Mardi Gras
Yesterday was the last day of Mardi Gras, so I thought we would have a dinner inspired by it. I made New Orleans style red beans and rice, which means you add cayenne pepper and Creole seasoning to your beans and ham hock when cooking. I also made beignets (French doughnuts). I have never made beignets before. They turned out great. I was worried they would be burnt on the outside and raw dough on the inside, but I used a candy thermometer and was careful to keep the temperature at 350 the whole time I was frying.
Making beignets is a once a year thing. They are too good to have more often than that. I think next time I will either cut the recipe in half, or make them when we are having people over. I made about four dozen. That is a lot of little doughnuts, even with two teenage boys in the house. 
Frying the doughnuts.
A plateful of yumminess! (I just made up a new word)