Malasadas.......

 Yesterday was Valentine's Day. After being lazy the day before to re-coup from the wedding, I felt energized and made a to-do list that kept me hopping all day. Chores around the house during the day and a wonderful evening dinner out with my hubby at night brought a smile to my face and heart.

In between those things, I decided to pull out a recipe I had been intimidated with for years. It is Nana's recipe for Malasadas. What are Malasadas? They are a Portuguese fried doughnut dipped in a sugar boiled glaze. These are not like anything you have ever tasted or found in a traditional bakery.

Nana used to make them all the time. I remember smelling that sweet yeast scent as I walked down the driveway from school. I also remember the game of trying to imagine what the different shapes were since spoon dropped dough makes no two ever alike.

Nana would triple the batch and freeze  most of it so that we would have doughnuts to eat for weeks on end.  And if that wasn't a temptation all by itself; she would cut them up into thin slices and fry them in butter until toasted and serve them with eggs at breakfast time. Oh so bad and oh so good!

I don't know why the recipe intimidated me all these years. Maybe it was my childhood perception of seeing how hard she worked over a triple batch of dough when a single batch makes about 4 dozen. I found yesterday that it is a pretty easy recipe. I was hoping to take some over to her today to have her stamp of approval. But after sharing some with a friend and then hubby and girls taking for their friends today.....there are only 3 left in the bowl. I guess that is a stamp of approval all by itself.

If you are interested, here is the recipe.

Portuguese Malasadas

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast (1 package of yeast) dissolved in a 1/3 cup warm water
8 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup cream
1 1/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup melted butter
8 slightly beaten eggs

Mix eggs, butter, warm water and cream together in a large bowl. Add yeast after it has dissolved and activated (It will foam and rise.) Add flour, sugar and salt. Mix together well to become a sticky dough. Cover dough bowl with a towel and set it in a warm dry place to rise and double in size. This takes about 2 hours.

Drop spoons of dough into hot oil to fry until deep dark golden brown. Then remove and let drain on rack or absorbent paper towels.

Malasada Glaze

Malasadas may be served plain, sugared or glazed. For glazing do the following:
Rapid boil 2 cups of water along with 2 cups of sugar until it becomes slightly thickened (about 5 minutes).
Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla.

Dip each doughnut in and out of the glaze quickly, rolling as necessary to completely cover. Let set on a rack to drain and set.

Enjoy!

(After posting this I thought about two things that you may find good to know about this recipe to ensure your doughnuts are cooked all the way through.

#1 Use a SMALL spoon when dropping the dough into the oil for frying. The dough expands as it cooks and if you are not careful you will end up with monster sized doughnuts.

2# Be sure to follow the rule of DARK golden brown.) 

Celebrations Galore.....

 The last month has gone by with such speed. As the days ticked away, there were several times when I would think, "goodness if I had a piece of paper next to me I would write this down for remembering on my blog." Can I remember those things now? Of course not. Oh well. I can however share the things that are sticking out in my mind at this moment.

Aren't these colors amazing together? Normally I go for the snuggly cozy type of colors. But this bright yellow and bold purple fit perfectly for what I was doing.

This is a baby towel that I made for a dear friend that is about to be blessed. She is due the first week of March and we are all so excited. I really like blessing new babies with this style of towel because it grows with them. As a small infant, it will keep baby Aria much warmer than those thin hooded things they sell in the stores. Then as she gets older and is cruising around in toddler style, it is big enough to double as the best cape in any sort of pretend game after washing all those germs down the drain.

The baby shower was a blast. Parents and baby were both very blessed and loved on with all the necessities needed to begin their new adventure of a lifetime.

