Kate's Blog

My Great-Grandmother was dubbed “Shorty” by the many men in her life. My great-grandfather ran a logging ranch in northern Idaho and my great-grandmother, Avis, was the resident cook. Evidently she was a short woman, especially compared to the loggers, so they nicknamed her “Shorty” and it stuck long after her years of cooking were over.

One of my goals has been to successfully make my Great-Grandmother's potato doughnut recipe. I say "successfully" because I have made several attempts at accomplishing this great feat and each time I have been unsuccessful. Once I didn’t get the oil hot enough and the doughnuts were soaked in oil, once the oil was too hot resulting in a crispy brown shell and doughy centers, and once I started a fire in my parent’s kitchen. (I will not go into the details of the small fire I started at my parent’s because my sister gets too much pleasure in telling the story and with little convincing I think I can get her to write a short blog posting of her own detailing the humors of my failure.)

Today I finally accomplished my goal and successfully made a batch of Grandma Shorty’s Potato Doughnuts. For a bit of my own flair I made a ginger glaze for half of them and the other half I rolled in vanilla sugar.