Domestic moment

I don't know why, but for some reason working 7 hours two days in a row made me walk into my apartment and simply want to bake something. Wacky? Yes indeed. However... this is ME after all.
Over the summer my team and I were near Amish country and we went to one of their whole foods stores and I picked up some non-conventional ingredients for when I had time and inclination to play around with tastes. (its what I do...) My mom has frequented health food stores since I was little and she always would buy the bizarre flours and weird whole grains and try to substitute them for actual real white flour (you know, the kind that causes cancer that we put in everything. That one. The tasty one!!!) when she wasn't abandoning normal western eating habits altogether and overdosing on some lentil combination and forsaking bread completely. (I'm not traumatized AT ALL). So out-of-the-box powders lurking on pantry shelves is now integrated into my bloodstream but I tend to lean more on the side that still listens to taste buds.
All that to say, I picked up a pound carob powder. I bought carob powder because my mom did occasionally take pity on my poor taste buds and buy these carob bars that had seaweed and kelp in them. You didn't mind the sea stuff because the carob redeemed it. So I knew carob was one of those powders that were not only healthy but tasty. (you CAN have both in the same dish! I promise!!)
And, hoping Mom would take the hint, I generously bought her pound as well. The end to that story is that I presented it to her with a flourish and she sort of wrinkled her nose and asked what in the world one put Carob in, muttered something about how I always bring home weird things that only tribal people cook with, and the lonely little pound of carob is somewhere in exile in my parent's pantry, not being eaten. (I bring home weird things?! and how many different NON WHEAT flours are in the SDian pantry I ask? Ever so complacently and un-emphatically I ask this...)
SO. To bring it back to last night, I walked in the door and was like, "I need to cook with my carob powder." Oh, the other deciding influence you need to know about is that my friend/coworker has been giving me grief ever since I treated my hair with Henna. He's called me either Carrots (which he did immediately before ordering food at the coffee shop when I was preparing food... I ask you, does that demonstrate smarts? Logical thinking? Superiority of the graduate program over the undergrad? I think not. And I reminded the dear fellow about what happened in the movie 'Anne of Green Gables' when she was called carrots, and said that since there were no slates to break over his head I would have to improvise on his sandwich. Since he's my co worker and not an ordinary customer I can do that) OR told me that I need to put my hair in two braids and hand him a frosty, as clearly I escaped from a Wendy's restaurant advertisement. So I left work wondering if I should find some way to acquire a frosty and do something devious to it, but that would take money and I didn't want to waste money. But I did want to cook with carob.
So. I got online and googled Carob recipes. Apparently it is high in protein and very healthy. There are a few historical armies that are said to have lived off of carob right before they invaded something significant... and I came across a recipe that looked as delicious as it was healthy. So I decided to not only make it, but to post it on here should it turn out well, which apparently it did. So here ya go. For whenever you have some extra carob lying around. If you don't, I think you can substitute cocoa powder. It just won't be as healthy.


Cake: 1 cup flour, Frosting: 1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup carob 1/3 cup honey (i used 1/2 honey, 1/2 sugar for
1 tsp baking soda this part)
1/2 tsp salt 1 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup water
2/3 cup honey 1 tsp vanilla
1 mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 8 inch pan. Sift together flour, carob, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and honey until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in banana and vanilla. Beat in flour alternating with water. Stir in chopped (wal)nuts if you so desire (which I neither had nor desired)
Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted in middle comes out clean.


Frosting: Cream butter and honey until smooth. Blend in milk powder, carob powder, vanilla and water. Beat until smooth and spread on cooled cake.

The conclusion is that it came out amazing. My harassing friend and his two co-workers/my other two friends had joked when I left work that I ought to stay and close with them. Saturdays are insane, and anyone who works automatically gets several thousand years knocked off purgatory along with a few jewels in their crowns. (yes, I mixed up doctrines and theology. I did that on purpose!) I had worked from 9 to 4, and wasn't in any kind of mood to deal with a mob of voracious undergrad students. And I also knew that since I was working with all guys, guess who would be on food duty, as I am about 3 times as fast as making sandwiches as they are. I say this in all humility and it comes solely through working at Starbucks for a year and getting the 'faster than the speed of light' policy down, along with the fact that I've worked in this coffee shop two to three times as long as any of these guys. But I felt kinda sorry for them. And I had to return some theology books I had borrowed to one of them, and I knew despite the external trials and tribulations of demanding 'customers' it would have been fun to work with the three of them. So I cut three generous slices and skipped over to the coffee shop after it was thoroughly closed. The two were appropriately impressed and thankful, but the third - the one who teases me about carrot hair - didn't hear, see or smell the ambrosia-like scent wafting from the freshly cooked brownies. And I guess he didn't like the hip-hop that they were blaring full-blast. In a word, he was grumpy.
"Smile! You look awful!" I said, and he proceeded to grumble about how there was nothing to smile about, and he would only smile once the cutting-board he was bleaching was thoroughly cleaned. So I picked up the container with the brownies and held them over the counter and under his nose.
"Smell this and tell me there is nothing to smile about."
"NO! There is absolutely nothing..." and then he caught a waft... and then he inhaled deeply... and as he breathed a smile stole over his features and he began expounding upon the glories of the Lord.
I told him that i couldn't get a frosty for him and he said he hoped I could NEVER get my hands on frosties again. I also told him this was a result of his cruel harassment on my hair and it was God's sanctifying work in my heart that caused me to not only forgive him but bless him. The twirp then said that he was so thankful for Gods grace that he was going to harass me EVERY time he saw me so that I would cook more. Woops. That backfired. I said he shouldn't count on me being so receptive to conviction in the future but he said don't worry about that, he would pray conviction-resulting-in-brownies into my heart. Ha.

Anyway that is my domestic moment for the semester, as well as my compassionate, reaching out to brothers in Christ moment, so please do not count on any more sweet smells wafting out of my apartment because mid terms, group projects, papers and finals are within sight, and I think I won't have time to make anything else scrumptious for a while at least.
~Princess Ouch~