Valentine's Day Donuts

Sometime in January, a "life: beautiful" magazine fell in my lap that had a fantastic looking recipe for homemade cake donuts.  I mentally flipped through the calendar to find the next "special" day that could qualify for the possibility of a new family tradition and landed on Valentine's Day.

On Monday night I mixed up the dough.  And because Itty Bitty craves lots of chocolate, I mixed up chocolate and vanilla cake doughnut dough.  Off to the fridge it went for the night and on Valentine's morning I got to work.  Rolling, cutting, frying and glazing.  Next year, I'll only make one batch and probably the vanilla batch - with some chocolate glaze of course!  The vanilla donuts were moister and I really enjoyed the flavor more than the chocolate.  Go figure.

We discovered this morning that a few seconds in the microwave will revive the "day-old" leftovers quite nicely!  And as usual, I didn't follow the recipe to the T, so here's what I ended up making:

Vanilla Cake Donuts

3 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 Eggs
2/3 cups Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup melted Butter
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon vinegar + Milk to equal 3/4 cup

Oil for frying
Glaze or Ganache of choice

1.  Beat eggs, sugar, melted butter and vanilla on high until smooth and creamy.
2.  Put vinegar in a glass measure and top off with milk.  Add baking soda and stir.  (This is the combo I learned to use to take the place of buttermilk).
3.  Add 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and nutmeg to the egg mixture and start mixer.   Add remaining flour and milk mixture alternately and mix thoroughly.
4.  Refrigerate dough until firm, or overnight.
5.  Roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut with favorite cutters or an actual donut cutter.  I used a heart cookie cutter since they were for Valentine's day.
6.  Heat fry oil to 375 degrees and fry donuts until golden brown on each side.  1-2 minutes per side.
7.  Drain and cool on paper towels or a brown paper bag.  Glaze or toss with powdered sugar.

Sunday Sunshine

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude through giving.
As I write this, I am much more in a mood to whine and complain.  But I won't.  Instead, here are 10 things that I am thankful for this week:
1.  Tylenol (adult & childrens'). with and without Bennadryl to help with sleep.
2.  Friends who come to the rescue when I'm about to go over the edge.
3.  My energetic, healthy daughter who keeps me on my toes.
4.  My great husband who shares the joys, challenges and work of life with me.
5. French Onion Soup
6.  Full fridge and pantry
7.  Warm, spring-like days in January.
8.  Organization projects completed within budget.
9.  Lunch with friends.
10.  Finding creative ways to provide for our family and stick to the budget.

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Sunday Sunshine: Birthday Girl

3 Years Old!

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude through giving. 


Today, my baby girl turns 3.  She is a beautiful, healthy and thriving little girl and I am so thankful!  She loves the little things like balloons and streamers and snow.  She colors and plays and loves her friends.  She sings and dances and love her dance parties.  She's brought new challenges every day for the last three years that have made me equally stronger and gentler.  She's a gift and I'm so blessed to be her Mom!


Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Watch Out - Mama's Organizing!

I can't speak to the driving force that has me sorting through piles, repulsed by cluttered areas of my home and organizing like a mad-woman.  I could theorize on a couple if instigators of this organizational force that has been unleashed on my surroundings.  In five short months, give or take a week or two, we'll be bringing a new little one into our home and family and there's quite a few things to do to get ready.  But really, it's too early for nesting, right?  I'm part of a book club this year that's reading through an "organize your life" book and we're responsible for before and after photos (this at least accounts for the kitchen chaos being attacked).  Short of those two items, I have no idea, because really, I don't like cleaning!

So this week I've gone after a couple projects as a woman on a mission.  One was to clean the pantry out.   The other was to organize the bins of children's kids clothing (more on this later).

The pantry project was instigated by the book club accountability.  On a recent Thursday morning I took everything out of my pantry, dusted, cleaned and replaced.  The honest words of G-Tot summed it up:  "Mommy, there's a lot of dirt in there!"  Yup, there was.  It was almost like it hadn't been completely cleaned out since we moved in or something.  Ahem.  I was concerned that there was going to be a lot of food that was going to have to be thrown out, but there wasn't.  And I was pleasantly pleased that there weren't too many surprises in my pantry either.

Organizing my spices was another project I tackled the same morning.  I had spices residing in two different locations in the kitchen and never really knew what was where.  So I sorted, combined and consolidated.  They still live in two different places, but I know what lives where.  Large bottles and bulk spices to refill smaller containers in the pantry and all the "normal" size spice containers are in the drawer.  It's a much better arrangement.

Here are some before and after shots of the pantry and spice drawer.

Spices Sorting:

Spices After:

Pantry Before: 

Pantry After: