Carrot cake: a complete food.

My grandmother's motto was "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand." My mother's motto is slightly different: "Carrot cake is a complete food." I have to agree with my mom, here (although my grandma makes perfect sense...); carrot cake has everything you could possibly need, especially the way we make it. We subscribe to the "more is better" attitude when it comes to carrot cake. First of all, it should have so many carrots in it that it hardly holds together. Then, it's not proper carrot cake without raisins and nuts, and possibly coconut and pineapple as well. Slather it with a thick layer of cream cheese icing. And now you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: protein, fruit, veggies, grains...

My mom hadn't had a proper carrot cake in awhile, and I've been meaning to find a good recipe. My friend Isabelle pointed me in the direction of King Arthur Flour's recipes (I actually have one of their cookbooks, and I've been ordering stuff from them for years, but never noticed the "guaranteed recipes" that they have on their web site.) Well, her birthday was last week, and we had just the opportunity we needed!

We started with this lovely recipe. Of course, we had to fiddle with it a bit (I had to get that habit from somewhere...). In this case, we used drained canned pineapple instead of dried, 1/2 a cup of golden raisins that had been soaking in rum (I believe my mom put the raisins to soak as we were assembling, and then drained them and added them to the carrot mixture, but I have to defer to her on this one - mom?), and a handful of crystallized ginger, chopped, also added to the carrot mixture.

Oh, yum! This cake is beautiful. And yummy. I could seriously live on this cake alone. And so could my mom. After all, it has everything you need! Picky, of course, liked the frosting the best, and could have done without the nuts. She still ate it, I noticed (although she kept asking for more frosting, but who could blame her?).

ZOMBIE sugar cookies

I had some sugar cookie dough in the freezer, left over from the holidays. I forget why we decided to make zombie cookies out of them, but there it is.

Daddy and Picky had tons of fun decorating the "zombies" (some of them are zombie butterflies...) with sprinkles and royal icing.

I tried to make sinister colors, but really they came out super-pink and a pleasant green color. Daddy still managed to make the cookies look creepy somehow, and Picky was right behind him.
 

Easy-peasy bread puddin'

Well, this little gem is everything I like in a recipe: easy, easy, and very kid-friendly. When I said "bread pudding" to Picky, of course she was instantly suspicious. But when I mentioned chocolate chips, I had her attention! I've never heard of making bread pudding in the microwave, but it worked like a charm! I put one tablespoon of white chocolate chips, and one of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. The total time in my microwave was 4 minutes. I'm pretty sure this recipe showed up on Facebook because I'm a fan of King Arthur Flour, and I tried it within the hour (why not? I was at home with a sick kid today anyway...). Go here to get the recipe. 

Picky insisted I take a picture of her posing with the pudding. And, of course, she loved it.

Plum crisp

I admit, when my husband is out of town, I rarely cook. I used to try, just to keep meal times normal for my daughter - but it was usually a study in frustration. I mean, who wants to spend an hour in the kitchen making a full, healthy dinner, only to have the only other diner refuse to eat? Although that didn't always happen, it happened enough that I learned my lesson. Now it's all about quick food, and I don't even try to make the same thing for her as I do for myself. I make myself a nice big fresh salad with all the trimmings, and I make her something that I'm fairly sure she will like. I mean, I could put some salad in front of her, but I already know what will happen (she won't even eat with it on her plate), so what would be the point? I always offer her a bite of mine, and she always refuses. Tonight was such a night - and I'm sure glad I didn't spend a bunch of time trying out a new recipe or making a casserole, because she didn't even touch her grilled cheese sandwich. Or mango. Or tomato soup. In fact, I'm pretty sure she didn't eat anything. I'm not completely sure, because I was too busy enjoying my beautiful salad - a nice organic salad mix, avocado, apricots, feta cheese, teriyaki tofu - and a yummy home made simple salad dressing made with Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (which is, I think, the key ingredient...) MMMMmmmmm. And after, I enjoyed some plum crisp, made with plums from my friends backyard. Picky didn't even go for this - something in the air? I hope she's not getting sick...