I saw something at the baby shower I had never seen before.....a diaper cake. It was the cutest thing ever! This picture is not from the party. I just googled it. I have no idea why it is now sideways. I downloaded it straight and checked it 3 times. But, if you have never seen a diaper cake, it will give you an idea of the cool blessing.




~~~~~~~

Nana's 86th Birthday

What a joy! We just got to celebrate Nana's 86th birthday!  I love my Nana so much. Even though time occasionally plays tricks with her memory, she is still as spry as ever. I made a real effort to make sure this was a fun birthday for her. I put streamers and balloons everywhere and tried my hand at all kinds of fun foods. It was all worth it to hear her giggle at the celebration of honoring her.
Mom made her that beautiful lei in her favorite color of red. It was so deep in color that it looked like velvet.

Normally Nana will shy away from the camera. After all, it is a girl's prerogative to fuss over wanting her hair and make-up to be 'just so'. But on this day she was full of smiles and I am so grateful.

The picture above is some of our group in a nice shot. From left to right is my brother, Mom, me and Dad. Then Nana, Auntie and Angel-girl.

This shot to the right is Nana with my brother and his little Angel-girl. This makes for a 3 generation picture. What a treasure!

 Here is Nana just after blowing out the candles on her cake. I love her rosy cheeks! Doesn't she look wonderful?!

I made her cake and had so much fun doing it. It is a 3 layer angel-food cake with a strawberry filling in between each layer. The outside is a blend of whip cream and instant cheesecake pudding. while the top is slices of kiwi and strawberries.






~~~~~~~

The Wedding

If you could only feel the happy sigh of finality and relief over here. The wedding was yesterday and now they are off on their honeymoon. Parties are done, no more alterations at the dress shop to fix fiascoes. It was a beautiful wedding and I think it all came out just the way Icca wanted it which is as it should be. It was a wonderful and memorable day. The professional pictures will take a couple of weeks to get back. Among other shots I want to share, I am hoping in that lot there will be a close up of her dress so I can share the sparkle of it all finished. But for now, here is a great wedding party picture from someone's cell phone. (Hubby and I are just to the groom's left.)

 

I am so grateful to have been blessed with being a part of it all. It was an odd feeling for me. I don't know if I can adequately explain it but...... When Heather got married, we sent some money to help and that was really all that we did besides being there for her big day. Not that anything is wrong with that. We live hours apart. It just is what it is. And at the time, I was in Texas taking care of Daddy. I had flown to Spokane the day before the wedding and was overwhelmed with the season of emotion I was in. 

I don't regret any of it. Like I said, it just is what it is. I felt so blessed to be in so much of the details of this wedding. Icca's family was there. But because of the dynamics of their past and Icca needing to live with us all this time, I could see that it was a hard and awkward day for them. Maybe because of my own lack of feeling involved with our daughter's wedding, I could appreciate more of how Icca's family must have been feeling.  They had tears and were obviously happy for her. But they hung back in the shadows and looked quietly sad most of the day. I tried to make small talk with them and offer the ease of knowing there is no judgement around here. But it didn't seem to bring any real ease into the day. I do understand. I can only pray and God will handle it.

Mr and Mrs Reis 2~12~2012

My Puddin girl took this shot during the reception. 

Don't they look like a blissfully happy couple?

 Goodness it is late in the night. I better get to bed.
God bless your week in all you do with His joyous abundance of favor and assurance of love.

Celebrating Birthday and Love.....

 

Yesterday we hosted a surprise birthday party for my Nana. She is now 85 years young. Doesn't she look amazing? My parents told her they were taking her out for the day but needed to stop at my house and deliver something. Delivering her as the guest honor was the real motive and she was so surprised at the houseful of people greeting her.

Family and friends socialized over the buffet table and told stories while laughing and snapping pictures. It was a good day and I think everyone was blessed at being able to get together.

It was also an opportunity for Icca Chou to meet more of my family and get settled into being a part of our family with all the fun and craziness we offer.  I introduced her to extended cousins as one of my heart adopted daughters that lives with us and everyone welcomed her with open arms.  

Later one of my cousins pulled me aside and wanted to know more of her personal history and if her parents are around at all. I tried to be tactful and gracious in answering the question because I didn't think it really mattered and it is not my story to tell.  Icca Chou supported herself through high school and graduated. Now she works 40 hours a week and goes to college full time and we have the privilege of having her in our home as an every day blessing while she works towards achieving her goals.

But before I could think of anything to really say my cousin continued with, "I ask because I see something so special about her. She watches everything you do and the look in her eyes is filled with admiration and love for you. She has been looking around at everyone here at the party and it is like she is drinking it all in with happiness. I am so overwhelmed with feeling the fact that she so completely loves you and is proud of you and looks at you like a mom. I just wanna have a camera so I can freeze her look in my heart because it touches me so deeply."

I was absolutely blown away and it made me want to cry right then and there.

