Doughnuts

Russian Interior Minister VK Plehve, 1903: "What this country needs is a short victorious war to stem the tide of revolution."

Hard to believe how warm it was the week before last! (I opened the windows in my room for the first time since the fall, but re-closing them turned out to be very tough.) Now the cold weather's back...

Last week we made doughnuts with my air fryer.  It takes a while because you have to let the dough rise for an hour, cut it into torus shapes then leave them for another hour before baking them.  The first time we tried making six without the holes, and they weren't completely cooked in the middle.  So we tried it a second time, making eight with holes. (We use a cup to cut the outer circles, a pill capsule for the inner ones.)  But piecing them together was a challenge.  I made chocolate and vanilla glazes, but too much of both, so we bought croissants to add them too.

I think I'll take a new approach the third time.  First roll the dough until you have enough area for three big circles, then cut them out and also cut out and replace the holes.  Then roll it again until you can make the three big circles again, along with the holes.  Then piece the rest together to make two.  And I think baking them at 350 degrees will work better than 375...

For the next Book Club event, I'm reading Longfellow's poems, starting with The Song of Hiawatha. (Then I'll reread Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish and his shorter poems...)

The topic for next month's History Meetup is the Russo-Japanese War, so I'm also reading David Walder's The Short Victorious War:  The Russo-Japanese Conflict 1904-5.  The Russians expected an easy time against the Japanese "monkeys," but got routed instead.  I wonder if the same thing will happen to them in Ukraine just now?  In the meantime, I think we should subject Russia to complete economic isolation before turning to military escalation.  Even if sanctions aren't enough, we need to make sure of that before risking World War III.

At ourtime.com I was speaking to a lady who was close to coming to see me, but she changed her mind because I wasn't tall enough!  Oh well, it's better to be disappointed early...

In the blog where I reprint my diary entries from 15 years ago, I've got to the point where I took a break of almost six months.  So I guess I'll be taking a break on that blog too.