to make a donut

As a child Matt loved eating his Grandma Ruth's donuts.  Well, he still loves eating them as an adult!  Grandma Ruth is out of the donut making business these days, but Grandma (Matt's mom) is helping carry on the tradition... she learned how to make Grandma Ruth's donuts, then brought the recipe and know-how with her on this trip.

Like most every recipe, there's a bit of behind the scenes work before you can actually get started on the recipe.  This time we needed to make our own animal lard.  Those of you who know me well can imagine how this settled with me :)  He he!  I was excited to eat donuts, and thankful Matt could learn the recipe, but rendering lard is not gonna become a treasured hobby.

First up, purchasing some animal fat.  Pig is the meat of choice around here, and my house helper headed off to the market with Grandma, Grandpa and the kiddos.

They brought home an enormous bag of pig fat and got to work.  Luckily, ayi (my helper) knew exactly what she was doing.  Rinse the fat, cut it into smaller pieces, plop it in the wok and turn on the heat.

As the fat liquified it turned yellow and crispy chunks of cracklin bits floated to the top.  Ayi delicately picked out the bits and we dumped the liquid lard into a soup pot.

The process was fairly simple.  The smell was atrocious.  Thinking that this very lard was going to be used in the donut making process ..... my stomach churned.  (to spoil the ending of this story, the donuts were delicious!  despite the queasy stomach while rendering lard.)

Sunday morning we were expecting a nice crowd of folks.... seemed like the perfect time to fry up some donuts!  So Matt and Jan got to work.  [Part of our kitchen cabinetry is missing from the pic - Matt and Luther halfway through some repairs when the picture was taken.]

Frying up yumminess!

Julianna and Lydia got in on the donut-making as well.  And in the end?  Well, we had a big pile of donuts!

We polished off many dozens that morning, and stored the rest in the freezer (disappearing quickly too!)

Just one of the many fun things we've been up to with Grandma and Grandpa in town!