Carrot Sheet Cake, Part 2

Last time, I laid out the recipe for the carrot sheet cake. (If you didn't see it, it's here.) Now let's ice the thing.

But first, a word about indulgences. Yes. You should have indulgences. But let them be indulgences. A frosted cake like this is not for every day, or even every other day. It's for a celebration, a party, a work, church, or synagogue event.

I guess I feel compelled to say this because Bruce and I do a fair amount of work inside the "wellness" industry. It's work we believe in. Our monthly column at weightwatchers.com ("Sundays in the Kitchen with Bruce and Mark") reflects the way we cook on a daily basis. And frankly, there aren't too many desserts in the weekly routine. We usually finish off dinner with a piece of fruit--or now, in the dead of winter, when even the citrus is getting dodgy, with some incredibly juicy dates from Oasis Date Gardens. (Check them out here.) But once in a while, we go for the carrot cake. Because it's so darn delicious.

So on to it.

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White Wine Coq au Vin

I've taken to cooking dinner for Bruce on Wednesday nights while he teaches knitting in Millerton, New York. You might not think this is much of a news flash. After all, we've written twenty-one cookbooks (that counts the ghost projects for celebs). But as I've said before, I'm the writer. I don't cook much anymore. So Wednesday nights have given me a great opportunity to get in the kitchen and create dishes on my own.

The other night, it was blustery, going down to freezing; and I wanted something warm and comforting. I wanted coq au vin. And 6:30. Not gonna happen, I thought.

As you know, true coq au vin (something like old hen with wine) is traditionally made with red wine. The tough, old layer is set in wine and aromatics overnight to soften the skin and infuse the outer surfaces of the stringy meat with some sort of flavor. In the classic interpretation, the chicken is then braised for hours and the sauce finally thickened with chicken blood. (No lie.)

As I said, not gonna happen. Not on a Wednesday night. So I set about creating a simpler coq au vin, one made with white wine, lighter by far, and with lots of vegetables. I think the vegetables are the key to a good coq au vin. It's almost as if the chicken flavors them, rather than the other way around. Sure, the meat is tender and juicy, but the vegetables really catch my attention.

So here's what I finally came up with, a dish big enough for a family supper or dinner with weekend friends. . . .

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Summer Slaw

I'm pondering all those fantastic responses to the declaration of independence post. If you haven't read through them, don't miss them here. (And thanks to everyone who has emailed me as well! It's all fodder for a new discussion, coming soon.)

Still and all, those responses at the end of the post are an excellent discussion with great honesty on the part of many--and some snarkiness, to boot.

You know I love the snark. You can't be a Southern guy lost in New England without loving the snark.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a break from thinking about all that to offer a recipe for a quick, all-vegetable slaw: all raw, no-cook, and perfect for these hot days that have descended like a scratchy wool sweater on us up here in the land of the Puritans.

This isn't going to be a recipe exactly. Rather, it's a recipe concept that you can adapt at will. So let's get to it.

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Autumnal Wheat Berry Salad

Autumn is one of the best reasons we live in New England. And one of the best reasons we live at the elevation we do (1350 feet above sea level--nothing compared to places out west but fairly high for this part of the world) is that we get astounding color. Incessant frosts begin in mid-September. This picture was taken in our backyard--and it tells the tale: a glorious colorscape.

Which also means it's time to start hunkering down. Yesterday, I chopped out withered plants in the garden while Bruce took the air conditioners out of the bedroom windows and did a little cleaning in the garage. All part of shutting the door on winter.

But not before we celebrate this season. And here's our way: a wheat berry salad that's still got all the raw goodness of summer produce while offering a little taste of the chill to come: hard roots, deep (rather than bright) flavors.

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Moo Shu Vegetables

The longer I've been in the food-writing business, the more I'm convinced that we professionals have got it backwards. The veggies shouldn't be the side dish, the afterthought on the plate's edge. They should be the center.

No, I'm not going back to being a vegetarian. (Some day, I'll tell you about my fall from grace with a steak off the grill.) As Bart Simpson says, "I love the taste of death." But there's no gainsaying that veggies deserve a much bigger place at our tables. We need to eat lots of vegetarian meals, not only for our hearts' sakes, but also for the planet's.

Problem is, in America we tend to think of vegetarian meals as a bunch of steamed, mushy broccoli on a plain plate. Simply put, "Gack."

So here's a meal that's flavorful and healthy--and vegan, to boot. Bruce even left out the egg, sometimes traditional in Moo Shu preparations. He also cut down the oil to make sure the dish wasn't some calorie-fest. We ate it straight (as it were), no rice necessary--but I can see how a little sticky rice or even medium-grained brown rice would be quite the thing.

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Cold Carrot Ginger Soup

When I met Bruce, I, the Texan, was the world traveler. I couldn't wait to crush myself into an airline seat, fly anywhere, and run up my credit cards, all to travel, tromp--and mostly eat. I just couldn't get enough.

Bruce? Not so much. He believed the world ran on an axis of Manhattan and the Hamptons with an unfortunate stretch of interstate between.

Naturally, I construed myself the well-heeled food sophisticate. With a few telling lapses. Like cold soup. I just couldn't do it. It violated the Texas prairie boy in me. Soup is hot. Period. If it's cold, it means you didn't get your butt to the table fast enough.

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