I love each one that comes through our door. So long ago when Hubby and I were starting our family my heart was full for so many children to love and cherish. It never occurred to me that my heart desires would be fulfilled by way of all the friends that our girls bring through the doors. We were just teasing this afternoon with someone about Pippin and Puddin' always inviting others over all the time or when they fill all the seats of my car with extras to go along with whatever adventure we are embarking. Then the girls will pull me aside and say, "Mom they need you to love on them." or "They need Mom advice."  

Most kids bring home stray pets. Mine bring home extra kids to love on. And I love every second of speaking into their lives and encouraging them into walking in their destinies.   

Thank You God for your love to share and your eyes to see.

I pray that you have a fantastically blessed day filled with God's goodness.

83 Years Young......

(If my Nana knew I was writing this post and sharing these pictures I would be flogged big time. I would be scolded in Portuguese and threatened to never receive chocolate again. Keep it a secret for me okay so I don't fall off my wobbly pedestal.)

Recently we celebrated my Nana's 83rd birthday. (Thank you Mom for sending over the pictures.)

She can sometimes grumble about her age and think her pictures are scary. I guess we are all guilty of doing that at one time or another.

I think being 83 is a wonderful celebration and she looks amazing.

It was a fun day. Every couple of weeks I take her out shopping wherever she wants to go. That day she chose to conquer her list of needs and wants at Costco. With it's warehouse format of shopping in bulk, there is much to look at. I have to laugh that we actually spent three hours there, but at least it gave my mom time to cook much of the birthday dinner without Nana being the wiser.

Here is a sampling of my current favorite yummy.

Can you taste it?

For years we have made a dish called wonton for buffet family events. It has always been oh so good. But being traditionally a fried food, it gets soggy and blah after setting out for a bit. This past year my mom had the great idea of taking the wonton wrappers and baking them in muffin pans to achieve the crisp and then put the filling in to make it out of this world. Doing it this way keeps them fresh for a long time and makes it easy to store left overs without it sticking together. Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes and it is like they are steamy and new all over again.

It was so great to celebrate with the family. The evening was covered with all of us telling stories and filling our bellies with delicious food and laughter.

Nana loves everything concerning angels and we have all helped her to develop quite a collection.

Here are my girls with their Great-Nana after giving her an addition to her collection. Rosie is on the left and Pippin is on the right.

In other news: thank you for your prayers and encouragement with Pippin. She is home again today but doing much better. She can now walk a straight line without my help and even set down with steady hands to do some bracelet beading.

Blessings to you and I hope to be able to visit everyone soon.

Doughnuts Anyone.....

I noticed on my news home page this morning that today is National Doughnut Day. Two things came to mind when I saw that. The first being the idea that we have a special day for everything here in the USA. Do we really need a labeled day for eating super fattening sugar dripping items? But my second thought was more along the lines of memories. I guess I have been thinking memories a lot lately. I am usually a "live in the now" person and don't think about the past so all of these little strolls have been nice.

Doughnuts:

All through my growing up years, my Portuguese grandma...my Nana, would make Malasadas. It is a yeast doughnut with a yellow inside and no hole. She would drop it by big spoonfuls into cooking oil. In a matter of maybe two short minutes, the goo would cook and become a brilliant deep golden brown. Then she would dip the finished blob, the size of 2 fists put together, into a pot of thin sugary glaze. Whenever she made these doughnuts, she would create huge batches of it to share with all of the family. Because of that it would be an all day job and the house would smell heavenly for days afterwards. Bags of Malasadas would be in the refrigerator and freezer for our convenient grabbing. As if that wasn't a treat enough, Nana would then take the doughnuts and cut them up into slices. She would then either toast them or fry them in a breakfast pan with a bit of butter.

With my new found thinking on eating more healthy, I have no desire to run out and grab doughnuts today. But with the memories floating around in my mind, I just might ask Nana if she would like some help in making some Malasadas so we can have them again.

(Here is a picture of me with Nana just a couple of months ago. She would flip out and crown me a good one if she knew I posted her picture here. It was one of the rare occasions when she actually allowed her picture to be taken.)

For now though, I need to run to the grocery store and get ingredients for a feast tonight. I am doing the spaghetti and bread thing for everyone. Students and parents are going to be in my living room tonight to watch Inherit the Wind. Have you ever seen it before? A dear friend introduced me to it a couple of years ago and it is now one of my favorites. I haven't told the students much of anything about it. Instead I want them to watch it, feel it, get justifiably angry, and then we will talk about how the pride and arrogance of people applies to us today.