Best Banana Bread.....Ever?

Nah, just kidding :p

I love any food that involves banana (pisang goreng, pisang keju, keripik pisang madu, kue pisang, kolak pisang, dll). Since banana bread is so easy to make and I somehow always find an almost spoiled banana in my kitchen, I often make one. Plus, I always like to see Jibran's expression whenever he knows I'm making one. Really, the kid think it's the yummiest thing ever invented.

So I made another one last Saturday so the boys can have something to munch on while watching MU vs Liverpool. I usually just use two bananas but since there were only 3 left, I figured maybe I might as well use them all. The taste turned out good but the texture was less bread and more chewy, not how I like it to be. But as long as it tastes good, right?

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

How:

Mesh the banana and just mix everything :0)

Weekend Glimpse

Some pictures from the weekend. I *think* I had a productive weekend. I ran! Twice!!. I finished a book. It was Rumah Cokelat by Sitta Karina. I baked. Only a banana bread, but still. I de-cluttered. I reorganized our tale of traveling corner. I also threw many items from the storage. A stroller, a few unused clocks & frames, an old laptop, a monitor and a CPU, lots of cables I had no idea what for and so many other things. I'm not finished with that area, yet. I also sort some of the kids toys and moved the bookshelves from Jehan's room to the play area. As a family, we ate out at Chillis. We grocery shopped. We went to the fish market and adopted a few fishes, a turtle from Papua and a baby lobster. We checked out the progress of the townhouse renovation. We visited the grandparents and went to Informa to get office furniture and had a quality time together. No mall visit, not even a stop at Starbucks (we enjoy our Nespresso so much) and didn't even turn the TV on, except for the MU vs Liverpool match (Indovision just decided to stop working so we used the old school antenna instead). Sweet :)

A part of my Childhood has Gone

A close family member passed away yesterday. Not too shocking considering he is 70 something old and has been really sick for the past two months. He lives in Cirebon so I didn't go to his funeral. I didn't feel anything when I heard about it this morning but when I did my Ashar prayer, I suddenly thought about him and a wonderful memory flashed back through my mind.

I called him 'Njit (grandfather) Salim', I can't really figured it out where he sits in my extended family three but he is like a brother (I think) to my grandma. He used to live in Duren Sawit area with his wife. He had a huge house and pretty well off but he didn't have a biological kid. I used to go to his house with my mom, grandma, aunties & uncles once every few months. One of my uncles was somewhat adopted by him and lived with him for a few years. He was a very loving man, definitely the warmest person in my family. He would never hesitant to hug me and kiss me all over my face and mess my hair when I was a kid. A memory I could never recall happened between me and my dad. All I felt was loved whenever he was near. He used to give me money too every time I went there. Some twenty or fifteen thousand rupiahs. It was considered a lot of money back in the days. I also remember I used to collect golf balls from the golf holes in his front yards. Then I would take it home to play bola bekel.

He was definitely the closest thing I have to a grandpa. I've never met any of my grandpas. He was always there during important moments in our family and served as a guardian.

Then I left the country and didn't really see him anymore except for one or two occasions. He has separated with his wife and married his current wife and has 3 children and lives in Cirebon. Things have changed. Like people said, sometimes you are on top of the wheels and there are times when you would have your turn to stay at the bottom. And that's what happened to him. The situation was reserved and without a doubt, it's our turn to return the favor and the kindness he had given us. Toward the end of 2011, he got really sick and had to stay in the hospital here in town for almost a month. My mom always went to the hospital to help take care of him. She even thought of bringing him home so she can watch him closely. An idea that I rejected because I just couldn't imagine a dying person in my house :(. I just didn't think I could handle it all. Plus, my mom was about to go to her Australia trip so I asked her to really think about her decision. I'm kind of ashamed now that I think about it, I felt so selfish. I guess I was too busy to stop for a moment to realize how special he made me feel when I was a kid :'(.

So mom brought him to my grandma's house instead where he stayed for almost a month. During that period, I only took ONE day off work to visit him. I didn't even really talk to him because he needed to get ready for a doctor visit but I was surprised to see him looking fresh in his wheelchair albeit very bony, but he looked very full of hope.

Now he is gone for good. He took his last breath on a Friday morning, a day where muslim believe to be a good day to leave the world as that means you're a special person in His eyes. RIP, Njit Salim. May God grant you a special place right next to him. You will always remain a wonderful memory of my childhood.

Easy Peasy Mac & Cheese

I stayed home last Wednesday cause I was catching a cold, but the kids were bugging me to make mac and cheese so I had no choice but to drag my butt to the kitchen to make my cooking debut in 2012. I wasn't confident it turned out great because I didn't feeling it when I made it (I'm never into mac and cheese anyway) plus I didn't have variety of cheeses and the dry mustard to make it more yellow. But as long as I put a lot of cheeses, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? It will turn out ok no matter what :D.

I made a lot of it because I figured Jibran can bring it to school the next day and Jehan can eat it for lunch. But turned out everyone finished it off much faster than the time I spent to cook it. The bowl shown below is not a personal portion and I had a medium sized bowl full of mac & cheese that I put at mom's house, which as Jibran reported, was cleaned by my cousin and my brother :D. So happy that everyone liked it, even Oki said it's the best mac & cheese I've ever made :D. Not sure if he was being honest or just being courteous, though :p. But judging from the amount of mac & cheese that everyone ate, I could say the time spent at the kitchen was well paid off.

That's the thing with cooking, sometimes it seems like a core but it feels oh so satisfying once everyone ate it like it's the best thing ever.

Ingredients: Butter, flour, milk, cheese (I used cheddar on this one but I usually put all kind I have in the fridge), salt & pepper and a dash of oregano.

