Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler and Beignets!

To celebrate Mardi Gras, I decided to make Beignets.  I’ll never forget my first taste of those puffy, flaky sweet clouds.  It was the summer of my 15th birthday and my first real trip on an airplane. Our destination? New Orleans.  It was an interesting trip, mainly for my hair (I have naturally, curly hair so you can imagine the affect of humidity). It was a great culinary excursion with my first taste of gumbo, blackened anything, and deep-fried duck with chutney. Best part?
My sister and I were allowed to walk to the nearby mall by ourselves and we found heaven on the Mississippi, Café du Monde. It became our daily excursion for the next five days.  Oh, the glory of youth when you could eat fried dough five days in a row. It will always be a memory that matters most to me, not just the fried dough, but time spent with my sister. So, to celebrate party time in New Orleans, I decided to attempt to make this treat for the family.  Three hours later, two burned fingers (one mine and one The Boy’s), 15 raw-on-the-inside attempts, a fine layer of powder sugar over my entire kitchen, and an oil slick on my floor-we finally had beignets. How do they look? 

I also made a bit of quick homemade berry jam to go with it.  Let me tell you, the tartness of the berries mixed with the fluffy, sweetness of the fried bits of delight. YUM!!!!!  Thanks to one of my all-time favorite celebrity crushes chefs, Bobby Flay, for the Beignets and Jam recipe. 

By the way, here’s a picture of the most beautiful ingredient in those “fried dough balls” (that’s what The Boy calls them). 

Freshly ground nutmeg. 

I love grating these little nuggets of spice-so fragrant.

Click here for Bobby Flay's recipe: Beignets with Quick Blackberry Jam  and as they say in “N'Awlins”, laissez les bons temps rouler!!!