from Milwaukee. They're an applewood-thick-cut-not-a-waste-of-a-pig type of bacon. I go to the NRA (National Restaurant Association) Trade Show yearly, and you can always find me at the Nueske's booth, as I will keep going back and forth for free samples. Oups, did I say that out loud?
Lastly, once you have tasted organic Maine Maple Syrup, how could you go back to the fake sugary huge bottle they call "Maple Syrup?" I believe great maple syrup comes in small bottle and too bad it costs you a small fortune. Just imagine what they have to do in order to collect each drip from the tree. The difference in flavor in an actual Maple Syrup compared to a High Fructose Corn Syrup would be a revelation for some. Just ask my sister, Ri. She always brings home a bottle or two from the US to Kathmandu.
Ironically, I am writing about breakfast at midnight. I hope you will tell me what your favorite breakfast items are, especially if you live in different parts of the world than where I am at. It would be cool to learn what people eat for breakfast around the world. However, whether it is a toast at home, or Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity at IHOP, we have to make sure that we start our day right, each and every day. How? With a simple smile :).

*Special thanks to my mom and dad for the photographs for Chicken Noodle Vendor and Bubur Ayam. I appreciate you subjecting yourself to weight gain to support your children's project! :D

Wontons

By Crivenica

It’s natural to miss the food from your home country when you live abroad. I crave Indonesian food daily, but I manage to fulfill that craving by learning to cook my favorite dishes. One of those dishes is chicken noodle with wontons or mie ayam pangsit in Indonesian.

Bakmi Chopin, Jakarta

When I was living in the US with Louise, we used to make chicken noodle and wonton all the time. We could find the fresh wet noodle in a nearby Asian market so all we had to do was to make the chicken and mushroom topping and the wonton filling (ready made wonton skins were also available). But now living in Nepal, those important elements are not available. I’ve only found dried chinese noodles, which I’ve tried to use. It didn’t taste right. So, while I’m still in Kathmandu, I’ve settled with only making the wontons. I’m not ambitious enough yet to tackle the feat of noodle making.

Me, frying some wonton skin

Louise and I have been making wontons for years. Annette, on the other hand, has just started to really cook when she moved to Norway a year and a half ago. We always knew she had the cooking gene like the rest of us, but she just didn’t find herself in a situation where she had to cook until she moved away. This just shows when you desperately want to eat something, you make it happen. Anyway, when she succeeded in making wontons, apparently she boasted to Louise that her wontons were the best. Louise told me about it and she said, “there’s no way. My wontons are the best.” I will admit that Louise’s wontons are great. Annette’s wontons, I haven’t tasted. However, knowing her good palate when it comes to Asian food, I’m sure her wontons are excellent. But I must say, since I not only make my own wonton filling, but also my own wonton skin, it’s just fair to claim that my wontons are the best. ^_^

My wonton soup

Here’s my recipe for Wonton Soup. I don’t really use any measurement when I make this, so the measurements below are estimate.

Broth:
I simply boil chicken bones or chicken with bones in water. Add a little piece of ginger and seasoned with salt and white pepper. There are also many good chicken stocks available in the market that you can use if you want to cheat.

Filling:
1/2 pound total of equal mix of ground chicken and ground pork (if you don’t eat pork, just use the chicken)
1/4 pound of shrimps cut into little pieces
1/4 cup of chopped green onion
2-3 tbs of oyster sauce
2 tsp of sesame seed oil
1 tsp of sugar

Mix all the ingredients together. I tend to season this by feel. You can try dropping a small ball of filling into your boiling broth to taste. If it’s not salty enough, add another tablespoon of oyster sauce.

Wonton Skin:
1 cup of high protein/gluten flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 egg yolk
1/4-1/2 cup of water

Mix the flour and salt in a medium size mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the yolk and part of the water. I usually don’t measure the water, so start with a part of the water and start stirring the flour mix, the water and yolk with a fork. Add more water as needed. You will need to use your hand to knead the dough as it gets harder to use the fork to mix the dough. We’re looking for an elastic consistency in the dough. When you have reach the point when the flour is all mixed in and the dough doesn’t stick on the mixing bowl, you’re done. If you still have any water left, scrap it.

To put together your wonton. Get a small ball of your dough (about the size of a large marble), with a roller press it into paper thin sheet on a flour dusted surface. Put a teaspoon of filling into the middle of the sheet and follow my instruction pictures. This recipe should make about 20-25 small wontons.





When you're ready to eat, bring your broth to a boil and drop these little suckers into the boiling broth and cook for about 10 minutes. Bok choy is great with the soup, so I usually would drop in some of those too. I also make fried wonton skin from the extra dough for my husband to crush into the soup.

