Category Archives: Recipes

I go through phases on Planet Carbohydrate. Sourdough, popping in a frozen roll for dinner on the quick…. maybe even a good ole’ biscuit. What’s not to love with a biscuit? Really.  But a muffin. A great muffin recipe that goes together fast, can become a million different delicious bready goodness items…. can’t beat it.  I’ve been on a muffin kick lately. I love the basic muffin recipe with a big handful of cheddar and green chili’s tossed in, or cheese and garlic or even a spoonful of yummy jelly buried in the soft warm center. But plain, yes plain— they came unadorned to my table and I was smitten by their simple goodness. A pat of butter and a sigh.

Everytime I bake a muffin I hear my high school Home Ec teachers admonition to stir gently so it almost looks unmixed. Otherwise you get a pointy cone-head muffin with tunnels. Can’t have that!

Go on, make some. You know you want to!

Basic Muffin Goodness

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I love White Lily flour)
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder, rounded (that is a nice generous spoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk  (or milk you’ve ‘soured’ with vinegar)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 1/4 butter, melted

In whatever method suits you, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.  Mix up the milk and eggs with the melted butter, give it a nice stir because it won’t get a huge mix up later. Now add the dry ingredients at one time. Using a folding motion, mix the wet and dry ingredients. DO NOT OVERMIX.There are lumps and bumps galore, ignore them. Grease muffin tins or give a light spray to pretty muffin papers. Fill the muffin batter about 2/3 full and bake in a preheated 425 oven for about 22-25 minutes. They should be a soft golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 12 (ish).

Find other goodies to add and make yummy muffin lovely combinations.

I’m not a vegetarian although I was many years ago. I have no doubt that I would have been a better vegetarian if the fantastic foods that are available now were also available then. Not so much. Regardless, I do try to go meatless several times a week and having a big pot of vegetable soup is a favorite standby. Recently I found a recipe from Lisa Lillien for a root vegetable soup and it was pretty good. I couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to mess with it a little bit and add curry, a much loved flavor profile.

Give it a try, you’ll love it!

Curried Root Vegetable Soup

• 4 cups of butternut squash soup, organic/natural
• 1 cup water
• 1 large onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbs. curry powder (or to taste)
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne
• 1 cup of carrots chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed
• 1 cup of cauliflower, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup of turnip, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 tbs. olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a pan and tumble in the onion. Cook on medium, giving a stir to get the onion into the oil. Let it cook away for ten minutes or so until it begins to get nice and caramelized and stir often. Add the carrots and cook another 5 minutes then add the cauliflower and the turnip and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, they will just begin to soften up.

Add the butternut squash soup, the water, the beans, curry powder, cayenne and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer together about 15-20 minutes until everything is tender and mellow. Taste and adjust the curry and heat to your taste.

Delicious! It reheats beautifully and is actually even more yummy the second day.

Serves 4-6

When I was in Minneapolis-St. Paul last Sunday my dear friend Mickey picked me up  and we went out for brunch. The best thing was catching up and laughing but a close second was Jensen’s. What a great day to remember my love of many things Swedish (I was in Minnesota after all)— and especially Swedish Pancakes. Jensen’s serves ‘em up by the gazillion and they come with a side of their syrup which is a mapley buttery sugary confection of supreme delight. I knew that it was imperative to polish up my Swedish pancake skills.

Right now I’m sick to bits of Swedish pancakes, now called Swedish Contessacakes because I can. I made them and made them and made them and think that I can safely pass along a recipe to die for. Really.

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To replicate my recipe you will need:

• a large cast iron skillet, well seasoned
• paper towel and oil to gently wipe the skillet
• and 24 hours to make the batter.

Swedish Contessacake Batter:

Beat 4 eggs oh so gently in a medium bowl with a whisk. Add 4 cups of milk (I used 2%) and whisk together. In a separate bowl sift together 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour 1/2 cup of sugar as well as 1/4 tsp. of salt and add that into your wet ingredients whisking all the time until you’ve made a smooth batter. Melt 1 stick of butter and whisk that in at the end. Cover this and refrigerate 24 hours (overnight is fine). The batter can last 2 days refrigerated— it makes quite a bit!

