Suburban Homestead

Fabulous Friday

We tried something very different this Friday - Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies made with chickpeas and honey instead of flour and sugar. Super exciting stuff I should say, as I experiment with a wheat-free diet. They were...pretty good! Delicious for what they actually are - flour-free and all. The kids loved them, I loved them and all of us took seconds.





This guy ran around post-cookie with a chocolate beard for hours and I didn't have the heart to wipe it off.











After dinner we had a ladybug release party. I do this once a year with the kids and they love it, of course. We wait until the sun is down, spray the vegetable garden with water to make it damp and desirable, and then we let 500 bugs slowly crawl out on to our beets, chard, lettuce and beans. I typically find them for days after all around the garden. :)

Memorial Day

Thank you to all the brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. Without the sacrifices of too many, days like today might not have been possible for any of us. We are forever grateful and hope this weekend was good to you and yours as well!

Wordless Wednesday

Newborn Goats at Toluma Farms

I had a super fun outing this weekend with the little kids while Daddy coached the big guy's baseball game. I was so sorry we weren't all together for this one...few experiences can compete with getting to hold one and two day old baby goats. And the only thing better for me than getting outside and onto a farm is doing it at a farm where cool furniture lines the wrap-around porch of the farmhouse. (Not to mention, there was an Airstream trailer in the neighboring field). Bliss.







I learned about this opportunity by going to Marin Organic's website and searching their upcoming events. (These is a super cool dairy tour coming up on the 18th). Toluma Farms is a young goat farm where they recently began making cheese. April and May are obviously the best times to visit, the surrounding hillsides are completely green and everywhere you turn, kids and lambs are dropping from mamas. Below is a picture of a sheep we watched cleaning her lamb, born in the middle of the night. (We took the opportunity to make a Jordache Jeans ad out of it.)













There were so many added treats to our visit - an enthusiastic volunteer that filled us in on all sorts of additional information, and in-ground trampoline the kids loved, tractor rides provided by the owner and goat cookies frosted with goats milk frosting!







I love these sorts of opportunities offered by some of our local organizations like Marin Organic and Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). If you are local to the Bay Area, I'd encourage you to familiarize yourself with their websites and to get on their email list to learn about events like this one.

Cinco de Mayo Party

1. She dressed herself and wore it well

2. Taco platter from our local supermercado

3. In intimate circles he is known affectionately (and respectfully) as Señor Thomas

Cinco de Mayo and el Supermercado

Hola! It's been a while, I know. I am finally emerging from a curious funk that plauged me for over a week. This will likely sound like a lame excuse but I've been exhausted, and for no more reasons that the ones we all face everyday. I was unreasonably groggy, like jacked-up on elephant tranquilizers groggy, first trimester groggy. It was awful and I'm not sure why. I finally crawled to the store and purchased some iron and B12. I don't know if that was what did the trick, but I'm all better now.

And no, I'm not pregnant.

I have so much I want to share! Friday's dessert, final thoughts on our trip to Mexico, our trip to a local goat farm, my spring garden - it's all on my radar. But right now we are getting ready to head to our friend's house where we will be having a Mexican Spring Break Reunion Party. I am in charge of re-creating the coconut smoothies we all became addicted to while in PV last month. 

The withdrawls have been brutal. This gentleman told me on our last day just how the hotel made these incredible drinks (they basically double as milkshakes/desserts): piña colada mix, ice, shredded coconut and coconut cream to finish. I'm going to give it my best shot today.  Fingers crossed.

While preparing for today's task, I thought it the perfect opportunity to go explore our local supermercado - Mi Pueblo. It was super cool and such a fun experience for the kids too. They loved seeing the unusual foods like cactus and pig parts, hot pink cookies and the worlds largest display of hot sauces!

This guy was over the moon when he discovered a horchata mix that would allow him to enjoy one of his all time favorite drinks by just adding water. Imagine that! (Although I did warn him it probably wouldn't taste nearly as good as the real deal.)

