Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Power of The Blog

As a reaction to a comment last week from frequent-commenter
Pamela concerning a request that $100 worth of beignets
be delivered to her door, and because she hit the mid-century mark 
yesterday, and because her amazing and gracious daughter
staged a surprise birthday party for her, I arrived at her door
yesterday evening with beignet makings in tow: a bowlful
of pre-made batter, a deep cauldron (after all, this beignet-thing
contains its fair amount of voodoo), canola oil, rolling pin, 
flour, powdered sugar, sieve, dough scraper, paper towels and apron.

Reilly and I set up shop on the deck where we heated oil
to 360° on the propane burner attached to the grill. I rolled out
my spongy dough on the picnic table, sectioned it into neat squares
with my scraper, then plopped (gently!) four little pillows
at a time into the oil, where they bobbed and bubbled, browning
quickly. Steaming, too hot to touch, I sieved a generous cloud
of powdered sugar on each puffed confection. Friends began
to gather, drawn by the scent of fried dough. Each beignet
was snatched up almost as quickly as I sugared it,
and over and over again I warned: "Hot!" 

Because they contain so much air, 
because  the ratio of crisp to puff 
favors puff hands down, beignets are the kind of --
well, let's face it -- doughnut -- that defies the customary image
of a fat-laden, artery-clogging, gut-stuffing blue-collar pastry.
Therefore, one may consume as many as one's heart desires
with no negative consequences. (Warning! This may not be true!)

The best part of all this, after Pam's birthday and the joy
of cooking with my son, was the fact that I was 
cooking to an audience and contributing, once again,
to the swoon-factor of the human race.
Feed someone well -- and I mean
really tap into that primitive desire
to be sated, set off all those bells and whistles
in the brain, and before long
you will have that person at the ground
in front of you, kissing your feet.

5 comments:

  1. That last paragraph sums up beautifully exactly how I feel about my baking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scrumpy, when you open your bakery, you will be on a high like no other. And what's really great about having one's own bakery is that you are baking for other people, and they buy it all up (hopefully)
    and you get your baking fix. It's so nice to discover someone who gets this!

    ReplyDelete
  3. well....good morning t.
    although I wasn't graced with
    a beignet the other night....I do
    have my own fond memories of having them in NOLA.

    ke

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ms. KE: how did you not get a beignet the other night????? I owe you a dozen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. it's ok. you could hardly
    keep up with the demand!

    ke

    ReplyDelete