My 2012 Review

31 December 2012: A Time to Look Back December 31st, 2012. Sydney. On my comfy bed. Fingers dancing on Mac's keyboard. Writing a blog post. Waiting for the date in the calendar to change. To a new year: 2013. JANUARY 2012 My first Australia trip. Meeting my soon-to-be husband. FEBERUARY 2012 Start of the Nielsen DA Young Talent project. More going home late. But becoming closer to one of my colleague...

Panda Bread

I finally made a panda bread!!! I feel so bad to my former roomate in Japan, Risi, because I promised her a loooongg time ago that I would make a panda bread for her birthday. It never happened. But, I do really really want to try making one though. Bunbun got me a new mixer and I had to try it out so I chose this panda bread recipe for the try-out. Before making this panda bread, I've seen a...

Crispy Chicken Fingers

After scrambling around the internet for good breaded fried chicken recipe, I was able to come up with my own by mixing and making adjustments to the recipes I found. As a good family friend taught me, "If you find different recipes for a food, make a side-by-side comparison. Find the ingredients that makes the recipes different with one another and then use them all. Those different ingredients...

My Traditional Wedding

As much as I would love to have a modern-muslim wedding, I also wanted a traditional one. Not only the decoration that is fully traditional (by mom's request) which we called gebyok, me and the moms wanted to me to wear the Solo traditional headpiece (kembang goyang) as well. Marriage is only once in a lifetime (aamiin) and when else would you wear this extravagant inherited culture...

Red Velvet Cake

I consider this as my ultimate accomplishment up to date! Why? Because Red Velvet cake is my favorite cake. Before I made this cake, I didn't know that Red Velvet cake is supposed to taste chocolatey because it's basically a chocolate cake with daring red color (from food coloring). All I know is that I fell in love with the velvety red color and heavenly cream cheese white contrast frosting. Ingredients: ...

Scrambled Mixed Fried Noodles+Rice

Had a small amount of leftover noodles & cabbage after making Mie Jawa, so I decided to mix it with leftover rice from before making Mie Jawa (LOL) and cook nasi-mie goreng. The mixed texture of rice and noodles feels unique in the mouth. Ingredients: Leftovers (white rice & noodle) Cabbage 1 stick of carrot, diced 200gr shrimp Sausage, bakso (optional) 2-3 sticks of long green onion 1...

Dealing with Yeast

I always take it easy (or underestimate) when dealing with yeast. I've made some food with yeast back in Indonesia and there's no problem at all. But in a couple of fine moments in Sydney, I failed big time when making my pizza crust! The batter did not rise at all - bantet. It didn't happen only once. It happened twice! I can't accept that, given that I had no problem at all back in Indonesia. So,...

Strawberry Shortcake

Actually, I found this recipe on YouTube from one of my favorite YouTube-r, ochikeron. You can view her video how to make this very easy strawberry shortcake on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE8uha6l32M. Ingredients: Cake: 2 eggs (room temperature) 60 gr sugar 60 gr flour 20 gr melted butter Syrup: 20ml hot water 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar 1 tsp rum (optional) Decoration: Fresh strawberries 300ml...

Freezing Spices

My mom was once a housewife who lived abroad as well. She knows how it feels like living with difficulty to find hometown spices. And now she's transferring her knowledge to her daughter who is living a life that she once had. My freezer is not only filled with meat and frozen treats, but it's also full with frozen spices! Yes, my mom taught me to keep every fresh spices that could dry or rot...

Mie Jawa

Honestly, I'm running out of cooking ideas even though there are still lots of recipes from Bu Sisca's book that I haven't tried! So, I asked my mom for her yummy Mie Jawa recipe. This recipe will be out of my kitchen first thing before the others (which the picture is already uploaded on my Facebook) because my friend from far Makassar had requested it this morning.  Hope you enjoy ya Mbak...

Sambal Ijo

The last time I went to Sydney Paddy's Market, I bought a kilo of green chillies. When I got home, I forgot that I still have 1 container of it in the freezer! I had to get rid of it (read: cook), otherwise my newly bought 2 kilo of chillies (green, red, and very hot) won't fit into the freezer. For your information, I buy meat for 1.5 months stock. So you can imagine how full my freezer is.  I...

Halal-friendly Australia

Today, to my surprise, the chicken salt shaker in Aldi is actually halal! Alhamdulillah. I've been looking so long for chicken seasoning outside Indonesian brand that is halal. I'm happy with my decision to trade down my grocery shopping to Aldi because they provide cheap products and halal cooking ingredients as well. For your information, Aldi...

Mango Platter

November is the season for mangoes in Australia! Yippie! Finally, a fruit that makes me feels at home. About two weeks ago I went to Sydney Paddy's Market on Saturday for the first time. It was a fruits & veggies heaven. They even have those Asian hard-to-find fruits & veggies! I ended up buying so many green and red chillies, very hot red chillies, and 15 sticks of lemongrass. Because mangoes...

My First Photo Competition

Last month, husband and I went to Canberra to see the Floriade and visit some of his friends. Floriade is Australian spring festival that is held in Canberra every year. As you know, spring festival is identical with flower festival. In Floriade you will find beds of tulips and poppies and many other exhibitions. The Commonwealth Park (where the Floriade is held), is not that big compared with Showa...

My First Photo Competition

Last month, husband and I went to Canberra to see the Floriade and visit some of his friends. Floriade is Australian spring festival that is held in Canberra every year. As you know, spring festival is identical with flower festival. In Floriade you will find beds of tulips and poppies and many other exhibitions. The Commonwealth Park (where the Floriade is held), is not that big compared with Showa...

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

When I was about to wash dishes on the other day, I thought of making ice cream out of my frozen strawberries. Since the recipe was quick and easy to make, I decided to go on with it so I can wash the utensils right away. It's more efficient, hehe. Ingredients: 200gr strawberries 2 tbsp of sugar 50 ml thickened cream (or whipping cream) 1 tsp lemon juice How to make: Peel and cut the fruit...

Old-School Baked Potatoes

A while ago I was cooking chicken corn cream soup and was thinking of what carb dish would go great with it. Since I was bored with mashed potato already and thought that making another dish that contains milk would make the whole meal tastes so milky, I thought "why not make baked potato!?" I searched for a recipe in Allrecipes and made some additions to it. Ingredients: Potatoes Olive oil Salt Ground...

Fruit Creme

I had some leftover strawberries and thickened cream after making a strawberry shortcake as a gift for Honey's team leader while we're visiting her. And lots and lots of alhamdulillah, she gave us a lot of navel oranges to bring home! I was like, "No way, there are only 2 of us at home. How are we going to finish this!?!?." Sooo... yeah, as my attempt to finish all the strawberries and cream before...

Homemade Pizza

For the past month I've been craving for pizza several times. At least once in a week, I suppose. The price of eating out in Australia is quite expensive, so I am trying my very best to be able to cook (almost) anything at home to avoid spending. Alhamdulillah I bought a pizza pan a month ago, so I was very excited to make use of it as well! I used a (almost) 5 star recipe from Allrecipes for the...