Happy Birthday to Ralph in an RV

 Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time knows that I cook for our neighbor, Ralph. I cook for Ralph because he really loves what I create and he's not afraid to try new foods and he's been on this culinary world journey with us for a long, long time. It's not that Ralph can't cook...Ralph is quite an accomplished cook. He makes the BEST banana bread that I have ever had. But, we've sort of adopted Ralph. He's family. Him and Dixie Doodle. When we go grocery shopping, we automatically shop for 3 people. It's just as easy to cook for 3 as it is for 2. Don't get me wrong...I have made stuff that Ralph doesn't care for and he'll honestly tell me. I appreciate that. I'd rather have someone tell me, "Hey...that was too spicy!" or "I don't think this was sweet enough." than I would have some tell me, all generic-like, that my food is fine when it's not.
Anyhow...yesterday, December 31st, was Ralph's birthday. I know that Ralph is in his mid-60's. I do not know exactly how old Ralph is. I know that Ralph's all-time favorite meal is ham. We celebrated Ralph's birthday, RV-style.

 Yesterday morning started out spectacular!! Look at this sunrise!!

 It was amazing...

 So colorful...

 Beautiful...

 Fire in the sky...

 But...

 There is some truth to the old adage...

 Red in the morning,

 Sailor take warning...

 because by noon, we had snow on the ground.

 Not a biggie, I don't mind if it snows on holidays when we've no place to go.

 It is pretty to look at.

 But, we've got a Q to get going...BBQ, that is!

 The show must go on and I wasn't about to disappoint Ralph and not make his favorite for his birthday.

 I have an EBOoS (Easy Bake Oven on Steroids) (Hey...if Rachael Ray can do her whole EVOO thing, I'm lazy, too...I have an EBOoS)!!

 The ham wouldn't fit in my oven, so we baked it on the grill. It's not hard to do. Put it in a foil pan, cover it with foil, turn on the side burners on low, close the lid and let'er rip! This also works extremely well for meatloaf, by the way.

 I had all the ham drippings so I made some gravy. Ham gravy over...

 mashed potatoes. Real potatoes. Real butter. Real half & half.

 I keep going back to yesterday's sunrise because it was so dang cool!!

 This snow sure makes a mess of things...and I hate it when it melts...we have to wade through SOUP!

 Anyhow, mashed potatoes with ham gravy...

 The Q-baked spiral ham. Oh, that's a brown sugar glaze on the top...it was the packet that came with the ham.

 Ralph's birthday dinner last night.

And, seriously...what birthday is complete without a birthday cake???  This is a recipe that I came up with after looking at several for inspiration and not really finding THE ONE. That happens to me more often than not. I cannot find THE ONE. So, I create one. These are carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Baked Lava's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
***makes 6 jumbo cupcakes and a bonus 9x9 cake***

2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons apple pie spice (I use Penzey's brand)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil (use applesauce if you are looking for something without oil)
1 teaspoon double strength vanilla (I use Watkins brand)
1 teaspoon rum extract
2-3 large carrots, peeled and grated
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins (if I would have had them on hand, I would have used mixed raisins, but gold raisins would be awesome, too)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare jumbo muffin pan by putting in paper liners or using a non-stick spray. If you use the spray, I would probably go ahead and flour them, too, just so they don't stick. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch glass cake pan, too...you'll need it.
3. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, apple pie spice, ginger, nutmeg and salt together into a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Combine sugar, eggs, oil (or applesauce, if that's what you're using) and extracts in a large bowl. Beat until thoroughly combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined...don't over mix.
6. Stir in carrots, pineapple, coconut and raisins.
7. Fill muffin cups with batter about 7/8's full. Pour remaining batter into the 9x9 cake pan.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean. The cake will take a bit longer...mine took around 50 minutes to bake. Just keep an eye on it and keep checking it.
9. When the cakes are done, remove from oven and cool in muffin pan for 15 minutes. Remove from muffin pan and cool completely.
10. Frost those suckers with....


Cream Cheese Frosting
***This is a basic recipe that I tweaked somewhat***

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon rum extract
1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
A couple of grates of fresh nutmeg

1. Combine everything and beat together. You may need more than 2 cups of powdered sugar to get to the consistency you want, but that's all I needed was 2 cups.

The frosting is a very forgiving recipe and doesn't need to be precise. Just play around with it. If you don't have rum extract, use vanilla. Nothing is written in stone. Fool around with the ingredients and have fun with it.

I will say that my carrot cake recipe is kick-ass and it is the right amount of sweet versus the other ingredients. I did not add nuts because...well...there are some of us that have a hard time eating nuts. If you want nuts, add 1/2 cup of chopped-whatever-you-want-to-add...walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts would be awesome, too. Expensive, but awesome.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this recipe...PEACE!