Tag Archives: flour

What Do I Do With All These Carrots?? – Homemade Carrot Cake, of course! (Recipe Included)

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This past weekend I was so excited to start to pick the first round of our summer crop of vegetables.

Early Spring Crop Picking

I picked a few cucumbers, small onions, zucchini, peppers, and carrots.  I was very surprised at the amount of carrots that were poking up through the soil, begging to be picked.  Because I was in the zone of pulling weeds and digging out the veggies, I didn’t notice that my basket was full of so many carrots that even Peter Rabbit would have been stuffed.   So as I was at the kitchen sink cleaning the crops, I began thinking of what I could make to use up all of the carrots.   Of course, feeding them to our family as a nice crisp snack as we watched baseball games was my first thought.  (You can only eat so much ballpark food, and honestly, by June, I don’t want to even step foot near a concession stand).  So as I packed the orange treats in small snack bags, I realized that we barely made a dent in the supply.  The boys will snack on them when Ranch dip is available, but I knew we would need to get creative to ensure that we would not to waste the remaining supply.  It has been extremely hot in Ohio, and the thought of putting the carrots in a crock pot with a roast all day, honestly just doesn’t sound appealing right now.  I had to think of something fun and cool to make in order to use the rest of the first picking crop.

Of course, with future crops, we will be sharing our treasures with family, friends, and the community, but these are first picking carrots –which are not so pretty, if you know what I mean. So….last night, as I got my nightly sweet tooth, it came to me!  Homemade Carrot Cake!    This isn’t a family recipe passed on from generation to generation……YET!  I did some research on the internet and added a few changes to this basic recipe, and by the end of the night, it was GONE!  Yes, a success I would say.

HOMEMADE CARROT CAKE RECIPE

     Ingredients:

Mixing the ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups grated carrots

    Cream Cheese Icing

     Icing Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots.

Folding in the shredded carrots – Hint – use the coarse grater not the fine grater to make the moisture content perfect!

Pour into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Frost the cooled cake.

The Final Product – Moist and Delicious Carrot Cake!

ENJOY!

Grilled Pizza Dough Recipe – A Summer Must!

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This quick and mess-free grilled pizza dough recipe is a great way to spend a spring, summer or fall night outdoors. Even better, when the garden starts to produce – you can make endless varieties of vegetable pizzas to satisfy any taste buds.

It also makes for a great “make your own pizza pie night” party among family and friends!

The biggest fear to overcome is to throw that dough on those grilling grates for the first time.  You always expect it to stick – but if you follow this simple recipe - it will turn out perfect every time!  The best part of all is the use of only 6 simple ingredients, a large bowl, a measuring cup and cutting board.  It makes for any easy night of clean-up!

Beer and yeast combined - Let stand for 10 minutes

The Ingredients

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour – A lot of pizza recipes call for bread flour – and that is fine – it will give more of a crisp crust – however, we just like the ease of rolling out the all-purpose flour – and like the thicker,  chewier crust of the all-purpose flour.  Chef’s choice!
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 package of yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt (we prefer kosher)
  • 1 1/2 cups beer heated / warmed to about 110 degrees F  (you can use water – the beer just really adds a great taste to the dough
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons

 

The Directions

Dough mixed and kneaded in the bowl.

First, pour one and a half cups of your favorite beer (you can use water – we just like the taste the beer gives to the dough).  Warm in the microwave to about 105 to 110 degrees farenheit.  Pour in yeast, and let stand for 10 minutes to activate.

Pizza dough and toppings - almost ready for the grill!

While the yeast is starting – grease the large bowl with a thin coat of olive oil – then add the flour, sugar, salt, garlic salt and hot pepper flakes in the large bowl.  Then slowly add the yeast mixture to the dough – kneading and combining until the mixture forms into a dough ball.  If it still a little wet – add a little more of the extra flour mix to it – if it’s a little dry – add a little more water or beer.

Form into a ball and rub olive oil over the dough ball’s outer skin.– place back in the bowl and cover with a towel and let the dough

Quarter the bread into four even portions - each piece can be rolled our for a pizza

rise for an hour.  Once finished – knead down one final time on a floured board – and cut into four equal pieces – then roll into four equal dough balls.  Cover the dough with a towel and let rest about 5 or 10 minutes.  Then simply take out each dough ball and roll out.  We don’t worry about perfect symmetrical circles – in fact –we let the dough determine its own shape for that authentic Italian look – rolling it out any which way until it’s to your desired thickness.  (our’s usually turn out to be about 10″ x 8″ with uneven edges.  Then we simply drizzle a little olive oil onto each side – and gently rub it into the dough – it’s ready for the grill!

