Olivia's Kitchen

Some nights , i’d like to cook something that is easy and healthy still . Well .. most of the nights i actually would prefer to cook something easy and quick anyway . Less dishes to do , and ready within 30 minutes or so . You know how good chili usually takes hours for the flavor to blend in . People would say you cannot make a good bowl of chili if you don’t let the flavor blends in . Well .. in my opinion , this quick and easy beef chili , doesn’t need hours for the flavor to blend in . Better yet , it is healthier…

I looked at my fridge the other day and i saw this big ziploc bag that has leftovers levain from last week when i made sourdough bread . I don’t really like wasting food , and especially during this time when it is so hard to find flour anyway . And obviously i had made too much levain , i’d normally use this to make pizza . But we did too much cooking and baking the past couple weeks and pizza into the diet is just not a good idea at the moment . view full post »

My previous entry was about ‘ not your regular peanut butter cookie ” . In my attempt to make peanut butter cookie slightly healthier so that we all can be happy and able eat 2-3 cookies at once , i replaced peanut butter with tahini . Tahini is  sesame paste , it comes in a jar , the regular grocery store probably carry it these days , long ago  I had to get it from middle eastern grocery store . But i saw it at Kroger not too long ago . I use this usually to make hummus . view full post »

I don’t know about you but i love peanut butter ! I can eat peanut butter and banana sandwich every single day . That’s like a treat to me ! view full post »

Seriously , i think i need to mute some the groups i joined in . All these food related groups i belong to , i will start muting them this week . It’s only 2nd week of May and i think i have baked sourdough 3 times already . Yes i did an entry on sourdough few days ago , with higher hydration and using turmeric , The yellow sourdough .. view full post »

What is actually Nastar ? My American friends would wonder what is it ? They took a look at it and took a bite , all of them said it looks great , cute and petite and oh so yummy , mouth watering little cookies . Well , Nastar is Ananas Tarts . Ananas , i think is French for Pineapple . Indonesian calls it Nanas . Hence the word Nastar ( Ananas Tart ) Over 3 centuries Indonesia was occupied by the Dutch , and there were so many influenced over the 300 years in everything , including food and baked goods . view full post »

I swear ever since we have to quarantine ourselves back in March , I’ve baked more sourdough bread in two months than i would have in a year ! I looked at my pictures collection and last year i only baked either 2 or 3 times in a year for sourdough bread , and the same with previous year . Don’t ask how many times i did during the first year after i created the starter . But these past 8 weeks , I’ve baked 4 sourdough boules ! view full post »

Last week i bought this nice size pineapple . I thought it was pretty good deal , $2 for one pineapple . I had pineapple tart in mind actually , that’s why when i was shopping , i paid extra attention if they had some pineapple . They did , they’re pretty cheap actually , . They were all still greens , there were no ripe pineapple , but that’s okay . Figured i was in no hurry , and it can ripe when it wants to . view full post »

Years and years ago my mom used to make this cake . I was young at the time but i remember it was actually recipe she got from my sister . My sister is 17 years older than me , and she’s a pastry chef , hence , the recipe my mom got from my sister . view full post »

Last week I posted recipe for the lemon Strawberry Banana loaf , that was really easy and yummy . view full post »