-
Beignets!
I’m out in the sticks visiting my family for a few days and everything here reminds me of all the things I love about summer. It’s hotter than heck, as it always is in the high desert. The apricots are falling off the trees, leaving that sticky sweet fermented smell in the air. Days are spent hiding out in a darkened house, listening to the fans blow or plunked down in a kiddie pool wearing a too-small bikini you haven’t seen 1999. I love it all.
While I was out here, CC surprised us by making beignets for breakfast the other day. She was going to stay up late the night before and make special dough just for the occasion but something happened with her iphone alarm clock or whatever and she ended up just using that store-bought biscuit dough that comes in one of those pop-cans instead. No loss for us, they were delicious!
It took me right back to New Orleans where I first discovered these lovely fried doughnut things. All we needed was some chickory coffee and a few vampires. I looked and looked all over my computer for my old pictures from New Orleans but I think they were sadly lost in the crash of 2006. I know I have them somewhere on a cd but man, trying to find a batch of photos in my boxes and boxes of archived images is worse than finding a needle in a haystack. One of these days…maybe when Bug is in school I’ll tackle that project.
In the meantime maybe you’d like to try a batch of beignets at home!
First you roll out your dough really thin. CC said the most important thing she figured out was it’s super important to keep the dough cold. She worked with small batches and kept the remaining in the freezer while she was pounding and rolling.
Then you cut up small 2-inch squares or rectangles from the dough and fry them in about 1 cup of oil. Lots of recipes say to fry in enough oil to cover the beignets but I watched CC and she didn’t use that much. I think you just have to turn them a lot. When they are toasty and golden, remove them from the pan and let them cool on some paper towels.
Then drop them in a bag with a bunch of powdered sugar and shake, shake, shake!
Shake your Bootay! (You’ll need to shake it a lot to counteract all the calories you’ll soon be consuming.)
And then go enjoy them in the backyard so you don’t get powdered sugar all over the place!
-
Gymnastics!
Did I tell you? Bug is in gymnastics! That’s her on the right in black on the balance beam. Wait for a minute, you’ll see her highlighted. I’d take a better photo but I think they have a no-photography policy at this gym. I am so excited that she’s involved in some sort of activity again.
Ballet practice sort of fizzled out a long time ago when I realized that the ballet studio was taking money directly out of my checking account when we were on vacation. I’m sure it was some small print I failed to read but what I thought was a super good deal turned out to not be a deal at all. Too bad too because it was really nice having fun classes for Bug to take within walking distance. She does miss them but mama’s budget can only support so many activities.
So now I’m paying for gymnastics lessons and I feel pretty good about it. The lessons are serious business. Not like scary coaches yelling but really good one-on-one training. The teachers treat every child like they might be a future olympian. Which they might! The gym is huuuuge. I wouldn’t be surprised if some Olympians did train there.
So far she’s learned the “pizza hang” and the “possum hang” on the bars—which is basically a straddle hang and a sideways hang… If you know us in real life I’m sure she’s already told you all about it. She’s very proud of herself.
I always wanted to take gymnastics when I was a kid. I’m still to this day ashamed that I never could do a cartwheel. Bug calls them “cartonwheels.” So I’m super happy Bug might break that cycle. She seems to take to it pretty well. But it’s only been two classes so we’ll see.
