Hello my lovelies! The days are getting longer and the nights are getting warmer. This week we watched the DOTA2 World Champs. A super saffron haul arrived in the mail. And I made doughnuts for the first time. A good mix of things.
This last week the World Championships of DOTA2 were held in Seattle. DOTA2 is a game I like to watch but have no intention of playing. Just like all the regular sports right? I know watching other people play video games is not for everyone. The final was watched by nearly 7 million people and the total prize pool topped $24 million. So there are a few people watching. My snugbug and I had a great time gradually learning who the teams were and understanding the game more. We made terrible predictions about the progress of the brackets. The team I chose to support ended up winning though. Which hardly every happens. I just can’t go past an underdog story. This time they made good.
I got a lovely surprise in the mail this week. Something arrived that wasn’t a book that I had ordered. A while back I contributed to a PledgeMe project to set up a saffron processing facility in Afghanistan to provide jobs for women and fair trade prices for their saffron. I had forgotten about it in the last couple of weeks and wasn’t sure what had turned up in the post. It turned out to be my gorgeous golden saffron reward. The saffron is beautiful and excellent quality. It wen’t into some Israeli couscous with preserved lemon and butter yesterday. And I’m sure it will be turning up in a few recipes in the coming weeks!
You guys. I fried a thing. It’s kind of a big deal and not a big deal at the same time. I have literally never deep-fried anything before. Not because I don’t believe in fried foods. My love of fried doughs of all kinds is epic. I just had all these paranoias about it being hard to do. And risky. And difficult to get right. And time consuming. It is none of those things. Not when making beignets anyway. They were probably not even close to authentic. They were enriched yeasted dough cut into squares. Spiced with cardamom and vanilla. Dusted with powdered sugar. So. Damn. Good. Pro tip: it might not look like much dough but a lot of doughnuts will come out the other side. I may have had a cold doughnut breakfast yesterday. Don’t worry I had green tea with them so it all balances out.
Watch something new. Support social enterprise. Fry something. Look after each other.
xx