When you’re ready to make these super thin pancakes (after they’ve rested) ADD 3 tablespoons of flour to the batter. Sounds weird but trust me it makes a difference. Whisk that “fresh flour” into the batter.

Heat your cast iron pan SCREAMIN’ hot. Wipe the skillet with a little bit of canola oil. Add 1/4 cup of the batter to the center and “swirl” a bit (you may need hot pads for your hands) to make a thin pancake. Thin is the deal for this recipe. You might want to make a few 6 inch (or so) diameter pancakes until you’re sure that the pan is ready to go and you’ve got the method down. I don’t know why it is but the first few just aren’t quite perfect. You want to flip the pancakes when the underneath is beginning to brown and the edges are dry and beginning to crisp. Flipping them is an art form but you’ll get it. Get the spatula into the center of the pancake and flip carefully, I use my fingers to get it going. When you  get it down, you may want to make skillet sized pancakes, it takes about 1/2 cup of the batter and you swirl the pan to get a thin pancake that is spread evenly over the surface. A larger or smaller skillet will require different amounts of batter.

Serve them immediately or keep in a low oven to wait for you to cook more.  Traditionally they’re served with lingonberries and sour cream, I like them that way but prefer my take on Jensens syrup.

Like Jensen’s Maple Butter Syrup

in a saucepan combine

• 3/4 cups of loosely packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cups maple syrup
• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Get it all loosey goosey in the pan, bring it to a gentle bubble but don’t boil it hard. When it has combined and the sugar has dissolved nicely you can take it off the heat and keep warm until serving.

It’s common for those that fancy these pancakes to have lingonberries and syrup, I call that gilding the lily!

Give these super delicious pancakes a try, if you’re made to feel particularly Minnesotan you might just say Uff Da!

When I wished fellow knitter Silvana a happy birthday on Wednesday via email as I was unable to knit with the group, she mentioned that she was laying in some things that made her happy. (All birthday peeps should do this of course!!!) One of the things she mentioned that she was unable to find was Beet Pickled Eggs. Really I thought, beet picked eggs. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that a. I must make her some and b. these damn things must be pretty good! To be included on a must have to properly celebrate my birthday list—- well that is beyond high praise.

So I made some. Easy enough with ingredients on hand. *Yes, I do keep a jar of beets on hand*. The color of the eggs is GORGEOUS, even if you didn’t eat them they’d be a happy inclusion to any table. But the taste? Well, they are pretty outrageously good if I do say so and I’m happy to have “found” them. They’re so good and so pretty, I will be putting some out beside the traditional deviled eggs this Easter Sunday!!! I’ve given the recipe below should you be so inclined (and you should be!)

Beet pickled eggs

• 8 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can sliced beets with liquid– not the kind that say “pickled”
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional) (I used a bare pinch)

Hard Boil the eggs using your preferred method. The argument about how to cook a hard boiled egg rages on. I don’t mean to get involved but I place eggs in a pan with enough water to cover. Bring ‘em to a boil and reduce to simmer, cover the pan. After 12 minutes, pour off the boiling water and run cold water over for a fair bit. Then peel the eggs and put them in a glass or plastic container.
Then, in a smallish saucepan, combine  the beets and all of the liquid in the jar (or can), the  vinegar, superfine sugar (which dissolves faster. If you have regular, so be it) the water and cinnamon if you’re using it.Boil it up and give it a go until the sugar dissolves, which really doesn’t take very long. Pour over the eggs and roll ‘em around a little bit so the color is more even. When not crazy hot, place in the fridge. They need at least four hours but I think overnight is fabulous.  Slice and serve—

This whole beet pickled egg thing caused me to wonder if they might be a nice addition to my version of “the best salad I’ve ever had in my entire life”, which I make often. The short answer is yes. HEAVEN.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good, and PRETTY too! Lettuce, dried cranberries, golden raisins, a little bit of cheese, blue cheese dressing, croutons (home made is best but I resorted to bagged today), and sliced beet pickled eggs. Top that with a nice handful of some brown sugared (with a pinch of cayenne) pecans and it is about as good as it gets. I love to add chopped dates too but upon inspection mine had become mummified blobs and I had to soldier on without them!

So—- it wasn’t even my birthday and I got the present of discovery. Beet Pickled Eggs—- you’re mine forever!

