Moist Carrot Muffins, Some Jeep Action, a Ponytail Beauty, & a bit of Sassafras!

MOIST CARROT MUFFINS

 This is the latest experiment at my venue is this really moist carrot muffin. I only omitted the walnuts, though they would make the muffin taste divine! However, I need to expand my no-nut offerings, so I've chosen to make this a no-nut muffin.

My favorite recipes are those that cream the fat with the sugar, which seems to make a more moist muffin in the end. If I had more time to experiment, I'd switch my other recipes to this process also, just to see if it makes a difference in how moist they are.

Mix the oil and sugar (above), then add one egg at a time (below), mixing between each egg.

 The batter thickens with each egg and mixing.

 After tasting the first batch I made, I felt that using only cinnamon made for an average-tasting spiced muffin. And reviews from others who tasted it concluded that it tasted like a zucchini bread. That's not what I was going for, so this time around, I used cinnamon, all spice, cardamom, nutmeg, and mace (some of these spices are repeats in the all spice). In this batch, because I doubled it, I used 1 tsp of each, but in a single batch, just guesstimate equal parts to make 2 1/2 tsp. :o)

 Add flour to egg mixture...

 The more gently you stir, the more moist they will be!

 Added a generous amount of shredded carrots...

 Golden raisins...

 Once, I filled the cups 2/3 full. This time, I filled them more than 3/4 full. They didn't overflow, and it made for a nice dome top, though not as high as my lemon muffin!

 SIDENOTE! I stopped for a snack while baking the muffins at 350 for 25-30 minutes. From the leftover fruit in my refrigerator, I concocted a delicious grape/strawberry/banana/yogurt/oj smootie and enjoyed it alongside my last lemon muffin. Mm-mm!

 After 30 minutes, these tasties were finally cooked through nearly all the way, so I sat them on the stovetop in the tins for five minutes before removing them to cool on a rack. Just look at how many muffins come from a double batch! A single batch produces only 6 jumbo muffins. Doubling the recipe gave me 18! That's TRIPLE! So our family is going to enjoy some of them this week.

MOIST CARROT MUFFINS

Ingredients

3 Cups grated carrots

4 large eggs

2 C flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp spices (see blog re: spices)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C sugar

1 1/4 C oil

1 1/2 C walnuts

1 C raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. In first bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In second bowl, mix sugar, vanilla, and oil together, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds each. Add flour mixture to this and stir til blended. Fold in shredded carrots, walnuts, and raisins. Divide batter into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

JEEP ACTION

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we had found a Jeep for free that 'just' needed a battery. Upon finding that batteries are $75, the jeep sat in our back forty for months on end (all winter, to be precise). A week or so ago, our landlord brought his daughter's jeep over for Tori to use as long as we live here. Now that he built a dune buggy for his 8 year old, she has no interest in her jeep!

Here is our girl, ruling the back forty with her new vehicle! She's a pro!

MY PONYTAIL BEAUTY

making a 'bird nest' from grass clippings and 'decorating it for the birds' with dandelions. :o)

And here is that BIT OF SASSAFRAS I promised...

Do you suffer from migraine headaches but don't want to be on nasty medications for the rest of your life? Try what I do! I drink feverfew tea (though it's not tasty), Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer tea, use feverfew capsules, and try to incorporate a regular intake of almonds in my diet. All but the latter (almonds) help to alleviate the headaches. A cold compress on your neck and warm compress on the back of your knees helps also. And drinking a lot of water sometimes help, if dehydration is the issue.