Lemon Doughnuts and more Napa with Kim!

Where to begin.......
Kim and I have been having the best time! We have stayed up late, enjoyed wine and girl talk, lots and lots of laughing, and some baking thrown in there! We went to Napa on Wednesday. I wanted to take lots of pictures of our tastings and all the different places we visited, but I forgot. I have a few pictures though. We went to four different places, and had a picnic lunch. The weather was absolutely beautiful. My kids even got us a free tasting at one place because the lady thought they were so cute. With our wine clubs, and the cute kid discount we didn't have to pay for a single tasting that day. It was great!!

Enjoying our picnic lunch!
Kim and Kate

Aiden doing his running class!

The vines A vine up close, no grapes right now!

Last night we decided to re-create the perfect meal we had at Robert Sinskey the other day. Corny was making steaks, fries, and the olive butter. Kim and I were in charge of the lemon doughnuts, with lemon curd and mint whipped cream. Corny was determined to find duck fat to cook the fries in. We searched high and low at the Asian market and never found it. But we did find a really fun Karaoke place where you have your own room and instruments and you can sing as long as you want! Okay back to duck fat, Corny had to give up on that idea and he was sad. He started working on the steaks while Kim and I caught up on some Oprah and wine. After the most wonderful dinner ever, Kim and I started on the lemon doughnuts.

Lemon Doughnuts

1/2 C water

1/4 C lemon juice

6 oz butter

1/2 t salt

1 t sugar

3/4 C flour

3 eggs

Kim squeezed all the lemon juice, while enjoying a glass of wine.

This is the lemon curd I made.

The doughnuts. Bring water, lemon juice, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil.

Remove from heat and mix in flour. Return pan to medium heat and stir until the mixture pulls away from the pan.

Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl. Mix for one minute to cool the mixture down. Then begin to blend in eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is blended well before you add the next.

Scoop the mixture into a pan of oil at 375 degrees. Cook until puffed and golden.

Our doughnuts!!

Yummy doughnuts* We made the lemon curd, as well as the whipped cream blended with fresh mint.

Today we are going to go into the city and have lunch at Burger Bar, go to a wine (surprise surprise) tasting event, and then have a girls night. I have not had a girls night since before I found out I was pregnant so I am really looking forward to it. Corny should expect Kim and I to probably get into lots of trouble.

*So in reality the doughnuts were not yummy at all. Kim and I messed everything up, and destroyed the kitchen. Maybe it was the wine, who knows. The problem was I let the oil get too hot. And because it was too hot I melted Corny's thermometer (which goes over 400 degrees, whoops) so I could not tell how hot the oil really was. The inside did not cook. We were sad, Corny was sad, and Aiden was sad. We will try again. Having the correct oil temperature is really important. We feel as though we let Alec down (the chef at Sinskey who gave us the recipe). When we woke up this morning we were told to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen before we were allowed to have breakfast. Corny is mean.