First Wedding Anniversary!!!

Our 1st wedding anniversarywas on Nov 5th,a slight difference from the normal days.After a long time,i wore saree and went to temple.I want to begin the day with some sweet,how about a Pineapple Upside down cake.I saw many of these in blogsphere,especially inspiried by Mansi's mini ones.I havent baked cake before,so beginned with this fruit cake in my own style.

Pineapple Upside down Cake

Ingredients..
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar/granulated regular sugar
1 can (8 ounces) pineapple round slices, drained, reserve juice
1 quick cake mix ,i used Super moist Butter yellow mix
3eggs
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup veg oil
Method..

Melt 1/3 cup butter,sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter ,pour evenly into the cake pan. Arrange pineapple slices over sugar.u can place cherries or pecans to make the cake more decorative in the middle of pineapple slices.In a large mixing bowl, beat cake mix,eggs,veg oil for low speed for 30 sec. Stir in 1/3 cup pineapple juice , water if needed slowly for 3 min. Mix well and pour into cake pan over pineapple slices. Bake in pre-heated 350° oven about 30-35 minutes.Allow it to rest in the pan,after cooling completely,invert it upside down to a serving plate.

Paruppu Payasam (Moongdal Payasam)
I also made pradhaman,without payasam what celebration....I remember ,grandma used to make this for every year on onam,coz grandpa like to have this payasam with banana along with kerala traditional sadya...i love the taste of dal and jaggery combo.Thought that this will be a flop,coz i'm not that good in making desserts with jaggery.In kerala ,we call this as 'Parippu Pradhaman'.Parippu Pradhamans are of two types, Pradhamans using only parippu(dal) or a combination of parippu and rice. Both Bengal gram dal and moong dal are used in preparing pradhaman.Here i tried only moong dal.This was my first attempt in making pradhaman,very happy that it came well,so simple and delicious dessert...

Ingredients..
Moong dal/Cheru payar parippu 1 cup
Jaggery 1 1/4 cup(more or less can be used depending on how much sweet u need)
Thick milk 1 3/4 cup (coconut milk can be used )
Grated coconut 1/4cup (chopped dry coconut /copra can be used)
Cardamom pwd 1/2pod
Cashewnuts 8
Raisins 8
Ghee 1 tbsp
Water to pressure cook dal 2 cups
Water to prepare jaggery syrup 1 1/2cup
Method..
Heat ghee in a thick pan,roast cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown,keep aside.In the same pan,roast moong dal for 5 min or so,till a nice aroma comes.Moong dal has a nice flavour.Remove from the pan,cook dal in apressure cooker for 3 whistles,dal should be soft .Once cooked,mash the dal .Don't mash into fine paste.In the same pan,melt jaggery with water.Strain to remove impurities if any.Again boil jaggery syrup,add cooked dal.Boil till for few min.Now add grated coconut and milk to the above,go on stirring in low flame till its blended.Add cardamom powder,roasted cashew and raisins.Serve hot or chilled.