Since my knitting seems to be, well– a bit “off” these days, maybe I’ll cook. I’ve been cooking a lot lately, I do work out a lot of stuff in the kitchen. One of the things that seems to have really peaked is my pie crust, good news/bad news. Good news in that I finally GOT it, bad news in that I’m afraid there will be more pies coming out of the kitchen. Last night this pie made its debut along with a giant wok full of fried rice with bok choy, tofu and radishes. The radishes sound like an odd addition but they were pretty darned good.

I FINALLY made knitting with the group last night—- which was lovely. And since all knitting is made of frustrating stuff what else to do but start a new project which is frought with frustrating elements of its own. The Magnified Lace Scarf from Lion Brand, a free pattern. I saw this simple piece styled with a pair of jeggings, a white shirt and wide belt and it looked fabulous. I immediately thought of my oldest daughter and what a great gift it would make. Mind you, while I played with gauge and resulting fabric from the heavily acrylic yarn (my daughter doesn’t care well for garments), those at knit group reminded me that the fabulous Emily just completed a gorgeous shawl knit from high quality spiderweb and teensy needles in a complex lace pattern. In a foreign language. Ahem. This is a simple lace, knit on needles so large they’re like broomsticks (which do have their own inherent problems) and tripled bulky yarn. We shall see. Two repeats in I’m not sure, just not sure. My yarn is a rich jewel toned teal.

Well it is a long weekend coming up, right? What better way to enjoy a long weekend with something from the kitchen that shouts to the world what a great catch you are! Pie! Pie? Not just any pie mind you but a rich yet fluffy slice of chocolate heaven. Pair it with takeout pizza or bbq if you must but let there be the labor of pie. Personally I believe that if you make something fabulous they’ll leave you alone to be creative for a bit……. I could be wrong.

Chocolate Heaven Fluff Pie

1 baked pie shell (from scratch is lovely, I mean don’t be lazy!)

¾ cup sugar + 2 Tbs.

¼ cup cornstarch

½ cup heavy cream

2 cups milk (you can use any kind but you’ve gone this far, use whole)

¼ cup dark cocoa

2 Tbs. butter

4 egg yolks, beaten gently

2 Tsp. good quality vanilla

1 cup mini marshmallows

With the pie shell cooling (because you did make it from scratch, right?) prepare the filling. Tumble together all of the dry ingredients and whisk up. Slowly add the cream and stir, add the milk and heat over a medium heat. You can use a double boiler if you like but whatever you do stir constantly. When the liquid begins to steam, add a bit slowly to the beaten yolks and stir up, then remove them back to the mixture on the stove. Continue stirring, add the butter. The filling will go to a stage where it looks kind of lumpy or grainy, keep stirring. When the mixture reaches a bubble, turn off the heat, add the vanilla and the marshmallows and stir off the heat. When the filling has incorporated all of the marshmallows, take a taste. (You know you want to!)

Place the chocolate fluff filling into a totally cooled pie shell and place a sheet of plastic cling over the top to keep a skin from forming.

In the “old days” I’d make a nice meringue for the top but the state of chickens and raw eggy-ness has made me either leave things plain, or add a whipped cream topping if necessary. Luckily this pie is creamy and dreamy enough to need neither unless you just want to take it entirely over the top. It is of course up to you!

Cool the pie at least 4 hours.

Enjoy——-

I love to cook, really and truly. Right now life is beyond madness with a move in a couple of weeks and a business to run. (And chickens to knit). I can get by on fast food, ordered in food, or always the oh so delightful food from the yummy case at W*hole F*oods but for just so long. When I need real food, home cookin’, and a little on the plate love I turn to my slow cooker. That and my pressure cooker are my go to’s when it comes to great food fast.

So………….. I was in the mood for comfort food, short ribs were going to fill the bill.

Slow Cooker Short Ribs

• “Long” short ribs, boneless (I get mine at C*ostco where they are gorgeous, almost looking like strip steaks) I used 3 big ones to serve 2 (twice). The leftovers are awesome.
  
  
• 2 large sweet onions, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 bottle of beer (I happened to have Fat Tire)
• 1 cup white wine (I had an open bottle of a nice Pinot Grigio)
  
  
• 1 tbs. Dijon mustard
• 1 tbs. Maille Mustard (or any coarse grainy mustard)
  
  
• 2 tbs. Worcestershire
• 1 tbs. dark brown sugar
  
  

Dredge in seasoned flour (flour, salt, pepper, a bit of garlic powder) and brown all sides for a couple of minutes.

