Celebratory spaghetti

I must be having one of those days where everything goes right. After my success with the water, I headed off to the supermarket. I've mentioned the angkot a few times - well, here's a picture of one.

There are lots of different angkot routes, and a fair proportion have a label with a number and route name, but the easiest way to tell them apart is by the colour. To get to the supermarket I take the orange, green and white one. Anyone who's been shopping with me will know that I always take a list, and I always buy heaps of stuff. I'm not sure if it's a pathological fear of running out of food, a touch of OCD, or just me ;-) Anyway, today I happily bought more cake making ingredients, and managed to find cinnamon and nutmeg, plus all the things on my list.

As I was sitting on the front steps packing it all into my backpack (I know it's wrong to bring my own bags and still get the plastic ones - but I need them for my rubbish bin! Plus this is not Australia - I think the end of plastic bags in Indonesia is not in the foreseeable future - they're just too useful!) one of the office staff from school walked past, and seemed quite impressed that I take myself to the supermarket by angkot. Go me!

To get back, I take a green and yellow angkot a short way, then change to the orange, green and white one to get home. The photo's not great, but in the traffic I spotted this cute car (I probably should know what it is, oh well!). The thing in the middle of the windscreen is a little gold garuda (a mythical eagle, Indonesia's national emblem) on a homemade metal stand - it's fun to see how the drivers customise their vehicles!

Now I am back at home enjoying leftovers for lunch. Actually, I don't think spaghetti cuts it - I think I'll have another celebratory cup of tea! Hopefully my lovely day extends to the quizzes I am about to mark :-)

A celebratory cup of tea

It's seems such a silly thing, but I've had a bit of trouble up until now buying water. I have a dispenser in my room that takes big 19L bottles, and my housemate gave me the phone number of a shop just up the road that sells them. So I've called a few times, given my address, and waited for the guy on the motorbike to show up with my water - with no success! Eventually my housemate steps in, and orders it for me, which is very nice of her, but I've felt a bit silly not being able to get it for myself. I was raised to be an independent woman!

But now I have the secret - the name of a past resident of the house, who is known by the shop owner. So I am sitting here smugly drinking a cup of tea (using water which I ordered myself) in celebration of a small win :-)

Rice cooker cake

Yes, the title is correct - I found out how to make cake in my rice cooker!! I was a bit sad, not being able to use an oven, but a quick google search (you've got to love the internet) told me that the rice cooker sitting in the corner of my room, untouched, would suffice. So, here's my first attempt - a banana cake.

It was ok, but with a few adjustments I was able to make a second one I was happy with. I got so excited I forgot to take a photo, and instead took it around the corner to some of the other teachers where it vanished in about 2 minutes ;-) I love the fact that teachers like free food (particularly cake) in every school I've been at!

In return for the cake, one of the above-mentioned teachers wanted to give me something, but all he had in the fridge was a tub of strawberry yoghurt. My instant (and a little facetious) reply was that I would turn it into another cake, so here we have a strawberry yoghurt rice cooker cake, complete with icing:

For my next attempt, I decided to make a chocolate cake for the performing arts club, who did an awesome job of their show (Mulan) last Saturday! I actually made two cakes, and then this morning sandwiched them together with strawberry jam, then covered the whole thing in chocolate icing. I know it's bad, but I enjoyed my breakfast of chocolate icing :-) After a bit of ingenuity to get it to school safely (the container I bought wasn't tall enough) I am now ready to present it to the kids. It cracked a bit, which is disappointing, but it smells good, so we'll see how it goes!