Killer Carrot Cake

So for easter this year I decided that I needed to make a contribution. I chose to make a simple side dish of carrots and cippolini onions and some carrot cake! (I'll post the side dish next) Bunnies like carrots, so I figured the dishes were appropriate for the occasion.


Carrot Cake Recipe
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots (make sure to use a bigger grate)
1 cup chopped pecans (optional- can use walnuts too)

•  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans (sprinkled on top and toasted) Toast about 5-6 minutes on medium heat

Directions:

You are first going to want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees making sure you put your oven rack in the middle slot. 

Next, in a large mixing bowl combined eggs, sugars, oil, and vanilla. It's better to do this in a electric mixer than manually, but if you don't have a mixer than just prepare to have a sore arm.

Next, in a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Once you stir all of those ingredients together slowly add them into the "wet" mixture in the mixing bowl.

Now stir in the carrots. Don't over mix. 

Last step is to place the mixture into a GREASED and FLOURED 9x13 inch pan. You can either grease it with butter and flour(make sure you get the edges) or use Pam BAKING spray (it contains flour unlike regular Pam spray)

Cook 40-50 minutes. I cooked mine for about 50. Everyone's oven is different so just keep checking it once you hit the 40 minute mark.

While the carrot cake is baking.....let's make the Frosting!

Frosting Directions:

In a mixing bowl (preferably an electric mixer as well) combined the room temperature butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla. It will be clumpy at first but eventually when you really start whipping it, it all starts to smooth out! This frosting is FAB.

When the Cake is DONE...

Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool for AT LEAST 20 minutes before taking it out of the pan and placing it onto a cooling rack/plate. You have to wait until the cake is pretty cooled down so that you can frost it. If it's too hot, the frosting will melt and you'll end up with a cake that isn't frosted very well! That would be a bummer. Place chopped up pecans/walnuts on top of cake. I toasted and chopped up walnuts.

ENJOY!

Stir Fry Shrimp with Fresh Ginger and Snow Peas

I found this recipe the other week in our monthly Food and Wine magazine. I absolutely love it. It's fresh, healthy, and has a bite to it from the chinese chile-garlic sauce. This recipe takes about 30-45 minutes depending on how slow/fast you can prepare everything! My mom's homemade chicken stock is usually frozen, so it has to defrost, resulting in 10 extra minutes of prep time. 


Ingredients
Serving Size: 4
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chile garlic sauce
1 teaspoon corn starch
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 fresh ginger, cut up into matchsticks
1/2 pound snow peas (about 50 snow peas)
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (31-40 count per lb)
4 small scallions, thinly sliced
4 servings of cooked brown or white rice
* If you don't have shrimp, you can always substitute it for your favorite protein! Shrimp cooks within a minute or two but something like chicken or beef would obviously take longer. 


Directions:
Before you do anything you want to have all of your veggies and shrimp chopped and ready.You want to cut the ginger up into small thin slices so that they resemble a "matchstick." Next you want to   cut off the tips of the snow peas. The scallions should be chopped up as well (both the white and green part of it). Slicing it on a diagonal makes it look nicer!

Next...
In a small bowl, whisk the chicken stock with the soy sauce, Chinese chile-garlic sauce and cornstarch.
* If you don't have chicken stalk, you can use water as an alternative. The chicken stock adds flavor but it's an ingredient that isn't always in the pantry. 


In a large nonstick skillet, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering (shimmering= it looks a little glossy). Add the ginger matchsticks and stir-fry over moderately high heat until they are softened, about 1 minute. Add the snow peas and stir-fry until crisp-tender and the ginger is beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the shrimp to the skillet and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add the scallions and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Whisk the chile sauce, add it to the skillet and stir-fry until the shrimp are opaque throughout (have turned a light pink color) and the sauce is thickened, about 1 minute longer. Serve with steamed rice.

