Cwabs!

A website so popular and well-loved that it’s the eighth entry down if you google “pepperplate recipe organizer.” Christ.

Thanks do-over!

There were requests for the recipe for the roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and garlic from yesterday, and while the name of the recipe really is the recipe, I’ll go into more detail for people who are persnickety about quantities:

• 2 lbs Brussels sprouts
• 4 strips of bacon, diced and cooked, fat reserved.
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled (and chopped if you want it really garlicky)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 2 tablespoons cider or red wine or balsamic or sherry or rice wine vinegar, or lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 425°. Cut the sprouts in half. Toss the sprouts in olive oil, bacon (with bacon grease, after it’s cooled a bit), garlic, salt and pepper (I did this in a ziplock bag the night before. Except for the oven bit). Pour the sprouts into a 9x13 baking dish and roast, uncovered, for half an hour. Remove from the oven and toss to get the slightly charred sprouts off the top layer. Put a couple of teaspoons of water into the dish, cover with foil, and put back in the oven for another half-hour. Remove from oven and sprinkle with vinegar or lemon juice.

It should be noted that I am not persnickety about quantities, so yesterday’s dish had a handful of crumbled bacon and a healthy pinch of salt and a whole bunch of pepper, but it turned out fine, anyway.

(The donuts I’m referring to)

In a big bowl mix:
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest of one lemon

Make a well in the flour mixture. Into this well, dump:
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter (at room temp, unless you like scrambled eggs in your donuts)
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract (lemon juice will screw up the pH of the mix—it could grow like a monster all over your fridge, although it probably won’t)

Mix just until it comes together. We’re making donuts here, not bagels.
Cover the mixture (it’ll be about cookie-dough consistency) and put in the fridge for an hour.

After an hour, set up a medium-size saucepan and a small saucepan. In the medium-size one put oil in until it’s about halfway up the side (this was about a quart) and put on the stove over medium-high heat. They tell me 325° is a good temperature, but I just got it hot.

In the small saucepan, mix:
• The juice of 2 lemons
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Set over low heat to make a glaze, stir occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

Retrieve the dough from the fridge. Turn onto a floured surface, roll to about 1/2” thick.

Drink:
• 1 bottle of beer. From the bottle. Rinse the bottle.

Use a drinking glass to cut 3” circles in the dough. Use the beer bottle to cut out the donut holes. fry in the hot oil one at a time, until golden brown, turning once durIng frying. Allow to cool briefly on a rack, then dunk into the glaze and put back on the rack. Eat while they’re still warm, although they’re fine later, too.

You’ll have leftover glaze. Pour this over crushed ice. Add vodka, gin, or rum. Drink.