Nom-Able

Wordpress ate this post. Boo-urns!

For the past few days, I’ve simply, flat-out refused to edit this entry in my great strike against WordPress for nomming my (admittedly “nom-able”) entry. Damn it. I typed out an entire long rant about my hatred of raisins, complete with pithy reference to my favorite children’s book of all time, and hit publish. Bam! The entry appeared, just like I wanted it to, so I toddled off to bed, satisfied that I’d done well and gotten a post up on time.

Except the next day, when I went to copy the formatting to post a new entry about Vegan With a Vengeance and muffins, guess what? No entry.

My rage was palpable.

Suffice to say, I’m over my anger and angst — having learned the message of “forgive and forget”, over time leads to forgetting more than just your anger but also the wording of the damn post WordPress ate. It went something like this:

When I was a child, night after night without fail, when my mother came to tuck me in and read me a story, I’d always have only one that came to mind: The Monster at the End of This Book (Starring Loveably, Furry, Old Grover). Grover was not my favorite Muppet — that honor was shared between Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch — but the book took full advantage of Grover’s two character features: adorableness and stupidity.

You see, Grover is meant to be your humble narrator through this lovely, fuzzy (like him!) children’s book. But as soon as he sees the title on the first page, he has a bit of a melt down. Because Grover is scared of monsters. Each page you turn brings you closer and closer to the end of the book, where there is guaranteed to be a monster, and Grover cannot let this happen. He ties, glues, nails, and bricks closed the pages. He begs and pleads and cries in vain attempts to convince you, dear reader, to stop turning pages because there is a MONSTER at the END of the book, and with each page turned, you bring yourself (and him) one step closer to the monster!

Luckily (as you may have deduced), what Grover has failed to realize is that he is the main character of the book and is, himself, a monster. Thus (SPOILER ALERT!) he, himself, is the titular monster. It wasn’t so scary after all!

It is with this sort of apprehension and panic run amok that I approached my goal of making every muffin recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance because like Grover, I have an exaggerated, irrational fear: raisins. I hate the damn things. And at the end of the section on muffins are two recipes: Carrot Raisin Muffins and Raisin Bran Muffins.

*gulp*

Momentarily, I felt like Grover and considered tying, gluing, nailing, or even bricking shut the pages dealing with raisins, so I could pretend they did not exist. And like Grover, as I worked my way through the book, toward those two horrifying pages, I could feel the dread washing over me. But unlike Grover, I could avoid the menace of Carrot Raisin muffins with one simple substitution: Crystallized Ginger.

>Crystallized Ginger is simply ginger root that’s been cured and coated with sugar. You can buy it, finely chopped, in the spice aisle in a small jar by McCormick or Spice Islands for $11 an ounce. Or, you can go into the Asian aisle and buy it in slices you finely chop it yourself for about $2 for the same amount. I usually buy a box of Asian Gourmet, but Ty Ling brand is the same, and you can buy that brand in bulk on Amazon.com.

Carrot Ginger Muffins

INGREDIENTS
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. rice or soy milk
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 c. grated carrots
• 1/2 c. crystallized ginger (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp ginger paste

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the overn to 400; prepare muffin tin w/spray or cupcake liners
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, sugar, and salt.
3. Create a well in the center and add the milk, oil, and vanilla, stirring until just combined.
4. Fold in carrots and ginger.
5. Fill muffin tins and bake for 18-22 minutes until done.