Doughnuts - Meatloaf and another Day of Shoveling

We woke up to a much warmer morning, 24° but two more inches of snow.

This is DH's 73rd birthday so I thought he deserved something more than oatmeal (his usual) breakfast.
We had biscuits, sausage and eggs and always a glass of milk. I think some strawberry jam found its way into the menu too.

Dinner will be meatloaf (made yesterday), a baked Yukon Gold potato and a salad of lettuce, avocado, mandarin oranges and onion rings.

No special dessert because I made doughnuts yesterday.

Our evening meal is just a 'to-each-his-own affair'.

DH collected the eggs yesterday evening and they set a record, 6!

More snow removal with the tractor and me following up with the shovel. We can now get to the wood shed and I can replenish bird feeders without wading l8 inches of snow. We count our blessings.
More snow is predicted which doesn't thrill us.

I tried another Joy of Cooking recipe yesterday, doughnuts. It is a super recipe. I now have three different recipes for doughnuts, all good, but this may be our favorite. I tried the chocolate glaze recipe and it was a disaster, the chocolate seized! I reread the recipe realized that I had used unsweetened chocolate squares instead of the semi-sweet or bittersweet. That may have been the problem.....I will still be nervous to waste all that chocolate again. I just made my usual icing with very little butter and made it thinner. It worked fine and got hard which I wanted.



Here is the recipe (from Joy of Cooking)

Cake Doughnuts (about 18 – I got 20)

Whisk together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed:

4 cups AP flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon cinnamon or l teaspoon grated lemon zest
Opt: ¾ teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg (I would use both next time)

In a large bowl beat well

2 eggs

Add slowly and beat until thick and creamy

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

On low speed add and beat until blended

¾ cup milk
5 tablespoons butter, melted
Note: I also added 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix with a large spoon just until blended.
Note: I finally found a use for my Swedish dough hook

The dough will be soft and sticky. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24.
Note: I left in the bowl and sealed it in plastic wrap.
.

Flour board, roll out about 1/2 inch thick, cut out, fry.

I fried mine just under a minute per side, golden brown, in three inches of oil at 375°. I used a thermometer in a pan of oil on top of the range this time. I don't think my electric pan was getting hot enough. You have to really monitor the oil or it gets too hot, but it worked great.

Drain on paper towels. I dipped some in sugar, left some plain (DH's favs) and glazed 6.

The meatloaf was a 'no recipe' one....just my normal, eggs, salt and pepper, minced onion, and bread crumbs. I did use l lb hamburger and my last pound of ground pork.
The difference was I added about a 1 cup of my homemade salsa. My sister told me she always made hers using salsa. We thought it was very good.



I have used a pound of sausage mixed in with the hamburger and that is quite good too.

Random Picture

This was taken during our second bout of snow late yesterday afternoon. Most of the other feeders were empty so they "flocked" to the kitchen window one.