My Current Favorite Cake

Sometimes I imagine my blog being something different.  Most of the time I am content for this to be a place to update family and friends on our goings-on, but sometimes I have aspirations to be one of those awesome blogs that has like a million followers with beautiful photographs, giveaways, recipes, links, buttons, etc, etc, instead of here's-more-about-boring-old-us-living-on-the-edge-of-the-world.

I would especially love to be a cooking blog, like the ever-amazing smitten kitchen or my friend's blog The Church Cook with their yummy recipes and photos that make me want to lick the computer screen.

But unfortunately I am not that kind of cook or photographer, but indulge me if you will as I - the Borneo Mama who's been living in Papua for eight months and really needs to change her blog name - share with you a recipe I have become downright passionate about.

Living overseas has been so good for my culinary skills.  If we'd never left the U.S., I wonder if I would ever have taken the time to learn to make sausage, tortillas, bagels, pickles, yogurt, petits fours?  Probably not - most definitely NOT the petits fours.  Here in the land where it's all made from scratch (except pasta - I can buy pasta, hallelujah) it's learn to cook or learn to love Indonesian takeout.  I've learned to do both.

I digress. The recipe is one I've adapted from celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who, during the closing credits on her tv cooking show, is often shown standing in front of the fridge late at night, eating leftovers.  I love Nigella. And I am in love with this cake recipe, with its chocolatey goodness and hint of orange.  It's easy to make and doesn't leave a ton of leftovers that I will be tempted to consume en masse the next day.  

Cooking overseas, you learn to make substitutions for ingredients you don't have.  Most substitutions don't make a huge impact on the recipe (yogurt for sour cream, milk and vinegar for buttermilk) but some are so far-fetched you don't even want to bother (like the desperate missionary recipe I saw for apple pie that calls for substituting saltine crackers for the apples.  Seriously. ) In this recipe there is no substituting the orange.  I almost did when I made this the other night.  All I had was some random peach juice and I debated using that, but then I thought, no, I love this cake for the orange.  Must have orange.  Fresh orange.  So off went Holsten Child #1 to borrow an orange from a neighbor.  Thank you, neighbor.

So without further ado, Nigella's cake.

1 ¼ sticks butter, softened

2 T. golden syrup (I use honey)

1 c. brown sugar (I use palm sugar)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Zest of 2 small oranges (1 T.)

Juice of 1 small orange (3 T.)

1 c. flour

½ t. baking soda

3 T. cocoa

Beat together butter, syrup (or honey), and sugar.  In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients, and add to butter mixture alternatively with eggs.  Add orange zest and juice.

Bake 45 minutes in greased loaf pan @ 325.

Best served warm with whipped cream and orange slices.  Next best is eaten the day after with a cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

I Am An Otter

I have a problem with saying “no” and apparently it’s because I’m an otter.

At our MAF conference we did some team-building exercises based upon a personality survey we all took called “Leading From Your Strengths.”  According to how you answered questions, you were assigned a certain animal:  lion, golden retriever, otter, or beaver.  I thought this survey far superior to other surveys in which you’re assigned a letter, or a hard to remember acronym (as in “I am an EFTP – no wait, was it ISFJ?”).  Way more fun to be a critter than a letter.

Because I am a serious people pleaser, who likes to party (tamely, of course), overcommit and set ambitious, sometimes unrealistic goals, I get to be that animal that’s so much fun to watch at the zoo – the playful otter.

Taking personality tests always stresses me out a bit.  I want to be honest and forthright in my answers – but I also want to score well and have a "nice" personality (that must be the otter in me).  Here’s an example from this particular test:  Which characteristic describes you MOST: generous, greedy, warm, or negative?

Well, really, who’s going to be honest and say greedy rather than generous?  I was agonizing over some questions when David walked in halfway through my test, looked over my shoulder and “helped” me. 

“Oh no, you’re definitely more disorganized than organized,” he offered.  Thanks, babe.  He, by the way, is not an otter, but a golden retriever – a faithful, dependable, slobbering golden retriever.

I guess I have known deep-down that I am an otter for a long time, but being responsible for the MAF guest house here in Sentani the past few months has only reinforced it for me. 

The MAF Guest House

People email me with reservation requests and I want to accommodate everyone.  I want them to love me for giving them the bigger room, for fitting in their last-minute request.  I have to constantly remind myself that I am not running a bed and breakfast (though wouldn’t that be fun?), and that I’m not doing this job to get the guest house a Top Hotel of Papua rating, but to help out MAF’ers and others in the mission community as we are able.

I don’t want to turn people away, to disappoint them.  I want them to think well of me.  I can’t help it.  I’m an otter.  And I learned through our team-building exercise that otters could learn from the other animals how to say “no” from time to time.

So next time you’re at the zoo and you’re disappointed that the otters don’t seem to want to come out and put on a show for you, give them a break.  Sometimes an otter just needs to say “no.”

Family Conference Part 2

After our time at family conference, we took a short plane ride over to the interior city of Wamena, also in the Baliem Valley, for a few days of vacation.  Wamena - the largest city that is totally supported by air travel - is the site of an MAF base, and a hub of sorts for many different mission organizations and NGO's.