My favorite crisp recipe at the moment is from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I don't really follow a recipe for the fruit - you need about 3 lbs or 6 cups of fruit, and the amount of sugar varies with the sweetness of the fruit. For apples, I add a squeeze of lemon, 2 tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon. For other fruits, I just add sugar, between 2 tbsp and 1/2 cup, to taste. I've tried adding either flour or corn starch as a thickener for fruit other than apples (which don't seem to need it) - I tried 2 tbsp corn starch tonight, but it was a little weirdly creamy - I think I prefer it runny, honestly. Perhaps I'll try instant tapioca, I think they use that in pie recipes sometimes. Anyway, the recipe is really the topping:

Crisp Topping

• 6 Tbsp canola oil (you can use butter - I find oil easier to work with)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats or chopped nuts (I almost always use oats, although almonds would also be good)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon, optional

You can also use a nut oil, such as walnut or hazelnut, for some or all of the oil - I haven't tried this, but it sounds good, especially if you're using nuts instead of oats. Anyway, all you have to do is combine the ingredients (if you're using butter, use your fingers to work the butter with the rest of the ingredients so that each piece is coated and you have a coarse, crumbly mixture). Spread the topping over a shallow gratin dish with your fruit mixture. Put the gratin dish on a cookie sheet (unless you just love to clean your oven), and put it in a preheated 375 degree oven. The recipe says 1 hour, 10 minutes, but I've always found 1 hour to be plenty. Plus, I usually have to loosly cover the dish with tinfoil about half way through or else the oats start to burn.



Although Picky didn't eat any of my plum crisp tonight, I know she'll enjoy some in the morning. I always eat a generous scoop with (plain) yogurt. Picky prefers the crisp alone, and likes the topping more than the filling (naturally). I think we enjoy it for breakfast more than dessert.


Tip: try combining fruits, or adding dried fruit. I put a handful of dried cranberries in tonights crisp - last week I made a delicious crisp with a little of everything from my CSA box: apricots, peaches, plums, and a can of blackberries that I had gathering dust in my pantry. oh yummy! My apple trees are promising many versions of apple crisp this fall! :)

Mango-banana "ice-cream"

Well, it has definitely been too hot to cook around here! We've been camping out in our basement, eating picnic food on a towel spread out on the blow-up mattress that we've also been sleeping on. It's times like this I'm glad I finally broke down and bought an ice-cream maker this year! I wanted to make my own frozen yogurts (with my own home-made yogurt) that are lower in sugar and have fewer ingredients than store-bought. Of course, you don't really need an ice-cream maker to make your own frozen yogurt or ice-cream - but it does simplify things, and makes a nice creamy blend (in much less time). If you want something firm enough for cones, however, you have to take the dessert out of your maker and put it into a container and the freezer for a bit, to firm it up. It comes out of the maker looking more like soft-serve - perfect in a bowl with a little granola sprinkled on top!
This recipe is great - and you could easily use it for smoothies or smoothie pops as well, although it makes a larger amount than I would normally make for that - perhaps for a brunch or a preschool snack. I got this from Kids' fun & healthy cookbook by Nicola Graimes:

• 2 medium ripe mangoes (I used about 2 cups of frozen cubed mango)
• 2 medium bananas
• 2 cups yogurt (thick works best, but it doesn't have to be Greek style)
• 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
• squeeze of lemon

Cut the bananas and mangoes into chunks and mix with the other ingredients. You could blend it together in a blender, or use an imersion blender, until it is a thick and creamy mixture (if you have a child like mine, you may want to be sure there are no chunks...). If you have an ice-cream maker, you can proceed according to the directions on your machine: I poured the mixture into the spout and watched until it looked like soft-serve (5-10 minutes), and then I transferred it into a container and put it in the freezer to firm up - although that didn't last long, and we ended up scooping the semi-soft mixture into our ice cream cones anyway. If you don't have an ice cream machine, put the mixture in a shallow container with a lid and freeze it. After 2-3 hours, whisk the mixture with a fork and put it back in the freezer for another 3 hours and mix it again. Yummy!