Carrotcake

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white 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
• 1 cup chopped pecans
   
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. 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.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.



Roasted Beets

I bought some gorgeous yellow beets a Thursday Night Farmer’s Market and was going to make this recipe for halibut with roasted beets and orange-dill granache but forgot the halibut and the shallots and forgot I had the wrong kind of dill. So I just roasted the beets and, OH MY GOODNESS they are amazing. Plus they’re a decent source of iron, which is good for me since I get anaemic if I’m not careful (this vegetarianism business tends to extend your lifespan, but it has annoying short-term downsides).

I put an ancho chili in there, too, since I needed to roast it anyway. I’ll do some kind of sauce with it tomorrow. Anyway —

How to roast beets:

1. Have on hand either (a) tinfoil or (b) a pyrex dish with a top
2. Preheat oven to 350 °F
3. Cut the stems off of the beets, leaving to each a minimum of half an inch of stem
4. Oil with olive oil the bottom of a pyrex dish in which the beets can comfortably recline (they’re classy beasts and slightly prefer a little bit of space)
5. Oil the tops of the beets
6. Cover and roast 40 – 80 min, until a fork stuck in a beet goes in and out soft (a very little bit of resistance is ok, but too soft is better than too tough)

Here is a picture of someone else’s roasted yellow beets so you can see what a delicious, marvelous texture they have:

…and here’s a picture of what red beets look beforehand (click to go to a great-looking recipe for a roasted beet salad with oranges and bleu cheese):

Other things that foodpairing.be tells me go with beets:

• Black currant
• Cranberry
• Mango
• Cream
• Pistachios
• Roasted peanuts or hazelnuts
• Mozzarella
• Cooked cod
• Caviar or Bottarga
• Cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Honey
• American bourbon whiskey
• Almond thins
• Durum wheat sourdough bread