Mini Chocolate Donuts

Invited a friend over early Sunday.  She asked, "Will there be coffee?"  I said, "Of course."  Then I got to thinking wouldn't mini donuts be fun.  Ever since I bought my pan from a yard sale a few months ago I've been having fun with it.  This time I made chocolate donuts.  These were made from a mix I got from King Arthur Flour.  I was already placing an order for some bread making items and thought I'd try the mix for fun.  It was VERY good.  Don't know that I'd spend the money to order it again when I can whip up a batch myself using this recipe.

Chocolate Mini Donuts

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup milk

2 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325˚F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  In separate bowl mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick. 

Combine milk and butter.  Alternately combine egg mixture with flour mixture and mix until smooth and soft.

Spray pan lightly with cooking oil.  Fill with batter 2/3 full.  Bake 8 minutes.  Cool.  Carefully remove.  Repeat with rest of batter. 

What made these donuts extra delicious was the glaze.  Not your typical powdered sugar and water coating, but a glaze made with real chocolate chips.  It really had a rich chocolate taste to go with the richness of the donuts.

Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often. Add extra corn syrup if needed to make a smooth, shiny glaze. Yield: about ½ cup glaze.

OK these were so good I probably would order the mix again all by itself!  And I think what really made them special were the Valentine's Day Sprinkles.

Funny Craigslist "Free Yarn" Ad

Free Yarn (Sackets Harbor)

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Date: 2012-01-25, 4:38PM EST
Reply to: sale-4n2pf-2817981201@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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I have three skeins of Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn that I am never, ever, ever going to use. They can be yours for free! Two of them are in the color "Pink Lemonade," which I'm sure you can imagine, and the third is "Peaceful Dreams," which is a blend of purple and blue and pink. They look adorable together for baby items for a little girl. This yarn is size 6 (Super Bulky), 100% acrylic, and machine wash and dry. Each skein is 6 oz/140 yards.

One caveat, though: This yarn is NOT good for knitting.

These skeins are taking up space in my small home and I want them gone, as they have already given me both heartache and finger-aches and now they are also making me feel guilty because I don't want to use them for anything ever again. This yarn will tangle and split and make you crazy. Your spouse might consider hauling you to the doctor for anger issues and depression if you try to use it as Red Heart intended. Perhaps it's possible to crochet with this yarn; I don't know since I can't crochet, but I suspect you'd run into the same problems as I did with knitting.

HOWEVER, there are still many uses to which you might be able to put this yarn if you want to (I don't!). For instance, you could:
1. Give it as a gift to a knitter whom you secretly hate.
2. Let your cat play with it.
3. Give it to your kids for arts and crafts - or just give it to your kids to play with and then have them untangle it afterwards. They will be occupied for hours.
4. Use it as stuffing for some other object (it is very fluffy and soft).
5. If you are moving, use it instead of bubble wrap for cushioning delicate objects.
6. Maybe you like a challenge? Embark upon the most painful knitting project you've ever done.
7. Use it in place of ribbons for gift wrapping.
8. Play a practical joke on someone by wrapping one of their valued possessions in this yarn. This will be a great joke as it will take ages to remove whatever you put in there.

You get the idea. There's lots of opportunity here if you are creative.

If you are planning to do something extra cool with this yarn and if I like you, I will even consider knitting something (NOT with this yarn!) just for you as a thank you for taking it off my hands.

Pickup only, please.

• Location: Sackets Harbor
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2817981201

Crocheting!

That's what I've been doing lately.  I've been working on an afghan that has been hanging around for years now.  I don't know when I'll ever finish it.  I seem to bring it out in football season to work on it.  Maybe that's why it's taken so long.  The 49ers haven't been doing well until this year.  So, I've actually gotten more done on it this year.  I even watched the Steelers/Broncos game to see who would move on in the playoffs.  That's how much I'm enjoying football this year.

I just spread this afghan out on my bed to measure it and it's looking SO NICE.  The afghan now measures 29"X67".  According to the pattern in it's finished state it's supposed to be 45"X65".  So, I'm getting close.  I've wondered though if I should stop at 45" or just crochet until I run out of yarn.  Since it is a scrap yarn pattern I'm not relegated to stop at a certain point because of a pattern.  Intellectually, I'm thinking use up the yarn so as not to waste any.  Emotionally, I'm getting pretty darn tired of this project and just want it done.

This project can be viewed here.

I also made an adorable beret while I was recuperating from a cold last week.  I had a day where I just didn't want to leave my bed.  It required too much effort to breath.  On the other hand I was losing my mind laying in bed, so out came a hat pattern to crochet.  After several hours of "Anne of Green Gables" on DVD I came up with an adorable pink beret.  Unfortunately it was tiny.  The pattern was created by tiny Asian woman.  I don't know if it was sized to fit a tiny woman or it was my crocheting.  I'd bet on the latter.  Anyhow it will fit a toddler probably.  I don't have any around to try it on.  So, tried it on my daughter's bear.

For Christmas I got a crochet book by Twinkie Chan called "Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies."  This book has so many adorable food related patterns.   I bought yarn to make the gingerbread man scarf for myself and the pepperoni pizza slice scarf just because it's so darn cute!  I'm in the middle of the pizza scarf.  I have the cheese, sauce, crust and a couple pepperonis made.  Then sew it all together and I'll have a year to try and part with it at Christmas time.  If you have a minute check out Twinkie's blargh.  She makes some of the most adorable crocheted items.  Right now she has a give away of some of her hand made items.  Check it out here.

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?  Yep working on my afghan again while I see if the 49ers can move on in the playoffs.  They are playing the Saints tomorrow and my dad says they don't have a prayer against Brees.  I'm going to remain optimistic.  Whether they win or lose my afghan will be a couple more inches wider.