One Year + Apple Beignets

Feeling thankful. It’s what I’ve been trying to capture, sitting here, writing, deleting, writing, deleting, re-writing, and more deleting, all morning. A mix of stories, anecdotes, tales of our adventures. Nothing is flowing the way I want. It seems it should be simple, “Hey, everyone!! It’s SCM’s first birthday!! Thanks for coming along with us this past year!” And yes, it is…. but it isn’t!!

SCM turned one this past weekend. A year of posts, stories, recipes and photos. A year of cooking classes, new faces, inspiring new clients and successes. A year of firsts, of realizations, of tears from laughter and frustration, of “Why?!?!?! %$^&#!!”, and “Oh! That’s way!” moments. A year of scribbling ideas in notebooks, of feeling daunted, incapable, of trying to figure out just what direction I want this little corner of mine to go in. It’s been a year of feeling uber focused, frazzled, and in way over my head.

It’s been a year of discovery. Of new friends from all over the world (seriously- how cool is that!!!) and of re-connecting with friends from the past (I’m so happy we’re in touch again!!!) The internet really is a crazy, amazing place. A year of planning, a year of dreaming. A year of thinking “How can I macro-fy that?” and saying to hubs “so….. how does it taste?!”

It’s been truly great. Fabulous. Amazing and wonderful. It’s been oh so much more than I anticipated…. I can’t wait to see what this next year will hold. (I do know that there are some exciting things in the works!) So, instead of re-reading this, editing and changing words around, I’m just going to press publish and let it be. I’m so grateful. Thank you, everyone, for all of your enthusiasm and comments, for your e-mails, messages and notes. It makes my day knowing you’re out there, somewhere in this amazing world, taking a few moments to stop by here. Wow. Thank you.

Now… please go and make these super yummy apple-y bites of doughy goodness. Eat them fresh and hot, sprinkled with maple sugar, or with a side of brown rice syrup, maple syrup or jam to dunk them in. Hubs dubbed these “Golden Fried Rings of Heaven” and for good reason… we polished off each and every last one in one sitting, which is a lot knowing that each apple can make 8 or more Beignetes!! A happy birthday indeed!!

This recipe makes enough that 4 people could enjoy 4 each- it really depends on how thinly you slice the apples. To conserve oil, I filled one small pot, and fried one or two apple slices at a time, but you could easily use a large pot and do more at once to save time. Also, you can save and re-use the oil. Just let cool, and strain. I store mine in the fridge after it has been used.