Raised Glazed

So this morning, my children inquired as to whether or not I was inclined to make doughnuts any time in the near future.  I took this as an opportunity to bribe... er, uh... positively reinforce desirable behavior.  I agreed to make deliciously baked delicacies as long as they refrained from poor judgement when in each other's presence.  Okay so basically, I promised them food if they wouldn't fight.  Yes, it has come to this.  Now you know what I'm willing to pay for peace and tranquility.. or at least the illusion of it.

 My recipe (and by "my" I mean Betty Crocker's) isn't a bread machine recipe per se, but as long as I put all the wet ingredients plus the salt in first, followed by the flour and sugar, keeping the yeast last and separated from the wetness, it works.  This recipe is a bit larger than most I make so I had to be sure to take it out as soon as the hour and a half was up.  Even then, the dough was beginning to ooze its way out of the mixing bucket.

yes, I stole this image from Amazon...
SO if you want to buy this book, buy it there. :)

It brought to memory a favorite childhood book.  "Homer Price" by Robert McCloskey... who coincidentally also wrote "Blueberries for Sal"... but that's another day.  The collection of short stories about a young boy named Homer was written in 1943.  Its wonderfully simple, vintage illustrations just scream "school library".  One of the stories tells about Homer and his encounter with Uncle Ulysses's doughnut machine.  I don't remember everything, but I do recall the machine goes haywire, cranking out doughnuts in a very "I Love Lucy" sort of scene...great book.

So the ingredients are put in, the machine turned on, dough comes out the top...

I rolled the dough about a 1/2 inch thick and cut out the doughnuts.  One of the best things about making doughnuts is that it's inevitable that you will make doughnut holes as well.. BONUS!  Doughnuts (and holes) got placed on parchment paper and covered to rise for about 30 minutes.

This was about when I realized I didn't have enough oil in which to fry the doughnuts.  I'm sure this never happens to Rachel Ray... SHE has a staff.  Heading down to the garage, I grabbed my car keys and slipped on my shoes.  That's when I met up with my dear husband, doing his dear husband thing.  He's halfway through waxing both cars.  He noticed the purse... Lucky for me the KwikStar is just down a block, and even though I had to pay astronomical prices, I got two bottles of oil, a little exercise, and a diet Pepsi for my trouble.


I heated the oil to
350 and plopped those bad boys right in.  Oh, the sound of food frying in 3 inches of pure vegetable oil is wonderful thing.  The first time I made doughnuts I used a spatula to turn them over, but now I like to use two wooden skewers.  Not nearly as messy.  After about a minute of frying, I flipped them over one by one.  Another minute in the oil bath, then they got hoisted onto a paper towel laid over a cooling rack.   This process repeated several times.

 Some were buried in powdered sugar, some were twisted in glaze and still others were iced with chocolate.  The holes were dropped into a paper sack filled with powdered sugar and given a nice shake.  They were handed out to the natives before dinner to keep them from getting too restless.


The kids held up their end of the bargain... as far as I know, and I took great joy in watching them feast on their reward.

 Good thing I had that
Diet Pepsi earlier.  It cancels out the doughnut... right? ;)

P.S. Deaconess Sarah, if you're reading this, Pastor will be bringing some in to the office in the morning.  Make sure he shares.

A Beast of a Dinner

So tonight during dinner, my husband complimented me by saying, "Great dinner, hun."   To which my teenager added, "Yeah, it was a beast!"

I figured that warranted a blog entry.

Tonight's dinner was pretty easy.  BBQ pulled pork sandwhiches and coleslaw.
It starts around noon. I put a 3lb. boneless pork shoulder into the crockpot.  Using a seasoning packet for crockpot BBQ Pork, I followed the directions for the sauce and poured it over the pork.  Cover and cook on high for at least 4 hours.  Later when it was done, I used two forks to pull apart the meat.

We like to use divided plates for messy meals.  Mine is pink :)

Next my attention went to the rolls.  Using "My favorite dough recipe" (from a previous blog entry) I added the ingredients to the bread machine and set it for "dough".  Later, I measured and shaped the dough into sandwhich rolls, letting them rise for an hour or so.

The coleslaw is an imitation of KFC's coleslaw, and my husband's favorite.  I used bagged slaw and just made the sauce for it.  Here's the recipe:

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4  cup milk                          
1/4 cup buttermilk*
2 1/2 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS white vinegar
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or miracle whip)

*I don't usually have buttermilk on hand so I increase the milk to 1/2 cup and just pour the lemon juice into the milk and let it thicken for a few minutes.  Then I add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Whisk all the ingredients together and pour over slaw. Toss and then refrigerate 2+ hours.

Now, I have never lived in the South, but I do watch The Food Network... hmmm strange sentence.  What I mean is I have watched OTHERS from the South make BBQ pulled pork, and I have noticed a common occurrence;  the putting of the coleslaw ON the pork IN the sandwich.  YUM!  I'm the only one in my family who enjoys this combination of creamy-cold and spicy-sweet, however, I highly recommend it!

Open a can of baked beans or a jar of applesauce and you have a very tasty and easy meal.  :)

yummy