Lay the sliced onions on the bottom of the crock pot and place the browned ribs on top.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, add beer, mustard and brown sugar

Pour over the short ribs.

Cover and slow cook for 8-10 hours on low. (low on some crock pots is somehow different than low on others. Do not ask me why this is, I just know it is true!) It seems as a rule of thumb if you have a large crock pot where the short ribs can be in a single layer that less time is required. Also, the more ribs you have the longer it takes.

The browned short ribs sitting on top of the onion bed with the liquid poured over.

And the finished product, sliced and topped with the oniony sauce, sitting next to a serving of scalloped potatoes. Served with a nice green salad it is indeed comfort food heaven!

Knitly, the chicken is progressing happily. The base is done and an inch or so is traveling up her little chicken sides. The cabled cardi is not. ’nuff said.

No, I most assuredly did not place Cable Luxe into the waffle iron—— although its’ recent state of languish needs a shake up of some sort.

All promises of a sunny morning flew right out the window at first light—– more rain today and it won’t wait for the afternoon. Walking shoes will have to wait, I’m disappointed so what to do????? I know—— Waffles! I haven’t made belgian waffles in forever!

Check out that rather nasty waffle iron. My ex, Mr. Snarky withheld or destroyed a LOT, but apparently deemed this waffle iron fit to come live with me. She isn’t very pretty but can turn out a nice product. It looks especially appealing overflowing with batter. Ack. A new recipe uses buttermilk (which I did not have and had to substitute vinegar soured milk) and baking soda along with baking powder to leaven the waffles. I guess I’m not only out of waffle practice but didn’t count on the new recipe to have quite as much lift as it did………………… like molten lava over the edge it was!

Waiting on a sprinkline of berries or a puddle of syrup………………………. waffles on a weekday, a bit of a splurge!

Wonder Waffles

1 3/4 cups buttermilk (If you are like me and don’t keep buttermilk, use 2 tbs. vinegar in your milk and let it sit a couple of minutes)
2 extra large eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil (I know, it does sound awful but just take the plunge)
1 tsp. good quality vanilla

1 ‘full’ tbs. sugar and a big squeeze of honey (another tbs. give or take)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
just shy of 1 tbs. baking powder
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt

Mix the wet ingredients well and add the dry ingredients that have been stirred together. Mix just until combined.

Let the batter rest for about 5 minutes, preheat the waffle iron.

Use cooking spray to spritz a hot waffle iron and add batter per your irons requirements. *This batter has a lot of oooomph to it because of the double leaveners.

Cook in the waffle iron until nicely browned. Serve with berries or syrup. Yum!

Now………. speaking of Cable Luxe, I have actually taken it OUT of hibernation!!!!! I’m pretty tickled to tell the truth! The first sleeve is an inch from being done, a mere inch. I’ve promised myself no new ‘big’ projects until I finish Cable Luxe and Twilight.

It had been awhile since Cable Luxe has seen the light of day! She’s been napping in the fabulous Japanese print bag, too long if the truth be told. It took a few minutes last night to get back into the zone with this sweater, a couple shakes to remember that I’m not using the double row counters any more but just Ms. Blue (my oldest little counter). My first thought was that I had cannabalized the red counter for another project and would never be able to sync them back up together. But no…………. while a younger brain would have no doubt been able to remember this sooner I moved on. Woo Hoo———- let Cable Luxe get back on track please!!!!! Basically one sleeve to go, that should provide adequate motivation! (Not that it did before, but we will just ignore that and happily sail onward).

I’ll be casting on a mindless project later on today just for wedding knitting this weekend. I’m hopeful that the mailman will drop off a package at the studio today or plans will have to change a bit. Plans are for something simple because I don’t want to fluff anything else during a weekend of distracted knitting! Lots of travel time this weekend as the wedding tomorrow is out of town an hour and a half and Sunday has us at Mizzou for engagement sessions. I’ll be missing knit group for work again, ack.

Hope your weekend is completely fabulous!

