Living The Mad Dash

Had I known that carrot cake and cookies as one would be so right, I would’ve been making these a long time ago. Read on if you want to know more about the cookie that almost got away from you...

As usual, the idea for this recipe was born out of a desire to get my kids to intake some kind of vegetable into their stomachs (yes, I’m aware that this is still a cookie). The ingredients aren’t fancy.

I had one of my baking sidekicks around to ‘help’ out although, really, she was just using me for my ingredients. 

The result is a very moist, almost cake-like cookie that still has that chewiness of an oatmeal cookie. They aren’t super sweet- in fact, I’d say they are juuuust sweet enough. Add the cream cheese icing and then wow. WOW.

Carrot Cake Cookies

14 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup dark brown sugar (loose, not packed)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1&1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1&1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

For carrots:

1&1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For icing:

4oz of softened cream cheese (softened)

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine the carrots, maple syrup and vanilla in a bowl and allow the carrots to absorb the liquids. In a separate bowl, combine the measured flour, salt and baking soda, set aside. Next, cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed on medium speed. Add the coconut oil. Add the cinnamon until just mixed in. Mix in the eggs. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture by adding it to the mixer by the heaping spoonful, allowing it a chance to disappear into the dough before adding more. Batter will look like this:

Add the oats in batches, letting them become one with the dough before adding more. Then add those carrots, liquids and all. At this point, you should be looking like this:

I scoop giant mounds of dough onto the sheet for baking, but you have to press down the middle of the mound so that you don’t have a wet-in-the-middle cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

For the icing, cream the cheese butter together. Add in the vanilla. Then slowly add the powdered sugar. Watch this closely because you don’t want to make this too thick. I was looking for a near glaze for the cookie, so adding in the milk by the tablespoon got the right texture going. Once cookies are cooled, slather ‘em up with this sauce. Then grab a cookie. Sit down. Take a bite and close your eyes. You’ll need a moment to collect yourself.

Sidekick-approved. Enjoy!

Baking French yogurt cake with my bébé...

Ever since I read the book Bringing Up Bébé: One American Woman Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman I have been thinking about that damn yogurt cake that all the French kids eat (and help make) for their single snack of the day, or goûter. I’ve been thinking- this cake must be insanely good if it can make a kid wait patiently for their snack. AND they help bake it?? My imagination has been getting the best of me. Until now. I baked it with my 2 year old.

My children tend to approach baking tools and ingredients like they’ve just come out of a piñata: all hands touch everything, grab everything, and try to pocket or eat most things. Sooooo, we don’t bake together all the time.  I tried this recipe out while I had just one child present (highly recommended).

I followed a googled recipe for “French yogurt cake,” choosing the one that included ‘simple’ in the title. The ingredients are indeed simple. It was a typical grab-fest with the little one. She really wanted to taste the raw eggs. But because there were so few steps in the recipe, I was able to stay ahead of those little hands (this made me happy).

In about 45 minutes total we had two warm little cakes out on the racks to cool.

The verdict: this cake was just...okay. It tasted like a cake, but not like a good cake. I would be sad if this is what I’d waited all afternoon for as my only snack. It was extremely basic. I don’t know that frosting would make it much more than that. I did end up adding some fresh fruit and whipped cream on the side for my second serving (hey, I wasn’t going to let even a basic cake go to waste). My older kid had one bite and was like, I’m good instead of asking for more.

I love ice cream. I love espresso. Sometimes I want both as an afternoon pick-me-up. So I pulled together my two friends and let them meet for the first time in my house. And they’ve been together ever since, teehee!

You’ll just need a shot of espresso and a scoop of whatever ice cream you have on hand. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Starbucks espresso pictured, above.

Bonus: you can have your treat right alongside any little one who has earned it by eating all of their peas (theirs without the espresso, of course).

Testing a theory…will the kids eat cookies for breakfast? Hahaha. I started with the basic oatmeal cookie recipe, subtracted some sugar and added a bunch of substantial breakfast ingredients. Think bananas, pistachios, raisins, flax seed (a few mini choc chips)… Like a bowl of my oatmeal that fits into the palm of their little hands. Testing these this morning!

My youngest just celebrated a birthday and I was looking for a special way to celebrate at home. A tea party turned out to be the perfect idea. My kids love ‘hot’ tea; my daughter loves to dress up; I love an excuse to have more than one kind of sweet on the table. Here’s how it went down:

-I used REAL fine china…a tip from a friend took me to two different Goodwill stores where I found a ton of options. None of the sets were complete so I created one, choosing complementary colors from my theme. I scored big time! Less than $15 for all of the cups and saucers. If there had been more guests, I’d have let them take one in a goodie bag. Bonus: there was no added stress about expensive broken dishes. (No dishes were broken during the making of this celebration).) A rrrrrreally good soak and scrub and these delicate dishes made the party special.

