Curried Carrot Soup

We have a lot of carrots in our cellar. And I mean a LOT of carrots! So we eat carrot soup a lot. I love the recipe that I got from my mother. But change is good so today we tried curried carrot soup from Rachel Ray.

Changes to the recipe: Rather than baby carrots, I used full sizes carrots cut into chunks.

Verdict: We have made this soup previously without any cayenne. This time I decided to try a small bit of cayenne. Either we have very spicy cayenne or wimpy palates (or both) but 1/4 tsp of cayenne was too much for us, especially Shay.

Whole Wheat Bread

I wanted to make more Anadama Bread, but still haven't restocked my cornmeal supply so I opted for King Arthur's Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread.

Changes to the recipe: I offered Shay a choice between honey, molasses, and maple syrup. He opted for the later. I also added a tablespoon of gluten. I had a read that it helps whole wheat loaves rise better and I have a lot of it, so I figured 'why not?'!

Verdict: Gareth thought it was very good. I thought it was a bit dry and boring. 

Hummus

What to have for lunch? We were away all weekend so don't have many groceries in the house. We ate soup for dinner last night so didn't feel like having it for lunch today. So bagels from the freezer and hummus it was!

Changes to the recipe: I add a whole garlic clove instead of a half (we love garlic) and didn't mince it (that's what the food processor is for, right?).

Verdict: It's possible that I overdid the garlic. Otherwise, this hummus was a hit.

Anadama Bread

I love Anadama bread but have never had much success making it. In all fairness, that probably has more to do with lack of trying than anything else but still... So now that I am on a bread baking kick, I decided to give it another shot using King Arthur's New England Anadama Bread recipe.

Changes to the recipe: I followed the recipe except that I allowed the first rise to continue for about three hours instead of the suggested one in order to make time for story hour.

Verdict: We all enjoyed untoasted slices for dinner. The crust was crispy without being hard. The crumb was soft and moist. The following day, we all had toast for breakfast and were equally impressed. I plan to make another load as soon as I buy more cornmeal!

Pulled Pork Enchiladas

Left over pulled pork is a practically a staple in our house. Usually we eat it on pizza, but this time we had too much for that. So I Googled and came up with Life's Ambrosia's recipe for enchiladas.

Changes to the recipe: We used a combination of mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses in place of Monterey Jack cheese because that's what we had. We also used frozen sweet peppers instead of diced green chilies. Finally, we significantly reduced the cayenne for our younger palate.

Verdict: Good, but not great. Reducing the spice - both the chilies and the cayenne - was probably a mistake. Oh and the proposed prep time of 15 minutes is a bit overly optimistic.

Chicken Curry

What do you do with the dark meat when everyone in your family tends to prefer chicken white meat? Curry of course!

Gareth roasted and picked the chicken the parts last night. Shay and I did the rest this afternoon.

Changes to the recipe: We are currently overwhelmed by root veggies, a meal without them was not an option so I doubled the sauce and added two cups of thinly slices carrots with the veggies.

Verdict: Delish especially with the carrots! An excellent vehicle for bananas and chutney.

Chocolate Stout Cake

For his third birthday cake, Shay's only request was for a Thomas cake. I decided that meant I had free reign to make anything that could baked in our borrowed train cake and selected King Arthur's Chocolate Stout Cake.

Changes to the recipe: None this time but I would consider reducing the recipe in the future. The full quantity overfilled the train mold with enough left over to also make a small loaf.

Verdict: On its own - amazing! Frosted - to die for! (Also, it came out of the very complicated train mold very easily. Other cakes have been much more problematic.)