Carrot Cupcakes

I made these carrot cupcakes yesterday, from a recipe in the Harvest 2008 Penzeys spice catalog. (The recipe in the catalog is slightly different than the one online, it calls for 3/4 cup oil vs. 3/4 cup applesauce + 1/4 cup oil.) They were just what I was craving. The texture is cake-like, not heavy like banana bread. I made a Penzeys One recipe for dinner, chicken piccata. That was the second time I'd tried it, and that was good too. I'm trying to clear out old items in the freezer & fridge, and was able to use up some chicken, capers, lemon juice and pasta.

I had fun watching a bunch of Samantha Brown's "Great Weekends" shows. The San Francisco show made me homesick. The Vegas episode was fun without being sleazy. I watched the first episode of "Food Detectives" on Food Network - sorry, did not like it, the "food techs" looked like their reactions & experiments were scripted and not real. It almost seemed as if it were geared towards kids. I'm looking forward to Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" in the southwest next week. It's not likely that I'll be going to any of these places soon (aside from living in the sort of southwest), and armchair travel is the next best thing. It's increasingly difficult to find programs on TV that are not dumbed down (e.g. Food Detectives) or that don't make you want to yell at the TV.