I have to tell you———- I’m exhausted by the sadness of what has become known as the “Kirkwood Massacre”. There is, to be sure, much sorrow for the families, the friends, the community of the shootings—- and more than that there is such pain that somehow it has become okay, to justify it when life feels unfair you shoot people who you feel have wronged you. It is just so sad.

Still no MOJO—– thanks to all who left comments or wrote such sweet emails! I know full well that we all go through spots that just seem a bit, well……. dry. As do I. The nice part, at least if using past history as an example is that when the MOJO comes back it seems much more creative, with great power and energy. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway!

Apply chocolate, when the world closes in a bit, that is my credo. Love and chocolate, both of which only help any situation. Of course, love does not come front loaded with calories—-and my pants are getting tight (Lolly helllllllllllpppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!) but chocolate it is.

It’s almost Valentines Day as well, five days away— I feel less than romantic somehow. But I do know that a few handmade candies are always well received and put a smile on the face of amour, friend or family!

Homemade Toasted Coconut Haystacks! YUM! And the best part is that they are easy peasy. There is nothing like making a delicious little treat with your own hands for your Valentine, friends and family. I have to say, they are not QUITE as good as the ones from that shishi store in town —- but they are pretty close!

Toasted Coconut Haystacks

• 1 bag Angel Flake Coconut
• 1 bag good quality chocolate chips— I used semi sweet but substitute your fantasy
• Gulf Wax (available near the canning section)
• parchment paper

On a large, flat baking dish lined with aluminum foil, sprinkle the coconut in a thin layer. Broil about 8 inches away from the element and WATCH CLOSELY. Toss the coconut as soon as it begins to brown. This takes a bit of time to keep moving the coconut so it does not burn, and all of it gets nice and lightly brown and crisp. You want it to crisp up but not get completely brown through, it should have crunch but still have a nice coconutty taste. Let cool.

In a double-boiler, place the chocolate chips and just slightly less than 1/4 of a sheet of the paraffin. Let it melt together over the simmering water. Remove the chocolate from the hot water and let it sit for just a few minutes until it just begins to thicken a bit. Add in the coconut and stir carefully, incorporating all of the chocolate.

Using two spoons or a tiny ice cream scoop (sprayed with cooking spray) drop the candy onto parchment paper.

Allow to set up (if you can) and it is ready to taste!

Let the love start early this year, we could all use it I think!

Almost the very last thing we spoke about was how much I hated the gym. As in, getting in the car to go spend an hour on the treadmill (ack) and the eliptical just puts me in the worst sort of funk. Not to mention that my favored (not only) branch of the YMCA has 5 ‘eliptical’ machines, all of which I have discovered were not created equally. The two StarTac are against the wall and despite the welcome addition of a little fan in the front ride horribly. The two machines next to the aisle are some sort of off the track invention that probably burn enough calories to make you instantly thin but are extremely difficult. Then there is my chosen implement of torture the EFX which I have decided stands for extra-f’ing-exacerbating. Or something. So in light of that, you would think that a blessed weekend of domestic bliss would not include things of maximum calories. And then some. But it did, oh yes it did.

I took the weekend off. As in OFF. I’m one of those odd women who find true creative pleasure and an optimum working (relaxing and creative) environment when my home is clean so I started Saturday by cleaning the house when I got home from the gym and got to the bottom of the laundry basket. Wonderful! Once set to rights I was ready to sink into bliss. It was a very short and simple direction to rationalize the fact that knitting would be even more comforting when the smells of home baking wafted from the freshly clean house. Baking—– ah baking!! A pan of “Perfectly Peppermint Brownies” were created and too many were consumed. I discovered a bag of York Mini Peppermint Patties in the pantry, leftover from the holidays when I was going to use them for something or other and didn’t. On the side of the bag was the recipe and it was completely delicious. Just in case they rotate the recipes on the bag, I’ll pass it along for your next bout of domesticity.

1 package of York Mini Peppermint Patties
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup melted butter, divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. good quality vanilla extract

heat oven to 350 degrees and grease well a 13×9 baking pan

stir together the cocoa and baking soda in large bowl. Stir i 1/3 cup of the melted butter. Add boiling water and stir
until the mixture thickens, then add sugar eggs and remaining 1/3 cup of butter. Add in the flour, salt
and vanilla blending completely. Stir in the mini peppermint patties making sure you eat at least five
of them for the purpose of quality control. Spread in prepared baking pan and bake for about 35 minutes.
Watch carefully the last 8 minutes or so, you don’t want the edges to get too done.

