Rotiboy, One of Our New-found Lo(a)ves

I've heard so many good things about rotiboy, but had never had one until my recent trip to Jakarta. As someone who's so crazy about coffee and butter, this bread is like a perfect marriage between them two. The strong coffee coat, soft and fluff bun, with the oozing salted butter in the center, is to die for. I've been trying to describe it without sounding like an intro of a porn video, but fail miserably. Hence, the lame description above. One thing for sure, it's still not better than sex.

After days of jet-lag, both Samu and I were craving for rotiboy. Unlike Jakarta (where you find rotiboy quite ubiquitous), we can't find any in Seattle. We can't just go to the counter, give the guy Rp 7,500 and grab the warm bag of rotiboy. That means we have to make it! So I went to google and found few recipes. This was the one I ended up using. The only change I made was using salted butter for the filling. The result is awesome, although I still think the real rotiboy is far superior than this version.

Elle ate one and a half in one sitting (mind you, she's a 16-month old little girl), and Samu ate two. I guess, they think it's better than storebought rotiboy.

Does anyone know why it's called rotiboy? Why not rotigirl? My theory is, because it's filled with oozing white, salty, buttery fluid.. But hey, that also applies to girl! Okay, sorry.

Once again, if you want to try the recipe, click here.

Lemon Bars

 

The weather has been lovely. The kiddie pool is out, actually used as a pool with "real water" instead of a makeshift tent with blankets and pillows. Time to ditch the jackets and the boy is so happy he can finally wear sleeveless shirts. Somehow, summer days make me think of lemon bars. Perhaps it's the lemon, with its yellow, sunshine-y color, resembles an oval sun. Or it's just me trying to find an excuse to share this lemon bars with you through my blog...

I'd never thought I would love fruity baked goods. But lemon bars are different. To me, it's like eating sour brownies with shortbread base. Darn it, you know what? I'll just be honest with you. I love the shortbread base so much, sometimes I scrape off the lemon curd, save it for later, and just eat the cookie part. Not that the curd isn't tasty, I'm just that kind of a weirdo. I will also say, that the curd is so chewy, I wanna marry it.

Baked Pork Buns, My BUNdle of Joy

I have a confession to make. My favorite meat to cook with is pork. As boring as it sounds, I make pork stewed in soy sauce at least once every 2 weeks. For variation, sometimes pork belly is used or pork feet for that gelatinous texture. I don't know why, the first day of pork stew, it's still good just eaten with steamed rice. The second day, I started to get the itching to make something else out of it. And most of the time, I relented and make pork buns using the leftovers.

Instead of steaming them as usual, I baked them.

Point Defiance Zoo & Cake That Reminds Us of The Trip

After months of sun deprivation, of course we were ecstatic to know that we would be having a sun-filled weekend. We went to the zoo on Saturday. While we love the Woodland Park Zoo, we were just there few months ago, so we decided to visit Point Defiance Zoo. Yes, it's quite a drive to Tacoma from where we live. But it's worth the trip. What I love about this zoo is, the animals are more active and easier to spot.

The kids were well-behaved, no one complained about being tired or hungry or sleepy or bored. That classifies as a good day. We saw all the animals (except the red wolf), soaked up all the sunshine and went home happy.

He loves the sandbox, telling me how it feels like sugar. My reaction? "He better NOT put it in his mouth".

The next day (Sunday), we made a cake that will remind us of our trip to the zoo. We practically toss things into the mixing bowl, without any recipe. But we did jot down the measuring of the ingredients, in case we want to make it again next time. Lucky for us, it did turn out well. The butter reminds us of the bright, yellow sun. Brown sugar resembles the sand in the sandbox. And the chocolate.. uh.. let's not elaborate.

Dark Chocolate Truffle Shortbread Bars

I've been feeling down lately, due to the weather and delay in schooling. I try not to whine about it, but sadly, I have to wait until next year to go back to school. While I'm disappointed, our decision is the best for our family. Talking about, isn't it spring already? Why does the fall/winter weather linger around, I do not know. Whenever the weather is icky, I feel icky too. I'm much happier during summer time.

We, human, have no control over Mother Nature. If only we could prevent natural disaster, if only we could change the weather. Sadly, we can't. Don't be discouraged. One thing we can control is ourselves. So to cheer us up in this gloomy weather, and trying to cope with news of natural disaster, something as simple as chocolate shortbread bars could help. I won't say that it'll cure our heartaches or make us forget all calamities. But it does help. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

His Favorite Cinnamon Buns

Between March and April, we've been to IKEA for copious amount of time. With each visit, my 4-yr-old son would ask for their $1.25 cinnamon bun. He loves it so much, sometimes waking up, the first thing he asks is "did you make cinnamon bun today?" 