I will hopefully get some good pictures this afternoon of the prepared spread our friends are picking up from Mi Pueblo. Until then, here are some pictures of last years Mexican Spring Break Reunion Party which our travel companions also hosted on Cinco de Mayo.

We dined on fresh fish tacos and horchata made from scratch.

Wordless Wednesday

Joe Jack's Fish Shack - Part III

It's spring break and for the second year in a row, we are in Puerto Vallarta with friends. (When you have a recipe for success, why deviate?) With a third family in the mix this year, we are having so much fun sharing with them our favorite spots and activities. Eight kids all line-up in age and we couldn't ask for a more perfect set-up. Yesterday we took time out from our all-inclusive, piled into two large taxi vans (there are fourteen of us total!) and headed into PV's Old Town where we took lunch at Joe Jack's Fish Shack. (To get a little back story on JJ's and me, or why this post is called Part III, click here.)

Oh Joe, we love you so. My personal, absolute favorite dish at Joe Jack's is the Fish Tacos 'Baha'. If you are feeling *good* you can take yours grilled. I was feeling *naughty* so I ordered mine battered and fried. No regrets!

The chips and guac are some of the best we've ever had! P. had the octopus because he's just that kinda guy. His wife, B., is one of the best friends I'll ever have. Here is what she looks like in a wide-brimmed black hat, on a Mexican roof top, with the sun behind her back. Hay que bonita!

P. and I are both photography hobbyists and enthusiasts. He's big on the technical stuff which I envy. My brain is not wired to receive such information. ;)

Shrimp tacos for him, fish tacos for Miss Frijoles. We ordered way too much food not realizing that each plate promised to overflow with three giant tacos each!

Get on track to the shack if you are ever in PV. Make sure to make reservations as the tables are limited. The shopping in the surrounding blocks is phenomenal with boutique stores selling interesting jewelry, clothing and homewares (although mostly at Amercan prices). I'll post about our jaunt to the colorful outdoor market next. Stay turned.

Artichokes to Cake Pops

The final leg of last week's road trip had us driving home from Carmel on Sunday. We were ready to be back. With two kids sick, and our final night spent in a motel with dubious cleaning standards, we just wanted a hot shower at home, and to crawl into familiar beds...but not before making a couple stops at some of our favorite old-school points of interest.

First stop: Watsonville for artichokes and butternut squash.

Second stop: Capitola for Gayle's Bakery and Rotisserie.

I have been one of many faithful fans of Gayle since my college years in Santa Cruz. Everything I have ever eaten here, from sweet to savory, has been incredible. Which is why I NEVER miss the opportunity to indulge in a little bit of a lot of things she dishes up, whenever I'm nearby.

Breakfast consisted of egg and bacon croissants for the wee ones, and huevos rancheros casserole topped with a poached egg for me. (I must try to recreate my dish at home. So colorful and fun to eat!) After that, I was emotionally unable to deny my children their first cake pop experience.

Our Sunday night dinner!

A Look Inside Our Santa Barbara Hotel

How fun is this room?! It was ours for a night when we stopped over in Santa Barbara on our way home from Disneyland. It is my understanding that The Agave Inn is owned by the same people that own The Hamlet Inn,where we stayed last year on our spring break road trip. It appears - and I'm totally guessing on this one - that *the owners* had the great idea to buy some old-school motels and funk them up a bunch with some simple tricks like - bright paint, modern IKEA furnishings and affordable poster art. Both experiences have inspired me to dream of buying an old motel and fixing it up into something wonderful.



While in Santa Barbara, we (barely) made it to the zoo. With only an hour and a half left before closing time, we powered through this beautiful gem of a zoo and managed to see all the animals. Sadly, it was not as magical as we might have hoped (think extreme sibling rivalry) and ended with a three-year-old's *toot* turning into a *diarrhea explosion*, and me walking out the front gate with a bare-bottomed little boy in my arms.

