Dad and Donuts

One event I captured in Utah with my own camera is the donut party on Easter Sunday.

I don't know where it started but I grew up with the occasional homemade donut party. My dad would make the dough, let is rise, punch it down, cut out the donuts (and donut holes). He would cook them up in the worst possible grease, turning them with a pair of chopsticks. Dad would pull them out when they were golden and set them on old newspapers he'd carefully laid out. Nine times out of ten he started some sort of fire. I'm not joking. The only topping for these treats was plain old granulated sugar. I have a VERY serious love for these donuts and donut parties.

One of the funniest parts of this particular party was how my dad and his wife, Rosa, interacted while making them. Dad had carefully cut out the donuts and was waiting for the oil to heat up when Rosa walked up and threw one in. Dad looks at Rosa and says, "Rosa! The oil is not hot enough!" Rosa looks at him with a complete lack of expression on her face and tosses another one in!. "Rosa! It's not hot enough yet!". Then each time the cooking donuts needed to be turned (with the chopsticks) Rosa would elbow Dad and say, "Larrrry, turn! Turn Larrrrry!"

I guess it would, at this point, be helpful to know that Rosa BARELY speaks English. My dad speaks NO Spanish. When she says his name, Larry, she rolls her r's. Very sweet.

As the donut cooking process continued, Rosa would focus on putting the dough into the oil. She would line up the dough, rearrange it and my dad would yell at her, "Rosa, no touch the dough. Touch just once or they flatten!". This went on the entire night like this. Rosa is really good for him.

Maggie's first steps into this lovely family tradition:

She likes it!