A funny thing happened to me last Thursday, I realized it was Thursday. “Holy crap”, I told my husband, “it’s Thursday”. I believe I got some smart remark back about next week we would go over the months in the year, once I got this whole days of the week thing down.
Which actually might not be a bad idea since I keep writing August on everything…yeah, it’s October next week. Which by the way, how on Earth is that possible? The point being in all of this though, is that in discovering it was Thursday meant that I completely spaced on Tuesday. Or more importantly, Tuesdays with Dorie.
Life has been extra unique as of late. LFB still battling her eye. CCS decided that she needed to compete with an illness of her own, going to the Vet herself for tummy and poopy issues (festive). And in all of this I am sick as well. I have that fun I don’t really seem sick until I lay down to sleep, then I cough like crazy and can’t sleep, no matter what. I even have a sexy side effect of broken blood vessels in my eye (I wanted to make LFB feel better ). So with no sleep and a whole lot of stressing over my furbabies, I’m surprised I even realized it was Thursday.
So needless to say it was a small victory for me to get this week’s challenge done. I didn’t have plums but I had pluots in the fridge (which if you don’t know is a cross between an apricot and a plum). This weeks TWD recipe (chosen by Michelle of Bake-en) was Dimply Plum Cake, which looked good but seemed a tad on the boring side to me (aka, not fattening enough) so I felt the need to add a little toffee sauce to it. I made individual ones in muffin pans (yes, I cleaned the pans) because I thought it would showcase the pluot better, not sure that it did. Oh well, worth trying, eh? If you do make the muffin form, they take about 22 minutes to bake up.

P.S. If you want to read a little more about me, you can read my interview over at Simmer Till Done.

Pecan Toffee Sauce

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 TBSP vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes.
Add cream and vanilla and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes and then add pecans.

When I wanted a bunny (having owned many in my life) my husband asked me “what on Earth do bunnies do”? The thought of having a rabbit as a pet was something he had never thought about. I explained that just like a dog or a cat that the bunny would eat, sleep, poop, pee, play (not necessarily in that order though). Play? How does one play with a bunny is what he was thinking. Lots of ways, though her favorite is pretty much a game of hide and seek. She tries to play this with CCS as well, but CCS is a little too dense and just sits there staring at her.
My husband had to admit that our bunny has as much personality as our dog. She is a diva from time to time, especially if you move things around in her cage. For if you do, she takes them and drags them back to where she thinks they should be. She drags her bowl to the front of the cage in the morning and bangs it to let you know she wants her food. She squeals with delight when she sees she is getting apple juice (she gets a little after she gets the yucky medicine that tastes gross). She’s learned to knock over the trash can in order to hop on top it to get to the toilet (lid on) so that she can hop up to the counter where her hay is kept. She knows when I am playing with her and I am laying on the ground that if I hum she comes over and puts her nose to mine. She’s so much more than a little ball of fuzz.
Which is why the last week and a half have been sad for me. I can not tell you the number of people, (no comments on here, but a couple emails) mostly in real life, that have told me just to let my rabbit die and get a new one, that it is not worth it. I get comments like, “it’s not like it’s a dog” or “a $20 bunny is not worth any amount you have spent”. Of course I beg to differ.
Economically owning a pet, any pet, never makes sense. CCS has bad teeth and has to get them cleaned yearly as well as have fatty cysts removed. All quite costly. Yet no one tells me to kill my dog. LFB has already cost me a pretty penny. She has had to go to the Veterinarian 3 times in a little over a week.  And we still might have to be having surgery anyway. LFB was having a good chance of keeping the eye on Monday but things took a turn for the worse on Wednesday and her eye became cloudy. So back we went to the Veterinarian. She has white blood cells dispersed thought out her cornea. If it is a reaction to the eye drops she started on Monday, she should be okay. If not, the eye will most likely have to go. And yes, that will be pricey. And yes, I will pay it. Because she is my pet, that I took responsibility for and love. So why would I let her die. ?
Because she is being poked and prodded several times a day she has been getting lots of little treats. She loves carrot tops and so I keep going down to the farm to get them. The only thing is, she doesn’t really like the carrot part of the carrot. So here I have all these carrots. I needed to be doing something with them, so I did.
This loaf is probably half bread, half cake. I only gave a thin layer of frosting because this was suppose to be more of a bread than a cake. If you want more icing, by all means, make more. This is fairly versatile, you could add nuts, pineapple, currants. I stuck to just the basic carrot and raisin.
P.S. If you look at the picture of LFB down below you can see her little white dot that is causing so much trouble. Thanks to those of you giving good thoughts to her.

Little Fuzzy Bunny’s Carrot Raisin Loaf

¾ cup flour
½  cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
¾  tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ ground ginger
¼  tsp freshly grated nutmeg
zest of one medium orange
¼  teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup finely grated carrot
½ cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch or 4 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, spices, zest and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs until blended, and then stir the egg mixture into the flour with a rubber spatula.
Fold in the grated carrot and raisins.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool until easy to handle, and turn out onto a cake rack. Frost when completely cool.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP unsalted butter
1 teaspoon maple extract
1 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, combine all the ingredients and beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
Spread the frosting on the top of the loaf.