Wordless Wednesday

The Accidental Tourist

I made a big, big mistake recently when I accidentally booked our trip to Disneyland the week after our school district's ski week. I don't know how it happened exactly (honest truth), but it did, and so we just decided to roll with it. Last week we stayed local while everyone else was traveling, and now that school is back in, we are down south introducing the three-year-old to places like The Madonna Inn, Disneyland and Santa Barbara.

Last night we spent the night in the Jungle Rock room at The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. You can imagine the kids excitement when they first walked in...

Wordless Wednesday

My Kind of Saturday

Weekends have been tough lately. But then again, it is winter. I find that if we don't plan ahead, we come to at about 11:57 AM, still in our pj's, house a disaster, I become overwhelmed with guilt, and none of the kids can be convinced to get dressed or motivate. I just hate those kind of days. Yesterday was not like that. We talked about what we wanted to do over Friday dinner, and then we did it! We hit some of the city's greatest landmarks, walked on the bridge, strolled around Lands End, played down at the Sutro Bath ruins, tried some new ethnic food and ate ice cream sundaes at Ghirardelli Square. It was as good as we could have hoped for - not without breakdowns or fussying, but nothing more than would have happened had we stayed closer to home. The end result was we returned home at 7PM on a Saturday night to a sparkling clean house! Well, almost.

Fabulous Friday - Let's Go Nanners!

I recently saw a beautiful image of some chocolate and candy coated bananas and was reminded that, well... I love chocolate and candy coated bananas. I decided we'd give them a shot for our end of the week, pre-Super Bowl celebration.

I don't know if it's just the combination of chocolate and banana, or if it was the quality of the leftover chocolate I used, but these were so ridiculously good. After our dinner, I set it all up and we had the kids take turns rolling their melted chocolate-coated nanners in M&M's, shredded coconut and crushed almond bits. Daddy challenged himself to incorporate peanut butter into the experiment. We eventually got them onto a pre-chilled plate in the freezer to set for twenty minutes, and then told the kids they couldn't have any unless they got in their jammies, picked-up their rooms, scooped the dog poop and cleaned the hamster cage.

Way to go kids!!!

(Daddy's paleo plate.)

Happy Super Bowl Weekend - Goooo Nanners!

Fabulous Friday

So I posted and started my New Year's resolutions five days ago. I've since had a week full of fulfilling promises to myself, and others, and am actually feeling really good in this moment - like, less broken than last year. ;)  Every night this week I cooked a meal from scratch (#1), I've done so in a way that chips away at all the half-full bags/boxes/cans of food lining kitchen shelves (#3), and then finished the work week of by starting-up Fabulous Fridays again with Paula Deen's incredible Southwest Georgia Pound Cake (#2). (In addition, I've sold or given away something on Craigslist everyday - part of a very private NY resolution that I didn't dare put down on paper.)

Again, feeling really, really good.

To top-off all the goodness that comes with an early morning cake baking party, complimented by the calm of a well-organized morning routine with school kids (#5), I took Mr. Noodle and his not-so-really-under-the-weather-anymore big brother to Fairyland for some magic moments. Happy weekend!

Southwest Georgia Pound Cake (Paula Deen)

A Day at the Academy

Thank you's and Happy New Year's

Happy New Year! We wrapped up our 2012 quietly, and have been getting a slow start on 2013. One by one, we have been knocked-out by strep and so, for the most part, we've been cooped-up inside for two days. The good news is this lockdown has allowed me the opportunity to develop a fun and hassle-free way to get small kids excited about writing their thank you cards.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to knock-out the task, but realized it might be a lot easier to just do one at a time. So every hour, on the hour, the set timer would alarm us that it was time to gather at the kitchen table. I would pick one family member and each child would write them a personal note. Low stress...it was just one! Easy to do and doing it in small batches allowed each child the energy to be thoughtful. Grandpa was first, Aunt J. was at noon, Nana at one, and so on and so on. By the end of the day, we had all our notes written, sealed and stamped. I can't believe how easy it all was. I can't believe we accomplished so much while being under the weather!

