Apple's Favor

Fall is coming soon.
Apple picking season has just begun.
We can enjoy its favor in this season :-)
I'm trying to use apple in many kind of my dishes.
Just simply toss sliced apple into my salad is giving texture and goodness.
Insert sliced apple layering your sandwich is like adding something healthy into it.
Hmmm.... just love to maximized the usages of apples.
My favorites are Fuji & Gala.

I made simple dessert using vanilla yogurt, granola, raisin and dried coconut.
It was so good. Crunchy, sweet, tangy...

Having brunch with apple cheddar bagel with cinnamon sugar touch is satisfying.
I toasted 2 mini cinnamon raisin bagels using my bread toaster (original recipe said to toast the bagels with butter and cinnamon sugar). On mini skillet I heat 1/2 teaspoon of butter, and then put sliced apple and add cinnamon sugar. After that just assemble sliced cheddar and apple on top toasted bagel.  For those I cut sliced cheese into 4 equal squares. I got those recipes from Better Home Garden Magazine August & September editions,

Rainbow Fever

I was told by my sister in Indonesia, there are many things with rainbow color there. Starting from rainbow cake, and then cookies and many other things. I just found one thing with  "rainbowy" color in my kitchen. 

My son's fruit loops cereal....

Transfering My Multiply Site to Blogspot

(Indistafel Restaurant Bandung)

Some of my previous entries are my recipe from my multiply site.
So sad finally multiply.com will stop blogging  feature from their site.
I still have time until December 2012 to move the contents of my multiply account.
There are lots of memories there. I learn blogging and meeting many online friends from this site.

So... it's better to keep my notes and recipes note and transfer them here.
If you see (From Multiply) as the title of my blog, you'll find my old notes from multiply.

By the way, sometimes seeing something old is a pleasant experience too.
My multiply site is not as vintage as these things...but I enjoy seeing my old site, especially I can see progress of my food photos.

(Indistafel Restaurant Bandung)


UPDATED October 2nd 2012 :  Finally I decided to move my multipy recipes to the other  JANE'S KITCHEN  FROM MULTIPLY BLOG.  I've been deleting all posting from multiply in this blog address. 

Granola, Raisin & Chocolate Chips Mix

Just because I see sale item at supermarket, I can make an impulse buying. #not so good habit :-)
Like today... I saw granola is on sale, I bought them too.

Granola is a good source of fiber and vitamin.
It makes us fuller longer.
We can use granola as a breakfast, eat it with milk or yoghurt.
We also can make as a hot breakfast by cooking it with some milk.

Usually I eat granola in a form of a bar snack.
Today I tried to make just a mix of granola, raisin and chocolate chips.
I mixed 3 parts of granola, 1 part of raisin and 1 part of chocolate chips.
I put them in a jar. Now I have ready to eat healthy snack. Portion wise is needed of course.

Summer Goodness

I really enjoy this season when many kinds of fruits are less expensive.
My son also loves to have fruits as his snacks.
Fresh & healthy..
I love fruits...

One of the place I like to visit to find fresh fruits is Fiddlehead Farms Market, Dover NH.
This place is not big, but the atmosphere is so homey. They also carry fresh farm milk in the glass bottle. They are so good with many choices of flavor such as blueberry, strawberry, mocha and chocolate.

My little Jev loves sour fruit. I thought he needs extra sugar to eat raspberry or blackberry.
He can enjoy the whole fruit without making 'silly' face because of the sour taste.
Sometimes he is not patients enough to wait the fruit being rinsed. Thank God his stomach is just fine.

He almost turning 3 years old.  I don't teach him to pose, but now naturally he can act while I'm clicking my camera.

I think his favorite fruits are berries family.

Lontong (Rice Cake)

Two weeks ago, I wanted to make oxtail soup. I almost cancelled making that considering the time. At least I had to cook it for about 3 hours. I just remembered last thanksgiving I bought a new pressure cooker pan that was still in its box. Making long story short, I used that pan to cook oxtail soup...in one hour my husband's favorite soup was ready.

After that day, I'm curious to use that pan again and again. I made rice porridge, chicken and mung beans.