So right after everyone seemed to be doing the Omnivore 100 meme, another one came out. This time about things that you had done in your life. Number 3….”Been apart of a hockey fight”. Several people when filling that out commented that they were interested in knowing how I would answer that question. So here ya go.
First off that question is vague. Hockey fight at a game where I was a fan or one in a game I played? For today’s story we shall focus on the latter. Yes, I have been in a hockey fight, two for that matter, and both with boys. I of course can not say a man, because no man would hit a woman, but onward with the story.
Fight number one I lost. I am playing. I score a goal. The next thing you know I was tackled by a very large man. He started pounding my head into the ice. I kept waiting for the referees to step in but they didn’t seem to (wimps). So, I threw off my one glove (since my other arm was pinned down beneath me) and I started punching. He wasn’t wearing a cage or shield so everything on his face was fair game. Meanwhile he kept beating me down. The refs finally came over and broke it up. I broke his nose, but he gave me a mild concussion and had me pinned the whole time so I consider him the victor of the fight.
Fight number two I won.  All night this guy was insulting me and so in return I paid the favor. After two periods of being jerks to each other. He was pushing on me and said, “ya wanna go”? I asked him “do you really want to get your ass kicked in front of God and every one by a girl?” That threw him off a bit. He shouted let’s go and threw down his gloves. I took off my helmet and gloves as well. I threw up my left arm as if to punch him. I noticed he was staring at that and so I gave him an upper cut to the jaw with my right hand. And down he went. In front of God and every one, he got his ass kicked by a girl. He laid there for quite sometime. Eventually getting up. He said nothing to me. Never said one thing to me the next time we played them as well. In fact, never again.
It’s a good time to bring this up since preseason hockey is just around the corner, in about two weeks to be exact. Then before you know it, October 4th will be here and regular season play will be on it’s way. Yes, everyone, the greatest time of year is approaching….Fall. Fall when I get to bake whenever I want without sweating. When my days can be occupied with watching hockey (and swearing at the TV screen). Watching the trees undergo a metamorphosis from lush greens to a rustic reds and glowing golds. And I get to eat all the foods I love…pumpkin being at the top of the list. Now, you can get canned pumpkin year round. But there is something about Fall that makes pumpkin just taste better.
I had been working on this idea for this bread in my head for awhile. And after a week of experimenting I finally got it where I wanted it. So you reap the benefits of my labor.
If you are allergic to nuts you can very easily leave them out. Also, if you are not a fan of maple (shudder) you can leave out the maple syrup and extract and just add vanilla.
So what have we learned here today boys and girls? Best not to mess with Peabody, as she may hit you.

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Maple Cheesecake Layer

Maple Cheesecake Layer:
9 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
¼  cup granulated sugar
¼  cup brown sugar
6 tsp real maple syrup (I use grade B)
1 tsp maple extract
1 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 large egg

Pumpkin Spice Bread:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½  tsp salt
½  tsp ground cinnamon
¼  tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree(plain, not the already made pumpkin pie kind)
½  cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 ½  cups granulated sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 325F.
Lightly grease and flour three mini loaf pans. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the maple cheesecake ingredients; beat until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
In another bowl, sift together  flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.
Place pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl of an electric stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat for about 1 minute, until fully combined
Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined.
Fold in the pecans.
Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the three prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer and then pour on the remaining pumpkin batter.
Bake in preheated 325° oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes.
Remove bread from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve at room temperature or cool.

You might have noticed me not leaving comments on your blogs the last week or so. Sorry about that. See, it started with a cold. Then stomach flu. But not how I normally get stomach flu. Normally when I get it, it attacks my body in a violent way expelling everything out my mouth and is gone in about 24 hours. Not this time. It was mild this time around but dragged on and on and on.
I missed dinner with a friend, a baby shower and my week off from score keeping(I guess it was good I had time to rest). I did however still make it to my dinner at the Herbfarm.
The stomach part has past but the cold seems to be sticking around, so kind of it. But since I seem to be getting better you should see my more in the blog world.
This weeks TWD pick, chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart, was Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops. Once again though, I was not in the cookie mood. I know, not in a cookie mood? You think I would just do the cookies as they are simple. Not that my version in cupcake form was all that hard. These are basic chocolate cupcakes with some malted milk added to them. I made a chocolate malt whipped cream frosting because I wanted the topping to be light so that the crushed Whoppers would stand out.
You can pretty much pop about 5 of these at a time without blinking an eye…or at least I can.

P.S. Thanks again for all your support for the candidates, as requested by some, their bios will be up this week.

UPDATE: To make the week even more of a Whopper, poor Little Fuzzy Bunny(LFB) got a puncture in her eye (from a piece of hay). It got bacteria in it and she now has a 50% chance of losing her eye. We will know more on Monday. Right now she is undergoing treatment. So if you are the praying type could you say a little one for her please.

Chocolate Whopper Malted Cupcakes

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup malted milk powder
½  cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½  cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ½  cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extra

Preheat oven to 325F
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, malt powder, and cocoa together and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk. Add vanilla a beat well.
Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 25(15 minutes for mini) minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.
Chocolate Malted Milk Whipped Cream Frosting

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
4 TBSP malted milk powder
2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder

In a large bowl, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add sugar, malt powder, and cocoa powder. Beat until stiff.

Frost cooled cupcakes with whipped cream frosting. Top with crushed Whopper(malted milk balls) pieces.