-My daughter requested a coconut cake. For real. I had no idea she knew what a coconut cake was! I asked repeatedly in the days leading up to make sure, and I got some variations…something with strawberries and cream…chocolate…and then a complete freak out that it really needed to be coconut cake. So, I made them all! I used this delicious recipe for the coconut cream cake as my guide: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/incredible-coconut-cake It was soooo delicious! I very highly recommend this recipe. One variation I made was to cook the cake in a sheet pan. I used cookie cutters to create small two-tiered cakes for each guest. I sliced up pound cake into mini portions and set each with its own strawberries and cream. I made a batch of chocolate buttercream to get some variety.

-The fabric bunting flag had to be in there because. It has become tradition!

-Initially I figured this to be an early afternoon event, requiring only the cakes. But an off-schedule nap turned this party into a weird early dinner time. I scrambled to add more substantial eats, like mini quesadillas and mini house made chic-fil-something chicken sandwiches and the crudités.

-For added flare I made some no-sew bow ties in the color family (a quick google search will show tons of how-to’s), and props like fake flower boutonnières, party hats and feather hair accessories. It made everyone so festive!

The guest of honor wore a seafoam green tutu (Old Navy) with a chambray shirt and statement necklace (Target clearance!) and was sooooooo happy to twirl in her outfit…for about 30 minutes. Then she insisted on removing it all to enjoy the rest of her party. Whatevs, mylady! You only turn two once, right?

Because we are on such a tight rotation of foods that I know my little ones will eat, I find myself trying to cram as many extra ingredients into each meal as possible…that they won’t notice. This isn’t new. I know moms everywhere do this. So…me too. I think I would probably add carrots to their milk if I could get away with it. These meatballs are really tasty and if I can make a double batch, the meatballs freeze beautifully for a quick weeknight meal or lunch.

I love desserts. Carrot cake is a family favorite. In fact, I think I’ve made a carrot cake for every birthday and special holiday so far this year. Now I’m tired of carrot cake. I realized last celebration that maybe my little guy is too. I could get a few bites from him, tops. A few bites…of CAKE. Now, a doughnut is another story. He was recently introduced to them and I think they like each other! So I gave him something he wanted to celebrate the big “4.” And gave the adults an excuse to eat ‘Hot Donuts Now.’ (I had to warm them up again a little to get the sprinkles to stick.) Birthday success!

All summer long I’ve been gazing longingly into gas station windows as I’m pumping gas, hoping for a glimpse of a slurpee machine. Listen, I’ve got two kids in tow. I’m not unbuckling those jokers and having an argument about why they can’t have that candy or that toy by the register only to get inside and find out that they don’t even sell slurpees. Or worse: they don’t have a flavor I like. I don’t want BLUE, thank you.

You can imagine my joy when I stumbled across my own little concoction one afternoon. This is so simple, I almost feel silly writing about it. But I’m so happy! Really, all you need is a rrrrrrreally bubbly soda (it can’t be something that loses its fizz soon after being poured over ice) and some ice. If you blend it long enough, the consistency will be the same as from a slurpee machine.

You need: - ½ can of your favorite soda - about ½ cup of ice (I didn’t just want lemonade flavor I added maraschino cherries and a bit of their juice. A lovely color, right?)

Combine and blend. Keep an eye on the mix- the longer you blend the better your consistency. But if you blend too long you’re just playing with your food.

Because the fizz is an important part of MY slurpee, after I blended and poured into my glass, I swirled in another glug of soda with my straw before drinking.

So, has the world been doing this all along and I’m just the last to know? Better late than never!

The truth: I don’t always have a great attitude. So I’ll try a little something to remind me of all the things I have to be grateful for.

I am grateful for texting. I know it isn’t the warmest of mediums to talk with another person. I’ve recently moved far away from an area that I called home for nearly eight years. Connecticut will keep a special place in my heart. We started and grew a family there, both with our children and friends. I realize that with my husband, merry little ones and dog, it won’t always be possible to get back to see the people and places that we miss. So it makes me happy that I can still quickly check in with old buds via text at whatever time is convenient for all parties: swap a pic; exchange a story about our days and families; get a check on the weather to remind me why I’m happy to be in a warmer climate but how I kind of miss the milder summer and the shoreline. And I’m so glad that it keeps us connected to the rest of our loved ones who live even further away. Three cheers for texting!