Mad Baker

APFEL STREUSSEL

I'm in a baking mood today... flicking through pages of woman's day magazine and spotted images of scones and cream and jam..hmm. Take the scale out of the drawer and rummaging the fridge for butter and milk and look what I've found... A bowl of peeled granny smith waiting to be cooked,so hang on scones I have an emergency bake to do, before the apples spoiled. Cut..cut..squeeze the lemon raiding the spice rack and open a new package of my special demerara sugar. Next week I have a few coffee morning invitation with the ladies before the holiday, so get my family recipe book for My mum's Apfel Streussel recipe. That's where the problem started.

There you go..looking for My mum's Apfel Streussel recipe I was stumble upon Omi's (grandma)Schenkelli Recipe and imagine the smell of freshly fried little heaven with icing sugar. What happened was..while waiting for my apple to cool down and the crust slowly bake in the oven, I was preparing for Omi's Schenkelli to be made. In they go in the oven (My Apfel Streussel)and I started to whip the butter for the schenkelli. When the dough is done I was ready for my scones and bake them...but they were all sweet where is the savoury one.

Once you open the flour package you better use them quick, this climate is not suitable for storing items like that so I made my own creation of Scones Parmigiano Which smell absolutely wonderful when it was baked inviting the entire household to the kitchen.

"Aah... you're baking darling!", as George entered the kitchen, "Are you going to try my mum's Date and Walnut Loaf recipe? I bought all the ingredients and would love to reminiscence my childhood...only if you feel like to.." What can i say...bambi's eyes never failed!

One last thing to do before clean up the whole kitchen is to make my own version of Vassilopita ( Greek New Year Cake ) for my daughter Sophie Greek day next Tuesday. With the lucky coin inside the kids will be so thrilled...I hope.
Will post the photo of the Greek Day later.

Have a good weekend, mind was best!

Sumi our helper started to give me sign that she no longer happy working for us. She missed her home and family and later on we found out she also suffered from a cyst in her fallopian tube..endometriosis? But like most of Javanese people she chose to suffered silently and not telling me. She would just say..I'm not well.. until finally I took her to see the doctor.

Failing at offering her the treatment in KL and her yearning to go back home, we finally send her back to Jakarta, before her contract ended. She wanted to go home immediately and couldn't give a shit on how I would arrange her ticket, her permit and everything.

I was mad and frustrated and worried but having her wailing and huffing and all that tantrum while refusing treatment leaving me with no choice but sending her home straight away. Now I left with no maid....

Panic..panic..panic...

I contacted my mum to follow up the maids in Jakarta that we've been interviewed and strated with the process of sending her here. We were down to two candidates. And after a few phone calls for more questionaires we decided to hire Holifa. She's a 40 year old Javanese woman, her resume shown that she's been working for an expat family in Jakarta. She looks a bit naive and quite funny. She was looking forward for a new challenge and earn more by working overseas. She loves dogs, very good at cooking Indonesian meal (used to work in a warung/ food stall as well ), she seems to be the perfect candidates. The procedures took a while...

When I contacted her again she was out of reach. I have to send my mum's maid and driver to look for her on her rental home and found out she was contracted thypoid. So, my mum send her some money to get treatment at the clinic. She needs to get better.

Meanwhile in KL I started a new life as a domesticated housewife...

I cleaned, I cooked, I did the laundry, I picked up the kids, fed them, entertained them and check their homeworks, I took care of the dogs, cleaned dishes and even attempted to do ironing and at the end of the day I cried.....

The clothes that I washed was full of fluffs and lints, I took me one hour to iron my husband working shirt and the shirt crumpled again after half an hour, I ruined my favourite black top by accidently washing it in the tub the I used to soak the whites. In one week time I have five piles of bucketfull laundry.

My son Douglas and I started to suffer from allergic reaction from the accumulated dust, and I had to call the vaccum cleaner supplier to show me how to use the vacuum cleaner. I mop the kitchen floor right after cooking the meal for the kids, and found out the grimes that Sumi left, typical maid that would just doing a slapdash cleaning, and when i have to do it myself I have no choice but scrubbing the whole area cleaned...a certain satisfaction when I'm done.