DEAR GRANDPA - DER GRIPU

"Tha you!"

Sprucing Up the Cabin

We've been spending the week between Christmas and New Years at the cabin since our family purchased it seven years ago. It needed a lot of cosmetic work at first, but thankfully we were the first people in the months it had been on the market to see through all that and to realize its potential.

Carpet and paint were the first to-do items, hauling abandoned equipment, dismantling the...eh hem, "hidden garden" and rebuilding a failing deck all took priority. Each family contributed furniture from their homes, and Nana and Papa purchased some much needed big items like a sectional couch and new dining chairs. The house is fully furnished, totally comfortable and in need of nothing.

Which means it's time for me to find projects where there aren't any.

It's who am and this is just what I do.

This trip I began to decorate a second refrigerator in the kitchen area that has been driving me CRAZY for years. Its bright white exterior is my idea of an eyesore against the wood paneled cabin walls. I finally decided, and was granted *permission*, to make it an objet d'art. I discovered Cafe Press and was able to find thousands of bumper stickers that spoke to our family's time here together. It's not done, I want it to be completely covered with bumper stickers. But I think it's off to a good start!

Great Dickens Christmas Fair

We traveled back in time again yesterday, revisiting Victorian-era London at The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, this time in costume!





I absolutely LOVE this fair and all that it offers. The food, the games, theatrical performances and music all come together in the most enchanting event. You can read more details in my post last year.



Daddy and Tiny Tim!





Because we entered the fair shortly after opening, we were able to get a family portrait without waiting - something I've always wanted to do. Here we are with my father:





The low lighting makes it difficult to get good photographs, but I was able to grab this one of a great game we played - Boot the Cat. For a couple bucks you can lie on the bed and throw boots at the wooden cats meowing in the window. Knock down all three and win a prize!





Read about our first family trip to the fair in 2011 here.

Decorating Gingerbread

This will be our first Christmas in the new house and so everything about this holiday season feels a bit brighter...more exciting. At least to me.

I had originally planned to spend yesterday alone with the kids decorating gingerbread men, women, soldiers, dogs, angles and polar bears. Everything was going along as planned until Friday night when I learned my friend M. was flying solo with his girls too.

Invite extended. 

Of course that meant I had to call C. to see if she and A. wanted in. Everyone was free and so Little Miss helped me bake a double batch. I had plenty of powdered sugar and just enough powdered merengue. We squeezed colorful icing from clear plastic bottles and loaded on candy confections until they overflowed onto the floor beneath our bare feet. M. decorated gingerbread women to resemble C. and me, all while entertaining us with stories of being a solo parent to two kids, and taking morning showers with conference calls on speaker phone (and mute), until he hears his name, has to turn off the water, jump out to the phone and answer a question like he's paying any attention.

Good times. :)

SuperNatural Halloween at the Academy

We did something new and different totally spectacular this past weekend when I took a friend's advice and bought tickets to The California Academy of Science's SuperNatural Halloween Party.

Imagine dressing up, being first in line, and getting to sit all alone on one side of the museum, eating ice cream...

...and getting to watch this:

It had been 33 days since we'd last visited the museum and met these baby ostriches, just over a month old. On Saturday, they were 66 days old!

The museum served up great food and activities. We took in the rainforest with just a handful of families, no lines, no fussing...just wide open spaces, eager docents, crafts, trick-or-treating for quasi-healthy treats, live music and choices, choices, choices. :)



























I wonder if SuperNatural is this good every year... or if we just got really lucky because the Giants were playing the third game of the World Series that night? We stayed until almost nine o'clock, and just as we walked out, a great cheer erupted throughout the building and we were told - "The Giants won!"