2012 Wishlist

I was gonna post my new year resolutions, but that one is gonna be a long one so I decided to write down my wish list first :D.

On traveling:

• January - Singapore. Done :D
• March/April - Umrah. Setelah tahun lalu nggak jadi, mudah-mudahan sekarang bisa kejadian. Trus jadi mikir mungkin ajak anak-anak juga apa? Insya Allah bisa kesampean yaaa.
• June/July - Bali. Liburan anak-anak kan, and the last time (which happened to be my first time too) I went to Bali was 2004.
• June/July - KL. Ini maksudnya kalo nggak ke Bali mungkin bisa ke KL. Jibran really wants to visit Malaysia, we could also visit a few friends there.
• October - Europe trip. Not sure where but I'm sure if we go it's to the places where soccer is a big thing considering it's soccer season. But what makes me excited is the fact that it's fall!
• December - Belitung. After the addiction of Laskar Pelangi, it's about time to finally visit the city.

On Photography:

• February/March - Take the online class!
• The 24-70mm f/2.8L . Need to sell my 24-105mm f/4.0L first, though.
• The 85mm f/1.2L. Mau pingsan sih liat harganya but this lens is supposed to be the perfect lens for portrait pictures, the kind of photograph I take the most. But I need to sell my 35mm f/1.4L first and definitely need to rent the 85mm to make sure I like how it works.
• I was going to add the 70-200 mm f/2.8L, but it would be asking too much! (Apalagi coba yang mau dijual). But I need a lens that range to capture Jibran while he is playing futsal/soccer :p
• February - New camera bag. Mine is too small to hold my camera.

On Bags:

• Bottega Veneta or a classic Chanel. I'll write more about it on Fashionese Daily. Just like the lenses, one or two of my bags got to go too.

On House:

• February - Kitchen Remodeling. Not a complete remodeling, but we want to add stove and cabinet and turn it into a real kitchen.
• February - Of course, need to buy the stove too, right? -__-
• February - Finishing up the bathroom project. I need to make up my mind whether to put stones or just regular tiles on the sides.
• February - Submitting the KPR documents for the townhouse! I've been putting this one off since 2-3 months ago.
• Ohh, there's a lot I want to do for the house; Finishing up the kids bedrooms, figuring out what to do with the empty area under the stair. It's a never ending project, really.

Pheww, hard core ya wish listnya. Yaa namapun wish list :D. It never hurts to aim high on your wish list. Plus, I need a list like this to remind me not to waste money on little things that give instant and short-lived satisfaction.

Soo, let's go to work and get things done :)

WW; My Pin Board

Playing with the blocks

It was Wednesday night, I came home around 8 from Mommies Daily Book Meeting in Citos. I didn't know Citos is that crowded on a Wednesday, due to the ladies bazaar that they have every Tuesday and Wednesday. It took my driver 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot and picked me up at the lobby.

But all fatigue went out of the window when I saw this as I stepped in the house :)

They were playing, I think the game is called Jenga (?), it's where we have to stack same sized blocks into a tower and each player takes turn removing the pieces and stack it on top.

It was fun watching them having a good time together through the glass divider, while having my dinner. They laughed and screamed, afraid to destroy the tower and relief when they were able to remove a piece.

Jehan still needs to learn to accept defeat though :D. She was always shock to see the tower tumbling down because of her and embarrassed that the three of us laughing at her. Then she would run to me and told me she didn't want to play again and refused to talk to anyone..:D.

It was cute.

I remember a good quote I was given from the owner of The Children's Store; a good toy is not a toy that will quiet the kids down, but the one that will bring the family together.

And this one is certainly is a damn good one. Very thoughtful of Oki to choose this when he went to Hong Kong Toy's R Us last November :)

9 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our 9 years anniversary, and nothing make my morning more content than to wake up right next to his warm body with my head resting on his chest :)

Happy Anniversary ya Ki. Thank you for being you and for giving me a nine awesome years that get better each year. Here's to another nine year of happiness, and another nine years, another and another and another more. I love you to the moon and back :*

The pictures above represent the each year we spent since 2003.
note to self: take more picture of us

WW; Times Square, NYC

Some Fresh Air to Breathe

I knew it's been a while since we have our family vacation, but I didn't have the exact date in mind when that last time was. Finally, we managed to have a little getaway last Christmas weekend to visit Bandung and as I was sitting at the rattan lounger by the pool it just hit me that the last time I stepped out of Jakarta was exactly a year ago! And it was also to Bandung during Christmas weekend. Oh my God, no wonder I was so stressed out especially the second half of 2011.

Happy New Year

I spent the last day of 2011 in Dunia Fantasi with Oki, the kids and my nephew. It was fun, thrilling, exciting and full of laugh! We were definitely challenged our fears and screamed our lungs out. Can't believe we took Jehan on this jet coaster ride!

Today, we're gonna spend the first day of 2012 watching Alvin & The Chipmunks. I haven't got time to sit down and write everything I wanted to write. Lessons from 2011, resolutions for 2012, hope, dreams and goals. There's so many of those that have been lining up on my mental notes.

One of my New Year resolutions is to write more, here in my personal blog as well as in Fashionese Daily & Mommies Daily. Even if that means I have to write from anywhere and any device, in between my to do list. Most of the time, I wait for the perfect moment to arrive. The right mood, with music blasting from my iTunes, a freshly brewed latte sitting next to my Macbook and no distraction from the surrounding. Sadly that perfect moment is getting rarer nowadays and I just have to accept that fact and write anyway. Just like what I'm doing right now.

Sent from my iPhone