He loves helping me in the kitchen, but the only thing he helps me with from start to finish is cinnamon bun. When making other treats, halfway through, he'll announce that he's bored and would rather do something else. Eminently, when it comes to this puffy sweet bun, he waits for the dough to rise, even reminds me to check on it every 30 minutes. Roll the dough up with his tiny hands and tell me whether I cut them too thick or too thin. He wants to make sure it comes out perfect. While he prefers savory food, dark chocolate and anything-cinnamon-flavored top his favorite snack list.

Bread-That-Was-Supposed-to-be-Ciabatta with Shredded Pork

Couple days ago, Danielle from Runs with Spatula gave me an award, thanks Danielle! It sounds like a fun thing to write but to be honest with you, I don't know what to write when it comes to 7 things about myself. I will try...

1. I'm a bookwhore. My husband hates how I leave books all around. Trip to bookstore is always filled with temptation.
2. My yearly new year resolution is to be less profane, somehow I haven't succeeded yet. 
3. I get all happy and excited when I go grocery shopping, and spend less than I expected. Then I will show the receipt to my husband and yap about it for a good 15 minutes til he tells me that "I don't really care how much you save". Ouch.
4. Socially inept. It's really hard for me to start a conversation. But after 5 minutes of talking, usually things go smoothly. 
5. I cannot live without chilli sauce. Or chilli itself. We buy the 136oz huge jar and it'll be gone by the end of the month.
6. My husband is 11 years older than me, but sometimes I look 5 years older than him. Life. is. not. fair.
7. My right thumb nail is deformed, has been that way since I was 14. Don't know what's wrong with it. Anyone?

Back to food, last week I made two huge loaves of ciabatta from Peter Reinhart's book, Bread Baker's Apprentice. It was good but definitely not ciabatta. It doesn't have huge airpockets as it should be. I love eating ciabatta just as is, without any adornments. Unfortunately, this bread-that-was-supposed-to-be-ciabatta (BTWSTBC) is too dense to eat as is. So I decided to slowcook a piece of pork shoulder butt with ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, paprika, garlic and dried chilli flakes. And shredded it by hands and top the BTWSTBC with the shredded pork. 

The crunchy, rustic-looking crust with the soft bread and the juicy, tangy pork, without a doubt, is delicious. If that bread was a pillow, I'd love to sleep on it. But the thought of having bread crumbs on my hair snapped me out of it. And pork is such a versatile ingredient. No matter how you prepare it, it will turn out edible if not tasty. And I believe pig's sole purpose in this world is to be eaten. Cow/cattle serves multiple purposes, chicken too. But not pig. Where is pig's destination other than the butcher shop? Oh pork, how I love you.

BTWSTBC is just a vessel for the awesome pork. The inside was scooped so it could be used as a shovel, for transferring the pork from plate to mouth. Eating utensils aren't needed.

If It Wasn't for Harold Crick, I'd Never Have Tried Cookies and Milk

There are lots of cookies in this world, and having overactive imagination, I sometimes like to ponder, how would A taste paired with B, hence me concocting this weird cookies. But if I die tomorrow and have to choose my last cookies, without a doubt, I'll pick the ol' chocolate chip cookies. Back then, when I wasn't allowed to use the oven (ehm, actually I was too scared to go into my parents' kitchen, lots of rats!), my favorite chocolate chip cookies was Chips Ahoy.

Believe it or not, I'd never had cookies with its loyal companion of all time, milk, until I watched Stranger than Fiction. Harold Crick, the IRS agent, fell in love with the baker he's auditing. I don't recall the whole detail, but there was this one scene where Ana Pascal offered him a plate of cookies and told him to dip em in milk. I used to think it was just a cutesy thing to do, that serves no real purpose whatsoever. It wasn't bad, and actually I'm liking it. This means a lot, coming from someone who cannot drink milk as is (don't like how it tastes, somehow it induces vomit). I think that's why I'm so short.... The milk lends buttery taste to the cookies. The icy cold milk and warm cookies create the hot-and-cold sensation. Sometimes if you leave the cookies long enough in the milk, it absorbs the liquid, filling the airy holes in the cookies with it. And kinda like it.  I drink milk as an excuse to eat cookies.

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

Some people think we're against Valentine's day just because we don't celebrate it like most people do. Nope. Actually I think it's cute. An excuse to do something special with my son. He's not in preschool so I have to come up with ideas to keep him occupied every day. I admit, sometimes I let it slide, and let him watch tv longer than he should. But most of the time, I will find activities we can do together. See, I can't do arts and crafts for the life of me. I tried, but we ended up not having fun. Fortunately, he loves helping me in the kitchen.

