It is, indeed, New Orleans’ Fat Tuesday. I love New Orleans! Someone else knew how fond I am of the southern city–
Before a close friend of ours passed away a few months ago from cancer, he badly wanted to see New Orleans one more time. He invited my husband, our children and me, to go with him and his son with a small group of friends for a 3 or 4 day weekend. It never happened. As much as Mike wanted to get away for a vacation in the spur of a moment, to be with loved ones away from doctors and hospital rooms, we never made that last trip with him. He called, begged and more or less pleaded his reasons, bless his heart… I was lugging a water hose around the yard when he called, watering tomatoes. We did a lot of our gardening and cooking together, you could say, by phone! We compared notes on what worked, what tasted great, and how to grow that fabulous tomato!
If I haven’t cooked with you yet, and you’re extremely dear to me, expect that event to happen sooner or later– if just by phone… and I’m not a phone person, so that should say a lot to you.
Mike wanted to road-trip by RV, leave the next day. We felt that the travel would be too much for him. We didn’t want to be a burden to him, as well. In his eyes, we were never a burden. He loved us with his mighty heart, his love was a genuine friendship that he had for us and with us.
I would have loved to have seen his eyes with sheer joy and laughter amidst the sights and the sounds, the music, the foods of New Orleans just to see that happiness in him again before he did get away– where there are no phones… Unfortunately, the last place was a hospital room. We find ourselves wanting to pick up the phone to call him, and we find ourselves waiting to hear from him, still, then being reminded that– it can’t happen. We were on the phone with him almost daily. It was important to Mike to stay connected, to keep in touch with everyone. Looking back to the end of summer when he requested this trip, I have since asked myself whether or not I made the right decision. He wanted both my husband’s and my answer to be unanimous with his. Did I not allow him to fulfill one of his last goals? Did I keep him from that “last” moment of happiness… Mike loved the foods I love, we talked numerously about cooking, about the blues of New Orleans, about life. We were grounded with him, and he with us. Even, I, miss him daily… I miss his calls, too. He loved me respectfully, and he respected his best friend– my husband.
Bring 2 eggs to room temperature, plus 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Make sure these 3 ingredients are not cold due to refrigeration. They’ve got to eventually culminate with yeast, so make sure they are of the same temperature that you would want for the yeast and water mixture to be.
Scatter 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast into 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water. Let it set for 10 minutes.
Break open the eggs…
whisk them with sunlight around you… Am I talking dreamy again?! Add to the eggs, continuing to whisk, 1/2 cup evaporated milk, 1/2 cup buttermilk, and 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt. Pour combined liquid into yeast and water after 10 minutes of waiting, and then all of the liquid combination into dry the ingredient of 7 cups King Arthur unbleached bread flour. Add flour in thirds when mixing the dough with a large heavy spoon, being careful not to over-blend. Try to be as gentle as possible. Do not blend completely because the dough will toughen. Let there be flour visible.
Dump the bowl of dough onto a floured cutting board. Do not knead! I did this the first time I made these, I kneaded the dough, then I discovered a better way to make the dough taste better and give it a better texture. Measure 1/4 cup Crisco white shortening that has not been refrigerated and lightly massage small pieces and chunks of it into the dough. That is your kneading process for this, and it’s just blending it in with fingertips! Work it a few times with your hands, squishing the dough. Immediately form into a ball; do not flour the circumference of the dough ball. The ball will not be smooth in texture, and it will resemble a slight greasiness; this is what you want. Place in a large bowl, cover with a double-layer kitchen linen or towel and let rise 2 1/2 hours. No peeking!
After rising, punch down dough, spread onto a lightly floured surface and roll into 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into squares and deep-fry in peanut oil. The peanut is beneficial for these. My pick of oil, though, would be cotton seed oil but I don’t have any in the house! I would not deep-fry these in any other oil; only peanut oil or cotton seed oil.
I coat them in powdered sugar; some, I coat in granulated sugar; and the third of the batch, I coat in apple pie-spiced finely-ground Demerara sugar. This way, there are 3 different flavors.
[I’ve been working on the kitchen again, so I haven’t posted for several days, but getting back to the ‘SKIRT IN THE KITCHEN MUSIC THEME’ game, here is the next song with the 3 key words. Have you guessed it by now? I’ve made it plain and simple, but a slight tricky (I hope)! I hope I’ve made it a bit of a challenge so it could be fun to play. You have to go back to the previous posts to follow the music game.]
— Susan Nuyt, Skirt in the Kitchen
could choke on powdered sugar
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