I saw something on the MAF base I had never seen before - a house in the tropics with a CHIMNEY!!!  Yes, the nights are cool enough in Wamena for a fireplace, and we sure did enjoy some fires while we were there.

Another thing that was new and different for us was taking a ride around town in a becak, a bicycle taxi.  

Our friends the Ringenbergs took very good care of us - feeding us and taking us on outings.  One night they cooked a turkey dinner, and the electricity went off, as it often does.  If you've never had a turkey dinner by headlamp-light, well, you haven't lived.

One day we went fossil hunting in a river bed and Luke found this really cool fossil.  He's in a rocks and fossils stage right now and so I was happy for his great find.

Another day we went on a drive through the beautiful countryside outside of Wamena and saw honai...

...goats and pigs...

...but the best thing we saw, or at least I thought so, was a man wearing his traditional Dani outfit, consisting of nothing but a gourd.  However, in an effort to keep this blog G-rated, I will decline from posting the picture of the Gourd Guy.


We went with the Ringenbergs to a very cool cave, so cool that David thought he should have an Indiana Jones type moment and fall through the rotting floorboards of a bridge inside it and dangle precariously above a 100-foot ravine.  Okay, there was no ravine, but it was all quite dramatic, and thankfully a Dutch mission doctor was also hiking in the cave and was able to check out David's injuries.


The entrance to the cave looked very Lord of the Rings-ish.  

We were well-equipped with head lamps and flashlights, but we did take a moment to turn off all the lights and experience the spooky pitch-black darkness.

Our time in Wamena seemed to be over way too soon, and then it was back to the big city of Sentani. I can see why tourists spend a lot of money and effort to visit the Baliem valley - it is a wild and beautiful place, and I look forward to going there again.

Family Conference, Part One

We have reached the half-year mark of being Papua Residents.  Some days, it feels like we've been here longer than six months.  We've packed a lot of living into our time here, and we have felt very ready for a break.


So it was with great anticipation that we headed off to our first MAF Family Conference in Papua.  I hoped for times of rest, a break from cooking and cleaning, time to get to know our co-workers better, and a break from steamy Sentani.


I was not disappointed.


David flew our family and the Perez family to Pyramid, a village in the Baliem Valley and site of the MAF Family Conference for many years.  This was the first time we've gotten to fly with David since we've been in Papua.  I love flying with D; it never ceases to amaze me how well - in my totally unbiased opinion - he can handle the plane and understand the static-y voices of the ATC controllers.  


The first part of the trip reminded me of Kalimantan jungle - winding rivers cutting through rolling hills dotted with broccoli-like trees.  Then as we approached the bigger mountains it started to look vastly different - craggy mountaintops, sweet potato gardens on the steep slopes, conical honai (traditional Papuan dwelling) clustered around an airstrip.  

Becky Perez holding her cutie-pie twin girls.  I love the bored expression on Ellie's face.  Grace, in the back on the right, enjoyed holding one of the twins for much of the flight.

Three of the MAF planes lined up on the runway at Pyramid.  We took turns doing "pig patrol" to keep pigs from wandering onto the runway while planes were landing and taking off.  Very exciting.

The lodge, where we ate all our meals and had our meetings.  

The honai (traditional Papuan hut) where the youth met.

The kids were anxious to start VBS each morning.

The conference grounds are a bit rustic and run-down, but the setting is beautiful and the weather perfect.  Nice and warm during the day, cool at night.  Mosquito nets helped keep out unwanted critters at night.

The accommodations may have been rustic, but one of the highlights for me - and I know this will sound silly - was the shower.  Our shower at home has low pressure and the hot water lasts about a minute, so we luxuriated in the long, steamy hot showers at conference, made possible by someone lighting fires under water drums twice a day.

A team from New Heights Church in Vancouver, Washington has been coming out for many years to help with the MAF conference.  They brought a group of young adults to help with VBS and the youth, as well as Pastor Matt and his wife Cindy, and their worship leader to lead the adults.


It fed my soul to have a solid week of daily corporate worship and teaching from the Word.  And the kids loved having big people to play with them.

Every evening there were crazy-fun family activities.  The first night we were chosen to sit in the MAF Family Fun Box Seating, where we were given M&M's and served fresh-cooked Spam.  Mmmm-mmm, nothing says camping like Spam.

The New Heights team staged a "Top Gun" game with water guns.  Every one who wanted to play (adults and older kids) received the name of the person they were to shoot.  Eventually the participants whittled each other down until there were just two people left.  Guess who??? Me and my buddy Linda, that's who!  Linda and her family served with ours in Kalimantan.  I don't know how we made it to the Top Gun finals - I wasn't that into the game until I started taking down all these teenagers, and Linda and I formed an alliance and helped each other until it was just us.  Then we had a show-down and her water gun proved to be faster than mine.

The kids enjoyed sliding in the mud, running wild with their buddies, and going for hikes.

