Five Pounds of Carrots

Mama says: "Eat carrots! Good for eyes!"

With a fever of over 103 degrees and a partially torn ligament in my right knee, my ultra-sweet Sabrina dropped off some groceries for me. Not only that, but she knew I preferred natural or organic ingredients and so went out of her way to get organic groceries - so thoughtful!

There's a recent post on Foodie NYC that describes the frustration of a cook at dinner guests who assume that they are reaping the benefits of someone else's narcissistic hobby. Cooking for friends involves much thoughtfulness about personal tastes and situations, he proposes. Don't take it for granted. I couldn't agree more, even though I've rarely encountered the ignorant friend. I may not hit every preference or know all my friends' favorites, but I love cooking for people I care about because it is a tangible expression of that care. It also happens to be fun. So anyway, ingredient gathering as important as cooking, that post made me doubly appreciate Sabrina's taking my food preferences into account while I was essentially immobile and would have gratefully accepted any kind of groceries.

One of the things I asked for was carrots - and since there was a limited selection at the store, I received a 5-pound bag! At first I thought, "I LOVE carrots, and I go through them so fast, so no problem." Then I realized how many carrots comprised a five-pounder and thought, "better look up some different carrot recipes." Not hard with Allrecipes.com. It turned out to be an awesome secret ingredient (for you Iron Chef junkies).

1. Chicken Noodle Soup: This is a good basic recipe for the flufighter. Since I wasn't measuring, I won't write out my version of the recipe, but I highly suggest using the suggestions offered in the reviews for this recipe. I also added garlic, thyme, and a bay leaf.

2. Easy Morning Glory Muffins: A favorite of mine to make back in New York, because the baking scent lingers forever in a Cozy! Charming! 250sf-studio-apt. A few notes: make sure you're using the "wet" kind of shredded coconut if buying packaged coconut; substitute some or all of the AP flour with whole wheat flour; and the recipe calls for too much oil in my opinion, which makes the muffins greasy, so use applesauce. For substitution tips here's a quick summary. Although I never use corn syrup and rarely use vegetable oil, many of the tips are useful for a beginner baker.

3. Cinnamon Carrot Bread: I cut down on the sugar to make it more of a bread and less of a cake, added 1 teaspoon ground cloves, and some fresh grated ginger, and used walnuts instead of pecans. So it was more of a spicy carrot-ginger bread. Yummy with honey spread on top. Carrots, ginger, cloves, honey - all good for a flu and sore throat!

4. Carrot Cake: This version is pretty close to my mother's, which is the ultimate comfort food. Again, I used whole wheat flour, applesauce to replace most of the oil, and also used less sugar, mostly brown. And added ground cloves (always seems to increase the number of exclamation points after "yum" and enhances the spiciness without overpowering). For the frosting, I definitely suggest using much less sugar - maybe 2-3 cups of the confectioner's sugar - I used the suggested 4 cups and thought the frosting (icing) overwhelmed the cream cheese flavor.

I take any excuse to make this cake, like Swapna inviting me and some girlfriends over for an awesome pre-party dinner. (Bruschetta, then capellini w/ roasted red peppers and really good turkey sausage. Hotness.) But, since shredding carrots and chopping pecans gets time-consuming, engage an unsuspecting friend to do one of these (thanks Talitha!).

5. Carrot Souffle: I had almost two more pounds to use at this point and only a few more days to use the carrots. I'm so glad I found this; it was my favorite discovery during this carrot era. Wow. So. Addicting. Only use half the sugar (it tastes so much better to top the souffle with some brown sugar or marshmallows rather than to mix it into the souffle), and make sure to use butter instead of margarine. It took forever, but it was worth it. Oh, and add cinnamon and cloves if you like. (I like.)

So there you have it. Soup, muffins, quickbread, cake, and souffle, and of course crudite all along the way, all from one vegetable. I look forward to the next carrot cake or souffle... but probably not for another few months.