Fifth Annual Doughnut Party!

For months I have been racking my brain about how to make our doughnut party this year extra special - it's our fifth anniversary, after all.  First I though about adding cake doughnuts to the menu, but couldn't find a recipe I liked well enough.  Then I thought that making homemade root beer, dry ice and all.  But that's way more expensive than I realized.  Then I thought we could just have dry ice in the cider, but had issues with getting the dry ice and such.  So I just gave up.

Then this happened.

And our fifth annual Halloween doughnut party was suddenly extra special!!

Dad and Susie really helped in getting the house ready and helped keep the boys out of the way, which was great.  (Side note: Cole and Susie are now friends for life because she fed him so much :)

Things were running smoothly.  It was time to start making the doughnuts.

Then came the throw-down.

So apparently the recipe that I have always used and have always assumed was my dad's recipe is NOT!  No, my super-secret spudnut recipe is my grandfather's (my father's father) recipe.  (Well, my version of it; I've made some changes.)  My dad's is some random, un-Roper recipe he found and altered. 

Interesting (to me at least) side-note: apparently my Grandpa Roper actually owned a spudnut shop in Vernal, Utah, way back when.  So, spudnut making is in my blood!  Oh sure, the shop didn't survive.  But that was due to bad management and my grandfather's brothers' penchant for 'borrowing' the shop's money for dates and never repaying it - not because the spudnuts weren't awesome.  Because with this recipe you know they were.

Anywho, the trash talking commenced.  Dad decided he needed to "show me how it's done". To which I said "Whatever, old man.  Bring it."  Or something like that. 

Dad ended up making a batch of his own recipe, just so we could compare.  I think we (and by we I mean the four of us who actually knew about this) can agree that my recipe won.  In your face, Pops!  Okay, in Dad's defense, he was cooking in a strange kitchen and in a strange climate.  And I do know for a fact that's Dad's spudnuts are awesome.

I think the big thing we both agreed on was that it's not just the recipe (although that is a big factor) that makes for great spudnuts - it's knowing the best techniques for making and frying them.  And lots of practice.

Anywho, the spudnuts were made and the party started.  And even though Dad was taking care of all the frying and Susie was taking care of Cole I still managed to forget to take very many pictures.  I just can't help it.  I start gabbing with my friends and I'm suddenly useless in that department.  Oh well - I think this party is one of those times where it's better to just live in the moment and not miss it while trying to record all aspects.

I had a great time, and I hope all of our guests did, too.  It got pretty packed for a while - Lance and I decided that we either need to get a bigger house or get rid of a few friends.  I choose the first option. (And not just for doughnut party purposes!)

Here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get:

Sure, no one's even looking at the camera.  That's because of the steamin' fresh spudnuts on the table!

Susie with Chad and Bekah.  Fun fact: Chad and Bekah are my faux cousins. Susie's first husband was Chad's uncle, so Susie is his aunt by marriage.  When you live 10,032,378 miles from your family, I consider that related.  Plus, Chad and Bekah are just so cool - who wouldn't want to be related?

My two rotgut sons.  I spent quite a bit of time working on their Halloween costumes and they don't even wear them.  Like I said: Rot. Gut.

 Dad, the master fry-man.  He did a great job!

Perhaps next year I should hire a photographer to chronicle the event.  Do you think I could pay them in spudnuts?