Chicken Pad Thai {SRC}

It's the last Monday of the month which means it's time for The Secret Recipe Club!  This month I was assigned the blog Flying on Jess Fuel.  I was really excited when I got Jess' blog since she was assigned my blog last month!  She made my Vegetarian Pot Stickers.  Click here to see Jess' version.  I have to say her's look much better than the ones I made :).

15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

This is probably the quickest pasta you will ever make from scratch.  The sauce can be whipped up while the pasta is cooking.  The avocado adds a wonderful creaminess to the sauce.  I love how there is no cooking involved in making the sauce.  I mix it up in my immersion blender but you can also use a regular blender or food processor.  This pasta is best served immediately.  If you aren't a big fan of garlic you can reduce the amount used.  This pasta had a lot of sauce.  You could probably increase the amount of pasta but I like a lot of sauce.  I prefer this with rotini or fussili.  I hope you will give this a try...you will be surprised how yummy it is for so little work!

Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake and I've been searching for a great recipe for awhile.  In the end I ended up at Cook's Illustrated and of course the recipe was a winner!  I'm not a fan of a lot of icing on carrot cakes.  I find it takes away from the cake and it becomes more about the icing than the cake.  I like to have a very thin layer of cream cheese frosting.  Originally I was drizzling it on which would be a better presentation but I screwed that up and I ended up spreading it.  I tell you I always have big dreams about how I'm going to decorate a cake and in my mind it looks amazing but I have yet to execute any of my ideas well.  For this icing I used a little bit of cream cheese and mixed in some icing sugar to taste.

Saffron Rice with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts {An Edible Mosaic}

Since I've started writing this blog I've discovered so many other amazing blogs and bloggers.  One of those people is Faith Gorsky who writes An Edible Mosaic.  Faith's blog has recipes from all over the world but the ones that made me start reading Faith's blog were the Middle Eastern recipes.  We love Middle Eastern cuisine and I am always searching for great recipes.