Happy New Year! Say Hi to Your Mother for Me.

Ala Cuisine! Kylie and I kill time at HyVee waiting for the Manager to fix the register after my New Year's Party Purchases seem to break its resolve...

While the Howktown is a fairly happenin' place, the exact location of it is situated in the middle of... nowhere.  It is rare that I get out of town visitors that aren't related to me in some way. I tried the convincing, cajoling, bribery in the past to no avail...


Maybe it was because the last party I had I invited every friend I had and expected everyone to get along... One trip to the emergency room later and I was asking myself "what exactly where you thinking, Howk?" Most likely I was thinking my eclectic taste is friends was shared by all and they would find just being in Howktown enough to get past their differences... besides I'd made them a 5 course meal all by myself! That was 5 years ago... Cest la Vie!
That is until this year! The guest list was pared down to just the college girlfriends and included pizza and drinks and watching you tube videos of Mark Wahlberg Talking to Animals. Now Jo Jo Potato and N.O.H. had been down since then, but this was the first time that the 4 of us had been together in Howktown... ever! I was a bit excited.

The Czarina gave me the Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas and we decided to try out her Potato Leek Pizza, as well as two others of our own making. All yummy. The pizza dough recipe was fantastic. Easy to make, easy to use, and tasted great.  I haven't made enough of the recipes yet to give this book a thorough review, but the two I've tried have been pretty freakin' awesome.

Cute and good with eggs!

I had homemade bloody Marys waiting for my friends when they arrived.  I figured I'd have to spoil them to remind them how awesome Howktown really is (it is actually known as The Fun House by a certain 8 year old visitor).  After the pizza, and the Marys, we headed down stairs. I had intended to get them all dancin' but we ended up talking and mixing drinks.  We ended up talking and laughing (and sometimes crying) all night; the best part of a Pajama Party anyway!

That's homemade bread, sisters.

The next day, my personal chef made us all omelets, while I made French Press style coffee for everyone. Mostly because Deb thought it was weird that her coworker had a french press in his cube. ;)

Now I'm going to talk to a goat. Hey Goat, nice beard.

Happy New Year from the Queen of Howktown and her Personal Chef and Consort.

More Photo Excuses!

Yoinks, Folks!

I have a slew of photos on my phone for at least two posts about what the Rubdown in Howktown is all about!

For example: Did you know I participated in the American Political System and attended a Town Hall Meeting on health care? INDEED! In fact! I tweeted the whole thing! Until my phone died. I have a picture and commentary (of course I do!) all electronically held in multiple locations (um, your brain produces electricity, so I think it should count as a electronic device).

Also, I had another kitchen disaster that while horrendously ugly, was delicious. All I can tell you is that it involved a stick. If you're from Minnesota, you know what that means. Somehow food is involved in being attached to that stick. You know it.

I promise to write on those posts as soon as I can gather them together, but seriously, this "no camera" thing is beginning to be a bother.

::::: THIS JUST IN:::::

A State Holiday soon approach-eth? I beseech upon the loyal subjects of Howktown (and all my friendly sisterly neighbors as such) to put a good word in with the Minister of Birthday Presents to somehow arrange for me to acquire a camera. It could be as simple as a gift certificate to Amazon.com (the official Howktown shopping mall) to use towards this necessity. Also, please forgive this vulgar begging for trivial stuff, when we all know the Mental State of Hilarity is all we need to be satisfied with life.

Right? Okay, Good.

Anywho. SO, I'm sure your wanting to know what the 'take away' portion of this post is. What are you bringing back to your life to make it a better place. I'll tell you what it is... Doughnuts.

1 cup warm milk

5 tsps of yeast

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of mashed potato (I kid you not)

1/2 salt

1/4 tsp of sugar

2 TBSP of oil

Warm the milk (not HOT about 100°) and add yeast and sugar. Set aside to proof about 5-10 minutes (should be foamy)

Mix flour, potato (just nuke a smallish potato in the microwave for 5 minutes, scrape it from the skin and add to the flour -after you measure it of course) and salt in a mixer.

Add milk to the flour mixture and mix with the dough hook attachment (but Erin what's a dough hook? I don't have that kind of mixer!" I'll tell ya what to do, sister! Get yer hands in that there bowl and get 'em dirty!) and mix on slow until combined. Add the oil and then mix on medium speed for three minutes (or until the dough is throughly mixed, not too sticky, and workable)

Knead that dough on a floured surface three or four times and then pat the dough out flat until it is 1/2 inch thick. Oh, go ahead and use a rolling pin if you want to.

If you happen to have a doughnut cutter (really, you do?) cut out some doughnuts! Other acceptable tools are biscuit cutters, tin cookie cutters, overturned glasses, and of course freehand. Don't forget to cut out the holes in the middle (small cookie cutters work great! I know you've always wondered what those were for! I mean, who makes such tiny cookies! Well except the Cookie Crunch guy.)

Set those aside to rise about ten minutes.

Start heating up 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, cast iron skillet, or if you want to roll like they do in Howktown... a wok.

Is your oil at 350°? Have your doughnuts risen? Start placing them in the oil to fry. The take less then a minute per side, so been ready. Have a paper bag of cinnamon and sugar near by and after letting the excess oil drip off drop them in the bag. When your first batch is in the bag, give it a good shake to coat and then place doughnuts on a cooling rack, or like my mom did, directly into her mouth.

There you go! I made this for breakfast this morning with some good coffee, and it took about 20-30 minutes total. Kylie gave me this recipe which she found online after her husband renewed his vows right at the breakfast table after his first bite.