Bali cooking class posting order

I always forget that your posts are last post is the going to be the top post so my Bali cooking class is in the wrong order. You can scroll down and read to the top.

..and finally The Fish Market

After the local market we went the fish market on the beach.I just liked this lady. You can see some of the boats but they where mostly already done for the day, it was about 7:00 a.m.This little boy is helping his mom clean the boat. I kind of thought these fish were to pretty to eat.
This guy is cutting up tuna steaks.

This guy is just cutting up his fish it was pretty big. I probably don't have to tell you but this place had a very strong smell. If I hadn't been in Asia for a while it could have been offensive but there are lot of things that smell around here even the kids are getting to the point were the don't have to hold their noses anymore.

The Market

After we picked out our chicken and got over the fate we just gave it we moved on to a spice table Heinz (It is a long story but our Instructor was original from Switzerland) had set up. It was another one of my favorite parts. He showed us what everything looked liked, cut it open so we could smell, touch and taste everything. There was so much to absorb and learn but I was in heaven. He also had fruits to try and there were things I had previously tried but obviously they had not been fresh because everything there was so much better. Due to lack of refrigeration many local have, most produce had been picked and on the the table in less the 48 hours. How long ago do you think the banana you had for breakfast was picked off the tree.
I just think their handcrafted items were amazing there the carvings and other art work were abundant and so cheap.

I love how this guy is just hanging out with the hacked up chicken while talking on the phone.

This guy is reading his paper while he is waiting for customers to buy some rice.

A nice large basket of chillies.

Cooking class, Our chicken and Mama Bali

The first place we went was the local market. This is where we found "Mama Bali" (A woman to represent the women of local Bali) selling chicken. There feet were tied together so they could fly away or escape.This is when we were asked to pick out our chicken for lunch.Mama Bali is cuting free "Charlie", the chicken we chose.Here Mama Bali is showing us how she make the container and filling it with rice, for the rice cakes. They basically make this little package from leaves fill it with a little rice close it up by tieing the ends and throw it into water and out comes a nice little rice patty once you peel away the leaves.

I just thought this was cute she made a bird out of the same leaves that she made the little pouch for the rice.

Cooking Class in Bali

Here is a picture of the Bumbu Bali Resturant where I took a class but this is where we actually ate breakfast and then later lunch which we prepared. It was very beautiful. They actually had rooms and villas you could stay in on the grounds also.

Here is a portion of the kitchen where we cooked. We cooked a total of 22 items including satay chicken (You'll see charlie later) and pork with a peanut sauce. We learned how to make a comple of spice paste and rices both sweet and savory. I also learned how to cook a couple of things in banana leaf. The whole process was very interesting.
This is what the finished product looked like. Some veggies tossed in a peanut sauce, some satay, and pork in a sweet soya sauce.

Here is dessert some fried bananas, and glutenous rice with shredded coconut.
I took the cooking class the first full day we had in Bali, my ride picked me up around 6:00 a.m. It was probably my favorite thing I did. I got to see and do things that I wouldn't have done with the family in tow.

Bali Lock Down - Nyedi Day "The Silence of Bali"

So we have been in Bali 4 days now and today we are on lock down and can not leave the hotel. We had no idea when we made our bookings that their was a Hindu religious day called a "Day of Silence" and they are totally serious, the airport is not open and no one is allowed to leave their home or housing compound. It's called Nyepi Day it's spent in quiet meditation and fasting, reflecting on the past's year's events, according to the Balinese Caka Calender. We will spend the day hanging out at the pool trying to keep the kids from killing each other. Unfortunately the spiritual nature of Bali has no affect on the kids and they are still as "loud" and normal as ever.

So far we have done some activities and will hopefully have more time to blog about them in detail once we return to singapore. On Monday Natalie took a Balainse cooking class where she went out to the local market a 6am and picked out "charlie" the chicken for lunch, she also bought fish straight off the boats that come in every morning. On Tuesday we all went out as a family and visited the sacred monkey forest, some temples and just some general shopping and eating out. Yesterday, Wednesday, the two older boys and I went white water rafting.

Collin taking a nap on the beach. He was lovin life.

The boys after rafting down river in Bali.

Hayden and Ashton 'underwater', trying out the new camera we bought for our scuba trips.
Tyson with the monkey god Hanoman and another dancer in the Kecak Ceremonial Temple Dance. Last night Natalie and I went out to dinner and watched this dance during dinner.
Natt with some of the dancers of the Kecak Dance.

Hayden's b-day celebrations

We don't have any pictures of his friends celebration party, that is the day I dropped and broke the camera while trying to pack up everything for the party. He had Tuesday off for parent teacher conferences so we took advantage and had a few friends go to a local water park called the Jurong East water park. It is basically a government subsidised pool so it is supper cheap but it is really cool. It has a wave pool, lazy river, kiddie play structure in the water, lap pools and even 3 water slides and 2 of them require a tube. It is one of the few cheap things here in Singapore, it cost just over 50 cents for kids and just over $1 for adults (that US$).

School celebration

Recently we made cinnamon rolls and they were a hit so Hayden requested them instead of cupcakes for his b-day at school. Here is Hayden blowing out the candles on his cinnamon rolls that looked like and 8. Fe is handing Hayden his rolls, while holding Collin so I could take the picture. Mr. Williams is also in the picture, he is Hayden's teacher and he is way awesome.

