My black thumb...

I have never had much luck when it comes to plants.  I always need a partner with a green thumb when I set about to nurture greenery.  This time I have a great partner, my house helper!  A colleague gave me some cuttings, and my helper helped me get them into the pots.  Two weeks later they're not only still alive, they're doing WELL!!

This kind apparently will grow some fruit on it.  Haven't seen it yet.

These are still tiny but I love that the leaves are variegated.  

This kind grows on tall stems, and the stems have huge pokers on them.  

I won't be transplanting them with my bare hands anytime soon!

This kind is SO pretty - LOVE the stripes.  I was told it's called a Wandering Jew.

I couldn't resist this one - it's HEART-shaped with a pink center!!

This one also has pink on it and is lacy - how cool is that?!

Lipgloss Princess

I always smile when I see my youngest being the girl she was created to be!  I don't think I was EVER as girly as my little one is!  Her older sister loves getting in on the action too!

 Believe it or not, she doesn't EAT the lipgloss!

My pretty little princesses!

Power Outage!

We're so thankful the power has been more stable since we arrived back here this summer!  Our generator is on its last leg, so the other night when the power went out, we couldn't get the generator to stay on.  That's when I got out my new pack of candles I'd bought just for this type of occasion.  Unfortunately candles here don't burn like ones from home, and by the time the lights came back on 2 hours later, all 12 candles were gone!  Here are some shots from our unexpected candle-light dinner!

Durian...

Josh brought home durian last weekend!  I could smell it before I saw it, and I sure was thrilled!  I'd been WAITING to see them for sale on the sides of the roads, and was afraid we'd missed durian season!

You need a heavy knife to crack them open, avoiding the VERY SHARP spines...

 The fruit is nestled in the different sections, kind of like peas in a pod.

To me these look like scoops of ice cream!  Inside each little creamy lump is a stone.  The flesh is creamy like an avocado but much more flavorful.  Sometimes there's a "caramel-y" taste, sometimes more "maple-y".  Of course you DO have to get it past your NOSE before you can enjoy the tastiness!

I'm SO glad we didn't miss durian season!

HAM Sandwich!!

This is significant  - though since you probably don't know WHY, I'll fill you in....

Here, the residents don't usually eat sandwiches.  Thus, there is not much available in the way of lunch meat (OR varieties of bread, but that's a different post).  We can get tuna and sardines in a can, and some nasty spam-like stuff.  We DO get fresh pork at the market.  One day last week, I attempted to make ham using a TenderQuick powder (which I brought with me from the U.S.) in a brine with a pork roast.  It WORKED!!!  This was my first ham sandwich in probably 2 years!

Boys making lunches

In previous years, our sons always came home to have lunch with us, since we live just a few doors down from the school.  This year they asked if they could eat lunch at school with their friends.  What we decided to do was: they would make their own lunch 3 days a week, and eat at home 2 days.  They do a GREAT job of making their own lunches!  Take a look:

More fun foods!

Since I have a camera on my phone, I try to take photos of interesting foods while I'm shopping.  Here are some recent snaps!  Any takers?

Hmmm, green pea cookies.  Can't imagine how THOSE would taste!  

Would those count as a vegetable or dessert?

(The coconut cookies are AMAZING!  Not sure about the cheese flavor...)

Beautiful Storm!

And then it was still... Amazing!

I LOVE storms here!

LEGO Time!!

This is a sight that is commonly seen in our house!  I love it!

One of our favorite order-in meals - Sate!

There's a man who sells sate from a cart on a street not far from our home.  On occasion Josh will get on his bike in the evening and drive over to his cart and place an order for sate and lonton.  Our kids love this stuff!

This is lonton - rice cooked in banana leaves.  It tastes like rice - not bananas! :)

Josh usually orders about 50-70 sticks of sate - it comes with chicken meat and the occasional chunk of fat.  There is not much meat per stick, so we all eat around 10 sticks of sate. (Goat meat is also an option, but not one we've opted for yet.)

The meal comes complete with veggies - about quarter to half a cup for 70 sticks of sate - and includes shallots and cucumbers in a sweet/salty sauce of some sort.

We add our own shredded cabbage, drizzle on some peanut sauce and we're ready to eat!

The Boy's Birthday Gifts and Party

Surfing T-shirts from Nana & Papa

Grandma & Grandpa pitched in a bit to help us buy the boys bikes:

Their birthday party included games like Mafia, Taboo and several rousing rounds of Spoons!

They all enjoyed Dirt Cake instead of the traditional birthday cake - but who can resist Oreos and gummy worms!  Sugar overload!

Not sure why there was so much smoke when they blew the candles out...

Happy Birthday, Spencer and Mitchell!  We love you so much and are proud of the young men you are becoming!  We thank God for His great gift of you two!

The Boy's Birthday Meal

For birthdays here, we follow their tradition of having yellow rice for a special meal.  One part of that special meal that we love is the peanut topping.  As I was working on it, my house helper pitched in to refine my skills!  Here are photos of the process...

I chopped up 3 chunks of tempe - fermented soybeans - and fried them in a pan - no oil.

I also fried about 3 cups of peanuts - shelled but with skins on. 

I cracked open some kimiri nuts (candlenuts) and dry roasted them on a hot pan.  These are used as a thickener.  Apparently they are poisonous if eaten raw.

My helper got the rice going - this is not the way I cook rice - but nationals here do.  I use a rice cooker.  She put fresh tumeric into the rice water, not sure what other seasonings she used.

I chopped up some shallots & garlic and "tried" to pulverize them in my mortar and pestle.  

Thought I'd done a good job, 'til my helper came along and "finished the job".  Wow!

I added some water to tamarind paste to work out the seeds and other stuff, and ended up with this tamarind/water mixture which is essential in flavoring the dish.

This is what stayed in the strainer when I worked the tamarind pulp through.

I grated some palm sugar to add to the tamarind.  

Then we fried the spices in a little oil...

 ...added the tamarind and palm sugar...

...the fried peanuts...

...the fried tempe...

...and mixed them all together!

The end result?? Sweet, tangy, caramelized peanut and tempe mixture.  We used to also put some dried spicy peppers in it to give it a nice kick, but noticed the kids weren't as nuts about it spicy.  Little by little we'll add that back in.  Locals also add tiny dried fish, but since this is my house, we leave those out!!!  

Here's a photo of "Nasi Kuning", presented with garnishes of "Sambal Kacang" (the peanut dish we just cooked) along with cucumbers, shredded chicken, local hot sauce and omelet slices.  

One of our favorite meals!  Thanks for having a birthday, boys! :)