The Final Product

(Served over brown rice with some rice noodles for crunch)

Roasted Shrimp w/ Homemade Cocktail Sauce and Steamed Artichokes

Roasted Shrimp w/ Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Roasted shrimp are easy and simple to prepare and roast. They are great because they take little preparation and they cook within minutes. My mom buys frozen raw shrimp (medium size, 31-40 count per pounds) and will de-frost them about an hour before we want to make them. To speed up the thawing process, run them under warm water. Keep in mind that if they are not pre-cooked, then they need to be deviened, which means cutting down the back of the shrimp and pulling out the black vein. Only devein when shrimp are THAWED. Cut just deep enough to pull out the vein. It should be pretty easy to pull out as one piece. 

Recipe: About 20 shrimp 

Serving Size: 2

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper (about 4-5 pepper grinds)

When the shrimp have been deveined and cleaned, throw them into a bowl that is big enough that they can be tossed around in. Then take the olive oil, salt, and pepper and put them into the bowl with the shrimp and mix until all shrimp are evenly coated. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Next you want to take a piece of tin foil and line it on the bottom of a cookie sheet. Place the shrimp on the tray. They should be evenly spread out with space in between them so they aren't cramped. 

Once they are on the tray and the oven is preheated, place them into the oven to be cooked for about 5-6 minutes. When they are all a light pink color, they are done!!

Here is a yummy cocktail sauce recipe to dip your shrimp in...

Homemade Cocktail Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup Chili Sauce (we use Heinz)

2-3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (much better to use fresh than from the bottle)

1-2 Tablespoons creamed horseradish sauce (Buy in same section as ketchup)

      *Horseradish is pretty strong so you can use more of it or less in your sauce depending on what you like!

Artichokes:

Artichokes are very easy to make and quite delicious! My roommates in college loved them! They used to microwave them which didn't take much time but if you want them to be super tender they need to be boiled in water for awhile! 

First thing we want to do is bring a large pot of water to a boil and before we being to cook them, they need to be pruned. Artichokes have spikes on the tip of every leaf and they all need to be clipped off. Notice in my picture how all the leaves are flat at the tips (this is from clipping off the spikes). 

Once your artichokes are pruned and the water is boiled, they are ready to start cooking! You want the artichokes to cook  in boiling water with a top on the pot for about 45 min-1 hour. After 45 minutes I check to see how tender they are by taking a leaf off and seeing how easily the "meat" comes off of it. 

How to Eat an Artichoke:

Simply pull off a leaf, stick about 3/4 of the leaf in your mouth, bite down while keeping your teeth clenched on the leaf and pull. If the artichoke is tender enough, a lot of the leaf should be sliding off into your mouth.

If you think the artichoke is tender and finished cooking, you are ready to take it off the heat and eat! 

Whats great about artichokes is that you usually dip the leaves into a sauce! I personally enjoy dipping them into melted (salted) butter. My mom on the other hand likes to dip it in a lemon-mayo sauce. 

Lemon-Mayo Dipping Sauce: (For one artichoke)

2 heaping Tablespoons of mayo

1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

ENJOY!

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

My mom was watching food network the other night and Ina Garten was creating this delicious recipe. It happens to be really easy (even though it may seem complicated at first glance) and YUMMY! My mom and I halfed the recipe since we were only making it for the two of us. One tart per person was plenty! I would pair this dish with a simple salad but the tart was pretty filling itself. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients: Serving Size: 4

• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
• Good olive oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
• 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler
• 4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese (can be plain)
• 1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
• 3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

Directions

Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide, cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with the second pastry sheet to make 4 circles in all. Place the pastry circles on 2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.

Using a sharp paring knife, score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each round, staying inside the scored border.

Place 1/4 of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Crumble 1 ounce of goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush thetomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter 4 or 5 shards of Parmesan on each tart.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. The bottom sheet pan may need an extra few minutes in the oven. Serve hot or warm.

Side Notes: I didn't have fresh thyme but using dried was perfectly fine. I also didn't have any fresh basil, which wasn't a big deal either. Although basil has lots of flavor, I think it was serving more as a garnish and to add some color, so leaving it off was fine.