Cupcakes & Peanuts!

Last night, I visited my parents in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They had an Easter basket for me (yea, I'm almost 30 and I still get Easter baskets...my parents are awesome!), so I drove an hour to visit and retreive my goodies. Inside the basket was a copy of "The Complete Vegan Kitchen" by Jannequin Bennett, a nice sauce pan (which didn't actually fit inside the basket), a cute black Hello Kitty purse, a lavendar-flavored Dagoda dark chocolate bar, some almonds and mixed nuts, and a bag of Cracker Jacks (totally vegan!).

Of course, my mom had already cracked open the cookbook before I arrived to whip up some Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting.



These are DELECTABLE! In fact, I'm eating one right now. The cake part contains no white sugar, but instead is sweetened with molasses and maple syrup. And she used whole wheat pastry flour and soy flour. The icing recipe came off the internet and called for Tofutti Cream Cheese. She didn't think she'd like the frosting recipe in the cookbook, which had a silk tofu base.

My daddy had been working on a batch of Cajun Boiled Peanuts for a full day before I got there.



They take 22 hours in a Crock Pot, so he started them the day before. I'd never had boiled peanuts until last year when my parents and I took a road trip to New Orleans...we stopped at a little rural gas station and they had spicy Cajun boiled peanuts for sale. I had to try them. My dad and I were pleasantly surprised. He thought he'd hate them. Now he makes his own version of the spicy nuts we ate that day. If you've never had a boiled peanut (it's totally a Southern thing), you crack open the shell and dig out the soft nut. It's the texture of a cooked bean. And they taste a little like beans. Yum!