This is a picture of the cinnamon rolls that we had for breakfast, then we took 2 other pans to school. If you are interested here is the link to the recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/ my favorite recipe website the Clone of the Cinnabon. You can make this recipe in a bread machine and then through them in the fridge overnight, through them in the oven first thing in the morning and fresh hot cinnamon rolls without haveing to get up at the break of dawn.

Tired boy

Ashton rides the bus (it is actually a van) to and from school everyday for about 45 minutes so it is a long ride which he doesn't like. I beleive most days he naps on the way home and sometimes it makes him very grumpy. Today I was testing out a camera we got on wednesday. (I dropped our old camera Tuesday a broke it but we have a trip to Bali this Sunday so we needed a new camera fast.) So I happened to be outside taking pictures of Collin and playing around with setting and such when Ashton got off the bus barely.

The Bus Auntie (a lot of local people call a person who is older than you Auntie or Uncle so that is what Ashton calls the bus driver helper) helped a tired and very grumpy Ashton off the bus.

This is as far as he got, he put his bag down and fell right back a sleep. I thought he was laying there being grumpy until I got closer and realized he was trully asleep.

Here is Collin with Ashton. I ended up caring him inside and he has now been asleep for over an hour. It is going to be a long night.

Here is one of my favorite photos from today, I call it "hello, my name is Chubby". Did any of you do this face when you were younger?

Dinner and a Mouse

So Friday night is usually date night for Natt and I. Normally I am at work and she will ride train into the city from the house and I will drive the car into the city from work. This friday night was different since I got home early, we both took the train into the city for dinner. While we traveling we were making arrangements for the pest guy to come and set traps for the mouse we had in the house. We saw him earlier in the day scoot from behind the fridge and into the pantry. So Natt and I went out to dinner -- we hit little india, and ate some excellent food straight off a banana leaf, which was also the name of the restaurant. The place was way good and we have now found a new favorite for indian food. So after dinner we still had not caught our mouse. We woke up saturday morning and still no mouse. Then after taking the kids to get their haircut from the Malay barber, where they got their necks shaved with a raw straight edge razor -- man the guy was brave, and yes they held very still for that portion -- we got home and found we had caught our mouse. So we called the pest guy 'eric' to come take away our mouse, all the boys were super excited that we caught it, and kinda bummed that eric took him away -- i think they wanted to keep him as a pet.

Our Performers

So last weekend we went to the Night Safari at the Zoo here in Singapore. We have gone many times but never had a chance to attend one of the shows called "creatures of the night" . So we went early and got front row seats. They bring out all kinds of animals and then call people and kids up from the audience to feed them etc... They called Ashton up to feed one of the animals, he really enjoyed it and then got a coupon for a free ice cream cone from the ben and jerry's shop in the zoo. So normally we don't get ice cream because it's so expense so it was a real nice treat.

Yesterday Hayden was part of a readers theater where he was also able to perform some -- he was really excited to be in this and wanted myself and Colling to attend. Once again it involved ice cream, every once and a while we let him get a treat on the walk home from school from the ice cream motorcycle. (Yes this is just like the ice cream truck/van in the US, however it a motorcycle with a outfitted freezer as a side car to the motorcycle). But it was raining on the way home from school yesterday so the ice cream guy wasa not around, so we had to walk to the 7-11 to get our ice cream cone after the performance.

Baby - C

Hey - quick post with some recent pictures of Baby - C, aka Collin.

Big Blue eyes

Crawling on the floor -- it's now his favorite place to be

Driving his BMW Z3 in one of the local malls

Standing up on dad's hands

Eating dragon fruit -- all the seeds get stuck on his face -- along with his battle wound from being mobile now

Happy Breakfast

So I woke up this morning and Ashton was all ready for school. This is unusual and typically we have to fight him to get dressed and on the bus. He was up quite early and in a very good mood which is also unusual. So Natt and I go down stairs expecting the fight to try get food in his belly and he starts to ask very nicely for eggs and ham to eat. Typically we say no, on a school day, since we are usually running late and fighting just get clothes on him so he can goto school, but this morning we said yes since all that was already done. So he loves to help with breakfast, which is also only done on the weekends as this is the only time we have to have him "help?" with breakfast. So he and our helper Fe, started to make him his eggs and ham, and guess what -- he actually helped and did a very good job of cracking the eggs? So I am now completely dazed wondering what happened to my 5 year old son? Have we turned a new page and this "new" Ashton will continue on? We will have to see?

S'pore pool party

Last weekend the kidos did not have school on friday and we got invited to a pool party/going away party for some friends leaving singapore and going back to the US. Collin really wanted in the pool but only watched from the fence. This is a pretty small pool so the kid to pool ratio is highest i have ever seen. all the kids liked to jump off the wall but the "dad/owner" of the home with the pool was allowed (by his wife) to jump off the roof in the pool. When he made his appearance on the roof, i have never seen a mass of kids jump out of a pool and patiently wait this fast before in my life . well he made his jump, then all the kids jumped in after him -- it was one chaotic pool!!

Singapore "western" food

Tyson post -- it looks like I have now taken the role in posting -- well we were at the grocery store the other day here in singapore and I had the camera with me -- so I took some photos of the food prices -- western food -- western food is very expensive and only a special treat when we get it -- local food is very cheap but I can only handle so much of it. Here are some photos of the singapore dollar prices so I converted each one into US dollars.

$5.60 SDG = $3.73 USD

$13.55 SGD = $9.03 USD

$17.75 SGD = $11.83 USD

$10.65 SGD = $7.10 USD

$13.60 SGD = $9.06 USD