We are living in a very humid surrounding, so every weekend means soaked in the heat. That's why my husband always nags me to have cold fruits in stock. However, it was such pain to see them rotten and wilted because sometimes we are too busy to notice that they're waiting to be eaten. In this case, banana is the most annoying.

Until I decided to put them in the freezer.

So instead of banana smoothie, this is our new favorite way to consume banana as ever since, we've never seen a rotten banana in our home. All you need is to peel all of them once they're ripe enough, cut in half, and freeze.

Then make your banana ice cream. Anytime you want it, yes, because all you need is just 1 ingredient which is the banana itself.

To make it legit like a good recipe, here's what you need to do although it's a 1 ingredients dessert:
1. Again, peel, cut in half, and freeze your bananas once they're ripe and sweet for about 6 hours. I like to do this on my free time then freeze them overnight
2. Get your food processor and blend the frozen banana until you get that creamy, smooth texture of ice cream. You can add any kind of milk to help get the job done, a little at a time, but this is tottally optional. Then, keep your freshly churned banana cream in an air-tight container
3. Put it back in the freezer for firmer texture or you can enjoy it right away with toppings of your choice (blueberries, granola, choco chips, strawberry, et cetera)

Yummy, eh? Go ahead and give it a try!

Love,
P

You guys need to try this at home. It's easy, rich, and extremely HOT!

So I saw this recipe on Tastemade (presented by Seonkyoung) and it is actually a fusion version of the original buldak (which only use chicken). According to my best friend who just came back from his South Korea vacation, buldak means fire-chicken so this dish is definitely not for you who doesn't love it spicy.

Anyway, my husband and I decided to recreate this crazy dish for this busy weekend. You can follow the exact recipe from Tastemade shall you have the complete ingredients, but I was forced to modify mine.

So here's my recipe for 2 servings of Buldak Ramen:
- 200 gr boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size cubes. You can definitely use more if you like
- 2 packs of Buldak Bokkeum Myun or also famous as SAMYANG (so that's the name of this crazy spicy instant ramen noodles, ha! We, Indonesian, usually call it "Samyang" as that is the only word we can read on the packaging). You will need to use the sauce included as well as the topping, they are very important, so don't throw it away
- Chili sauce and chili paste (to replace gochujang)
- Spicy chili flakes (to replace gochugaru)
- Cayenne powder (to replace capsaicin powder)
- Soy sauce
- 250 gr of mozzarella cheese, cubed
- Chopped scallion for garnish

And I didn't marinade my chicken because I totally forgot, but that's totally alright if you also want to skip this step.

What you're going to do:
1. Cook the noodles in boiling water, just halfway, drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside
2. Make the sauce by mixing chili sauce, paste, flakes, powder, soy sauce, and the fire spicy sauce from the instant ramen noodle packages
3. Pan grill the chicken cubes (or you can use a wok) until it's all nice and golden brown (use just little oil to grease the pan) and then cook the drained noodle along with it
4. Pour the spicy sauce and mix all together until combine then serve on a big plate
5. Melt the mozzarella cheese inside the microwave and it's time for the CHEESE FALL!
6. Garnish with the topping included from the instant ramen noodle package and sprinkle some chopped scallion to color your cheese lava. Voila, you are ready to eat and impress people

I personally think this menu make the fiery Samyang less painful to eat, probably because of the cheese. However, as much as it's scary, you need to try this at home at least once in your life.

Seriously, so GOOD!

Love,
P

Midweek is probably the time when I missed our proper Saturday and/or Sunday breakfast because why, oh, why we are already and still quite far from the weekend.

So all I can do is give myself a pat on the back and either start planning on what breakfast should we cook by the end of the week or JUST drooling on our previous breakfasts galore.

And this one is definitely worth the steal because this particular dish made us fall head over heels with breakfast itself. Tada! A full American breakfast!

