Yet another carrot cake

I made a carrot cake for my dad's birthday last month. I tried one made with applesauce substituted for some of the oil using this recipe. I made as instructed by the recipe except the baking time, 40 -50 minutes for a 9 in cake? Sound much too long to me. I ended up baking about 30 minutes but it still ended up being dry. I added lemon extract to the frosting instead of vanilla because I prefer the taste of lemon with carrot cake. The pecans I used may have been going bad according to my dad. They didn't expire until May but I don't like the taste of nuts so I can't tell if they have started going rancid. This recipe wasn't a keeper for me.

Blueberry Muffins

I have a ton of blueberry muffin recipes bookmarked but I was looking for an easy one and I found one at Mom's Fridge that turned out very well.

I didn't have a lemon so I skipped the zest. Next time I will add some extract; vanilla, lemon, almond; something to kick up the flavor a notch.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter (no substitutes)
1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed
sugar for topping


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Put muffin papers in 12 regular size muffin pan cups. Set aside.

Stir together flour, the 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside.

Combine eggs, milk, butter, and lemon peel; add all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each almost full. Sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until golden. Cool in muffin cups on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups. Makes 12.

Chicken Lo Mein

I am such a  bad blogger, I haven't posted since September. I've cooked a lot and taken photos of plenty of dishes but I haven't been in a mood to write. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things so I'm posting about last nights dinner.

Lo mein isn't my favorite thing but I had all the ingredients on hand so I thought I'd try it anyway. It didn't taste much like take out but it wasn't bad. I made extra sauce but it ended up being too saucy and the sauce was much too thick so I would recommend cutting back on the cornstarch. I added some red pepper flakes to the leftovers to give it a little kick, that made it a little less bland.

I found the recipe at Mom's Fridge and it was okay but i don't think it will go into permanent rotation.