Easter Eggs and The Best Ever Carrot Cake

It's been a long time since I spent an entire day in the kitchen.  We hosted Easter this year, and spending an entire day in this kitchen was not exactly a hardship.  It was a great day of cooking with my Mom, my husband and my brother... without running out of counter space or bumping into each other.  I think I'd be happy to spend many days like that in  the kitchen.

Priority one was coffee.  Then the colouring of the eggs for Easter breakfast.

Next up, French Bread and Spinach Dip.  We'd need plenty of snacks to get us through our cooking marathon.

Crusty French Bread and the BEST Spinach Dip

This year's choice for Easter Dinner - Stuffed Pork Loins.  Recipes here and here.  I also give you two great video clips to illustrate exactly how to cut, stuff, roll, and tie up your pork loins.  This guy demonstrates it very well.

Of course, there were veggies, potatoes and gravy to prepare.  Plenty of snacks.  And wonderful family time.

My favourite part?  Dessert.  The star of the show for me was this Carrot Cake.  It was amazing.  Seriously, this was the best carrot cake I've ever made.  I slightly adapted this recipe by Trish at Mom on Time Out:

Best Carrot Cake Ever

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, whisked

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups grated carrots (mine were heaping, so likely closer to 2 1/2 cups)

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup crushed pineapple in juice (not drained)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine vegetable oil, yogurt, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients, then add in carrots, coconut, and pineapple.

Pour into a greased bundt pan or a 9 x 13 pan.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1 8oz package cream cheese (softened)

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy.  Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.  Allow cake to cool before frosting.  And if you love cream cheese icing as much as I do, double the recipe.  Extra icing is a good thing.

To-Die-For Carrot cake at Mom on Time Out

   

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Autumn, Crusty Bread and a Wicked Spinach Dip

We're still crushing on fall despite the fading autumn colours.  There are less fiery reds & golds brightening the landscape as the leaves fall from the trees and reveal shades of brown.  Combined with grey windy skies, it's beginning to feel decidedly more wintry and a lot less like the end of summer.  The warm & sunny fall weather of the past few weeks is giving way to cold & rainy days that are getting shorter as the nights grow longer.  The furnace has been turned on and the fireplace saw some action this weekend.

Hubby made some amazing pulled-pork in the crock pot on Sunday and as we were piling it onto fresh crusty rolls we were reminded of the spinach dip I often make and how amazing it is with fresh bread.  This is a dip I've made for years that everyone loves and asks for again and again.... even after filling up on pulled-pork sandwiches.

Knorr® Spinach Dip

Adapted from Knorr's Classic Spinach Dip Recipe

 1 package (10 oz / 300g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

        1 container (16 oz / 500ml) sour cream

        1 cup Hellmann's® mayonnaise

        1 package Knorr® vegetable soup mix

        1 can (5 oz / 140g) water chestnuts, drained and chopped

        ¼ cup finely diced red onion

A few things about how I prepare this:

Squeeze as much water as you can out of the thawed spinach.  I usually put it in a fine mesh strainer when it’s thawed and push it into the mesh to force out as much liquid as possible.  I do not cook the spinach.  Please make sure you use chopped spinach.  Frozen whole spinach will not work... trust me.

I use sour cream, but plain Greek yogurt can be substituted.  I have not tried this.  Someone might notice and I’d have a spinach dip mutiny on my hands.  My family really loves this stuff and it has to be just the way I’ve ALWAYS made it.

Mayonnaise.  Only MAYONNAISE.  Not Miracle Whip.  Miracle Whip is salad dressing.  It is NOT mayonnaise.  They cannot be used interchangeably.  Not ever.

Knorr brand vegetable soup mix is what works best in this.  I’ve tried other brands when the Knorr has been sold out (which happens a lot) and it just isn't the same.  This stuff is like crack and if it’s on the shelves, buy a few… one can never be too prepared for the next Knorr vegetable soup mix shortage.  I roll over the package a few times with a rolling pin before I open it to crush the soup mix into a powder… I think it helps to intensify the flavour.  I chop up the red onion and water chestnuts very fine for the same reason.  Some recipes call for green onion instead of red onion.   Again, I don’t dare mess with my version of this recipe and the red onion adds more flavour.

Once you’ve got it all mixed up well in a bowl, cover it and let it sit in the fridge for a while so the flavours can blend.  I usually give it a couple of hours and then let it sit at room temperature before serving as it tastes better when it isn’t ice cold.  If I’m worried about a nice presentation, I’ll hollow out a sourdough or pumpernickel loaf to serve it in, but usually they’re digging in as soon as the lid comes off the bowl.  I always make sure to have plenty of bread for dipping… a couple of sliced French baguettes are perfect.  Cut up veggies are yummy too!

Doubling this recipe is a very good idea… or it’ll be gone before you know it.

If you're feeling really ambitious, make a couple of baguettes from scratch.  It's easy and they're so much better than store-bought.... crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside.  I mix up this recipe in  my breadmaker and then divide it into two loaves, rise & bake.

Crusty French Bread Recipe from food.com

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