It is just so satisfying to eat something out of your own kitchen while you used to had this at cafes and hotel only. So simple, so delicious, so fulfilling and you can customize it the way you like them as long as you stick to some basics.

We used:
- Garlic bread (grill 'em ourselves)
- Some chicken and meat alternatives such as those juicy bratwurst, smoked beef ham, and bacon
- Pan-grilled potatoes, cut in bite-size pieces so you can get them done quickly
- Cherry tomatoes
- Champignon
- And eggs! Eggs, eggs, eggs--however way you wanna have them but sunny side up is definitely our all-f-time favorite

Best part? You can fry them all-together in 1 skillet. Less dishes to do by the end of your good brunch. Don't miss several finishing touch such as butter or olive oil for frying and dash of your go-to herbs and seasoning.

Serve them with freshly squeezed OJ, infused water, or whateves.

SO GOOD!

I wish I can fast forward to weekend like NOW!

Love,
P

I valued weekend, probably a little bit more than anything. My husband and I love to spend it at home: cleaning the house, have some DIY affairs, blogging, and mostly cooking. Weekend is the only time when we can make full breakfast-lunch-dinner-dessert meals (sometimes snacks), because we dedicated most of our time to be at home. Anyway, today's post is to recap our Easter weekend as on Sunday, we finally had the chance to make assorted French toast roll ups!

If you realize, most of my homemade posts are covering breakfast -- but how can you resist the prettiest meal of the day? Hey, I will be posting other meals too, don't go!

French toast is a quick and good-looking breakfast you can make anytime you want it. My late grandma was the very first person to teach me the basic French toast recipe, but I didn't know it was a French toast until I'm old enough to understand English. Surprisingly, I love French toast roll ups more than the original.

You will need:
- White bread, peeled (I like to use the soft one, flexible for rolling)
- Egg, beaten lightly. We used 1 big egg for a package of bread consist of 10 slices
- Butter for frying
- Any -- seriously, any filling you want to use for your french toast. Varied from salty to sweets, you name it. Us? We had chocolate sprinkles, cheese, lingonberry jam, caramel jam, marinara sauce, ketchup, habanero -- so anything!

Before you put on the filling, make sure you flatten the bread. It will make the rolling and frying easier. So flatten, fill on one side only, then roll. Give the end a good press so the bread stick together and the filling is secured.

Then you are good to go. Dip the bread inside your beaten egg and fry, fry, fry.

* Don't waste your time, though -- prepare drinks, dipping, and garnish while you keep a close attention to your pan.

Very simple, very pretty! Stack and serve them, and if you want to have that surprise element, do not serve the salty and sweet separately.

As we had this roll ups on Easter morning, we decided to have them with our very first dyed Easter eggs together! That was really the very first I dyed an egg and I was so happy with the abstract neon result (we meant to dyed the shell at the first place, but it was an epic fail. Instead, we had these awesome color on the egg whites). I think this platter will be great for tea time as well, and you can decorate it however you like it to make them look even more gorgeous.

Love,
P

Ever since I made those pancake for breakfast in bed (and ever since I started my lil' food business > more information on this will be up on the site sooner, or your can visit my Instagram for sneak peek), I am kinda obsessed for more good-looking, great-way-to-begin-the-day meals. So very lucky me when I stumbled upon Gemma Stafford's from biggerbolderbaking.com - because I am not into baking (as I have no oven at home), but she is so famous for her microwave-ing recipes.

It means she teaches us on how cooking or baking meals using microwave.
Playing around with small batch of ingredients.
Using microwave.
Super simple.
Using microwave.
All cooked in mugs.

I. Love. Food. In. MUGS!

Anyway, just this morning I finally had the chance to try Gemma's recipes and it feels like you are playing with good old Play-Doh. Ingredients you need might be there at your fridge already and various kind of mugs will make your meal-making more exciting.

I made:
- Pizza
- Omelette
- Bread butter pudding with lingonberry
- Kiwi pancake

Trust me, you can make all of this from scratch (meaning no pre-made ingredients). The best part is we don't have to exactly follow Gemma's recipes - we can modify the dishes anyhow we like it.