We ate really well, with the meals prepared by two couples from other mission organizations who volunteered their time.  They were assisted by a group of Papuans.  They cooked meals for 130 people, all on a wood stove.  Impressive!  This woman in the photo below helped out with the baking; here she is rolling out doughnuts.  The fingers on her left hand have all been chopped off above the middle joint, a custom of some Papuan tribes to show (or perhaps induce) grief after a loved one dies.

One afternoon we all hiked down to a pig pond for a baptism service for two MAF young people.

We were sad - but rather exhausted - when it was time to leave.  It was quite an operation to get everyone packed up and sent out, but it was all organized amazingly well.  Pilot types - you gotta love their efficiency!!!


**Please forgive the varying fonts in this blog post - Blogger and I are not getting along at the moment!!!**

Summer Days

Another week of summer is gone, and it doesn't seem like we're really doing much.  But when I think back over this past week - we've been busy!  Here's a glimpse:
Is there anything better than a fresh home-made bagel?  Well, yes - a store-bought bagel. But seeing as we can't buy bagels, I made a batch this week. It was labor-intensive, but so very worth it.

We can buy some super-fresh eggs from a local ministry.  So fresh they still have lots of yucky chicken poop still on them.  This week's flat of eggs seemed poopier than usual.

Sorry to be gross, but this is just the reality of buying eggs here.  Thankfully I have kids who are looking to earn money this summer, and one of the possibilities for income is to wash the eggs.  Rubber gloves make it possible.

Our garden that we started about two weeks ago started to sprout.  The tomatoes, sunflowers, and okra (pictured below) are taking off.  I am hoping to eat fried okra by August!

We finally got the tires fixed on the kids' bikes, and Zoe, who hasn't been on a bike in a long time - and never on one without training wheels, took right off.

Luke has long been wanting to assemble a catapult, so we spent one afternoon working on that.  We don't really need more weapons lying around, but this one turned out to be pretty innocuous.

One evening we had this lovely family over for dinner.  Gustaf was a class ahead of David at Moody Aviation, and the last time we saw him, he was a single guy.  He's been flying in Papua for over 13 years, and it was fun to reconnect with him and meet his wife and kids.

One of the highlights of the week was getting to meet a living legend of the mission world, Don Richardson, the author of Peace Child and Lords of the Earth. He and his sons have returned to Indonesia to visit the village they first reached out to years ago.  They were staying at the MAF guest house, and even though I handled their reservation for their stay, I didn't realize it was THE Richardsons until they were here.  And it's very timely that we met Don now, because we're reading Peace Child aloud at night with the kids.  When I told Don's son Stephen, who was an infant during the time featured in the book, that we were halfway through the book he said, "Oh you're almost to the part when I fall in the river."  The kids thought that was funny.  

This week in pictures

We finished the puzzle!  The kids helped me put it together, and I must say, it was way more satisfying to put it together without the help of the picture on the box.  So maybe my dad is on to something.

This week we went to the opening day of a Papuan cultural festival taking place on Lake Sentani.  It was very hot, but we managed to see some cool stuff before we succumbed to the heat.  

This guy was dancing up and down on the pier, "calling" to the boats full of warriors waving bows and arrows around.

This colorful parrot was riding on a woman's head as she watched the warriors dance.

There were several artists displaying their handicrafts, including this woman making pottery.

I got to try the local food, called papeda which is made from sago flour and has - according to one friend - the consistency of elephant snot.  I had been warned that to American palates, it's none too tasty, and I admit, it is a bit like eating paste.  It is basically tasteless, but the spicy fish eaten with it makes up for the lack of flavor.  It has been my observation that most cultures have their own version of porridge - in the South it's grits; out west it's cream of wheat; in other parts of Indonesia, there is bubur, a rice porridge.  On their own, these porridges are bland and boring - it's the yummy stuff we add to it that make them delicious (i.e. cheese grits with shrimp).  

Our other big event this week was taking part in another dousing of David, this time for soloing in the Caravan.  

After his shower, David had to do another flight.  Here's a picture of one of his passengers being loaded.

That's it for this week!  Today the kids and I are planning to plant our garden.  We are hoping that our okra seeds will like the tropical climate!

Dad's Rule for Puzzles

We love getting packages around here.  Usually it's comics and candy, or magazines for the kids and dark chocolate for me (it IS for me, right Mom and Dad?).  Sometimes my dad will throw in the random item, like tattoos from Moe's Southwest Grill (oh, how we miss Moe's) or Georgia-shaped silly bands.  Or a jigsaw puzzle without the box.


My dad, and if you know him you know this, is a unique man, with some unique ideas.  Like his idea that it's cheating to put a jigsaw puzzle together while looking at the picture on the box.  He says it's cheating.  The kids and I heartily disagree, and we spent part of our time at Christmas together trying to sneak peeks at the box of the massive jigsaw we were attempting to piece together.


But he's taken his rule for puzzles a step further by mailing us the puzzle, without the picture from the box.  My kids will need some brain stimulation this summer, and this will most definitely provide that.


So I have two questions for you:


1.  What picture do you think will emerge from this puzzle?


And, just to set my dad straight...


2.  Do you think it's cheating to look at the box while assembling a puzzle?