TGI Donuts

Before each meal, Daddy and I lead Elli in this simple prayer: "I love you Jesus. Thank you for..." and each member of the family says something for which they are thankful. Almost invariably, Elli will thank the Lord for His benevolent gift of donuts. She whispers enthusiastically into her little balled hands, "Thank for doooonuuuuuuts!" The frequency with which she says "donuts" in her prayers could be the result of one of two things. One, she is hinting that she desires more fried dough in her diet, to which Mommy has a strong objection. Or, two, she said it once, got a reaction out of us, and decided to keep doing it. Whatever her reasons, I decided last weekend to make some donuts for breakfast. Ironic, I know, that I'm doing this recipe considering my feelings on the Food Revolution. But, even Jamie Oliver agrees that a once-in-a-while treat is all right. But the way these are made, one donut is pretty much enough. Shortcut Donuts 1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (learned from experience the regular-size, non-buttered ones work best) 1 cup canola or vegetable oil (I used Mazola's Cholestoral Free Corn Oil) 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon Heat oil in larget skillet over medium heat. Gently place biscuits in oil, cooking on each side for about 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, mix sugar and cinnamon in shallow bowl or on plate. Remove bicuits from oil and turn in sugar mixture to coat. Set aside. Allow biscuits to cool before eating.

I set Elli up at the counter with a glass of milk and small bowl of Cheerios to keep her hands and tummy occupied when it came time to fry the "donuts." At one point in the very recent past, we had Elli convinced that Cheerios were mini donuts. She has become the wiser, however.

The prospect of making donuts exicted Elli very much. The excitement began to build the night before, when I promised her that we would make donuts in the morning. "Elli, want to make some donuts?" I asked. "OK!" she said and raced for her steps. I had her separate the biscuit dough while I prepped the oil. She carefully broke off each biscuit and set it down on the cutting board where they waited for their frying fate.

Because I wanted Elli to have as much participation as possible once the donuts came out of the pan, I decided to do the sugar mixture a little differently. Instead of turning each donut in the sugar mixture, we were going to set the donuts on a plate and use a spoon to shake the sugar mixture over top the donuts. So, we poured the sugar into a cereal bowl, and Elli shook the cinnamon directly from the can into the sugar until I said "Whoa!"

Together, we mixed the sugar and cinnamon with a spoon. As could be expected, Elli had to sample the sugar mixture...repeatedly, each time declaring, "Mmmm, dat's good!"

"Of course it's good, sweetheart; it's sugar!"

"Mmmm, shoogar!"

"You betcha."

Mainly to get her fingers out of the shoogar, I decided at the last minute to have her help poke holes in the middle of each biscuit, to make them more donut-like. Someone somewhere once said they use a small circle cookie cutter to cut a hole in the middle. I don't have one small enough, so we used our fingers.

Elli did pretty good, to be honest. She has just the right size of hands to do this type of work.

"In the pan?" she asked, pointing to the skillet.

"Yes, that's right. Mommy will put the biscuits in the pan. We're going to cook the donuts."

"Doooonuuuuts!"

As I fried up the donuts, Elli ensure the sugar did not separate from the cinnamon, stirring it every few minutes with the spoon, and her finger from time to time. As each donuts was done, I put it on a plate that was covered in a thin blanket of sugar mixture and together Elli and I spooned some sugar mixture over top. I flipped it over and we spooned mixture over the other side too. Then, I moved the completed donut to another plate to make room for the others coming out of the oil. Elli reached for the completed ones. "Those are hot," I warned her and redirected her itchy fingers to her bowl of "mini donuts."

The donuts turned out a little more brown than I was wanting, and because I used the jumo size instead of the regular size biscuits, some of the donuts were still a touch doughy in spots. But how the food turns out is not nearly as important as the memories gained in getting there.

With donuts on the plate, we folded our hands and began our prayer. When it was Elli's turn, she smiled, looked at the serving plate on the table stacked with freshly made donuts, and whispered into her balled little hands, "Thank for.....puzzles." Just when you think you know her....

Overall the donuts were tasty. They were not as big of a hit as The Nacho Revolution was with the fam, but still good enough to try them again.

Overall Shortcut Donuts Ratings (5 being the best):

Elli-friendly cooking: 4

Elli-friendly eating: 3 (would have been higher hand Mommy not scorched the outsides)

Simple: 5

Fast: 5

Frugal: 5

You Tell Me: National Day of Prayer is May 6. For what will you pray?