I may have created a monster.

We had a couple of leftover oranges from making the glazed short ribs and some cranberry-orange muffins, so after nap I made Iris some fresh squeezed OJ. As I juiced the oranges, Iris kept saying, “Fresh…squeezed…OJ,” sound pretty much exactly like Ren Hoek saying “Forty-seven MILLION dollars?”

Iris has had OJ from concentrate plenty of times, so there’s something very reassuring about her having an intuitive sense that fresh OJ is better, even if it means there will be a lot of juicing in my future. Or maybe she just enjoys watching me work.

Today when I went back to the store for more oranges, I noticed that my local QFC sells Seville oranges, which I’m always reading about but have never actually seen before. So I bought a few, and we’ll see what I can come up with.

Maybe you’ve seen those pads, sold at some supermarkets, that have a huge list of grocery items with a checkbox next to each. You’re supposed to check things off as you realize you need them, then take the list to the store.

I bought one of those years ago and found it less than useful. We always ended up needing things not on the list (why the list doesn’t have fish sauce on it I’ll never understand) and then checking three items, which felt wasteful. We switched to a magnetic list pad with a picture of a cat on it. I got eight of them for like $5 from Miles Kimball. We also have a little pen holder on the fridge. For grocery shopping, it works perfectly.

But then there are the special trips. Trader Joe’s. Costco. Whole Foods. Often we’ll go to one of these stores in search of something special, but also want to grab some regular items (such as diapers, Trader Joe’s caramels, and Prince Charles Biscuits). We tried taping a separate list to the fridge, but ended up intermixing items from multiple stores and mixing greatest-hits items with one-timers. And what do you do, bring the list along and then remember to tape it back up when you get home?

It was time to go online. We set up a Shopping page on [Backpack](http://backpackit.com/?referrer=BP2WJ), a website that might be called a place to upload your brain. Any time I have some random piece of information to write down, I put it somewhere on Backpack. This has saved a lot of Post-Its. It’s free to sign up and create up to five pages; I liked it so much I subscribed.

Now when we’re heading to Costco or Joe’s, we can consult the Backpack page and be reminded, oh yeah, we also need a Pound Plus bar, which is a huge chocolate bar allegedly used for baking. We write down what we actually need on a paper list, head to the store, and don’t come back smacking our heads because we forgot the ravioli.

Laurie and I can both add and delete items from our Backpack page. You can’t, but you’re welcome to have a look.

The short ribs were excellent. Susie Middleton was right. I am planning to live off them from here on out.

I realized that I’ve never given the recipe for Iris’s favorite carrots. These are suitable for kids of any age, or adults, and Iris has been known to eat several entire carrots’ worth at a sitting.

Peel as many **carrots** as you can fit in your skillet and cut them into 1/4 inch slices. Mince a **shallot**, or a bit of onion if you have no shallots. Melt some **butter** in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and cook for about a minute, then throw in the carrots and **salt** to taste. Give them a good stir, then let them cook for a couple of minutes. Stir again, then let them brown again. You want the vegetables to get a little color. Add a pinch (or more) each of **ground ginger** and **cumin** and stir to combine. Add liquid to just cover the bottom of the pan. I used the braising liquid from the short ribs, but chicken broth or water are fine. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are very tender, about 15-20 minutes. If the bottom of the pan gets dry, add water as needed. Uncover, boil off any remaining liquid, top with freshly ground **pepper**, and serve.

Do you know the braising liquid dilemma? If you reduce your braising liquid down to less than a cup, you have an incredibly silky and rich sauce–but less than a cup of it. If you don’t reduce that far, you have plenty of sauce, but you keep thinking about how much richer and silkier the sauce would be if only….

The February/March 2006 issue of Fine Cooking is awesome. Here’s a link to the table of contents, but it’s going to break when the next issue comes out. Some of the highlights are a gratin of winter greens; roasted chicken thighs; braised short ribs; and rice noodle stir-fries. I love winter cooking.

Last night’s dinner was almost entirely from Fine Cooking. I made Yukon Gold home fries with my home-rendered lard and that smoked Spanish paprika I got at Penzey’s. I had some nice pancetta, broccoli, and purple garlic sitting around, so I made the slow-cooked broccoli from the previous issue of Fine Cooking. Iris especially enjoyed the sticky, crunchy garlic slices. Then, when the potatoes were done, I scrambled a few eggs in the same pan so they picked up a bit of paprika.

Before dinner I rubbed some short ribs with an Asian spice rub, and today I will braise them. This is from a Molly Stevens article, also in the current Fine Cooking. As editor Susie Middleton put it, “Seriously, I could live off the Asian-Glazed Braised Short Ribs,” so if they’re not good I’m going to call her up and be all, “Twenty aught-six is hosed, dude.”

Then, to celebrate the end of 2005, Laurie and I drank some Moscato d’Asti, watched a classic Scrubs episode, and went to bed at eleven.

One of Iris’s favorite books of the year was Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans. There are many books about cupcakes, but most of them seem to be more about making frosting roses or providing a souvenir than about making great-tasting desserts.

I’m all for hitting up Magnolia to mack on some cupcakes, but cupcakes are easy to make at home, and Klivans’s book has some great ideas. It also has pictures, which Iris has been identifying (“nutty,” “crumb,” “chocly”) since before she was one-and-a-half. There’s nothing in it that wouldn’t be appealing to kids, but nothing looks like a Baskin-Robbins clown cone, either–not even the cupcakes served in ice cream cones.

Iris selected the White Mountain Chocolate Cupcakes (aka “creamy”), which are supremely tender cakes topped with seven-minute frosting, something I’d never heard of before Laurie made these cupcakes. It’s called seven-minute frosting because you beat it for seven minutes. It’s basically a meringue, and it tastes like marshmallows.

People often say that cupcakes are just a vehicle for frosting, but in Iris’s case, the cupcake and frosting together are vehicles for sprinkles. There was much discussion over which kind of sprinkles Iris would have, and she ended up with colorful sanding sugar. Later she ate some polka-dot sprinkles, just plain.

I often cut up food for Iris even though she doesn’t really need the help anymore. We let her attack the cupcake whole. She got so much frosting on her face that it looked like she’d been on fire and we had to unload the extinguisher on her.

Next year I’m hoping Iris will request the Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes, because for me, a cupcake is just a vehicle for chocolate mousse.