Yesterday, after making a simple Valentine's card, we settled to baking pink cookies. The first batch went ungraciously inside the trash. As much as I hate wasting ingredients, it was awful. Too much rose paste, it left a perfumey aftertaste. My son said it tasted like soap. The second batch were good, but didn't taste like something special. Our goal here was to make something "special-y". Then I remember we had a tub of homemade green tea ice cream. I crumbled some of the pink cookies on top, it tastes okay, but lack of the "special-y" taste.

Samu's Cookies, "It's Not Yummy, but They Look Pretty"

It's funny how as kids get older, they sleep in more. I remember those days when my son would wake up at 6am or sometimes 5am, waking me up so I would play with him. He stopped doing that the moment he turned 3. But this morning, he woke up at 8am instead of his usual 11am routine. Guess why he woke up so early? Because I promised him that we can bake chocolate chips cookies if he wakes up early. I didn't even remember until he reminded me this morning.

Chewy Whole Wheat Boule

If I went back in time and told my 15-year-old self that I'd be baking bread at least once every 2 weeks, she wouldn't believed me. After constant disappointment from buying grocery store bread, I'd rather bake it myself. While bread is ubiquitous, my longing for bread is so sudden, there's no time to go out and buy it. 

Men cannot live on bread alone. It's true to a certain degree, because it needs to be brushed with olive oil and kosher salt! Bread is so universal, you can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Depends on what you serve it with. Today for breakfast, I had a small wedge of this whole wheat bread dipped in black coffee. For lunch, I had it with a bit of softened brie and salad of chopped celery and carrot (quickie salad I called it). For dinner I might have it with the vegetable soup I made earlier today. After one day eating bread alone, I'll be craving for rice again tomorrow. 

Lemon Pound Cake Story: When There's a Will, There's a Way. Eventhough There's no Water

Have you ever done something, thinking that it was a great idea, but halfway through you realized it was so dumb? I'm notorious for doing exactly that. Yesterday my landlord sent all of the tenants note saying that there will be no water from 1-3pm today. Before I went to bed last night, I kept reminding myself about it. See, ever since I've become a mother, I often have brain farts. No kidding. Once, 2 hours after I put the rice and water in the rice cooker, I wondered why it hadn't "ding"ed yet. I didn't press the cook button.... 

Today, surprisingly both kids were behaving well. No one's nagging Mommy for this or that. So I decided to make the long postponed lemon pound cake my husband has been asking for. And you know what? While at it, why not make some whole wheat bread too? So after I kneaded the bread dough and leave it to rise, I made the lemon pound cake. All was good. The boy even helped a little bit by trying to squeeze the lemon juice. The girl was playing quietly by herself in the bouncer. Life was beautiful. Until.....

"Not-brownies" Brownies, a.k.a Blondies

As most people know, my son is a huge fan of chocolate. But sometimes, we want something different, but still chocolate nonetheless. So we made blondies. But for the purpose of not confusing him, I told him it's "not-brownies" brownies. He seems to like the name.

I remember that I got the recipe for this blondies from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans long time ago. Love this one because it doesn't involve any corn syrup whatsoever (not that I don't like corn syrup, I just don't always have it). I checked out the book from the library. I've been wanting to buy it, simply because the recipes are great, easy to follow and the result never disappoints me. I've made her black-and-white cheesecake too and it's a hit with my family.

Back to blondies... this one is with chocolate chips folded into the batter. Or in our case, chopped dark chocolate. I like to think that blondies is brownies' cousin. Well, they're closely related right? It has the same texture and consistency as brownies. In this case, both blonds and browns have equal amount of fun.

The Simplest Chocolate Brownies

They all say my son inherits my temper, but not only that. He also inherits my love of chocolate.

As a kid, I loved everything chocolate (still do), especially dark chocolate. And quite picky about it too... no flavors combination for me. I didn't even like chocolate covered strawberries! When my parents took us to the bakery, I'd pick chocolate filled bun. When my siblings opted for sundaes, I'd rather have a bowl of unadorned chocolate ice cream. Candy bar? I'll pass unless it's chocolate.

$3.99 Pineapple = A Jar of Cookies

I always find myself craving for this particular cookie nearing the Christmas time. One of the ingredients is pineapple. Bad news, pineapple isn't in season and the price goes up from $2.50 a head to approximately $3.99 a head. Normally I wouldn't even think twice and just not make it. But when I think about the crunchy, yet soft cookies with gooey pineapple filling against my teeth, $3.99 doesn't seem that expensive, right?

 

Look at those babies!