A Friend's Rustic Family Cabin

For as long as Daddy and I have been an item, I have been hearing stories about time spent at his best friend's family cabin. This week, I finally (FINALLY!) got to see it for myself. Driving for six hours to get there, I was beginning to think nothing could be worth this brutality, but as soon as we turned off the main road and began making our way down the five mile long driveway to its remote location, my tune changed and I turned to Daddy and said "I take it back. If this driveway is all I ever know about the cabin, the drive was worth it!"

That long stretch of driveway took us in and out of woods dense with Redwoods and Alders. Ferns came down the hill to the roadside and met with wild foxglove. Blackberry bushes dominated and clearly served as shrines to black bears, who left their big piles of "blessings" all along the gravel road. I was in heaven!

And then we arrived at the rustic two bedroom cabin on the river - one family's tradition for three generations and counting.

We quickly learned that the cabin accepted electricity only two years ago, but still doesn't have a landline. Even still, there is only one outlet that I could see, one working bulb in the kitchen and the rest of the time it's preferred that everyone operate by candlelight and in a electronics-free environment.  If music is to be enjoyed, it must be played by the guests.

We were welcomed by said best friend's mother, a sort of second mom to Daddy and a self-proclaimed "extra grandma" to our kids. She has got to be the world's No.1 Four-Wheel-Drive Grandma - swimming upstream several times a day just because, playing with small kids until the cows come home, baking fruit pies all day long for her spawnings to enjoy. She's just amazing and we love her for all these reasons and more. In intimate circles, she is known affectionately as the Spoosy Moose.

Spoosy's cabin is an honest to goodness homestead of Little House on the Prairie proportions. There was an enormous garden (HUGE!), an orchard bursting with pears, walnuts, apples, peaches, figs and persimmons, not to mention a river full of trout, steelhead, and salmon.

The house is lovingly filled with decades of family memories and collections of objects that told stories of days gone by.

Our time at Spoosy's second home was all I had been promised it would be. In fact we stretched our planned three nights and two days to four nights and four days - it was that special! So much more to come on this magical place, just as soon as I get control over all this dirty laundry.

Confusion Hill, CA

Our drive up Hwy 101, with a stop at Confusion Hill, actually took place about five days ago. In fact, we are actually back home today after four days days at our friends magical family cabin in Northern California. So much to share about those incredible days. Until then, I'll share these pictures of our drive up, which I love - bright colors and kitch nestled in the Redwood Trees - summertime, summertime, summertime!

Striking Gold in California

We said "goodbye" to three incredible days in the Yosemite Valley on Tuesday, after taking in lunch on the outside patio of the Ahwahnee Hotel (a real treat!). Heading out of the park, and up North through the Gold Country, we made a quick stop to cool off at an old-fashioned sweet shop in Jamestown.  I have such great memories of antiquing in Jamestown through the years with my grandma when she was still alive. I had hoped to run through my long-standing favorite shop, The Emporium, but we arrived two minutes after they closed and so I just steamed up the front window instead.

We spent Tuesday night at our first honest-to-goodness RV park. Angels Camp RV and Camping Resort was clean and simple with some highlights that included fruiting grape vines, fig trees and even a pet emu! It certainly wasn't Yosemite, but we didn't mind too much because for the first time in three days, we had full hook-ups! Some RVs seemed to call this place *home*.

We had all of Wednesday to make our way up to Sly Park Resort where we were meeting family for our annual summer campout. We got off to a late start but decided to visit a cute town we knew of - Murphys. That's our beast parked along the adorable tree lined main street.

We stuffed ourselves silly at Alchemy where we indulged on fish tacos, burgers, garlic bread and gourmet bubble gum soda.

She's never really done well in restaurants. ;)

After lunch, Daddy stayed back to trouble-shoot some *issues* with the RV while the kids and I walked the dreamy main strip, admiring waterways, window shopping and looking for something sweet to eat.

Rubber chicken themed goods at Twisted Oak.

Oh yes we did!!!

We were SO lucky to discover Lila & Sage - winner of The Cupcake Wars! Here Little Miss stands in front of the case with her new rubber chicken.

Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry Shortcake and Vanilla with Raspberry - all award winning!

Our last stop of the day was California Caverns - which we loved! We were able to escape the 100+ degree weather for an hour by heading underground into the limestone cavern where the temperature is always a consistant 53.

Yosemite Glamping

Did someone say *glamping*? 

Welcome to our third Yosemite summer vacation! We decided to really take the fun up a notch this year and splurge on an RV. *Someone* was *supposed to be* potty trained and so it seemed like a great idea. (Refrigerated food and the occasional hot shower was nothing to throw rocks at either.)

Yosemite was great, as always. Every year it's all very predictable - the perfect weather, the tolerable crowds, the selection of activities. This year though, water levels were very, very low due to low rains this past winter. Yosemite Falls was completely dry (although it usually runs out in late August anyway), and all the rivers down to a trickle. Mirror Lake, our favorite spot, was more like a desert this time. :(  If we don't get more rain this winter, we will likely take a break from Yosemite next summer as those water activities are always the highlights of the trip.

I didn't do the best job capturing the magic of the valley I'm now realizing, as I look back on three days of photos, but these are some little highlights of our time:

I have to laugh at all the fuss I made over the suggested list of items the RV rental company provided. 'Pizza stones', 'butcher knives' and 'curling irons' were some of the items I scoffed at, but the iGrill?! Oh yeah, we definitely need that out in the wild!

Here was a typical breakfast for us: English muffins toasted on the skillet, buttered and jammed (blackberries just canned this week!), peaches and blueberries. We would then wash it all down with a long family bike ride through "Nature's Great Cathedral".

Little Miss on her new DeeLITE bike with her new helmet. The whole get-up cracks me up.

Mr. Noodle refuses to acknowledge the potty but was a superstar on his balance bike. The kid is going to graduate to peddles before he's even out of diapers.

I've always been a die-hard romantic for stories of The Mother Road - so I had to try this stuff.

Little Miss trying to get close to a deer.

I'd say she nailed it.

Our view of Half Dome from a little shady spot along the river where we swam and snacked.

OK - I'm probably going to go to hell for this next shot, or at least have to face interrogation by CPS, but let's be fair here - this is not nearly as bad as smearing your child's head with honey so that you can get a cute shot with a bear, now is it?

I know, I KNOW! Don't feed the animals!!! But really, these animals were so brazen, something tells me they've had a life of tourists feeding them long before we ever rolled our 26-foot mobile home into the valley. I wasn't going to kill her dream of a tea party with woodland animals.

OK - another naughty parenting moment - camping with iPads. But really - who's parent would not have used one of these in our day had we been more wired in the 70's. No more guilt here because while they were doing this at 8 o'clock...

...we were outside doing this. :)

A big thanks goes out to Galen Clark, Abraham Lincoln and John Muir for making this family vacation possible. As Daddy said, "We owe so much to those men. Without them this valley would look like Las Vegas."

Discovering Gold

Not far from our cabin, you can visit the town where gold was discovered in 1849.

Fishing for Minnows

This morning...

...there was a deer outside our cabin door with whom I shared a cup of coffee...

...while cousins fished for minnows in the river.

We will be here all week, enjoying summertime in the mountians with a revolving door of friends and family. Now it's off to Pinterest to pick an epic dessert for the 4th!

Raw Cookie Dough Bites

A friend of mine recently turned our family on to the raw cookie dough bites craze when she came over for dinner and gifted us with a bag of them - frozen!

How cool of a hostess gift is that?! Raw cookie dough bites?!?

