Thank you, everyone, for the words of support, encouragement, kindness, and solidarity following my last post. Hopefully sharing my story will help erode some of the stigma that surrounds PPD.
Despite the ongoing recovery from crazy, we do actually manage to have some fun around here occasionally. I’m going to try to remember to document it. And here we go.
Last weekend my parents visited for the weekend. My mom and I surprised the guys with tickets to a Blackhawks game on Friday night.
And with Valentines Day on Saturday, they graciously offered to stay another night with the kids so JiT and I could spend one blissful, two-years-in-the-making night away downtown.
Sandwiched in the middle was Valentines Day Breakfast. I wanted to do something special for the kids before with ditched them, and also do something nice to thank my parents for watching them. So we made baked raspberry mini donuts, topped with strawberry glaze and sprinkles. Lilly and I actually made the donuts a couple days beforehand and froze them. Then we just dipped them in glaze and hit em with sprinkles in the morning. Easy peasy and very cute for a party.
While I’m not usually one for having a zillion specialty pans laying around, mini donuts are so cute and easy to throw together. And people think you put a great deal of effort in, so pretty well worth the splurge and the kitchen real estate.
Everyone enjoyed the “party.” JiT and I LUUURVED having a night to ourselves and I think Nana and Pop had a great time with the kiddos so it was a win for everyone. This weekend we’ve got one of my college besties in town and a bunch of my wine-drinking girlfriends coming for Sunday brunch so the donut pan might be making an encore appearance.
Baked Berry Donuts
Makes about 2 dozen mini donuts
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
6 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/3 cup raspberry puree (press berries through a sieve to remove seeds)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray mini donut pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl whisk together flours, sugar, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat egg and add in milk, oil and vanilla extract. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir gently to combine. Pour in raspberry puree and stir until evenly mixed. Spoon batter evenly into the wells of the donut pan (or use a plastic squirt bottle, which is much less messy) and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, until donuts are golden and cooked through. Remove from pan and set on a rack to cool. When completely cooled, dip each donut into strawberry glaze and top with sprinkles if desired.
Strawberry Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup finely diced strawberries
1/4 cup freeze dried strawberries, crushed to powder
Combine sugar and strawberries in a small bowl and stir to combine. If mixture doesn’t seem wet enough, wait five minutes for the strawberries to break down and release their juices. Do not add water, there will be enough moisture from the berries.
