selfish baking and a supermarket rant

i should note that i began the day today with three chocolate chip cookies and a piece of carrot cake. mmm. good for my stomach, maybe not so much for my heart.

i realized that i never really bake just for myself - i either want to try something new out and then share it, or i am making something specifically for someone. so yesterday i changed courses from my original intent to make a carrot cake for the office and some chocolate chip cookies to mail to various people. i kept the cookies for myself.

granted, i am sharing the cookies with people who sit around me, but for all intents and purposes i made them for myself. selfish, maybe, but very satisfying. and there is the cake sitting out on one of the tables for people to partake. making something just for yourself (i made them to have as a snack and with my lunch at work) is a very different pleasure from making something for other people, but just as good, in a different way - in a way such that you know, hopefully, that you shouldn't indulge yourself too often.

so actually, the cake is pretty good. it's a typical carrot cake except that it uses fresh ginger instead of ground ginger, which i think i'd do again. i would have liked to have put currants in it or something (expressly because they're smaller than raisins) but i forgot to buy them, and even though the supermarket is only 2 blocks away there was no way i was going to go back when i'd just gone that morning. part of the reason why i made carrot cake was because i don't have an electric mixer, and thus don't want to attempt any kind of butter cake that needs the air from the butter being beaten. i was a little worried about the frosting, but it turned out fine since it was a warm night (or maybe it was just warm in the kitchen) and everything had been softened properly. ok, it's not totally smooth, but it's smooth enough for people not to notice.

we also don't have a grater, which ran me into more problems when i was making pesto (without a 100%-working blender) with parmesan cheese that needed to be grated. i just ended up mincing the carrots really finely with my wonderful new knife - not the ideal scenario but the one i had. upon putting the pan in the oven, i discovered that the rack is designed really oddly with a horizontal bar on top of the vertical ones (bird's eye view) so that nothing can rest on it flat and level. odd. i even checked and the rack was in the right way. i guess it's just because it's old. so anyway, the cake was kind of lopsided, but nobody noticed anyway.

i also made chicken and rice for lunch during the week (and i bought bacon on sale so i can have bacon and blueberry jam sandwiches!). i seem to gravitate towards chicken and rice any time i cook. in fact, every time i've really cooked anything for lunch, with the exception of the last time when i made pasta with chicken and red peppers, i've made chicken and rice: risotto with chicken, asparagus, and mushrooms, chicken and rice with morels, and yesterday chicken and rice with capers. hey, chicken is cheap. i think the best was the chicken and rice with morels - i omitted the garlic and ginger and it was just onions, wine, rice, chicken, and morels. it had a wonderfully clean taste... mmm.... the one i made yesterday was good, especially with the capers, which i wasn't sure were going to work. just not as good as the other one, which had the distinction of having chicken drumsticks and thighs rather than chicken breast (which was on sale when i last went to the supermarket).

i still haven't found a supermarket i like in chicago. maybe it's because i live in hyde park. but there is only one whole foods and one trader joe's for the entire city! hmph. i find boston to be a better food town than chicago because it's more consistent : you can get a nice dinner for $30 in boston, but not in chicago, where it's either $15 or $90. and there are more supermarkets! who ever heard of a downtown without a good supermarket? i haven't seen any supermarkets in the loop... people around here pretend that their produce is the best and that it's cheaper than other places since it's grown around here, but i'm just not convinced.

i did like the indian supermarkets in devon, though. devon is in the northern part of the city (and is really the name of the street). devon street is very built up and it's basically all storefronts, but step off onto a sidestreet and you are surrounded by small single-family homes. it has a somewhat foreign feel to it, i guess because all of the signs protrude out into the space above your head. there are four kinds of stores: restaurants, supermarkets, sari stores, and jewelry stores. all of the jewelry stores display their wedding jewelry in the front window, which is elaborate with all of the colorful beads and very yellow gold. makes you kind of want to be an indian bride (kind of being the important part here). i wonder where the indian supermarkets are around boston - there being so much indian food, there must be supermarkets somewhere.

ok, i need another cookie.

notes: this is a very moist cake, and it's pretty good, although i think i'd switch out some of the sugar the next time i made it for dark brown sugar, just to give it a bit more of a molasses taste to it. i liked the fresh ginger and would add more the next time i make it - make sure you mince it really fine.

carrot cake
cake
2c flour
2t baking soda
1t salt
1t cinnamon
2c sugar
1 1/4c canola oil
4 eggs
3c grated carrots
1 1/4c chopped walnuts
3T minced peeled ginger

icing
16 oz cream cheese
1/2c butter
1 1/2c powdered sugar
1/4c - 1/2c maple syrup (do NOT, i repeat, do NOT use pancake syrup)

[1] preheat the oven to 350F. butter a 9"x13" pan or two 9" cake pans.

[2] in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

[3] in a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil. whisk in the eggs, one at a time.

[4] stir in the dry ingredients, then the carrots, ginger, and walnuts.

[5] pour the batter into the pan and bake 45-50 minutes for a 9"x13" cake, less for a 9" cake.

[6] for the icing, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then beat in the cream cheese. beat in the powdered sugar, then add 1/4c maple syrup and beat that in. taste it, and add more maple syrup according to your taste. be careful not to let the icing get too runny - i added about 3/8c.

[presumably this makes 1 2-layer 9" cake, but i made a 1-layer 9"x13" cake]