cooking with donuts

I wanted to cook something yesterday that I had never tried before. Actually, I wanted to try something odd. I came across the recipe for glazed donut (bread) pudding and it fit the bill as being new to me and odd. The problem- it was a huge recipe. It calls for two dozen donuts. So, I came up with something on my own that is smaller. I liked it- the only problem is that I couldn't find day old donuts, and even after leaving them on the counter all day long, they still weren't quite hard enough. Next time I'll get them a day or two before I need them.

Cut 6 donuts up in cubes (this would fit in an 8x8 pan) the older (and staler) the better...

In a bowl mix up-

1 can sweetened condensed milk. NOT EVAPORATED milk

1 can (15 ounce) of canned fruit. I used pears in their own juice. Cut up what ever fruit you use into tiny itty bitty little chunks. I think pinapple would be good- the actual recipe calls for fruit cocktail.

Raisins. I used about 4 ounces of golden because that was what I had.

1 beaten egg

1 tsp cinnamon (and nutmeg if you want)

once, that is all mixed up, dump the donuts into it and coat all the pieces. Let the donuts soak up all the liquid. Put the mixture into an ungreased baking dish.

bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Check it, the center will gel up and the edges will be all crusty and good.

Before cooking-

after cooking-

I made a glaze to pour over individual pieces. The glaze called for rum, which I didn't have, so this is what I made instead-

1 stick butter

confectioners sugar (enough to absorb the butter

vanilla extract -1tsp

half/half- enough to make it a glaze with a syrup like consistancy.

The rum sauce was 1lb butter, 1 lb confectioners sugar and rum to taste-just in case you wanted to know. We would have been eating rum sauce over everything for the next year if I made this.

This was very rich and quite sweet (DUH) so this small pan would serve about 6-8 people I'd think.

I didn't just make this yesterday- I also made a ham. But no pictures-sorry.

A kitchen mini-cure for Culinary Therapy

Today was a stay at home day. Take the kid to school (we are lucky in Michigan in that we have "schools of choice" meaning I can send my kid to ANY public school I want to. In any district or city. I don't have to live there, but I do have to get him there. No buses. We decided to send our kid to the larger of the cities around here -bigger tax base-more diversity-besides, it's the school system we ourselves went to) and then go to the grocery store.

On a good day, I can take the kid in, go to 2 or three stores and be back in two hours. It's pouring and cold today so I decided to stay for the day after shopping. The pantry was a sty.

and if this is a mess, it's hard for me to do anything in my kitchen that resembles cooking. I put away the groceries and cleaned the fridge and freezer. I try to do that every month. It should be every week, but that's just not possible. Then I turned on the pantry. Everything out, then everything back in. I filled up a garbage can full of boxes, crushed napkins, etc... and got a few things to put aside for the garage sale. Mostly though, I just put everything where it needed to be after obviously slacking on this for a while.

I made a school lunch area-
a breakfast area- (triscuits are a lunch thing- but didn't fit)



canned good drawer...

box stuff drawer...

I can walk in now!

Oh- here's the fridge and freezer-

and before I forget- here are the cookbooks that I keep in the pantry- I have more but there are in my office because they don't get used as often as these do.

So, is this the bones part? I don't know, but tonight I'm making a ham with sides and stuff, and for dessert I'm trying that bread pudding made with glazed donuts. South beach diet be damned!

This one is for Wende.

http://www.yousuckatcraigslist.com/?p=3171

Go there and look at a doll house for sale.... the downturn in the housing market is hitting everyone hard...

Lunch with 22 little people

Wende and other CT members- this was my dinner. Homemade meatballs with homemade sauce and angle hair pasta.

Today was my first volunteer day at the boys school. I worked with the kids for an hour in their classroom cutting out circles, putting them in order and gluing them down. It's a pattern thing..then I helped with lunch.

Let me just say this first- no matter what you pack for your kid to eat- he doesn't eat it. He might eat some of it, but apparently 5 yr olds don't need food.

Imagine 125 or so 5 yr olds eating lunch in a gym-20 or so at each table. I only needed to focus on my sons class- so that was 22 little people, some eating sack lunches, some eating hot lunch (cheese pizza, apple sauce, and milk). I opened up a half dozen milk containers (still tough even for me) poked way too many juice pouches, cleaned up messes, kept two boys from spitting milk on each other- you know, the normal behavior for 5 yr olds.

If it wasn't for the volunteers (parents like me and the "grandmas") I don't know how school would work. My sons teacher had 2 "grandmas" today. a teachers aide, and me. We counted the kids to make sure we had them all, made sure they went in and out of the bathrooms, ate, and then lined up and had recess. There are even more parent volunteers and "grandmas" out there.

It's a crazy situation, but nice. There is so much more parent involvement than when I was in school. Of course, it's because our education system is hideously unfunded that we have to be involved.

What did my charming son do on Friday?

