My diet these days is, if we’re being completely honest, a bit of a mess. On the plus side, I take vitamins (and yes, I 100% feel entitled to medals for this) and generally enjoy balanced-diet-type foods. But these small wins are massively outweighed by the fact that much of my food consumption comes via whatever is left on my children’s plates.
Why? For two reasons.
Cinco de Mayo is one of those holidays that only occurs to me when I'm in the middle of it - as in, when I'm sitting in a restaurant and notice the poster reading "CINCO DE MAYO CERVEZAS ONLY $2!!!" and think, Ooh. I should have a beer.
This year, Cinco de Mayo occurred to me several days prior to the actual event for two reasons: The first is that Mollie is throwing a party on Friday, and I just got the email reminder, and the second is that a few days ago I went over to Mollie's house and she showed me how to make the tissue-paper flowers and Ranch Water cocktails that'll be featured at this party. (Related: going to Mollie's house is always a good idea.) So, really, I suppose there's actually only one reason that Cinco de Mayo occurred to me before actual Cinco de Mayo, and that's "I have a friend named Mollie."
These tissue-paper flowers are so cute, and so versatile - you can make them bigger or smaller depending on the size of tissue paper you use, and can choose whatever color palette you want - and they're easy enough to make that you can hand over assembly duties to the kids (so you can focus on those Ranch Water cocktails).
The good news: Oh my GOD is Peepshi - a.k.a. sushi that has been constructed from Peeps and an assortment of other cavity-creating substances - ever cute.
The bad news: Cavity-creating substances are frequently insanely delicious, which means that you will make Peepshi "for the kids"...and in the process eat millions of little Peep remnants (you know, the ones that you cut off in pursuit of a perfectly-shaped piece of nigiri) yourself.
Okay. Now that we've established that you're making Peepshi, because of course you are, let me tell you how to do it. This geniusness was originally created by Serious Eats, but now that I've made one batch and am thus clearly an expert, I'm going to tell you the little discoveries that I made over the course of the Peepshi-making process that I thought were extra wonderful.
omg these are delicious.
How have I never heard of bananacakes before?! They're like pancakes, except you get to skip 90% of the steps involved in making pancakes. And since they have zero added sugar and flour and everything else, I have to assume they're...better for you? ...Sort of?
Anyway, I was at my friend Elise's house for brunch the other day and she whipped up some of these using just eggs and mashed-up banana (with a touch of cinnamon), and they are good. Slightly denser than pancakes - and you definitely have to be into banana-flavored things, but who isn't? - and such a great last-minute what-do-I-make-for-breakfast solution (plus a fun way to use up your about-to-go-brown bananas; you can always make them now and freeze them for the weekend).
Deep-frying is not my forte. I've only ever done it once, actually, when I made fish 'n' chips - white-hot oil has just always struck me as a substance I should stay far, far away from. But when I'm presented with an opportunity to learn how to whip up homemade doughnuts from my friend and RG contributor Mollie, I'm obviously going to say yes. First, because Mollie alerted me to the fact that she inherited her love of deep-frying from her great-grandmother Big Momma, and any recipe even tangentially associated with a woman named "Big Momma" is clearly going to be a delicious one. But also because these doughnuts are made using pre-made biscuit dough. Which means they take about five minutes.
Let me say that again, for emphasis: If you have these (pretty basic) ingredients handy, you can be eating homemade doughnuts in five minutes. And now that I have officially tasted doughnuts fresh from the oven (or...oil-pot), I get why some people skip Dunkin' Donuts in favor of DIY: the doughnuts you buy in stores can't even begin to compare to ones you eat seconds after they're made.
Oh, and if you have kids this is such a fun project (minus the boiling oil part) - just sit them down with toppings and slightly cooled doughnuts - and maybe a few dropcloths, depending on how much you like your furniture - and let them go crazy. Which they will. (I practically had to hose my daughter down before I'd let her get in my car at the end of all this.)