Cool completely and cut into squares. Nice big squares.

Yum-my. Does life get better???? Why yes, it does!!

Day off. Clean house. Peppermint brownies. Good mail day! Check out that wonderful inscription—– a lovely personalized autographed copy of a much yearned for book=====

“2 – at – a – time – Socks” by Melissa Morgan Oakes. GREAT book and well worth waiting for. I love the lay flat spiral binding, that makes big points! It is well thought out, seemingly quite simple to follow, well photographed, lots of good ‘tips’ and the socks within the book are really CUTE! I am into the cuff of my sock on DPN’s, the super simple haul it around sock—– so I’m looking forward to doing some Loopy Ewe damage this week to lay in some fresh smelling sock yarn to go with my ready to roll long circ. Melissa—– in case I get befuddled, which as we know is extremely likely to happen, I’ll be cyber knocking on your door with socks in hand! The great part is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that you will be there to answer, you are the best!

On the great mail day theme, this next item filled my heart with nearly inexpressible joy!!! Woo Hoo—- and thank heavens it arrived early in the day, before the cleaning frenzy….

My new vacuum cleaner! But not just ANY mere vacuum cleaner, oh nosireejimbob!!!! An Oreck XL, and REDDDDDDDDDDDDD to boot. I have coveted an Oreck since I lost mine in the divorce. (There is nothing like a man scorned, one evil and hateful enough to steal a woman’s vacuum cleaner!) My old vacuum cleaner was a piece of total crap, and I was tired of buying a new vacuum every year or so. Hence my new love, Miz Oreck. As my blitters know there ain’t a lot of anything sucking around here besides my vacuum cleaner and this one is wonderful. Light as a feather, will clean the basement from the second floor I’m telling you, and did I mention red?????

My cup I tell you is running over. Clean house, peppermint brownies, new book, new vacuum cleaner, one sock PAU (done) and the back of Cable Luxe completed. Retirement (come quickly please!) is going to be heaven!!

Every once in awhile it is a fine idea to take the weekend off and fill the creative tanks, and that is exactly what I feel like! Rested, relaxed and ready to hit this week running. Yesterday afternoon was Knit Group, and how wonderful was that????? A perfect end to a great weekend! It does bring musings that are for another time—- after I’ve spent all this time blathering on about my new vacuum cleaner it is time to hit Monday running!

A dear friend of mine recently asked about my wedding cake.Or more accurately, the recipe for it. The wedding cake I baked for myself over 25 years ago! She remembered that it was a carrot cake and that it was pretty much the best carrot cake EVER! It made me think of again of that wedding cake from many moons ago.I believe the last time I baked that cake was about 6 years ago, for no reason other than as I said, it is a remarkable recipe— even if you don’t particularly like carrot cake! I initially used this recipe when I baked my own cake (and it would have made Martha proud!) for my home wedding for 75 people. Getting married at home I discovered is a great idea because it is smaller in scale, you don’t have to deal with a lot of big scary details, and it is more intimate. It is also so much work you wonder on more than one occasion why you didn’t go somewhere else and get on with it! I think it is kind of like having a birthday party for your kids in your living room after you have discovered the joy of taking their happy selves off to Chuck E Cheese or something! It took me two days to make that cake! We won’t even discuss the time cleaning the house, decorating or the general catering. Regardless, it was really quite pretty, the cake itself was a carrot cake from a recipe that has remained one of my favorites over the years. It was frosted with a traditional sour cream frosting and piped simply with a frou frou tip of some sort and decorated with lovely fresh pink roses and ferns. I had purchased a kit to make the cake three tiered and carefully set to work installing platforms and dowels, a feat of engineering. Well, there is a reason that I am not an engineer because by the end of the evening that cake was beginning to list to the right! It still makes me smile that I baked my own cake and that everyone enjoyed it so much.

