Bake Sale!

Happy Friday!!

I am a toddler teacher at a Montessori school here in Birmingham.  We operate on a school schedule which means it is SuMmEr!  We have summer camps throughout and this year I am actually working a lot with the camps.  For June there was an art camp for my toddlers!  We painted and painted and painted and painted!  If you have never had 11 two year olds for two weeks and painted everyday, I suggest you DO IT!  :-)  There is something amazing about watching a child experience painting with spaghetti noodles or spray painting a shirt they can actually wear home or making coasters for Mom and Dad.  Their little eyes light up the moment the color hits the canvas. 

This week I am working with some pretty exciting preschoolers in a camp called Healthy Habits.  What does that even look like for 3, 4, and 5 year olds???? For me it looks like cooking and talking about food.  Cooking?  With a 3 year old?  With real knives and hot convection ovens and real food?  YEP! That's right!  This week we have made yogurt parfaits, fresh guacamole, mini pizzas, juiced fruit to make popsicles, and roasted potatoes.  More is on tap for next week too.  My kids love it.  When asked to help me cook, they jump at the chance and almost race to see who can get in the chair next to me first --- after they wash their hands of course. 

Healthy habits all begin in the kitchen.  I love to cook, bake, and all things kitchen.  When WDD and I started dating and shortly thereafter got engaged, he learned exactly how much I loved the kitchen.  After work everyday I would head to his house and we would cook dinner together.  Once we were married, he was in for the shock of his life.  Pancakes for breakfast.  Homemade bread.  Sautéed vegetables.  The works. 

WDD's mom always has some sort of sweet goody baking and his dad makes it all from cheese cauliflower to pizza on the grill.  He, however, never really made a whole lot more than reservations. 

In the past two-ish years we have learned a lot about each other and our likes/dislikes in the food realm.  At first I sort of shunned WDD from the kitchen.  It was MY domain.  MY happy place.  As time wore on I learned how fun it is to share that with him.  To come together to make a delicious meal we will then eat together, how great is that?!  Pretty great, I tell ya. 

I yearn to pass along the joy of cooking to our future children.  I see flour all over the cabinets, eggs dropped and broken on the floor, butter in a heaping pile, and smiles, lots and lots of smiles. 

WDD and I are hosting a bake sale to help aid in getting that Baby Doop home.  We have been blessed beyond measure already by the outpouring of love and support, but this is a long and trying process that includes many many fundraisers and hard work.  Take a look!  Give us a shout! Eat some amazing food!

Freedom Donuts!

Happy birthday, America!!

Fireworks, friends, freedom, and FOOD! That is what July 4th is all about right? :-)

I am incredibly blessed to be an American citizen.  We celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence by making BBQ, being with family and friends, and remembering the brave men and women who fought for our freedom so many years ago. Thankfully, there are still men and women today who sacrifice to keep us free. 

This year WDD and I celebrated A LOT! Our church, Westwood Baptist, hosted a fireworks show.  We got to see some incredible fireworks and hang out with some dear friends of ours.  Oh, yeah, and eat! Then we went to Logan Martin Lake and spent some time with our family swimming, grilling, and enjoying each other.

Let's get back to the eating part......for our gathering at church, we decided to make homemade donuts! Who doesn't like donuts??

First, lets get all of the essentials: butter (LOADS of butter!), milk, eggs, flour, yeast, sugar, powdered sugar, and of course, vanilla!

Pardon my sippy cup.....I can be found with a cup of water/kool aid/sweet tea/etc at all times. It is slightly a necessity.

Yep, you see that correctly, *NSync playing in the background.  Who doesn't listen to boy bands while baking?

Okay, okay. Back to the task at hand....

This strange looking goodness is the yeast mixing with  milk becoming active.  The bubblier and stranger it looks, the better.

Bow chica wow wow!

Everybody needs a smokin' hot kitchen assistant.

Mine is beating the eggs for me before we mix them in. Here is a little tip that I have learned: if a recipe calls for eggs, always always always beat them a little before pouring into the mixture.  I don't have a technical reason why, it seems to mix smoother and a smidge faster. 

So, obviously, I missed a few steps.

Mix all of the dry ingredients.

Add in the wet ingredients.

Mix until the dough clings to your dough hooks and comes easily off the sides of your mixing bowl.

Generously flour your counter.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness.  I made mine about 1/4 thick and wish I would have left it a little thicker in the end.

If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin, or glass cup if you are like me and don't have a rolling pin, keep sprinkling flour on the dough to keep it from sticking.

I also do not own donut cutters or biscuit cutters so I use a glass cup and a Champaign flute.

 Maybe one day I will break down and purchase these items.  Probably not though, I keep things old school around here! :-)

Use your bigger glass to cut out all of the donut outsides.

Pick up the excess unused dough. 

Use the smaller glass to cut out the middle of the donut to make the donut hole.

We floured three cookie sheets to put the uncooked donuts on after being cut out.

After all of the donuts are cut out and on a cookie sheet, cover with a kitchen towel, let sit for an hour or more to rise. 

Grab an iron skillet or a semi deep pan from the cabinet.

Fill the pan about half way with oil.  The original recipe calls for canola, but I used vegetable because it was what I have.

Turn the heat on medium to medium high.  You want to keep your oil hot enough to cook the dough within 30 seconds but not have the oil soak into the dough.  This is a tricky temperature, for me at least.  I tend to get my oil too hot then have I have to remove the pan from the eye to cool a bit.

Flip the donut after about 15 seconds.  Cook the other side for about 15 seconds. 

Pull out of the oil and put it on paper towel to dab off the excess oil.

Place on a cooling rack. 

There is no way you will be able to glaze these jokers right away.

Lets make some glaze!

In a medium bowl mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and butter.

It will become a beautiful and tasty glaze right before your eyes!

Go ahead, taste it!  Your life will be changed forever.

After the donuts have cooled enough to handle, place a donut into the glaze.  Remove from glaze and place back onto the cooling rack.  If the donut is still pretty warm, the glaze will not stick very well. 

Once the glaze dries, you can dunk again for a second coat.  I highly recommend this step. 

You will fill up that cooling rack pretty quickly, so keep those cookie sheets handy to help the glaze dry.

You might notice there are less donut holes in the container than in the original picture.  You might wonder where those donut holes went. 

You can continue to wonder, because I'm not telling!

This is the Pioneer Woman's donut recipe and can found here http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/homemade-glazed-doughnuts/

The glaze was modified from the Pioneer Woman's.  It found it here:http://www.blessthismessplease.com/2012/07/pioneer-womans-glazed-donuts.html

Enjoy!  I know WDD and I did!