[India 911] Thank You!

It's not easy to start blogging & writing in this kind of situation. Different feelings come and mix together in my heart, in my mind. The Christmas songs have been played already in our house everyday from morning until night. My heart has liquified into December season and has flown following the rhythm of the everlast songs. But suddenly the 'Mumbai Terrorist Attacks' happened. Lots of innocent people lost their lives.

I really need to say Thank You to all of you, friends, for your cares. Thank you for your email, sms, calls and all messages in this blog or my other blog. I really appreciate that. It's so nice to know that lots of people care about us. Many of them, we have never met. Just to let you know, our family is fine. Both my kids are enjoying their extended school holiday. Yesterday, they were supposed to have a half day school and celebrating Thanksgiving Day with their friends and teacher. After the 'Mumbai Attacks' which started on Wednesday night, the school was closed on Thursday. So, they have four days holidays until Sunday.

Until now, we never know what will be happen next.
Wednesday morning (26/11/2008), I decided to do a photo hunting around a place called Byculla in South Mumbai. I printed out some information about Byculla from the internet, grab it, and read it on the way to Byculla. There are lots of interesting places there. First, I visited the beautiful old Gloria Church and met some students of the nearby school that located in the Church area. Then I visited the old Regal Cinema, Regal Shop (just across the street), and Byculla Market (the largest vegetable market in Mumbai! Owesome...). I continued my journey, walking to the Mumbai Fire Brigade Headquarter. Woow, they have a vintage fire engine. Cute! Unfortunatelly they did not allow me to taking picture there. Right, for security reason. What a paranoid... (psst, don't you know that I was trained-by experiences-to be a paparazzi?, yeah I took some picture there :P). I'll upload the picture later. I promise.
It was quite hot that afternoon (and I forgot my cap, silly me), but I could not help myself not to visit to Magen David Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the city. Uh yeah, this is my very first time visiting a Jewish Temple. I came back home with lots of pictures in my camera. I was so happy. After that, the rest of the day passed by just like the other normal day. Until I went to bed, I didn't know that on the night something terrible was happening out there, in South Mumbai.
Lots of sms came to my husband's handphone that night (please read the blog story written by him) and only one came to mine. It was from the school, announcing that the school will be closed on the next day. No other information, we didn't have any clue. Very early morning we woke up, and found out that there had been a big terror in this city. I was speechless, from the TV screen, to see one beautiful landmark building was on fire. So sad. I love the Mumbai Architecture, I read a lot about their history, and I admire them. The Taj Mahal Hotel, that we visited 3 weeks after we arrived on last January, is the one that made me falling in love to this city. Nothing I could do, just watching the blaze and smoke. Lots of bodies were found inside the hotel. The terrors occured in 10 different places that night, some places are still on terror until now including in the Taj Hotel.

The Beautiful Detail of Taj Mahal Hotel. I took this pictures on January 2008.

Reading the newspaper for the last two mornings make me a bit down. It's so sad that many people suddenly have lost their family members, relatives, friends. Not fair! Until now there are 155 people killed, 327 people wounded. On the other side, I'm so glad watching some of the hostages were walking free out from the hotels. I'm not a person who can talk a lot about terrorism, but regarding this Mumbai Terror, I have to be honest that I'm amazed; how organized and how well prepared the terrorists turning this city up-side down.
During this quiet time, we just spend our time at home together. To kill the boring time, we go outside to the park, supermarket, bookshop nearby our apartment. I didn't cook something special, not for the Thanksgiving. There is no special dinner. I just baked Banana Bread this afternoon, with some chocolate chips and walnuts. Nothing special.

Everything just like other day, and we'll never forget to thank God for His Blessing.
------------------------------------I've just pressed 'publish post' button, then I check my mailbox... ooooh tragic news! Both parents of Patricks friend 'R' were killed in the recent terrorist attacks. We met them all (both parents with 3 kids, 'R' is the youngest one) on our vacation in Amber Fort, Jaipur last month. I'm very sad.

Snickerdoodles

Saya paling doyan ngeliat jejeran cookies dalam toples2 kaca dengan model polos klasik. Mata saya selalu kebuka gede2 tiap kali melewati warung2 di pinggir jalan yang di bagian depannya berjejer rapi si toples2 cookies tsb. Ternyata di India sini, cukup banyak warung2 yg jualan cookies. Jauh lebih banyak dibanding dengan warung2 yg jualan permen seperti yang saya doyanin waktu kecil. Sejak pindah ke sini, 11 bulan yang lalu, rasanya gak pernah bosen saya melototin warung2 kecil yg nyempil di antara toko2 gede, dipinggir jalan gede ataupun di antara padatnya 'perumahan' penduduk sini. Rasanya pengen lompat buat foto2 (*norak banget gak sih). Cuma ya itu, saya sering kali khawatir orang2 gak merasa nyaman kalo difotoin :)

Saya sebenarnya gak berminat untuk nyicip ataupun beli cookies-nya tapi sekedar terbang ke masa lalu, saat masih kecil. Saat2 menjelang natal, saat ibu saya mulai nyetok berbagai jenis cookies klasik yang saat itu belum bagitu banyak jenisnya. Variasinya gak jauh-jauh dari butter cookies, chocolate cookies dan cookies kacang (ya ditambah nastar, kastengel dkk). Kemudian toples2 kaca itu mulai terisi, tapi kemudian cepet banget diabisin anak2nya :D.
Snickerdoodles ini saya buat udah rada lama, kira2 sebulan yang lalu. Rasanya cukup mewakili cookie klasik, butter cookies. Kalau di resep aslinya akan jadi sekitar 1.5 lusin (18 buah), itu karena si resep memakai takaran yg cukup besar... Sementara saya cuma memakan takaran 1 sendok makan adonan (saya pakai sendok takar '1 tbsp'), hasilnya sekitar 50-an cookies!

Source: Martha Stewart's Cookies.
The origin of hte name of these homey, drop-style cookies is unclear, but recipes for them appear in early-twentieth-century American cookbooks and newspapers.
After rolling balls to dough in cinnamon sugar, give them ample room on baking sheets; they spread quite a bit.

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsps sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Put butter an 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tbsp sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into twenty 1 3/4 inch balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire rack. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

* dengan ukuran cookies saya yg kecil dibandingkan resep (tapi sebenarnya cukup gede lho di tangan anak2 saya), waktu bakingnya cukup 12 menit untuk tiap batch.
* Gula, pakai caster sugar atau 'gula pasir import', yg butirannya gak terlalu besar.
* Kalau jadinya terlalu banyak, bagi2lah dengan tetangga atau temen2 :D