Eggplant Brownie - Guilt Free Pleasure

Sneaky sneaky...that's what I thought of this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop : Cake and 3 vegetables.  The only vegetables I know used regularly in desserts are pumpkin, carrots and maybe a sweet potato or two.  Hmm... perhaps something a little more challenging?  How about eggplant?  And no butter or shortening of any kind?  Flourless?

Old Fashioned Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

There's something very old-fashioned about fruity cakes, and the pineapple-upside-down cake is no exception.  It has been quite a while since I saw an upside-down-cake.  Remember those pineapple rings studded with the red maraschino cherries?  Throwback to the eighties where watermelon baskets and pineapple porcupines were the rage back then and every Tupperware party had one or both.  Ouch, that was a painful statement to make - actually confessing to growing up in the '80s...

Kaya Bread

The 1st Bread-Bake-Out was a humongous success and hopefully inspired some more bread making amongst the Singletons.  We were still pretty divided over bread-machines and elbow grease, but that's ok.  And that's the beauty of bread-making.  You can choose either and it doesn't need much TLC.  As we are all busy multi-tasking career-women, something that Monster Mom said during our 1st Bread-Bake-Out made me think of this. 

My Mother's Homemade Kaya

My mother's kaya is something that I grew up with.  Kaya slathered thickly over buttered bread for our morning breakfast.  She's made these regularly through the years, and I still remember how she would keep the eggshells for us to draw cartoon faces on.  This was the easiest way to get almost-whole eggshells as she could make a small hole on the base and let the eggs flow out slowly for the kaya.  That's why we looked forward to kaya making days.  Eggshell faces...Simple pleasures.

Fluffy Pancakes

Ever since I sunk my teeth into my first McDonald's Hot Cakes,  I've been hooked on what I term American-style pancakes.  Thick and fluffy with a hint of vanilla, served with salted butter and drenched in golden maple syrup.  All that sweet salty flavours combined together to make a truly indulgent breakfast.

Arugula Corn Pasta Salad with Lemon Dressing

When we do one of our jaunts down to Singapore, pizza at Peperoni Pizzeria is always a must-have.  The pizzas there are the thin-crust type which I prefer, and they even have a humongous 21 inch "family size".  Big Dog's fond wish is to one day be able to order the family size.  *glutton*.  One of our favourite pizza toppings is prosciutto topped with a simple arugula salad.  It always felt healthier especially when we usually over-indulge whilst on holidays.  Haha.  Healthy pizza is oxy-moronic, don't you think so?

Merdeka Day and Teh Tarik

31 Aug 1957

Happy Merdeka Day to all Malaysians here and abroad.  Today marks our 55th year of independence from British colonial rule.  My feelings about Merdeka Day and its associations run the gamut, from apathy to optimism.  As a child, Merdeka Day meant 'yay-it's a holiday-no school-so yippeeyay'.  As a student abroad, Merdeka Day was just another day in the calendar marked in the Overseas Students' Union (if we bothered to look).  Now back in Malaysia after living abroad for some years, it reminds me that I live in a wonderful country.  Wonderful, yes.  Perfect, no.