Fish & Loaves...and Beef Vindaloo

Holidays are almost here. Ramadhan, the month of Islamic prayer and fasting, is almost over, ending with Idul Fitri. Idul Fitri is the closest thing here to our Christian Christmas, where people all over Indonesia journey home to their families. Our helper and our driver will be heading off for about 2 weeks each to spend time in Central Java and in nearby Bandung, respectively. If you'd like a better, recently written perspective on this time of fasting and then celebration, look to a few of the blogs I have at the right. Both the Weedas and Joel & Amanda cover the month of Ramadhan.

It seems like we just came home from Canada and now we're heading into our holidays already! Kids in Canada are just returning to school this week and THAT's weird. During our time home we've had a few "productive" moments and I'd like to share some of them with you.

One of the things that I am particularly aware of, being a mother of two and having a maid who cooks, cleans, irons and will even put away my

children's clothes if I let her, is that I need to prepare my kids for "the real world." What that may be is always a matter of debate, but in my eyes, it's being able to figure out how to turn on a clothes machine, how to iron a dress shirt, and how to survive in the kitchen. As a result, we've had a few kitchen sessions and have had a good time learning how to do things like make fried eggs, grilled cheese and french toast. We've even had a few 'yeasty' sessions of pita bread and white bread. The kids are doing great! I've included a photo of Matt's bread that he made, and if you look carefully, you'll see my new "40th birthday" ring that Tris bought me. Strategically placed, I admit. I like how it glitters.

When we returned home from Canada, there were reports of lots of rain and cold weather (guffaw!) here in Lippo Village. The result of that was that our grass died in the backyard and left a huge muddy patch. After planting some grass, our yard needed a little something more. I've taken some of my birthday money that was given to me in Canada (thank you!!) and bought myself a water feature. This nice chunk of cement cost me $45 and it has brought a lot of fun to the backyard. It's inspired me to expand and fill in our garden area, as well as buy some fish and water plants. I intended on buying only 2 fish but who can say no to 6 fish for 20 cents!! Another 30 cents for a huge bag of food and I was set. The last 2 weeks has been full of dealing with a tilting water feature (we must be having mini earthquakes or something because the thing tilts every couple of days) and finding the ideal location for it.

One really weird thing that happened today was that while Tris and I were lounging outside, enjoying the sound of falling water, our fish started to jump. Seriously, there was this one that would line itself up just under the waterfall and then jump

through it. We watched this four times before he stopped. It was quite the show, and I wondered if maybe we'd bought a small salmon-type fish that needed to spawn or something. Sadly, a few hours later I went out to feed them and one of the fish had actually jumped OUT of the water onto dry land. The ants had gotten to him and chewed little holes in him, but when Tris returned him to the water, he began to swim around. Not sure if he'll live, but since I was going to name the six fish after Snow White's Seven Dwarves (minus Grumpy), this particular fish will be called Dopey.

About a week ago we had friends over for dinner, and Indian was on the menu. I've never cooked an Indian meal before but with the help of a few pre-packaged items and sauces in my freezer and cupboard, I was up for the challenge. One of the things I did make from scratch, though, was Beef Vindaloo, and it

was fun to make. I had to take a photo of the spices I needed to grind together, because they're so beautiful and colourful together. Some of the ingredients were chili powder, garlic cloves, grated ginger, turmeric, salt, pepper, black cumin seeds, dill seeds and coriander powder. After grinding the spices, I had to marinate the meat for 2 hours in them and then cook for another 4 hours. It was very nice and I'd definitely make it again.

Finally, the ultimate in productive for me, was that two weeks ago I spent 5 days, 6 hours a day studying Indonesian language with a friend. We hired a tutor and learned some good solid grammar. Still, I feel like with all the money I've spent on language classes and learning and all the hours I've invested, I should be able to speak better than I am. It's very frustrating.

That's it for productivity.

Thanks for reading.