Like an Old Married Couple

Cooking with Kathe for Thanksgiving was fun as always. With pots, pans, baking dishes and countless ingredients strewn about the countertops, we were Tazmanian Devils spinning feverishly around the kitchen moving from one prep station to the next, we were making cranberry bread, carrot muffins, stuffing and biscotti. Although we hoped to make pecan pies, we ran out of time. Thankfully though, we did manage to hit pause for a minute to wolf down the salad Kathe made for lunch.

I felt like a professional dishwasher at times, standing over the sink scrubbing and rinsing a never ending tide of dirty items. But somehow I didn’t dread this mundane task as I would have alone in my kitchen. In a bizarre way I actually enjoyed the chore with company. I wasn’t focused on the humdrum of the routine, but rather on the conversation I was having with my friend. We chatted about our kid’s progress in school, gymnastics (we both have gymnasts), what cookie to make for her Holiday Cookie swap and our upcoming family vacation plans.

As usual, when Kathe and I cook, we get started right away with our agendas but with no particular order in mind. At times we’re like an old married couple, bickering and complaining to one another. (Don’t be mad I said that Kathe!) If I snag the baking soda or a measuring spoon from her she’ll pester me when I forget to return it to her neatly arranged display of supplies. (By the way, she’s a professional organizer and a good one if you have the need!) And I know I’ll get on her nerves with my gazillions of questions. But it’s all in good fun. We love each other and have a mature cooking relationship.

Cooking with Kathe reminds me of cooking with my Dad, especially when we discuss nuts versus no nuts in our baked goods. Kathe’s family loves nuts and almost everything she bakes will have them. I on the other hand, do not like nuts in my food and as a result, neither does my family. My Dad and I go through this rigmarole with our stuffing every year, arguing about nuts versus no nuts, always ending up with two batches to please our stubborn selves.

Kathe had a hard fought nut victory this past Wednesday when my healthy carrot muffins seemed to be missing something. Although I’m sure an extra stick of butter would have made a difference I needed to keep them low-fat. Suddenly, I blurted out that my muffins needed nuts! I’m not sure how that happened, perhaps it wasmy alter ego taking over for the moment. But Kathe was elated with my suggestion and after high-fiving one another, I began chopping walnuts. With a handful of cranberries and a cupful of nuts, our second batch of carrot muffins was just perfect. We talked about adding cream cheese frosting to jazz them up but that’s up to you!

Carrot Muffins with Cranberries and Walnuts
Makes 70 mini muffins

1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
1 ½ apple sauce
2 eggs
¾ cups white sugar
¾ cups light brown sugar
2 cups white flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Using a stand or hand held mixer, cream together the butter, oil and apple sauce with the sugars. Add the shredded carrots and mix slightly. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix in the cranberries and walnuts. Spoon the batter into well-greased mini muffin tins and bake until firm to the touch, approximately 12 minutes. Serve with a dollop of cream cheese frosting if you desire.

Carrot Muffins, Biscotti and a Good Old Fashioned Lunch

Sometimes it’s hard to see friends. Busy lives and lots of work often interfere with good intentions. That’s why I set aside several hours last Wednesday morning for my friend Jackie. We started with a jog around the park, exercising together while planning what we’d bake later. Jackie had a delicious salad and soup planned for lunch, so maybe something sweet for dessert. Since I just received several pounds of early carrots from my CSA, we decided it would have to be something carroty. And because I also needed to test the chocolate biscotti recipe I had created, I decided to get some “work” done as well.

Jackie peeled the carrots, saving all the scraps for my compost, while I got the biscotti ready to bake. I joked about how happy I was that she performed the carrot peeling job, and she reminded me that’s why we cook with friends. And it sure is! I was dreading peeling those darn carrots, testimony to why they’d been sitting in my refrigerator for a few weeks. Even though they are quite tasty, they weren’t the big easy-to-peel ones, but rather small and thin ones, probably why I had gotten so many for “free” from my CSA farmer. But that’s what friends (or at least cooking with friends) are for!

And, payment for carrot peeling would be half of my biscotti. Not a bad deal! I grated the carrots and we created some delicious muffins together. The only question left? What to top them with! Jackie suggested a cream cheese frosting, which I snuck some cardamom into.

In the midst of baking, our friend Debbie stopped by to say hello. As we were chatting with her, we put her to work on the frosting. As you can see, our cupcakes benefited from the art teacher in her with squiggles and swirls. Voila! A delicious and festive carrot cake muffin with cardamom frosting was created by three friends. And then we sat down to a delicious al fresco lunch in Jackie’s backyard on a beautiful spring day.

Here’s our recipe.

Carrot Muffins with Cardamom Frosting
Makes 12

¼ cup canola oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup unbleached white flour
¾ cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups shredded carrots
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 12 muffin tin, spraying well with baking spray. Set aside.

Beat together the oil and butter. Add the sugar, vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Mix in the flour, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Fold in the carrots. Divide the mixture evenly among the tin, filling ¾ of the way. Bake in the oven for approximately 20-22 minutes until firm to the touch. Cool and frost if desired.

Frosting:
1 cup cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip all ingredients together until creamy. Place in a sandwich bag, cut a small hole in one corner and frost as you wish!

A Little Bit Irish and a lot of Tradition

Amidst our busy schedules, my friend Jackie and I snuck in a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. It was our third year in a row baking Irish soda bread together, officially coining a tradition. I had a corned beef simmering on the stove and a hunk of cabbage ready for a quick sauté for dinner (ok, so the non-Irish in me took some liberties here and rejected boiling cabbage) and was all set and pre-measured when she arrived. All I needed to complete the meal was the soda bread. With the gorgeous spring weather peeking through on a late winter day, I pre-measured the dry ingredients so our kitchen time would be brief and we could enjoy a bit of sunshine on my front porch while our muffins baked.

Jackie measured the wet ingredients while I whisked the dry ones. And as I measured the currants into my batter she stopped me before I threw some in hers. She announced that she’d be making hers with mini chocolate chips instead. She knew her kids would like them better, even though her husband would chide her for not using the dried fruit. (Jackie is known to enhance many foods with chocolate -- banana bread, pear and bran muffins! Who wouldn’t?) After I promised not to disclose her secret to her husband, she agreed to trade some of hers with mine. It was a nice arrangement since I knew my kids would prefer her chocolate ones and her husband would be pleased with the more traditional Irish taste.

Below is our recipe, which turned out more like petit scones than muffins. I am sure the chocolate chips didn’t hurt! Neither one of us likes caraway seeds, so our recipe isn’t faithful to the original Irish. Forgive us for taking liberties to create a delicious St. Patrick’s Day treat which can be enjoyed any day of the year as a plain old breakfast muffin.

A Tad Irish Muffins
Makes 12 large or 30 mini muffins

Hold the caraway seeds and substitute chocolate chips for the currants and you’ve got a scone like breakfast muffin. Although it hardly resembles Irish soda bread, it’s delicious none-the-less.

2 ¼ cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups mini chocolate chips (or currants)
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
6 tablespoons melted butter
Course sugar for sprinkling on the tops (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and chocolate chips. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, sour cream and butter. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry.

Grease the muffin tins with butter or baking spray and fill halfway with batter. Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for approximately 18 minutes.