The best part is they contain NO dairy and NO flour, are PACKED with good nutrition and taste (almost) exactly like the Nestle kinda dough you eat in tablespoon quantities before baking. I adapted her recipe, found here, adding flax seed and tripling the quantities to make enough to last us a week two and a half days. Here's how I did it:

Raw Cookie Dough Bites

Makes 36 bites

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup pre-ground flax seed
• 2 cups raw almonds
• 2 cups raw walnuts
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup raw agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a food processor, process the flax, almonds, walnuts, oats, cinnamon and salt to a fine meal. (Note: Because this is a triple batch, and depending on your processor, you may have to stop the mixture and stir a bit by hand to get an even mixture.)
2. Add the agave nectar and vanilla and process to combine.
3. Add the cocoa nibs (or chocolate chips) and pulse just to combine.
4. Roll the cookie dough into balls (about 1 tbsp. each) and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the pan in the freezer for about an hour to firm up then transfer to a zip-lock bag or tightly covered container in the freezer.

Homemade Donuts

I have not been doing a whole lot of cooking lately, but you probably already noticed that. With everything going on, we've done a lot of take-out...and maybe even invited ourselves over to the homes of friends and family when it served us well. ;)

Speaking of food and friends(!), one of mine recently got me thinking about homemade donuts (made from pizza dough) when she sang their praises via a Facebook post. I asked her if she wouldn't mind sharing the details so I could give it a shot - maybe even blog about it - and this is the cute note she wrote me back (I detailed it out in recipe format at the end):

"We start by buying a tub of pre-made organic pizza dough at the Good Earth market here in town. When we get home B. tosses it pizzeria style and E. then rolls it out and cuts it. Because we are so fancy, E. cuts the shapes using a drinking glass and the lid from our vinegar bottle - they make the perfect size donuts and holes. We heat up coconut oil in an old Le Creuset (nice deep sides). We use about 1/2-3/4 inch coconut oil. They bob around for a bit until they are golden brown and crispy. Then we set them on a brown bag to de-oil for a bit before glazing them. Lemon butter glaze - the key to the whole affair! We start with a huge chunk of butter. We LOVE butter. I juice a lemon from our tree (and sometimes a lime because I am exciting like that) directly into the melting butter and also zest - lots of zest- a bit of warm water, and because we live dangerously - a dash of powdered sugar. Wisk-wisk-wisk and then dunk those babies in. When they come out of their glaze bath, I sprinkle a bit of shredded coconut on them and usually they are eaten before they even reach the plate. Happy donut making! --M."

"OK," I thought, "let's do this."

(It's just a photo so no, I did not cook with plastic. But yes, we did deep-fry for breakfast - so there's your daily dose of irony.)

These were so fun to make and so delicious to eat for a special weekend treat. The kids were able to help and just like the donuts at M's house, ours never even had the chance to cool down. Here's how we did it:

 

HOMEMADE DONUTS

 

INGREDIENTS

1 serving of fresh pizza dough, either store bought or homemade

Coconut oil (we used a 14oz. jar)

4 tablespoons of melted butter

Juice and zest from 1/2 lemon

Pinch of salt

Shredded coconut (optional)

Powdered sugar (not optional)

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Remove pizza dough from refrigerator and let it sit for 30 minutes.

2. When dough is ready, begin heating coconut oil on med-high. Hot oil should be about 1/2 - 3/4" deep, and bubble rapidly when a test donut hole is tossed in.

3. On a floured surface, roll out dough and cut out as many rings as you can, using a round cookie cutter or glass, as well as a balsamic vinegar cap. ;)

4. Moving quickly, and working in batches, drop 3 - 4 rings of dough into the oil and allow to cook both sides until golden brown. While donuts are frying, melt butter in a bowl and combine with lemon juice, zest and salt.

5. With a slotted spoon, remove donuts from oil and let cool on a paper towel.

6. When cool to the touch, dunk donuts in melted lemon butter, remove and sprinkle with sugar and coconut

**It's really impossible for me to say how many this recipe *serves*. How many donuts one should eat for breakfast and how many homemade donuts one ends up eating for breakfast, are two entirely different numbers. You make the call.

I enjoyed these with a fresh brewed cup of Bosnian coffee(!!!) - a gift from a new friend who just returned from a trip back home. Blissful Sunday morning.