"A Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot." - St. Augustine
I'm about 12% Alleluia on any given day, but I'm working on it.

Mardi Gras

My grandmother was from New Orleans, which means that every five years or so I decide to act like I’m from New Orleans, too.

Now, The Catholic Foodie may not sign off on boxed beignet mix, but sometimes we have to make do.

I don’t have an electric fryer, nor do I really want one, because – seriously, we don’t need more fried foods around here. Plus, I really like my cast iron skillet.

Draining beignets over a rack

They didn’t exactly puff up like they’re supposed to. They seemed kind of won-ton-esque.

Dipping beignets in powdered sugar

The kids came home from church – “What are THOSE?” I explained the tenuous ties to our heritage. “Does this mean I’m FRENCH? COOL!!!!” She was also quite enthusiastic about the powdered sugar stage of production.

Yum.

Child eating beignet

He’s plotting. Later, he shall sneak into the dining room and help himself to a second breakfast.

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Comments

  1. Jen ambrose says:

    Shape matters little. They look so good.

    • Dorian Speed says:

      That’s what I said, only I was referring to my shape. Har har har.

      Plus, my husband is giving up “discretionary carbs” for Lent, so we needed to go out on a high note.

  2. nancyo says:

    Oh, discretionary carbs – I like that (might have some wiggle room, definition-wise!). I have such a sugar buzz I don’t know when I’m going to be able to think about sweets again. Your beignets look great. The powdered sugar is definitely what defines them and you guys nailed that one.
    nancyo recently posted..CandlemasMy Profile

  3. Emily J says:

    Some Gulf Coast friends shipped us the boxed beignet mix from the famous New Orleans coffee shop (am I supposed to hide brandnames?) along with this great tip: use Sprite instead of water. Puffy pillows of fried dough! Of course, we once asked our favorite Gulfport beignet maker what the secret was to their enormous, better than New Orleans famous coffee shop beignets. The answer: lard.

    • Dorian Speed says:

      Aha! Brilliant!

      I kind of wondered about lard when I was frying them up. My grandmother fried chicken in Wesson oil so that’s my default when frying things. Which I don’t do all that often, really.

      We can say Cafe du Monde…as far as I know.

  4. scotch meg says:

    Dorian, This is a really cool format! It looks even better than the food. Congratulations!

  5. Christian says:

    If dey ain’t puffin rite it’s either ya erl ain’t hot enuf, or ya batta been rolled too thin.
    By the way that’s three of the Southern food groups in one bomb: white refined shug, white refined flour, and cooking oil. Gimme anudda donut, Here I come Jesus.
    Christian recently posted..Pitchers 10: Physical AccessMy Profile

  6. Yum. Yum. Yum! I have sorta ties to NOLA and thus drool at this…

    And is that a new look? Likey likey (technical termage there)
    sarah reinhard recently posted..Facing Trial, Finding Comfort, and Keeping StrongMy Profile

    • Dorian Speed says:

      It is, indeed! I actually forgot to post about that. I guess I wanted to see who would notice. :) I got so used to the WIDE open spaces over at your new blog that I decided to redo my own with the same underlying theme. Hope that’s okay…

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