Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Small little set back. Non-graceful me re-injured my foot last night at work. It got caught on something(I think a chair) and OUCH! I was almost back to walking normal and sadly I am close to being back to square one. I’m going to take the time to sit around and organize recipes I have printed off over the years.
So last weekend I went to a much needed girl’s night out. We had a game night with pizza and chips and dips and nice fattening desserts. I brought carrot cake. There were only 6 of us so I only made a single layer and decided to make mini cupcakes out of the left over batter. I used a recipe from Tish Boyle’s the Cake Book. This cake was super moist and it had a nice ginger kick that most carrot cakes do not have(due to the crystallized ginger you throw in). Fun time was had by all, but I once again learned that I have such a dirty mind when playing Pictionary…everything seems phallic to me. Well I am hobbling off to organize some recipes.

Solid Gold Carrot Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk
1 TBSP vanilla extract
2 TBSP finely chopped crystallized ginger
3 cups firmly packed shredded carrots
1 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat to 350F. Butter and flour two 9-inch pans or mini muffin pans.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
3. Beat eggs and sugars together on medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes. At low speed, add the oil, melted butter, milk, vanilla, and ginger and mix until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing until just blended. Add the carrots and walnuts and mix until blended. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, dividing it evenly.
4. Bake cakes for 25-30 minutes until they are dark golden brown. For mini cupcakes, it took 15 minutes.
5. Invert cakes onto racks and cool completely. Frost with your choice of frosting. I used cream cheese frosting…for recipe go here.

I’ve always thought of Valentine’s Day as a scam….for men that is. It’s made to believe that women are to get flowers, chocolate and diamonds…and what do men get?…a coupon book for “massages”. Joy. Growing up I never celebrated it. Most of my adult years were spent in Arizona and as luck would have it, Arizona’s birthday is also February 14th. And so all you anti-Valentine people I invite you to celebrate Arizona Statehood Day with me. There are not a whole lot of ways to celebrate it, so all I really do is make sugar cookies each year…in the shape of Arizona(yes, they really do make cookies cutters in the shape of Arizona). Now don’t get me wrong, I will make my husband a nice meal(something a little more special than a regular Wednesday night meal). I bought him a card and will write something mushy. I bought him some of his favorite candy, all in the obligatory heart shape. But that is it, and that is all I will get too. And that is great because I don’t need a day to remind me how much I love my husband or vice versa.
Happy Arizona Statehood Day!

So low and behold when I hobbled to the computer yesterday, I got an email from Tami from Running with Tweezers, telling me that I had won HHDD this time around. If you read my post about my souffle you would know that pretty much everything went wrong that could at the time of photographing it…so perhaps people took pity on me and voted for me But on a serious note, a special thanks to all who voted….I only won by 2 votes and can certainly see why with all that competition. Everyone did a wonderful job and I still want to try the one I voted for, Veronica’s Oatmeal Souffle. Now comes the hard part of picking a theme. I have one in mind but you will just have to wait and see. To learn more about Hay Hay It’s Donna Day, head on over to the founders site, Winos and Foodies to get the low down.

So don’t expect grand things from me in the next weeks to come, I’m sticking to the easy stuff for now. Last night I had to score keep hockey(have to pay those medical bills :|). Anyway, to encourage the refs to not call too many penalties(since I would have to hop up and open the penalty box door each time they do), I baked cookies. Peanut butter chips must of been on sale at Christmas, because I seem to have a never ending supply of them some how. So I chose to do something with those. I didn’t want to make them with chocolate(so that the dog could have a few…bad I know). Finding a recipe without chocolate was a little tricky and so I just decided to make my own….a pecan and peanut butter chip cookie. My hubby, myself, the refs and the dog all really enjoyed them. And in case you were wondering, my bribe did help :).

Pecan Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup powder sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cake flour
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 12 ounce bag peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven temperature to 375°F.
2. While the oven is heating, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together for 3 minutes. Add one egg at a time and mix thoroughly. Make sure to scrape down the bowl between each egg.
3. Take your small bowl of dry ingredients and gradually mix it into the large mixing bowl. Fold in the peanut butter chips and nuts into the batter and mix.
4. Using a small ice cream scoop(or spoon) drop the dough onto your greased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. I do 9 minutes.
6. Allow to cool.