Now keep in mind these are estimated measurements. I tend to taste as I cook, so I season dishes according to my palate. Try it to suit your own taste. Good luck!

Top Shelf Tea - Silver Needle

By Lu

When people ask me what is my poison, I would answer..tea. I know, it is non-alcoholic and not as cool as if I would say ... perhaps, a rare Malbec or a Grey Goose Martini, shaken not stirred, with 3 olives stuffed with Blue Cheese. But, what can I say, I just simply love tea!

When I say I love tea - I mean, I love tea!!! I drink it all day long. I like the rare kind to the one they serve at the hole in the wall noodle house my friend, Eve, would refer to as the "dirty restaurant". I still love the tea they serve in a worn and dingy plastic glass.

It wasn't because all tea types are the same to me. Au contraire, I appreciate tea and all science and art behind making a perfect cup of tea. However, it is just such a pleasing drink even the low grade one I don't mind. Ask my friend, Scott (Sandrine's husband) - I bet he could tell the difference between a Blue Label Johnny Walker Whisky compared to Maddog 20/20. I just learned about Maddog 20/20 last weekend from him. When I looked it up, it sounded more like a pruno prison hooch than a fortified wine. My point is - you will not enjoy crappy liquor; but, there's no such thing as that crappy of a tea.

Yet, I still have my favorites! My all time favorite tea is of course, the Duke of all Teas, Darjeeling. I drink Darjeeling tea almost daily. It tastes superb, strong, aromatic with that spicy tone (or what tea enthusiasts would call muscatel). At times, I would get so thirsty but instead of getting a cold one, I make a cup of hot tea. Darjeeling tea is originated in West Bengal, India. It is highly regarded as the "Tea". However, it is actually made from the Chinese variety of Tea plant, instead of the Indian Assam plant. There are many ways to harvest the leaves to make various varieties of Darjeeling. However, the primo is called the second flush. The second flush is harvested in June, after they gathered the first flush in around March. The second flush would be more aromatic and have more of black tea undertone - strong and bold. It would be dried which means it is exposed to air fully or going through oxidation process. The second flush would be pretty expensive everywhere else. My sister, Ri, living in Nepal, she has the privilege buying second flush Darjeeling from the local tea store in the Himalayas for perhaps $5 a half of pound. It is still pricy considering the regular Bigelow Darjeeling can be picked up at your local grocery store for $3 per box.

My Tea Possee: Tina, Rebecca, Marilou, and Sandrine, my girls....each time we go to afternoon tea, we have our favorites. Sandrine and Tina are more adventurous. They would try the berry kind, orange spiced, or vanilla. But, Rebecca, Marilou, and I - we usually always order the silver needle jasmine.

Oh! What a treat when I can drink this tea! It is definitely top notch tea! Mark brought me a canister of Harrod's Earl Grey from London several months back, and he did not know anything about tea. However, since he knows I love my tea, he got recommendation from someone and they told him that Harrod's Earl Grey is the Prince Charles of tea. I appreciate his effort, but the canister is still unopened on my kitchen counter. But, when Helen gave me the silver needle jasmine for christmas a couple years back, it was instantly depleted!
I first learned of silver needle tea from Ri, when she brought me a bag from Nepal. It didn't even look like tea and I had no idea. Then she made me Masala Tea, with all kinds of spices, milk, etc..yuck. Sorry, sis - but not my favorite. But when I tried the silver needle, it was like I met this guy and I married him the next day. Love love love it! The silver needle is considered white tea, as they harvested the tip of the leaves way early. It is unoxidized, so you get that clean subtle tone from the tea. It is very mild, but it is so rich in flavor. I'm sure it takes real art in creating this tea, from using only the top buds of the leaf shoots, and making sure that it is only lightly fermented and dried, so that it won't alter the flavor. This is the most priced of all teas. I went to a Tea-vana for a cup one day, and I was shocked to pay almost $6 for a damn grande size.
If you couldn't get your hands on authentic silver needle from Fujian or Nepal, try Rishi Silver Needle Jasmine. It's just simply great. You can get it at a specialty food store or organic grocery store. It is still a little pricy, but you can get a canister for maybe $10 and make lots and lots of cups.

Well - I have to mention my favorite Indonesian tea. It is called "Teh Cap Botol" or Bottle Brand Tea. They make several types, but the jasmine is my choice. This fully oxidized teh melati or jasmine tea smells soooooo good! It tastes like you have jasmine flowers falling out of your mouth after you drink it. This tea is cheap. For a small box, maybe only 30 cent. Yet, I love it as much as my other favorites and I still savor every sip.