Several days ago I made lontong. Lontong is rice cake wrapped by banana leaves. Usually we need 3-4 hours cooking time. I got recipe from my friend. She used to cook it about 10 minutes with pressure cooker. But for me, I needed 30 minutes. It might be due to the quality of the pan :-). I bought inexpensive one.

Usually we can eat lontong with curry (either it's white or yellow), satay with peanut sauce, tofu with peanut sauce and many other dishes we can eat with lontong.

Anyway here's the recipe :

Ingredients :
1.5 cups uncooked rice
2.5 cups water (depend to the rice type)
1/2 tsp salt

Methods:
1.  Rinse the rice, and put them into a pan (not the pressure cooker one) with the water and salt. Cook until the rice absorb the water. Put aside.

2.  Cut banana leaves around letter size paper, and also put  half smaller size of the leaf on top of the first layer, put the rice in the middle, try to make a long shape and roll and wrap it. Close the edge using toothpick or stapler.  ( I can make 5 pcs)

3. Put the wrapped rice into the pressure cooker add some water until the cake is merged. (follow the instruction from your manual book of the  pressure cooker). For me it's 30 minutes cooking time.

4. Enjoy Lontong when it is fully cool.

Grilled Red Snapper

It's summer time...
We will not pass this season without going to lake, barbecuing and hanging out with friends.
Last month, we went to Pawtuckaway Lake (...again..and again..last year we went there for 3 times..)
It's not too far from our house. It has play ground, 'beach sand'  and picnic area. We can rent a canoe or kayak. The water is quite warm too. In New England area, though it's summer, not all lake or sea water can be as warm as we think.

I decided to bring fish for our barbecue potluck. My friends suggested me to buy fresh fish at a seafood store near my area. I thought I would see 'fish market' over there. It's more like an office with big refrigerator  at the waiting area. In the refrigerator we can see frozen sea food, such as fish fillet, shrimp, scallop,etc. How about fresh fish... I asked the man who is busy on his desk. He asked me if i knew what kind of fish I would buy. Honestly, I don't have enough knowledge about fish. He pointed to a picture that has the name and the picture of the fish. I still had no idea.  Finally, I remember red fish. I just asked him that kind of fish. I tell him I wanted whole fish not fillet.  He understood, and went inside, after about 5 minutes waiting, he came back with plastic bag with red fish and tons of ice cube.  Red snapper is the name of the fish. I already prepared cool box, so I could place all the fish inside the car without worrying to spread the smell.

This is my first attempt to clean the whole fish... Usually in Indonesia, I can asked the vendor to clean it for me. I marinated the fish with ground seasoning ( garlic, shallot, lemon grass, ginger, salt, pepper, lemon juice). I also made sambel ijo (green chilly sauce) as a condiment to eat this fish.

It is always great to be with friends and family. We gather together, the kids are playing, the men are busy grilling food. The aroma was so good... we all enjoyed the atmosphere.

My son was very happy too... He loves to play with the sand. He was excited to climb, slide with his friends at the play ground. I changed his clothes for 3 times...he loved to get dirty and wet.  He also enjoyed the food, he ate satay and corn.

Tumpeng Ulang Tahun

It is my first attempt to make TUMPENG ( cone shape made by yellow/white rice). It is a symbol of celebration and thanksgiving in most place in Java island.
I don't have cone mold to form a good shape of cone. So I made 4 layers of rice to make it a tall enough rice  'mountain'  :) . The entree were ayam kalasan (sweet sour chicken), telur bumbu bali (hard boiled eggs with Balinese seasoning), perkedel ( fried mashed potato). The condiments were sambal manis (sweet chilli sauce) and the edible garnish were sliced cucumber & tomato.
I made it last week, on my birthday. We enjoyed these food with some of my friends. I'm glad they like it. 

Just to make my son happy, I made effortless jelly bday ( i don't have bday cake). Jev loves to blow birthday candle. I made konyaku jelly with chocolate flavor and added fresh strawberries on top of it by using toothpick. Jev was so glad. Strawberry is his favorite fruit. He almost finished all strawberries.  

Above all food prepared that night, my birthday celebration was complete with my lovely family close to me.