Doughnut Days & Black Cat Nights

Last Sunday we gathered at Mom & Dad's house to indulge in our yearly spudnut partaking. Dad is so good to fry them up year after year, as Mom makes the dough, covers her kitchen counter in unbaked doughnuts and holes, and then keeps all the kids freshly supplied in powdered sugar glaze. Erik usually snaps the annual pictures of everyone, but he and Jalen Andrew stayed home with their miserable fevers this year. This doughnut making was complete, as always, with apple cider, plenty of doughnut eating, and Mahalia Jackson belting out "Go Tell It On the Mountain" in the background, followed by a good round of Christmas music afterwards. I'm not quite sure anymore why we started playing Christmas music during doughnut making; I think it had something to do with needing the Christmas season to start, and trying to annoy Mom with Mahalia Jackson.

Sorry, Mom, and thanks for being such a good sport AND inviting us back each year!

They were, as always - delicious!!! Aubrey shared on her blog, her cute Black Cat Cookies. I have been, of late, thinking that I should try to make them again. It has been nine years after all - plenty of time to shake off the black cat curse. I will always remember, however, my first attempt back on 10/19/2000 (when our 3 kids were under the age of 5), which I recorded for my sister Alison who was away on her mission to Puerto Rico. I knew she would appreciate my disaster - we appreciate things like that in each other. "Michelle gave me a great Halloween recipe for Black Cat cookies. They are made with 1 cup cocoa to make them black (I only had 1/4 C - so I put some chocolate powdered sugar in with it too). They have candy corns for the eyes and red hots for the nose(I discovered AFTER my first batch that you put the candy on after they're baked - all the candy melted and stuck to my pans - I think one pan is ruined). Michelle's cookies look like cats with pointy ears and whiskers made from the fork prongs (mine are brown blobs with 2 candy corns and a red hot). I have been planning for a week to make these cookies with the girls; I thought it would be a nice after school treat/project (Christine was afraid of burning herself if she put the candy on the blobs[cookies]and Rebekah was mad that I wouldn't let her eat more candy corns so she yanked on my arm and burned me on the hot cookie sheet. There was a lot of crying: Rebekah because I was upset with her, me because I feel like a lousy mom, and Joseph for who knows what reason.) I think the girls will look back on this afternoon as a definite bonding experience with their mom, don't you?" Maybe it was because I was working with the boys instead of the girls (actually Rebekah came to help in the forming of the cats), or maybe I've become a better cookie baker over the years, or maybe because I didn't have a 6 month old baby this time, or . . . whatever the case, the Black Cat Cookies turned out much better this time.

(Joseph & James - the Master Bakers)

Jalen Andrew Sweet as the Sugar he Guards.

Jalen Andrew kept wanting more cookies, so that he could pull off the candy corn eyes,

eat them, and leave the rest of the cookie for someone else. Thanks, buddy.

James tastes his creation.

The cats' eyes aren't the only ones that glow.

Joseph, you still have beautiful eyes.

Our beautiful Rebekah shows off her beautiful cat.

I had explained to the boys why we were making the eyes out of candy corns, by telling them that cat's eyes glow in the night. Later, as we ate our cookies, James' was studying his cookie pretty hard, and then asked, "So if I take it into the dark, will it's eyes really glow?"

I'm pleased to say that our Black Cats weren't bad luck ones this year, although the cookie making wasn't all as rosy as the pictures make it appear. I still said plenty of,

"That's fine if you think this is stupid. You are free to leave the kitchen as soon as you think this is too stupid for you." (JN)

and

"It's okay. It'll be fair. The two of you will get to put equal amounts into the Bosch bowl. I promise!" (JN & JG)

and

"It's okay that you got flour all over this time, but next time will you please put the flour a little closer to the bowl before you drop it? Thanks." (JG)

and

"Okay, I'm glad you enjoyed tasting that, but now you'll have to go wash your hands AGAIN." (JN)

So, for you young mothers, don't worry - even after all these years,

I still can't make it look easy. Maybe I never will, and that's okay.

I didn't particularly want to grow up to be Martha Stewart anyway.

Just plain ol'

"MOM!!!!! He's bothering me!!!"

is good enough for me.