The moral of the story of Tea is that there is something in life that you can love beyond the looks, the quality, or the price. Things do not have to be expensive to get you to love and appreciate it. Yet, at the same time, when you do have to pay the price, you know you are getting a great one. Of course, like anything else, there will be some types you don't like; but, not because of price or looks. It's just simply due to preference. So, every one, tea is like a whole package. It can offer you class; it can offer you economical sense. It can also offer you robust flavor, and it can put you to sleep. It can soothe your throat and comfort you, and it can give you a jolt of caffeine and feel alive. That is why I want my man to be like tea...versatile, strong, sophisticated, with a touch of class, but can go down and dirty, and he can make me feel mellow, and at the same time he can electrify my life with excitement. Men are in abundance like tea varieties at the grocery store aisle, but, I hope I get the top bud that's been sorted for my adoration only.

I hope someday I will find my Mr. Darjeeling (Mr. Silver Needle doesn't have quite the same ring). I will keep a mug ready for you.


*Special thanks to Crivenica for the pictures. Thanks for going around and taking pictures of Himalayas' best Silver Needle! It has been a blast collaborating with you! Love you!

Sisters

By Crivenica
I thought twice when my sister, Louise, asked me to contribute to this blog. Keeping up a blog seemed like a lot of work. I know because I started a blog four years ago - The Absent-Minded Cook - as a creative outlet away from my professional world. I stopped updating it because it became another pressure on top of my other responsibilities and it took away the little free time I had. Or perhaps I was just being lazy and was not up for the work needed to keep up my blog: trying out new recipes, adding my personal touch to a new dish, taking good pictures of the cooking/baking process and the finished products, and then writing and publishing the blog. So yes, I wondered if I wanted to commit to this blog.

Some of you know that my older sister had gone through some rough patches last year and being a bystander living on the other side of the world was not fun. So I tried to be there for her in anyway that I could: we chat on YM every morning and night, we do family Skype every weekend with the parents in Jakarta, and I did manage to spend a month in Chicago with her last fall. We had a blast while I was there, but I did see sadness still lurked inside her. So when she showed me this new blog, which was a spin-off from an earlier blog, I was glad how she was focusing on the positive and great things in her life. And so I decided, why the hell not? I’m in. Writing has become a joy to her and I’m supporting that. What I just realized this morning before I started writing this was that as a co-blogger I am also being supported by her. I do not feel the same pressure I had when I started my own blog because my sister has taken up most of the writing already and she shoots up posting ideas left and right. Blog has become fun again.

Growing up I didn’t feel the connection I have with Louise now. We shared a small room almost all through the years I was in grade school and middle school, but I didn’t feel like we were roommates then. It was not our room. It was Louise’s room. I was more like the addition that she couldn’t deny, but could ignore. I have no hard feeling about it. We were teenagers. We were in very different separate worlds especially toward the end when she was in high school. Louise was the cool big sister who listened to hard rock music, wore ripped jeans and Doc Marten’s boots. I was the quiet and shy middle sister who listened to New Kids On The Block and was in love with River Phoenix. Annette, our younger sister, was even in a whole other world. She was still the lanky, goofy kid who hadn’t even blossomed yet.

Then Louise moved to the US. I started high school. Annette grew into her limbs. Three years passed and basically we continued to have separate lives. Then I moved to the US, left my life to join Louise’s life and for awhile I felt I was in the fringe again. But life went on. Annette’s world, at this point, was even further away from our lives and I think she felt and maybe still feels, even more disconnected to us (she is four years younger than me and seven years Louise’s junior).

Through the years, I felt the relationship between Louise and I was good, but it was still an older-younger sisters relationship where Louise knew better and I was just a kid. And perhaps when I returned home after college, Annette and I might have a similar relationship. It was not until years later when I had been in the work force for a few years, established a career for myself, gained self-confidence, and knew exactly who I was that I felt more equal to my older sister. But it is in these more recent years that I feel we are also friends. Mind you, she still thinks because she’s the eldest, she knows best :)

Now, Annette is married, lives in Norway, and really is living a separate life from the rest of us. She has a husband who loves her, a job that she likes and I wish her all the happiness in the world. The thing is we don’t connect with our youngest sister very often, but not from lack of trying. Time difference, work schedules and social life also play a part. The fact that she lives in Norway also a downside. It’s easier for Louise and I to see each other because I travel to US at least once a year if not more. So it was so wonderful when the three of us managed to travel home about the same time last November. We only had a few days with Annette, but it was really good to see her. And maybe another year has to pass until we see each other again, but I hope it won’t take a year for all of us to talk to each other again.

If instant messaging, Skype, and other means of communication just won’t do, I am hoping Annette will join Louise and I in contributing to this blog and make this a sister-joint-effort blog. Wouldn’t that be something? It will be the first project the three of us will work on together. Then who knows what’s next. As long as we stay connected, no matter how far away we live from each other, I’ll be happy.

Love,
Ri