Donuts in the Driveway

Yesterday as I was reading a few blogs while eating my cereal (my usual morning routine), I ran across a post about donuts on Oh Happy Day. It reminded me of my dear friend Susannah and her fun fall donut parties. I thought to myself, "I want to have a donut party - tonight!" It is supposed to get really cold and rainy this week and yesterday's weather was supposed to be a perfect fall day - I felt like if I was going to have a donut party, then this was the night to do it.

The kids were out of school so I knew I could count on their help but my husband was working all day and would be on call that night so I really couldn't depend on him. I was on my own with this one. I called a friend for either some encouragement or discouragement depending on how crazy my idea would sound to her. She told me to go for it - she would lend me some tables and a deep fryer (I didn't even own a deep fryer and I was still wanting to have a donut party...). I called my mom who is always up for a party - she thought it sounded like fun and even came up with the name for our party: Donuts in the Driveway. I called my sister - they would love to come and she would bring her deep fryer. Great. Things were starting to materialize - the kids were totally stoked. They started making lists of people to invite, things we needed to buy, things we needed to do...they just couldn't get over the fact that mom had come up with this great idea and that it was so last minute. The dough was a huge concern for me - I did NOT want to make dough for 6 dozen donuts. I called my local grocery store - "would you sell me some of your donut dough?" "I don't know - we've never done that before....how much would you need?" I was put on the spot - I hadn't even decided how many people we were going to invite yet! "I don't know...enough for about 60-70 donuts." "How about 12 pounds of dough?" "Ummm...sure - that sounds great...ummm I'll pick it up before 2:00." I hung up the phone, looked at Isaac and said "I just bought 12 pounds of donut dough. Now we have to have the party!"

The rest of the day was spent making and delivering invitations, going to the store to pick up the huge bucket of dough that was rising faster than we could punch it down, the other things we needed, making the glazes, getting the toppings ready, setting up tables and chairs, getting centerpieces ready, getting extension cords ready - and then the biggest job - rolling out and cutting about 50 donuts (thanks to my friend's donut cutter) - and that was only half the dough!

My parents, sister and brother came early and helped a ton! Wes showed up just as people started to arrive - he was totally blown away. I had called him ealier in the day to tell him I was having a donut party and all he could say was "good luck!" Of course he jumped right in and started helping out. He thought it was a great idea and wants to do it every year.

It was a huge success. We had about 60 people come and we made probably close to 100 donuts. The donuts and the toppings were extra yummy. I had even called Susannah to get her maple syrup glaze recipe. The weather was perfect - the kids loved playing in the yard and on the rope swing. We want to make it an annual fall tradition and try to invite more friends and family. But for a first time event - it went really well.

Did anything go wrong? Yes... I didn't get one single picture!