So with the bit of reminiscing over with, I set about to look for the recipe. I knew exactly where it was— in my trusty old wooden recipe box, I can still see it; handwritten on a froofy old recipe card that was stained and dog eared. Filed under CAKES. Well, it wasn’t there. Anywhere. I looked and re-looked because I am pretty famous for the inability to find something that is flat right under my nose! It seems that my ex-husband (whom I have discussed here before in all his mean glory) had removed my recipe marked “Wedding Carrot Cake”!!!! I suppose his tiny little pin brain could not think of me ever preparing that yummy cake recipe again. I knew he had pawed through my recipe collection before he returned it to mewith a set of boxes I paid dearly to ship. It arrived after my marital departure together with an opened box of tampons, outdated coupons, a collection of hotel shower caps and miscellaneous crap that he should be ashamed he had me pay for the freight company to handle. I knew that he had pilfered by recipes because not long after it arrived I was looking for another recipe and found it missing, it was my favorite shrimp curry recipe to be exact. At the time I thought him ridiculous but NOW I find his antics rude and idiotic. I can guarandangtee you that he did not prepare that recipe! Ack! Lucky for me I was able to ask my Aunt for the recipe, and bless her heart she still had her copy in even worse condition than mine had been. It gave me great, huge, humongous pleasure to write it down and file it away. Now, I’m sharing it with you dear Blitters!

Wedding Carrot Cake

2 1/2 cups finely grated carrot (I use the fine shredding attachment of the Cuisinart)
1 1/2 cups pecan pieces (don’t buy the whole ones for this recipe)
1 cup canned shredded pineapple (drained with the excess liquid blotted off)
3/4 cup shredded coconut (I use the store brand, it is dryer than the premium brand)
2 cups all purpose flour (measure carefully)
2 teaspoons good quality cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oil (I use canola)
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare two 10 inch cake pans by lining with parchment paper, butter well and use powdered sugar to coat. Tap out excess sugar.

In the preheated oven, gently toast the pecans for about 5 or 6 minutes. Don’t over-toast. Let them cool and then coarsely chop. Using a large mixing bowl combine the carrots, drained pineapple, and In a large mixing bowl, toss together the carrots, pecans, pineapple, and coconut with 1/2 cup of the flour. Make sure that everything is nicely coated with the flour.

Sift together the spices, salt, soda and last 1 ½ cups of flour in a sifter or through a mesh strainer.

If you have a stand mixer, use the whip attachment. Otherwise, try not to over-beat the dry ingredients. Mix the eggs and sugar until light yellow and fluffy and slowly add the oil. Fold in the combined dry ingredients. Add to the bowl with the carrot and pineapple mixture. Very gently combine and pour the batter evenly into prepared cake pans.

Bake the cakes about 1 to 1 ¼ hours, rotating once in the oven. Cool on a rack, turn out of the pans and remove the parchment paper.

Sour Cream Frosting:

• 2 ½ cups of powdered sugar
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Beat all ingredients on low until combined and then at high speed until light and fluffy.

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Seussing? I am almost done. I’ve begged and pleaded until a computerly techie friend will see if there is a way to finalize the Outlook work to be done. I’m ready to move on to other projects. This whole thing has exhausted me and made me lose my sunny disposition for sure!

No knitting has happened, again—– and although my head is spinning I do have hopes that I’ll reacquaint myself with needles later this evening. Because I have acquired some distance from Cable Luxe, I’m suddenly a bit worried about my decision to leave out that single column of knit stitches among the sea of purls between the cables. I thought it was simpler/dressier without that element and yet……. I hate it when I second guess myself but it does leave me with the choice of forging ahead with my first plan or frogging the whole thing back and starting again, this time inserting that knit stitch. I know I could drop the stitch down all the way to the beginning and hook it back up as a knit stitch but that sounds less than exciting at the moment.

Next Monday evening finds me at the local B&N for Kate Jacob’s “Friday Night Knitting Club” book reading. I do love to hang around a flock of knitters and am looking forward to it. That of course means to get together a new bunch of biz cards with my new banner/logo! The new ones are not Moo’s—-although I do love their tiny sweetness—– these are just regularly sized biz cards. I can’t wait to pick them up from the lab, Starbucks is on the way and as we know it is pretty much impossible to drive right on by!

No wedding to work tomorrow, no brides to wrangle. I’ll just have to make a wedding cake right here in my very own kitchen and have a slice in my jammies. Good thing I have a great recipe!

Happy Friday! Now—- anybody have a recipe for Shrimp Curry?