Day 275

As a child growing up, we would make campground donuts.  It was an occasional treat that my brother and I really loved but my mom usually only fixed them when we would go camping.  It’s been years (since the late 1990’s) since I last had one and so I decided to make some this morning.  Though not a healthy breakfast, it’s easy peasy.  Simply take a can of refrigerator biscuits.  Use a shot glass or donut-hole maker to cut a donut hole in the center of each biscuit.  Place the donuts & donut holes in a single layer in a pan containing a layer of heated oil and fry each side slowly until golden brown.  Remove the donuts from the pan and bread them with cinnamon/sugar.  Eat and enjoy! 

Though tasty, I have to admit that these aren’t nearly as delicious as I remember.  Probably because I’m not as much of a fan of grease as an adult.  Not only are the donuts fried in oil, but the biscuits themselves are fatty (with shortening).  If you make these, avoid using the grand or extra large refrigerator biscuits as they tend to get too well done (nearly burnt) before the donuts are fully cooked in the center.  We only had the extra large kind today and that’s how I know!  You can see how thick the donuts are since the hole isn’t very big.

And here’s the finished product…

And of course I have to include a photo of our cat being cute.

We had a large conifer behind our shed that developed some type of wilt and was dying.  It was quite the eyesore, but we had to wait for Ameren to come cut it down because it was intermixed in the power lines and was located within a few feet of the main transformer.  Though it took them many months to get out to our house, they finished it in one day.  Unfortunately they only cut it down just below the lines so the tree trunk was still taller than our shed.  Crockett got to work cutting it down this morning.  He had to go section by section until it was more manageable.  Even then, I had to help guide it’s fall with a rope as a backup.  No sense damaging our shed.  Ignore the mess behind the shed (please and thank you).   

 

And then for the best part of the day….a date with my wonderful hubby.  We went out a day early to celebrate our 13th anniversary over dinner while the neighbors watched the kids (my mom is going to watch the kids for us overnight at a later date, so we’re just doing dinner tonight).  We dined at a local restaurant called Indigo.  The food is a bit pricey, especially for the portion sizes, but I had purchased a $50-off coupon a few months ago for just $2 at Restaurant.com. Here’s what we dined on and a little review of each dish…and pictures too, though keep in mind they were taken with my iPhone in a candlelit restaurant.

Appetizers:

• Scallops - Pan seared jumbo divers with roasted roma tomatoes and honey balsamic reduction $15 (delicious but there were only 3 scallops)
• Crab Cakes - Panko encrusted jumbo lump crab over tahitian vanilla bean, lemon grass beurre blanc $12 (2 large meat-ball sized cakes, lots of crab meat, tasty but doesn’t compare to crabcakes we had in Maine)

Salad:

• Small plate of mixed greens with craisins and roasted almonds.  Served with a small platter of pita triangles accompanied by roasted garlic pods, hummus, and olives.  (Salad was good, though Brian thought it was a little boring.  Hummus and garlic pods were yummy.  I’m not an olive fan so no comment on that)  Forgot to get a picture.

Entrees:

• Sea Bass – Fresh Chilean Sea Bass pan seared and served over basmati rice cakes with a carmelized shallot and lemon emulsion $32 (this was my entrée and it was FANTABULOUS….perfectly cooked fish and the carmelized shallots were the perfect touch.  Rice cakes were good but I would have prefereed a little more flavor.  We both agreed that this was the BEST DISH of the night!)
• Yellowfin Tuna - #1 Sashimi grade tuna steak seared RARE in black and white sesame crust over ginger wok fry, mandarin ponzu and wasabi aioli $19 (this was Crockett’s entrée and it was really delicious as well.  I’m not a fan of sushi so I wasn’t sure if I would like it.  I’m glad I decided to taste it because it was really good.)

Desserts:  Crockett and I shared our desserts

• Crème Brulee (very delicious but I prefer a little more carmelization on the top and I thought the custard was just a touch runny)
• Lemon Shortcake with berry topping (superb taste.  I was worried the cake would be dry but it was super moist & it was a great dish to end the meal)

In order to get the $50 off, we had to spend $100.  Not too much of a problem at this restaurant, though we did have to order more food than normal.  Despite the list of foods we ordered (and finished), we were not overly stuffed.  As I said, portion sizes here are smaller than most restaurants, but I actually liked that. With all this food and 1 glass of Merlot, our total came to $100.50.  By the time they added on tax and gratuity, we still ended up paying $80.  But it was an awesome meal.  There was a beautiful sunset when we walked out of the restaurant.  It was the perfect end to a perfect date night.  I have a 2nd coupon for this restaurant and I can’t wait to come again!    

I’ll leave you with a photo of us.  I had my neighbor take it before we left on our date.