I don't think you will ever know if you are cut out to be a mother until some event takes place that is so far out of what you think can happen that you are in new territory.
We came home from school and things were fine. He wanted to do some crafts until his Dad came home- it was only about an hour until that happened. The dining room table is where we usually do our crafts-but currently it's full of Etsy items that haven't been put away (my bad). I told him he could work at his desk in the living room. He wanted glitter- but the living room is carpeted, so no glitter. But, I gave him construction paper, glue sticks, markers, scissors and crayons. I was on the computer in the next room (which is open to the living room) and he was in there for about 20 minutes.

Now, with the stage set, let me tell you what I found. He took after my CURTAINS with the SCISSORS. He managed to try to cut out shapes etc... in/on 3 curtains. The denim resisted his advances, but the white duck gave him what he wanted. It never had a chance.
He was silent but deadly. I was less than 15 ft from him and I never had a clue.

This is where I can tell you that I know now that I am firmly against corporal punishment. I thought I was before, but since he came out of this without even a spank on the butt, I know that that is how I feel.
So, how was he punished if I don't believe in spanking?
1. weekends are his cartoon time. He loves cartoons. He has no cartoons this weekend, and he knows that he brought this on himself. He hasn't even asked to see any.
2. No more arts/crafts anywhere but the main table with me around for a while. This upset him because he says he's a big boy. I said big boys don't cut up their mothers curtains. He loves art and I don't want him not to love it, so it's a fine line I have here.
3. I took all the money out of his piggy bank to pay for the curtains. I explained, and showed him, that he had enough money to buy a large Playmobil Egypt set. (he loves those things) I told him he had to buy me new curtains to replace the ones he cut up. I took 44.00 total from his piggy bank. We talked about how many rocks he picked up in the yard to get that money etc... it really got to him to see it all go away.
4. Lastly, he spent a lot of time talking to me about what the hell he was thinking. We discussed how things belong to people. That I really liked those curtains. I think that he understood what he did was wrong, and that sometimes just saying sorry isn't enough. I hope so at least. He was concerned that I was going to cut up something of his. We talked about how two wrongs don't make a right. That destroying something of his wasn't going to make what he did go away, or make it right.

I was so surprised that I was so calm. Surprised, but somewhat happy. My patience has been tested before with the kiddo, but I've been had my curtains cut to shreds by someone that I love, and it was interesting in hindsight to see my reaction to it.
I think this turned out to be a learning experience for both of us. I'm not going to say it was a good thing though.
It did get me to put up my winter curtains though....

I'm not ignoring you...

we are just sick here. Really sick. They warned us at the boys first day of Kindergarden that our kids would be sicker than they had ever been before. I just didn't think it would be in the first week.
I passed it onto his teacher too... I can't believe it.

Herman Miller Shell chair project

This is a test for me. I got a cruddy, nasty disgusting Herman miller padded shell chair for free from my Mom. It was free to her too- left over at an auction. No on wanted it-for good reason. ICK.

I did a little googling, and found these are really hard to re do on your own. Professionals can charge 250 bucks to fix one. It's not worth 250.00. It's not worth 2.50. I figured I would try to fix it for less than 10 dollars. I have 4.97 into it so far. this is where I am now...





Before anything was done to it...
I stripped off the upholstery and trim...
leaving me with this- I scraped it off (it took a while and was really gross)

Then I decided that the gross grey/beige color couldn't stay either. So, I took off the bottom and

painted the shell white.

This is where I am now. I breathed in too many fumes today and I don't feel good tonight. Tomorrow is another day and I will try to fix the foam tomorrow.

this one's for Anne in Reno- TUBAS

We have a local tuba Festival! Tuba Bach

The kitchen drawer is where things go to die....

I decided to spend a few minutes and do my culinary therapy lesson for the day. Here it goes- this is the before. Just jumbled in, thrown around. You will notice there are no sharp knives. Those are kept in the pantry on a higher shelf due to the boy child and his love of pirates and sword fights.


Dumped on the counter(above) it seems a lot more is in there.... after. I only got rid of two things, some vintage salad tossers. I'll probably put those on etsy in my vintage shop. There is a lot of stuff in there, but there is even more on top- I keep all my stainless and metal stuff in a crock by the stove for easy access. The drawer is full of secondary spoons, spatulas, graters, measuring cups, can openers, peelers, graters, cheese slicers- that lot.

I do think I need to clean and re paint that wall now though.....

Have a great holiday weekend!

I'm back....

with Vista. Don't know how I feel about that. It will take me a while to figure out this new computer. It's super, super fast. It's got a ton of memory. But, right now, I can't quite get the hang of uploading just one picture from my camera- it keeps wanting to download 210. I just one one. It's a battle.

I'll spend the weekend learning and catching up. Have a great one everybody!

Goodby cruel world

for a week or so. We are putting this computer down and another will be built to take it's place. I hope to be back in the blog o sphere in a week.
Have a great holiday weekend!