Mulish & Co.

When Life Gives You Carrots, Make Carrot Cake

Carrot Haul. April 23, 2013.

 

I have a recipe for carrot cake that I love. My twenty-something year old self knew a winner when she saw one apparently. I cut this out of Parade magazine years ago and it's been my go-to carrot cake recipe ever since. And yes, it really was titled, "Mother Berta's Carrot Cake".

 

Mother Berta's Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

3 Medium-sized carrots, peeled                

2 C. all-purpose flour

2 C. sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 C. corn oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp. vanilla

1 C. chopped walnuts

1 C. shredded coconut, sweetened

3/4 C. canned crushed pineapple, drained

 

Frosting Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese

3 Tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 C. confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp lemon juice

 

1. Cut 2 carrots into 1" dice; place in a saucepan, cover with water and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and puree in food processor or blender. Set aside.

2. Grate the remaining carrot. Reserve.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the bottom with waxed paper and grease the paper.

4. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add the oil, eggs and vanilla; beat well. Fold in the carrot puree, grated carrot, walnuts, coconut and pineapple.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

6. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding it onto a rack, then let the cake cool completely.

7. Prepare the frosting: Mix the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar. Stir in the vanilla and lemon juice. Frost the cake.

 

A Mulish Meal

The Feast:

• Roast Turkey with Rosemary & Lemon (14 lbs of succulent goodness)
• Mushroom Walnut Stuffing
• White Wine Gravy
• Rum Soaked Cranberries
• Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
• Roasted Carrots & Parsnips
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Pecan Pie

Oh, the goodness. If only I could feed you all. Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Enjoy!

It made me a little sad to walk away from the bottle of wine that sat on the top shelf at the grocery store. I'm not even a wine person but it happened to be my favorite wine - MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir. The only thing that I know about wine is that I like that wine. I found it on my own and discovered it was the one wine that I could go back to again and again.

By the time I got to the checkout line and heard my total I was really glad that I'd walked away from the wine. That one decision kept my total under $100. That's my goal these days, keeping my grocery bill from hitting the hundred dollar mark. I thought to myself that I could have shaved a little off the total had I not purchased the Martha Stewart Living magazine but when I saw the article on Monticello, into the basket it went. I'm a complete sucker for anything Monticello. Someday I'll make a pilgrimmage. It's my Mecca. You could sell me a shoehorn if it had an etching of Monticello on it or better yet, a Monticello snow globe.

I got home and opened the door to three hungry dogs, then I had to make that dreadful decision - who eats first, them or me? Oh, I think we all know the answer to that. The dogs always eat first. If they didn't, I'd have to eat with six eyes upon me, only four would be fully functional but still, who needs that kind of pressure?

I sat down at the table and gasped, literally, when I saw that the new issue of Organic Gardening had arrived. I thought I'd let it expire but there it was. I should never have peeked inside Martha Stewart at the grocery store. I should have left Monticello on the shelf and bought the wine instead.

Salami on it's own doesn't sound like much of a meal but salami and wine and throw in a few olives — that's a fine meal. I could have bought one less can of organic coconut milk, one less can of organic chili, left the magazine behind and bought the wine. I'd still have come in under a hundred bucks.

*This post is brought to you by the power of procrastination. Is it not clear to you yet that I will do anything to avoid writing about a forest full of bears and a home invasion? I suspect there will be frequent rambling posts during the month of November. Hang in there. We only have 28 more days to go.

If only I were this decisive.

File Under Hoisin

You know how it is when you're driving home from a hellish day at work and you realize at a red light that you need to pick up chicken feed and hoisin sauce? That was me Saturday afternoon. I thought how perfect my world would be if there were a Chinese market adjacent to the feed store. And wouldn't it be even more perfect if this fantasy market were having a special on hoisin?! Hey, don't judge, it's my fantasy.

I remember the Chinese market down the street from me when I lived downtown in San Jose in the '80s. It was across the street from a Chinese restaurant and every day a delivery of ducks was made to the restaurant - a "plein air" delivery of dead ducks that were bound to the handle of a shopping cart by their necks, their penduous mass swaying to and fro as the delivery boy carted the load to the backdoor of the restaurant. Then someone took offense to this and complained and the deliveries stopped, or the method of delivery stopped at any rate. It never bothered me but I never ate the duck there.

Random, I know. It's how my mind works. I realized last night how seldom my blog posts have any point to them. This could very likely account for low readership, I'm not sure. But back to the hoisin...

I called my husband from the aforementioned red light to see if we had any hoisin and do you know what the man did? He looked up a recipe for the sauce and had a jar of it ready for me by the time I got home. This is reason #834 why I love my husband so fucking much. If I weren't so dizzy in love and were more of a skeptic I might have thought it a self-serving gesture because I needed the hoisin for a tofu and asparagus recipe that I wanted to make on Sunday, a recipe that I did make on Sunday and was fabulous and I encourage all of you to try! Make sure to use panko because it has such a nice crunch to it and make sure you use sesame oil because it imparts such a good flavor to the asparagus. It was so good that I want to go to the market tonight just to buy a back up jar of hoisin in case I have the urge for tofu triangles again.

As usual I have no good ending for this post. Bon Apetit will have to do.

Making A Simple Shrub

There's no other way to put it, I've been on a complete shrub making bender for the past few weeks. You read it right. Shrub making. I really just like saying shrub. Sometimes, when my mind gets into a brief jumble, I call a shrub a bush but Michael is quick to correct me. Bless him.

What's all this shrub making business you ask? I'll tell you what, although I'm late coming to the shrub party myself. A shrub is a drinking vinegar. It is made with equal parts of fresh fruit, sugar and vinegar. There are a seemingly infinite number of combinations. You can, of course, choose just about any fruit that's in season, use granulated cane sugar or brown sugar or honey, you can vary your vinegars - apple cider, red wine, white.You can cook your shrub or use a cold-process method.

