Mom's Doughnuts with Syrup Glaze

Tuesday, I wanted to try something different and what could be more different than Pioneer Woman's Basil-Peach Topping? You can find the recipe on her blog at www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/07/vanilla-ice-cream-with-basil-peach-topping/.

I didn't have any peaches so I used strawberries and I wasn't in the mood for ice cream so just poured it over strawberries. I cannot say that this is something I will ever make again, but I am glad I tried it. Before I put the basil in the syrup, I tasted it and immediately brought back the taste of my mom's doughnuts.

The recipe for her doughnuts is in this cookbook. I found a copy of her cookbook in an antique store in Leadville, CO, several years ago. It was in better condition than mom's and I knew that one of my other sisters would want hers so I paid their asking price, $18, whew! I am sure the book was either free or not more than 50 cents for mom. It was published in 1949 by Crisco. As a child I was mesmerized by the picture on the cover. I fantasized that the woman on the cover was my mom and those kids were my brother and me. This is the happiest picture, isn't it?

And here is the actual recipe. Mom didn't sprinkle hers with sugar, but she dipped them in the warm syrup which she made with equal parts of sugar to water. She would boil the mixture until it started to thicken and dip the doughnuts. I loved pulling my warm doughnut off the wax paper and using my finger to remove the sticky syrup that was left on the paper. The syrup I made for the Basil Topping tasted exactly as I remember hers. Mom would also make this same syrup for our pancakes when we were out of maple syrup.

While I was looking through the cookbook tonight, I found this recipe right above the doughnut recipe. Look at it. It nearly gagged me just reading about French Fried Popcorn. Can you imagine how greasy popcorn made this way would be? These days, they don't even like us to eat theater popcorn. I can only imagine how many Weight Watchers points this would be.

Memory: Almost every Sunday nights after church, we would stop in for a little 30-45 minute visit with Grandpa and Grandma Dawkins. She would start a pan of popcorn as soon as she saw the lights of our car. She would put a little oil in the bottom of a copper bottom pan, add the popcorn and some buttery salt. It was the best popcorn ever! She only made one pan for all 5 of us kids; I never got my fill. Sometimes she would have apple slices for us to eat along with it. This is a special memory that all my siblings remember and tonight it is especially poignant. I have a lump in my throat remembering this one--remembering the loved ones in my life that are no longer with me and also the simpler times. No real worries for a 10 year old. Life was good. Life was good.