Mini Doughnuts

Mmmm...doughnuts...

I bought a mini donut pan a couple of weeks ago to bake (=healthy) some doughnuts. In scouring the internet, I kept reading that the recipe that came with the pan was horrific but that the pan was pretty fun. I found a vegan recipe and somewhat de-veganed it for my own purposes and created some pretty tasty and cute doughnuts this morning!

Here's the recipe:

Baked Mini Donuts

Dry ingredients:
1c all purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground nutmeg (yes, i really did grate a nutmeg this morning!)
1/8 t cinnamon

Wet ingredients:
1/2 c vanilla soymilk (i kept this part in)
1/2 t cider vinegar
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
4 T butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients and set aside.

In a sauce pan, add in soymilk, vinegar, vanilla and butter. Set the heat to low and let it warm up slowly. When the butter is about 1/2 melted, add in the egg and stir wildly to combine. You don't want this liquid to be so hot that it cooks that egg and scrambles it so be sure everything is a nice baby's bottle temperature at the most.

When the butter is fully melted and the egg incorporated, add it into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Spray mini donut pan with baking spray and, using a small spoon or pastry bag, load in batter to about 1/2 - 2/3 full. Bake for about 15 minutes or until browned. I suppose you could cook them longer if you want them super brown but they might get tougher on you. Transfer to a cooling rack.

When slightly warm you can roll them in sugar, cinnamon sugar or wait until they are cooled and dip them in a glaze or chocolate! I used all four methods and I'd say we liked the milk glaze the least. My favorite was the milk chocolate glaze with nuts (not pictured...whoops). For the chocolate glaze I mixed lightly melted milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips with milk until the desired consistency. Dip in the chocolate then dunk in the nuts. Yummmmmmms.

Yield: 24 mini doughnuts

Miss you guys

So our friends Janet, John and Henry moved away this past week. It's been sad to see their place from our usual perch with the binoculars and telescope (just kiddin) without them in it. We'll miss you guys, our easy walk over with food from across the street, being yelled at by Henry as I head out to work, being taunted by Janet still in her pjs and preventing the police from needlessly ticketing John's truck. It's going to be pretty boring around here without you.

Happy Birthday Declan & Henry!

Declan and Henry's birthdays are 10 days apart so they have the pleasure of celebrating them together...but like 100 times at everyone's houses over that 10 day span. We did our first celebration of their birthdays at our house the other day. I thought this series of photos was pretty funny.

Don't mention the store bought cake. Thank you. It's been so hot in our apartment that it's really not good to crank up the oven. Ryan said they wouldn't care one bit. Of course, when I put the cake down, Declan's first words were, "Did you make it?" I said, "No." He went, "AW." in a disappointing decrescendo. I did write "Happy Birthday" on it, added dinosaur sprinkles and white icing flourishes to the edges. Whichever, it kind of made me feel better in a way that he noticed...and likes my baking so much. :)

I love the rainy night

Growing up in Missouri, we had tornado sirens going off at least once a school year. We'd all practice running into the hallway, tucking up in a ball and waiting until the teacher said we could finally get back to our desks. I always liked the fire drills better since those you could at least go outside and talk to your friends. The tornado drill just made you intimately familiar with the dust bunnies down the corridor and the smell of pencil shavings that somehow permeated my uniform skirt.

Chicago doesn't seem to get tornadoes. Every lay person has their theory like, "the buildings are too tall, it just can get over here" or "the lake breaks up the pressure so we'll never have a tornado in the city." I don't know what the real story is (and clearly I don't care enough to look it up) but I'm usually comforted in knowing my house won't be swept up and thrown onto a witch anytime soon.

Last week we had an incredible storm here. The tornado sirens started going off and the emergency service kicked on our TV specifically giving a shout out to Rogers Park as in the path of imminent destruction. Ryan and I ran into the basement and sat on the floor hoping we wouldn't lose our electricity. Our basement neighbor was in his apartment blissfully unaware just cooking some dinner in the microwave.

When we ventured back upstairs I sat in awe of the powerful storm. The lightning was constant and gorgeous. I was hoping to catch one of those moments when the lightning stretched across our skylight but I never caught it. I did manage to catch a bolt of lightning illuminating the building across the street in a pale blue light. I thought it was beautiful.

Mr. Blue Sky

I think it's fitting that on Friday, the day the Olympics started in Beijing, I was so taken with the sky on my way to work I had to snap a few photos. There's no way that my quick clicks from the inside of my car could do it justice but here we go.

It just made me wonder what it would be like to live in a city where you never see the sky like this. For all of Beijing's accomplishments and construction, they can't build a new sky in which to over their bird's nest stadium.

Michigan Trip

A few weeks ago a whole group of my pals and I went up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to hang out at Brenna's family's cabins. We had an incredible time up there kicking back on Lake Superior. Here are some photos from the trip! It was so beautiful up there it was hard to decide what photos to use!