Monthly Archives: September 2009

Time to make the Donuts. Doughnuts. Same Thing.

The girls woke up this morning and immediately reminded me that I PROMISED we’d make donuts.
I was (and am) crazy tired.
I’m all for cheating and doing this the easiest way possible. I found a super quick and eay way to make donuts thanks to Paula Deen.

Biscuit donuts.
Use a can of pre-made biscuits, lay them all out on a cookie sheet, cut the centers out with a cookie cutter, and there you have it, donuts. And holes.

My assistants, the biscuit cutter….

and the taste tester. We were going to do some of them with a cinnamon and sugar glaze, but the girls decided they wanted chocolate with sprinkles.
Brinn used that as an opportunity not to waste the sugar and cinnamon.

before:

after.

Holes, we rolled the centers into little balls-

these were so cute.

Crispy outside, fluffy inside.

The holes were gone immediately, all 12 of them.

We dunked the donuts into some chocolate frosting I had in the freezer (and microwaved)

and used our new, super cute sprinkles.

Breakfast is served (with scrambled eggs) while we watched Nightmare before Christmas.

Shaye approved.

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Buffalo Hot Wings. I mean Legs. Yep, Buffalo Hot Legs.

Today I was able to combine my Buffalonian upbringing with a decade as a southern girl. I broke out a Deep Fryer. The fryer was a Christmas gift from my awesome Aunt Diane because I wanted to start making homemade donuts. (Which I obviously haven’t gotten around to.)
Bob was craving chicken wings and it just so happened that I had chicken legs on hand.
I thought it would be worth a shot to try Buffalo legs instead. He thought the idea was so spectacular that he ran to the store and immediately bought me a monster jug of Duke’s.

Now seriously, I didn’t want my family members to come down with some nasty salmonella poisoning because I’m a deep frying virgin. I tossed the legs into the fryer on its highest setting (375) and waited for them to float (it took about 12-15 minutes, 3 at a time). Everything online said that fryer food is done if it floats…but I was nervous so I tossed the fried chicken into the oven at 350 for about 15 more minutes.
By the way- REAL wings aren’t breaded.

My house smelled exactly like a bar, so I knew I was doing it right.
Next up, REAL wing sauce. A million years ago we would frequent Anchor Bar for real, original, the first and only buffalo wings. But honestly it’s not that tough-
Hot sauce and butter.
Frank’s Hot Sauce, to be exact. And restaurants use restaurant squirt margarine.
You know the stuff.
Buffalo Wing Sauce:
1/3 of a cup of butter, 2/3 of a cup of Franks.

I dunked only the top portion of the leg so they’d be less messy. (I’m not a fool ALL of the time)
And there you have it. Cut up the celery, carrots, and blue cheese.
HUGE family hit.

Achor bar would be proud.

w:Anchor Bar located north of downtown w:Buffa...Image via Wikipedia

And Uncle Dave, we will get the donut-making perfected by Thanksgiving when you come and visit! :)

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Presto Pesto!

I was craving pesto BIG TIME, and my basil plant looked like a huge, green, Jabba the Hut. Everyone LOVES pesto, even Brinn, the world’s pickiest eater. Usually I cheat and buy it from Earthfare, but I decided to try and copy-cat their recipe. I think it took me about 10 minutes to make, which is just awesome.

So here’s my Presto Pesto:
3 cups of basil leaves (packed cups)
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
5 large cloves of garlic chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup walnuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup Parmesan Reggiano

Directions:
In the Cuisinart, blend the basil and spinach together .
Toss in pine nuts. Blend.
Walnuts. Blend.
Chopped Garlic.
While the Cuisinart is running, add the olive oil.
Stop. Add cheese. Slap lid back on, and poor in canola oil while it runs.
Then eat.

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Brinn’s Eye. Esotropia strabismus and Amblyopia, Whoa those are some big words.

Luckily they’re not anything as scary as they sound. Brinn’s left eye started to shift in towards her nose around her third birthday in June. I only noticed it when she was watching television, and it didn’t happen all of the time. As the summer went on, I noticed it happening more frequently, especially if she was tired. After 2 months, we noticed it anytime she focused on something in the distance, and the eye was starting to stick. It takes about 2 months to get an appointment CEENTA, but let me tell you, it was well worth the wait.

After 3 1/2 hrs and a bunch of tests, they diagnosed her with esotropia strabismus and amblyopia. Basically she’s cross-eyed with a lazy eye. Lazy like, she sees double so the eye doesn’t want to focus. The left eye shuts off and the right eye does all of the work, and it’s crossing because it’s not being used. The lazy eye has little to no depth perception, and she’s far sighted. They told us many children outgrow the laziness by the time they’re teens, and the eye will correct itself “crooked” wise (hopefully without any surgery). She’ll be wearing a patch for 2 hours a day, and must wear glasses all of the time.
This picture was from July, right after we got a referral from the ped.
This was Mid-August when it started to really “stick” and would turn in just because.
She was super pumped to pick out her glasses. She liked the flexible, pink, metal rimmed glasses best. I tried to talk her into something cute and funky but she wasn’t having it. She loved these tortoise shell ones in the store, but obviously they aren’t her size. Goober.
And she’s doing AWESOME with her patch! She doesn’t complain about it at all, it’s amazing how straight her eye is when she’s forced into using it.

I’ll post an updated picture when her glasses come in sometime this week! :)

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