Pizza dough on the grill - don't worry - it wont stick!

Have your grill hot – in the 350 to 375 range – and make sure you give the grates a quick brush cleaning so they are fairly clean.  I even will sometimes brush a quick coat of olive oil on the grates with an old grill brush.  Then simply lay out the dough on the hot grill grates and let it on for at least five minutes..and no, it really won’t stick!  Don’t touch it for the first few minutes– let the oil do its job and in a few minutes using tongs or a spatula – lift up the edges and see if it’s got those nice grill marks. Let it finish off to your liking.   Here is where you can go two different ways with your pizza.

Pizza dough bubbling up on the grill

If you want a truly rustic pizza – take the pizza off the grill and add your pizza sauce, cheese and all toppings to the hot just grilled side –  then put the uncooked side back down and finish it all up on the grill.

OR

Sometimes, we will go ahead and lightly grill each side at the grill – and then bring in and finish with our sauce – cheese and toppings, and finish in the oven until done.  Either way is delicious – and a great way to enjoy an easy grilled pizza!  The best part – it’s an easy clean-up.  You wash out the bowl, the measuring cup and wipe off your board and you are done!

Grilled Pizza with home-made pizza sauce!

Making Home Made Pasta – Passing Down A Family Tradition From Italy

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My Grandmother. Born in Italy in 1899, she came to the US where she met and married my grandfather.

This past weekend, we spent the day making home-made pasta noodles with my mom, my sister and brother-in-law.  Mary and I both grew up with parents who made fresh pasta, and although I am sure we both may have been “little helpers” in our youth – this was truly the first time for either of us to really learn the art.  The best part of all, was in addition to making incredible fresh pasta – we learned so much more about the past.

Tried and true recipe with vintage tools of the trade

The recipe itself is simple.  Two basic ingredients. Eggs, and flour – with about 1 egg for every cup of flour.  It can’t get more simple than that – and it’s easy to see why pasta of all types has fed many a generation of hungry people.  It’s inexpensive and easy to make – and it filled you up!

On this day we had the privilege of using my mother’s pasta maker. It was imported from Italy over 65 years ago as a wedding present from my Italian grandmother to my then newlywed mom.

The pasta maker that was given to my mother as a wedding present in 1953 - still as beautiful as it was then!

As the day unfolded – I became amazed at just how many things my mom still used and that still looked and worked so well from those earlier years.

In addition to the pasta maker, we beat the eggs and mixed flour in brightly colored vintage Pyrex mixing bowls, and worked the dough on an old wooden pie board that was a wedding shower present.

If that wasn’t enough – we rolled and cut dough out on a classic cherry red kitchen table from the 50′s – in the extra downstairs kitchen my father had built for mom, complete with their matching vintage refrigerator and oven (still both working by the way!).

Working in the vintage kitchen - Admiral Fridge and Stove, along with a classic red table and the pasta machine.

We joked with my mom that all of her older “things” are so “in” right now – but after spending the day working with everything – it’s easy to see why that’s the case.  There is no mistaking the quality and workmanship built into the tools and appliances of our parents and grandparents era. Things were built to last, and taken care of by a generation who valued what they had.  Something that I think our generation should and could learn a lot from.

6 farm fresh eggs from our hens in a vintage red Pyrex bowl - ready to be beaten and mixed into the flour

So while we rolled the dough through the machine – We got to hear great stories about how my grandmother would make mountains of pasta right on the kitchen table – and all about big sunday dinners of the past, complete with spaghetti, fried chicken and of course, homemade wine.

We finished the day with a great family style spaghetti feast – topped with pasta sauce we had canned from our garden – and yes a little wine too (someday, hopefully we can use one of our own bottles!)   It felt like after all that pasta we should have included a nap as well!

The dough balls - all ready to be rolled through the pasta machine and then cut into noodles.

All joking aside – this day will go down as a favorite.  Spending time with family, passing on recipes, hearing stories of the past and enjoying great home-made food – that is something no amount of money can ever buy – and something I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Fresh Pasta with our Homemade sauce!

We also learned some valuable lessons from my mom in keeping a pasta machine working.  Never ever use any type of water to clean it. And never use salt in the dough.  If you follow those two simple rules…you end up with one vintage machine that can crank out a lot of noodles in it’s lifetime.  We included our little step by step process of the pasta making at the bottom of the post – if you have never tried it – it’s so worth the time!