I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I'm done with all of these goodness. They came out gorgeous and pretty, and most importantly they are seriously YUM! My husband and I are definitely making more microwave pizza tonight.

Head over Gemma's site our YouTube channel for original recipes, guys, but I will keep sharing shall I created more mug meals (including my original) in the future.

The next level brunch at home is now possible.

Love,
P

I love to play around with my cooking ingredients. I enjoy mixing things, starting from my garlic dipping sauce, salsa sauce, BBQ sauce, and definitely my salad dressing. As if I'm being someone who is hard to please, I even modify my salt.

Not that I left out my regular salt, no. But I think saltiness can be a bit blah sometimes, so I like to add other little ingredients to make it a little bit fancy.

So here's how I made my holy grail salt sprinkle (or you can name it citrus salt, however you like it):
- You'll need salt
- You'll need dried rosemary
- You'll need lemon
- And a small grater

Prep the salt and mix it with your dried rosemary (or any other dried herb will do), and there's no precise amount in making salt sprinkle (slick). You can do it anyway you like it. Anyway, mix them together until they got even - then grab your lemon.

The first time I saw people grate their lemon skin, I was shocked. I thought it would be bitter and everything not nice, but oh I was so wrong. You really want to add this grated lemon skin (read: LEMON ZEST) into your salt and rosemary mixture. You can also add other citrus zest, but anyhow the zest is very important so let them in.

Final touch, squeeze the tangy fruit and let the lemon juice combine all of the dry ingredients. Don't put to much, though, you still need those powdery consistency.

How to use: sprinkle it on top of your cooked dishes. Once the salt and rosemary and lemon zest and lemon juice hit the heat - HEAVEN! You'll be able to smell the freshness and the herb instantly, makes everything smells and tastes more lux.

Best use for: potato wedges, pan-grilled fish or chicken - basically anything you'd love to enjoy with salt.

Let me know if you try it!

Love,
P

Weekends and breakfasts are made to let you know that LIFE'S GOOD.

Yep, it is definitely the most wonderful thing in the world, but we are not always into complicated cooking at the beginning of day off, right?

So I made this sandwich last weekend which consist of simplicity and yumminess. All I did is reheat and stack related ingredients, and there you go a healthy meal.

Anyway, let's leave the sandwich unnamed because that way, you can put anything you want and have in hand into a goodness.

All right, below is how I played the game:
1. Pan-grilled a couple of bread with a good amount of salted butter (the older the bread, the better; it will give you crusty texture but make sure it is still edible)
2. Spread mayonaise on one side of your first bread
3. Leftover protein: I had leftover grilled herb chicken at the fridge so I decided to reheat them and let them join the club
4. Something green; fresh or sauteéd, both ways are great. I used spinach, though, because I was running out of my salad ingredients
5. FRESH onion. So GOOD (but caramelized onion will be a GOOD alternative, as well)
6. Cheese
7. Garlic. You know I love my garlic
8. And the finishing sauce: habanero for me, please

So easy. So yummy. So perfect to start the weekend.

Go give it a try and let me know if you created it by tagging me photos on Instagram or simply leave comments below.

Love,
P

To you breakfast junkie, raise your hands up for this recipe because making beautiful meal at home at the beginning of the day is now possible.

Pancake. The word has never been this tempting until last weekend, so I'll talk about my way on making this versatile main course(slash)dessert because babbling about my love for breakfast will take up to 5 continuous posts.

Anyway, I woke up quite early last Sunday due to my obligation of peeling 1,5 kg of garlic (yes, my husband and I consume 1,5 kg garlic every month, don't ask how) and spent about an hour to deal with it, then I got inspired to make a good breakfast. Ironically, I was running out of bread, sausages, and other usual breakfast essentials.

Not even a box of pancake mix, because I used to dislike pancake. It's heavy, it's dense, it's blah.

