Tuesday, October 5, 2010

What's Cookin'?

The past few weeks I have been BUSY in the kitchen! Fall is my favorite time of the year for cooking and I'm a huge sucker for cake pops. So I did something I wouldn't normally do and bought this when I was at the grocery store.

The first recipe I tried was carrot cake... SO GOOD! And the recipe was totally easy other than the actual shredding of carrots - that was a lot of work, but totally worth it. I definitely didn't realize how many carrots actually go into carrot cake. Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots (5 medium)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Stir in carrots. Pour batter into pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Cool completely about 1 hour. Frost with cream cheese frosting. Store in refrigerator.

It called for a cup of chopped nuts, but we're not nut people, so I left those out. And I just frosted it with a can of Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting instead of making frosting from scratch.

I have a lot more recipes from my guilty indulgence I'm going to try, so stay tuned.

Everyone was posting about the strawberry jam they were making, so I decided to get in on the action. I told Rog I wanted to make some and he claimed to have never had homemade strawberry jam. What?!? So that gave me even more incentive to give it a try. It was a lot easier than I expected. Next year I'll be making a bigger batch for sure!



My grandma, mom, and I split a bushel of peaches 3 ways. I was determined to not let a single one of my peaches go to waste even though I couldn't can them. (We don't have the right stove for that anymore.) I made a few peach crisps for family events.

Then I made some peach muffins. I followed the recipe exactly and it made 24 even though it said it would only make 16. The first 12 that came out were burnt around the edges and I ended up throwing them out. So on the second 12 I turned down the heat to 375 and only cooked them for 20 minutes. It was a delicious recipe with those changes.

The majority of my peaches were used to make frozen fruit cocktail. The recipe is my grandma's and it is GREAT! I've been enjoying it for years, but this was the first time I have made it myself.

12 medium peaches
2 cups sugar
1 lb grapes
1 2/3 cups crushed pineapple
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cup orange juice

Peel and slice peaches into a large bowl. Sprinkle sugar over them and let sit while washing grapes. Mix together all items and put in freezer containers. Freeze until ready to use.

Serve with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and any other fruits you would like layered in a trifle dish.



Finally, I thought I would give a shout out for this recipe. I made it last night and it was so delicious! It will definitely be added to our list of regulars. Try it, you won't be disappointed!
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6 comments:

Roger said...

Millions of peaches, peaches for me.

tracy said...

She is a peach, that darling wife of yours. :)

Mom Lori said...

I had some of the carrot cake and it was yummy :-)

The jam and peach creations look delicious too!

So does the sweet and sour chicken :)

Emily said...

I love all that food. YUMMO!

tracy said...

Pineapple! And raisins! (and nuts!) Oh my!

i LOVE carrot cake!

i bet it was delish!

i was told there would be cake.

Cakey! Cakey! Cakey!

"With cream cheese frosting?"


(Guess the movie that quote came from and you win a special Virginia prize!)

tracy said...

"It's a Virginia Ham!"

Guess the movie t h a t quote came from and.....