Ponderings on a Gorgeous Dress

I was watching a Netflix rental, "An Education," the other night and actually had to pause the movie and take a picture of this dress because I loved it so much. The movie was set in the '60s and the characters always got dressed up to go out to a show or party or a nightclub. I don't have any complaints about wearing my favorite pair of jeans wherever I want, but how come we stopped wearing fancy dresses and "dressing up" to go out? I saw a news story yesterday about a restaurant in Darwin, Australia, that is going to charge every patron wearing flip-flips $10. Apparently Dawin is considered the most laid-back city in Australia and the restaurant owner wants to change that image and "class up" his town. I LOVELOVELOVE wearing flip-flops, but in a way I can see where he's coming from. It seems like our clothes have gotten more and more casual (sloppy?) as the decades have gone by; a "casual" outfit in the '50s or '60s is miles different from the "casual" outfit of today, which might consist of some yoga pants, a t-shirt and flip-flops. Is this a bad thing? I'm not sure. But I AM sure that I love this dress!


And here's an adorable picture of Conan. You can see that we got new pillows for the sofa and loveseat. I wonder how long it'll be before these are covered in dog fur? Conan is so funny, the way he lays on pillows like a person would. I think it's a boxer thing. Or maybe boxer parents are just more likely to let their furry children up on the furniture...

The Mouthwatering Confection Known As Malasadas

Last night we made a very fortuitous drive down to Old Navy in Waikele to return something and sampled a delicious Hawaiian treat. Old Navy is in a fairly large shopping center and in the parking lot sat a Leonard's Bakery trailer selling "hot malasadas." I'd heard about malasadas on the news, and on Fat Tuesday the news crews were all at Leonard's Bakery in downtown Honolulu because that's the day everyone goes and buys malasadas. Apparently Leonard's Bakery is famous for its malasadas, and now I know why. They're served piping hot, and the top layer is sugar-coated, paper-thin and amazingly crisp. Ensconed inside is a yeasty, puffy dough that almost melted in my mouth. These. Were. SO. Good! The taste kind of reminded me of a funnel cake, except 1 million times better. We bought half a dozen and brought them home for later. Luckily we ate plenty on the way home, so they were still hot and fresh and perfect. At home, they were still good but the fried layer on the outside hat lost a bit of its crispiness. I think next time we'll just get one each and savor it in the car.

Unfilled with a dusting of white sugar is the "original," but there were a several different flavors to choose from -- you could get them filled with chocolate, custard or haupia (coconut pudding), which is what we decided to get, but unfortunately they were sold out. They also come dusted cinnamon sugar or li hing mui sugar, which is a tart-sweet Chinese plum sugar. I think the actual Leonard's Bakery (as opposed to the traveling trailer) offers even more of a selection. For better (more moutwatering) pictures and a history of how malasadas (which originated in Portugual) came to be popular in Hawaii, go to to http://www.leonardshawaii.com/index.html