But then internet came to rescue: it tapped me on the shoulder and showered me with a bunch of artsy and delicious looking pancake plus reliable recipes to make it from scratch. Interesting enough, the formulation on pancake making is 1:1 ratio.

Too complicated? Wait until you try this yourself. All you need are:

- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 tbs of sugar
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1 egg

As. Simple. As. That. Oh, and butter for frying (don't use too much).
​
At first, I was kinda confused about the 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk thing, but then I asked some help from my measuring pitcher. On number 300 it is, so I measure everything and mix them in a big bowl. Whisk it until you have an almost even, lumpy batter.

(Update: seriously, I was so silly for being confused by the cup measurement. Just as simple as using a measuring cup! It is a set of useful tools you'll need so have them around at your kitchen if you can or measure 1 cup as 128 grams for dry goods and 1 cup as 240 ml for liquid.)

While you preheat your non-sticking pan, I really suggest you to keep this note in mind: in pancake making, lumpy batter is a good batter. You want to have small bumps on your batter because this will end up as fluffy and light pancakes. The recipes I used is sufficient for 8-10 layers of pancakes, depending on how big the ladle you'll be using.

Building and decorating them is da best part because they're so good looking!

Grab your best plate (I used my bamboo chopping board) and start to stack them. Let one flop on top of the other while you fill each layers with sweet and savory ingredients. I made two stacks, sweet for me and savory for my husband, consisting of things you already have on hand: banana, kiwi, honey, and sprinkle of cinnamon vs grilled cherry tomatoes, mushroom, bacon, sour cream, and mozzarella.

Serve it with your favorite drinks for the beginning of the day and bring it to bed. Five-stars hotel material?

​Say goodbye to old ready-to-use pancake mix!

Love,
​P

Back 3 months ago, I was a disaster in a kitchen. I didn't get along with knives and stove, I cannot differentiate one ingredient with another, I hate doing the dishes -- basically, I was allergic to the name of cooking.

Except for pasta. Pasta and I are met for a reason, for all I know. Pasta is life.

Anyway, I created this post to explain that I am not a good cook. Not yet, I'm just being a wife who decided to please my husband's tummy with food from our home (or, my main reason is because I'm falling in love with my very first kitchen. Kitchen of my own, yas!) and we are happen to love groceries shopping. So, clearly I need to make use of my raw ingredients before they gone bad (and also to make use of my blogging camera).

But I love cooking now! I love being in the kitchen, browse the fridge, using my trustee groceries shopping app, and mix things. Weird, my family insisted it is a miracle! It's always surprising to me too whenever I produce a proper dish outta my kitchen, but one said cooking has no limit. You can always experiment with things and create something even better!

Now that sounds like makeup artistry... Ah, no wonder I'm in love.

Love,
P

Photo credits to Matthew Pilachowski on Unsplash.com

My husband and I could leave the house at 5 AM and had a long day, so this dish will come handy for many of our late dinners.

I love salad. I love salad so much I can toss any veggie and dressing I have at the fridge and call it a salad. It's refreshing, it's healthy, it's as simple as 1, 2, 3. What I love about it the most is the numerous possibilities it offers -- sky is the limit in salad making.

My favorite combination consist of randoms, but they're good so if you like good random things, you can toss:

1. Potato or pasta: I like either spaghetti, couscous, or fusilli
2. Water or romaine lettuce; well, mainly because they're easy to get. Oh, plus tomatoes, tomatoes are nice
3. Any protein that I have in hand: grilled beef or chicken, tuna, sausage, bacon, or egg
4. Dairy and dressing. I like to experiment with my dressing, starting from the classic olive oil, honey, and lemon to yogurt or balsamic vinegar. I also love cheese, so it has to be grated and get along with the others
5. Sometimes fruits. Sometimes. Sometimes I let those juicy orange or dragon fruit or kiwi or strawberry steal the show when the combo matches

So good, so easy! Let me know how you love your salad.

Love,
​P