Carrot Bread and Crackers

I've been doing a bit of baking lately to supply myself with breakfast and snacks. I've started making a Raisin Walnut Carrot Bread, which I found on Everyday Health. I like this recipe because it's fairly low calorie compared to all the other tasty breakfast breads out there. For some reason, my bread bakes in about half the time of the recommended recipe time so heads up if you try this recipe. I've been using carrots from the Worthington Winter Market, golden wheat flour from Stutzman Farm that we got at the North Market, egg from Carousel Watergardens Farm which we got at Columbus Winter Market, the sugar we got at Meijer and is Pioneer Sugar from sugar beets, the remaining ingredients are things we have from before we took on the challenge. However, I do believe I can find walnuts at the Worthington Winter Market or at the North Market. I have been omitting the vanilla because we used up the last of that some time ago and haven't ordered more from Fair Trade dealers yet. I haven't felt like anything is lacking in the recipe as a result of that.
Today, I also took my first shot at making crackers using this basic cracker recipe from Towards Sustainability. For 3/4 of the flour, I used our Stutzman golden wheat again, but then I ran out and had to use a little bit of our remaining all purpose flour. The butter is Ohio Amish butter and the salt is what we have left from before the challenge. The crackers were fairly simple to make (and would be easier if I knew how to use a rolling pin any better than a wild monkey). The crackers were definitely ready at 12 minutes rather than 15, so alas, my first batch was a little dark. I think they still tasted okay though. I made them to bring to a potluck at work where I will serve the crackers with Jacob's Old World Smoked Swiss, Walnut Creek Summer Sausage, Meadow Maid Baby Swiss, and Meadow Maid Cheddar. I'm looking forward to seeing peoples' reactions when they get confused because the cheddar isn't bright orange.

Awesome Easy Pasta!

I whipped together a simple pasta recipe that I just had to share.

Ingredients

-Pasta (whatever you can get your hands on, we used our last box of conventional rigatoni, we usually buy our local pasta at the Clintonville Coop)

-14 oz. canned diced tomatoes plus one (optional) fresh tomato (We got local our tomatoes from Carfagna's)

-2 cloves garlic minced (local from the North Market)

-1/4-1/2 onion chopped (local from Columbus Winter Market)

-1 cooked Gerber's chicken kielbasa, thinly sliced (local from Hill's Market)

-1/2 cup or more mozzarella cheese (local from Worthington Market)

-1-2 tsp. dried basil

-1-2 tsp. dried oregano

-1-2 tsp. salt

-1-2 tsp. pepper

-Approx. 3 tbs. chicken broth (we freeze our chicken broth in ice cube trays, so we used one cube)

-1 tbs. oil

Directions

-Cook pasta.

-While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add onions and garlic, add broth, and saute until onion is soft. Add sausage, tomatoes, herbs, and spices and simmer until heated through, stirring occasionally.

-Drain pasta and put back in the pot. Pour the skillet contents over the pasta and mix. Add the mozzarella cheese and mix again.

-We recommend serving this with some local mixed lettuces (we got ours from Northridge Organic farm)!