I've been making a very straighforward cold process shrub. It couldn't be simpler. I followed the directions on serious eats. Yes. I actually followed the directions. Ah, the maturity that comes with yet another birthday. If your not a link follower, here's how I made my first two shrubs:

1. Find the fruit of your dreams (2 Cups) and give it a good rinse. I chose blackberries but really wanted peaches or apricot but it's not quite that time of year yet. You can also mix fruit. Strawberry/Apricot for example. I'm playing with the idea of a ginger shrub and I'm wondering how citrus would do. Lemon would be lovely. You can even add a vanilla bean. Oh, the choices!

 

 

 

 

2. Mash that sweet stuff up! I used my hands to squeeze out the juice, you could just as well use a potato masher. Get a little messy. Tip: Think twice about wearing white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Sugar, please. Use the same amount of sugar as the amount of fruit you use. I used 2 cups of everything. I also used granulated sugar but I've read that you can use turbinado or brown sugar as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Add the sugar and incorportate it into the macerated berries. It will feel gritty, of course, but over time the sugar will dissolve. Give it a good mixing, put a lid on it and find a place where it can sit for a day or two in your fridge.

 

 

 

 

 

5. I was doing so well with the photos but I ran out of steam so you'll have to use your imagination now. After a day or two, remove the berries and strain the syrup into a bowl. You are allowed to "accidentally" get some on your finger tips and taste. I emptied the bowl that was in the fridge into a little wire mesh kitchen strainer and gently pressed the solid mass of fruit to get as much syrup extracted as possible.

6. Add the vinegar and stir. I used a whisk, I hardly think it matters much. Again, I used 2 cups fruit, 2 cups granulated sugar and 2 cups apple cider vinegar.

7. Find a nice jar to store the little concoction that you have created. This will go into the fridge to mellow for a few weeks. It is advisable to give the jar a gentle shake once a day to get any remaining sugar off the bottom of the jar. Eventually the sugar will dissolve.

8. You are now the proud owner of a shrub. It is a concentrate so cut your shrub with a little club soda or seltzer or soda water, add ice and enjoy!

Shrub making works for me on a number of levels. I feel as though I am sneaking in the backdoor of fruit preservation. Oh, I've dreamed of making jams. I gather all the best berries, cook them slowly over a low flame, and when the fruit is ready, I fill a dozen or so sterile mason jars. The lids pop and I give them away to all of my most favorite people. That's where my pretty little dream turns into a nightmare because the next image that pops into my head is the swath of dead that I leave in my wake. All of my favorite people slumped over their breakfast tables with their jammy toast still in their clutches. So sad.

I fear poorly sterilized mason jars the same way that I fear eating the wrong type of hand picked mushrooms. This, as you can see, is why I've never become a world class mushroom gatherer. As Michael would say, I'm risk-averse. The shrubs seem more forgiving and I can't imagine they will last long around here with the summer months coming up. Spending lazy days around the picnic table with a book in one hand and a drink in the other is my idea of the perfect summer.

Wholly Cow

I don't know the last time that Michael and I were able to spend two entire days together. Two weeks ago I actually said this very thing out loud, "Today was  a good day but I wish we had just one more day to spend together." And it happened.

It happened and it was perfect, not in any extraordinary way but in its simplicity. We weren't joined at the hip by any means, in fact, early on we each used the morning to find our own rhythm — I read and he ran. And then, wouldn't you know it, we found each other. The day was beautiful and we were free and we had fun and perhaps best of all, we discovered Wholly Cow.

Okay, I'll confess, it wasn't an entirely serendipitous find. A co-worker told me about *Wholly Cow several weeks ago. I told her I was craving a burger and she suggested what she described as a hole in the wall establishment on So. Lamar. She told me roughly where it was and said that I'd have to look carefully for it. She was so very right. It's a completely unassuming little joint.

Now there are other burger places in Austin and good ones at that, but Wholly Cow is remarkably good. Their beef is locally raised and grass fed from beginning to end. It comes from Fredericksburg which is local enough for me. It is TexAg and USDA certified organic. It's very, very good. On Mondays the burgers are $5. They serve sweet potato fries, regular fries or you can mix 'em up. I strongly recommend the mix-up.

Michael had a portabella burger and no, it's not a burger with portabella mushrooms in it, it's a burger that used two very large portabella mushrooms as the bun. AS THE BUN, PEOPLE! Sheesh, what will they think of next? My greedy, greedy eyes were all over that juicy thing.

And what, pray tell, did we drink? Texas Tea, of course. It comes in a few different flavors but if you get the peach, you're in for a treat. The peaches are organic as well and also come from Fredericksburg. I'm not a fan of overly sweet tea but this was just right and it smelled like summer. I'm not sure if all of the food they use is locally sourced but a good bit of it comes from the family farm in Fredericksburg. It belongs to the owner's uncle.

Now I might not know the uncle nor have I ever been out to the farm but I almost feel like I have because the owner of Wholly Cow is so friendly, you feel like you've known him for years, like maybe you'd gone to highschool with him. He's genuinely thoughtful, not at all guarded but instead, very forthcoming.  He's got ideas for this little place, he's proud of it and I really, really hope he does well. 

So, there you have it. I didn't think that one of my first blog posts would be a review of a burger joint inside of a convenience store but it was just that good and I had to share it with you. My wish is that each of you are able to spend a day with someone you love and discover something new together, whether it be a new burger place, a different path home, or a new friend. Bon appetit, my friends. Indulge!

*Wholly Cow

3010 S. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78704

(512) 394-8156