Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

I've always loved these baked buns filled with stuff. In Indonesia, judged from the Bakery names, they were introduced bu the Dutch. Don't quote me on that though! But look, Netherland Bakery, Holland Bakery, etc. These were before BreadTalk and BreadLife time. I still like Holland Bakery better anyway. Everywhere else, though, it seems like they were called Chinese Buns, but filled with different stuff. Instead of Chocolate, Banana, Cheese, Beef, or Wiener filled, they would be BBQ Pork, Curry, Pineapple, or Custard filled. To me, the dough are the same, though. So I got a recipe from my Aunt who used to own a bakery. She even had durian filled ones! What you need: 500 gr. High gluten flour (bread flour) 6 tbsp sugar 1 pack (11 gr) instant yeast 7 Egg yolks 200 ml warm water 200 gr. Margarine Fillings (ham, wieners, grated cheese, chocolate chips, etc.) 1 egg for brushing The How To: Mix flour, sugar, yeast, and egg yolks Slowly add warm water a...

A few months back I had written about how I missed teaching dance and since then, I've been keeping busy! My new 'baby' is now almost ready to launch. Wee Advance offer enrichment programs for little ones from 0 to 10 years old. It will have all Salsa Babies programs (Salsa Babies, Salsa Tots, Salsa Kids, and Salsa Bellies) as well as Baby Signing program based on Baby Signing Time . I've obtained licenses to teach all of them and will be offering them starting August. So exciting! So if you know anyone who has kids and live in Jakarta, please tell them about this. You can visit the website  or send an  email  for more information.

I have a KitchenAid mixer again. Yaaay! After contemplating for a long time on whether to get another KitchenAid mixer like the one I had in Canada, I finally caved in and bought one. There were only three types of KitchenAid stand mixer available in Indonesia, one of which had been out of stock for a while. That didn't leave me a lot of option. An Artisan type, or a Heavy Duty type. After consulting with my friend who is an expert in food and beverage field, I decided to go with the Heavy Duty one. Okay, I have to admit that I didn't need much convincing. :P So the model that I went with was  5KPM50E, which came with two bowls, a splatter guard, three attachments, and two lids for the bowl. So it arrived this past Wednesday and Miss Kiki was quite excited about the large box and decided that she wanted to pose as a sales girl for the new object. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try it until today, and I had to make something that I already have the ingredients f...

As we walk our lives day by day, it's so easy to get into a routine and feel stale. In Canada, life was good and we were easily trapped into comfort and being complacent, while in Indonesia it's always about making more money and working more. Neither of them is good, I think, because wherever we are, we need to break from the routines once in a while and do a variety of things that makes us sit back and think about what really matters in life. We've been in Jakarta for over 5 months now, and what we've done so far are work, go to the mall, go online, work again, to the mall again, and online again. What the heck were we thinking?! We are in the tropics! No snow to complain about, the heat is manageable, we're just not creative enough! Well, on Good Friday we dressed up to go out, thinking about just another mall. Then suddenly Miss Kiki talked on her 'cellphone' and planned an outing with Pocoyo, Ellie, and Patou. Then she said "Mama, I'm meeti...

This is what happens when baby spends too much time with daddy. :) In my household, that is. Between the Blackberries, Macbooks, iPads, iPods, and iPhones, Miss Kiki had gotten quite savvy with technology. The funny thing is, she thinks that all screens are touch screen. We would pass electronic stores at the mall and she would go to the LCD TVs on display and starts pressing and swiping the screen with her little finger... and would get upset because it doesn't work! Her latest gadget is this Barbie laptop, generously gifted by Oma. Miss Kiki wanted it so she can spend some quality time with Papa. Or so I like to think :P

I'm finally back to my 'making and baking' mode (for now) and I hope it will last longer than my last one. Today I made Penne Schotel (my improvisation from Macaroni Schotel) and pizza dough. This time it's a thin crust pizza and it turned out good. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, so I'll just post the result picture next time. They're sleeping in the freezer at this very moment. *now posted* What You Need: 500 gr All Purpose Flour, sifted more flour for rolling 1 package (11 gr) instant yeast 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tbsp sugar 4 tbsp olive oil 350 ml warm water The How To: Mix 500 gr flour, yeast, salt, and sugar with a wire whisk or fork Mix in warm milk and olive oil Knead the dough Form a ball, put it in a large bowl, cover with plastic cling wrap Let it rise somewhere warm for about an hour, until it doubles in size Open the wrap, punch the dough down once to let the air out Split into 5 parts and roll each to about 0.2" thick, gene...

Here in Jakarta, when the streets are over populated with motorized vehicles, the faster way to get around is to ride a smaller vehicle. I've driven home once from work and saw a guy on a bicycle, and saw the same person still on the bike 90 minutes later near my home. That is sad! For me, at least... I would say a motorcycle would  be the fastest way to get around the city, though it won't be the safest option. I just wanted to share this picture of a Kancil (name taken from a small animal. A jackass, I think?) which is a cheap version of a smart car, but operating like a taxi, and not as common in Jakarta as it used to be. And the other picture was of my old Smart Car. We all know that the Smart Car is a two-seater, but Kancil officially fits four, but in practice there could be 6 people in it!

First of all, please pardon my selfish promotion on this post today. With low salary and no health insurance, I'm all for extra income. To top it off, some things that we are used to in Canada are just soooo expensive here, but I'm not willing to live without them yet. And did I mention that school is not free? So I've started a small online store for children and moms. To start with, I have pettiskirts and tutus for little princesses and pretty headbands for the moms. I hope to expand to other stuff in the future, but I hope that this will be a good start. I will ship worldwide so both my friends in Indonesia and Canada can buy the merchandise, and with very reasonable prices. So please visit Kiki's Online Boutique  today and happy shopping y'all!