Banana Attack!!

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.—Brillat-Savarin

I was rummaging through the kitchen when I spied 4 bananas that had somehow eluded my notice when they were optimally yellow and now, they were just 4 sad brown bananas. I thought briefly of chucking them in the trash but the notion quickly discarded by the heavy sensation of guilt that settled upon my shoulders. I was after all, brought up in Asia where it is a SIN to waste food. "Think about all the starving people in Somalia," my mother used to say.

Imagine my horror when I finally met some Somalians in college who turned out to be the biggest food wasters that I had ever met (until I lived in America, that is. Marquette dorm students take the cake). Luckily, these days, she never has to push us to eat. In fact, she's mostly telling me to stop stuffing my face!

So, I decided to make banana bread. I found a bunch of recipes online but alas, a quick survey of my kitchen revealed .....no baking powder, no lemon juice, no walnuts, no mixer and worse....no loaf pan. Somehow, my pan mysteriously vanished.

Anyway, I did the best I could and adapted a recipe that I will share, because the final product turned out awesome. It's simple,quick and does not require a mixer....just needs some elbow grease :) Instead of a loaf pan, I used an 8x8 pyrex pan. I call it the puddingcake because of the resulting dense, creamy and moist texture. Try it out, it's pretty much foolproof.



Banana PuddingCake

Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas
2 handfuls of California raisins, soaked in water or rum
2 heaping tbs of Greek yogurt
3/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
4 oz (1 stick) softened butter
4 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add sugar, butter, vanilla extract and salt. Mix well
4. Beat the eggs in a bowl and set aside.
5. Add half the egg mixture and half the flour, mix well and repeat with remaining ingredients. I used a whisk.
   
6. Stir in the yogurt and raisins and then pour the batter into a well greased and floured 8x8 inch pan.
   
7. Bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the puddingcake.
8. Allow to cool and then dig in.

Personally, I think it would be kick-ass if served a la mode with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Damn, no ice cream!

Arrrrggghhhh!!!!

For the past few days, my photo editor software has been psycho and decides to have an "error" whenever I try to save edited work. Yes, edited photos that I have been working on for 10-30 mins. Isn't that incredibly frustrating? I spend precious time working on my pictures with nothing to show for it. Well, I guess that I'm lucky it didn't wipe out my original photos.

I WAANNNT Photoshop......even if I have no idea how to use it. Camedia Master from Olympus just doesn't cut it anymore and iPhoto is almost identical....except that it has the "retouch" option so I can ch'ng my pimples imperfections away.

Okay...so you get to hear me whine today but have nothing to look at. Sorry :P

Sigh......

The Breakfast of Champions

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.—Brillat-Savarin

Growing up, I have always been lectured about the importance of eating breakfast. It's touted to kick start your body into full gear and feed your brain, so to speak. I remember a teacher in high school rambling on and on about needing to eat breakfast, even going as far as having those who did not confess to eating breakfast that particular morning singled out and ridiculed. Yes, I am talking about Miss Ang.

And speaking of breakfast, nobody does it as well as Malaysian. We are champion breakfast eaters. Where else in the world would you find people who eat everything from nasi lemak (coconut steamed rice with anchovies and boiled egg) to curry noodles to chee cheong fun (steamed rice noodles with fermented shrimp paste, sesame oil and chili paste)?

One of my favorite things to eat for breakkie is Hainanese French Toast with Malaysian Kopi. The sugary sweetness is enough to induce diabetes but it is oh so good....and actually quite okay to eat once in a while.

I like the sweet aroma of Malaysian roasted coffee (with margarine, salt, sugar and sometimes chicory) paired with creamy condensed milk bright and early in the morning. It gives me a reason to get out of bed.

The French Toast was completely soaked through with the egg-milk-sugar mixture and tasted delicious. My only complaint was that the surface was not crispy enough.

Msian coffee+French Toast, by their powers combined=Simply delicioso!

Summer's Over

My mom complained that she is tired of seeing my feet whenever she logs onto my blog. Summer's over and so should the hiatus......but I feel so lazy after NOT blogging for several months. Besides that, I am swamped with work and life while makes it really difficult to find time to sit in front of the computer for hours at a time. Yes, people...it actually takes me hours to compose the post and then edit the pictures. Now try doing that after 10 brutal hours at the ER, being abused by screaming patients...you get the picture.

Yet, I love my blog too much to just let it rot. So, my solution is to make a little compromise. I will continue to write mostly about food and I will include interesting things that I come across during my daily life and travels. Of course, you get to hear my rants as well :)

This way, I can continue to keep updating my blog more frequently and you get to hear all about my life. You have been warned!