Spice things up!

Living abroad meaning adjusting yourself to local dishes. Growing up in Indonesia where my "pallette" accustomed to tasty, spicy and hot dishes -- my culinary experience in Florida where I live now hasn't been enjoyable at all. The food here is a bit too plain for my taste. Therefore, I always carry with me a mini jar of chili powder in my purse everytime we go eat out in any restaurant (shame on me...I know). I just need the taste to be kicked up a notch (as Emeril would scream out loud).

Now that all chili powder I bought from home in Indonesia has gone and I haven't got a chance to go back home to stock more (and I can't find it either in local oriental market here in Florida), I have to come up with other alternative. So then, my darling thoughtful hubby found the way. He grew (yes he literally starts the process from scratch) chili peppers trees (include cayenne, jalapeno, habanero) in our mini garden, then when time comes for us to harvest the chilis, we dry the chili using our handy dandy electric fryer and grind them with our handy dandy spice mixer and ta-da...voila I have a jar full of chili powder that is so HOT could last for a long time... :))