leder legends

Here it seems the locals drink two kinds of coffee. An instant 3 in 1 that contains coffee and sugar and creamer. Arie really likes it.  If you drink coffee black it is an entirely different story.  You take a very finely ground coffee and put 2 tsp. in a cup and add hot water from your hot water dispenser, stir, put a lid on it and wait.  After about 3 min you slowly sip your coffee. A local told me yesterday that with lots of practice you know when to stop sipping.  Why? Because it's not instant coffee and all the fine grounds sink to the bottom of the cup. Pure coffee sludge. The coffee tastes wonderful until you get that spot between coffee and sludge. One morning I decided to filter it through some napkins that are more like tissues. It worked. The local I talked to was very surprised the napkins did not break etc.

I'll have to look for something made of teak..  I got salt and pepper shakers made from cinnamon wood. Yesterday I went to Arie's class. I will today as well. Thursday I'm going for a haircut with the NT prof . The food is good. But rice and veggies and a bit of meat isn't too fattening I hope. Yesterday a couple people took us out. We went to large mall ...each floor full of specific stuff ie men's wear . We went to the floor that had all kinds of Indonesian arts and crafts, furniture, expensive jewelry etc all made in different parts of the country. Beautiful but a bit overwhelming We also went to grocery store set up by an Indonesian couple that lived in the Netherlands for years. It's a store with food from all over...basically for expats that want some food from home. I would shop there. The deli, bakery, butcher. ..impressive

So far the food here in Jakarta has been great...a nice variety. But this morning we had an 'omelet ' that had condensed milk in it.  I finally put it on a piece of toast liberally covered in strawberry jam. It's very difficult for us NOT to eat the food offered to us.

Arie and I are heading to Jakarta tomorrow morning. We've never been there before and I'm quite excited. Arie will be teaching for 2 weeks at a seminary and I plan to find some tours to go on. 

Julie and Aaron went to the game ( Green Bay versus the Lions) and we got Asher.  Such a happy little guy.  I just put him down and hope he will sleep until they come and get him.

The prize for the most interesting attire.

Trying to figure out how to add pictures from the iPad.

I love recipes from epicurious .com.  Up until now, I have had great success with them ...except for last night. I bought a pricey beef tenderloin.  Nathan butchered it and tied it. It looked gorgeous! ! Unfortunately I did not do my homework. ..meaning I didn't read the reviews. The recipe called for a roast rub which included 1/2 cup of ground pepper. So so so hot! In spite of scraping as much off as we could, it was still incredibly spicy.  It was still a wonderful meal. We had leftovers this noon and once more I regretted not reading the reviews.  The horseradish garlic sauce that was a part of the recipe was amazing and actually tamed the pepper (but not enough)! The feast is starting. Bourbon-glazed baby carrots from Rose's kitchen.  Cauliflower-broccoli salad (plus many other yummy ingredients from Ruth's kitchen. Hasselback potatoes Banana cream pie...heavenly.  VERY spicy black pepper encrus...

It was our customary "Puerto Rican" Christmas Eve meal. Pernil, arroz con gandules, tostones, snow salad and garlic toast. Scrumptious!  Afterwards the gifts get opened.  Add caption