The Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon--and Me, Ruby Oliver by Lockhart E

Author:Lockhart, E. [Lockhart, E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780375892653
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-07-23T06:00:00+00:00

Thursday night was my night to cook for the Baby CHuBS recruiting table. And yes, I decided to make doughnuts. Call me pathetic, I won’t deny it. Jackson had implied he doubted my baking abilities, and now I was going to make doughnuts. Just to show him I could.

I got a recipe off the Internet, rode my bike to the corner store for ingredients and started mixing dough. I expected Mom to throw a fit about deep-frying activities in her raw-food kitchen, but she just said, “I have to go over to Juana’s for a bit now.”

In case you forgot, Juana is my mom’s best friend—the playwright with thirteen dogs and four ex-husbands.

“Why?” I asked, trying to figure out which thing in the drawer was a ladle.

“I have to pick something up.” Mom put on her coat.

“What?”

“It’s private,” Mom said, smiling like she was someone special.

Whatever. I was making doughnuts. I wasn’t going to get dragged into the Elaine Oliver show right then.

She left. Dad was working at his desk, composing a newsletter about early spring plantings.

I got out flour, baking soda, eggs, milk, butter, sugar and all that. I created an emulsion of butter and sugar creamed together that would have made Fleischman proud. My batter turned into dough as I added flour. I rolled it into a nice little ball, and…

Damn. Now I was supposed to chill the dough for two hours. How could I have not read that part of the recipe?

I stuck it in the freezer for half an hour.

Now to heat oil in the big pot we used for pasta (back when my mother let us eat pasta). The recipe said 365 degrees.

How was I supposed to tell when it was 365 degrees?

I looked at the bottom of the recipe. “Special equipment needed: candy thermometer.”

I had no candy thermometer.

Who has a candy thermometer? That’s like a highly specialized item.

I called Meghan first, because she lives near me, but she didn’t have one, so I called Nora.

Nora didn’t pick up the phone.

Gideon did.

“I thought you were at Evergreen,” I told him.

“I don’t have classes on Fridays, so I drove home this afternoon,” he said. “Nora’s at a yearbook meeting.”

“Do you guys have a candy thermometer?”

“Uh, maybe.”

“Could you check? Because I have a Doughnut Enterprise that requires a candy thermometer.”

“Would I know one if I saw one?” The sound of Gideon rummaging through a kitchen drawer.

“Maybe. Wouldn’t it look like a thermometer?”

He laughed. “You don’t know what it’s supposed to look like?”

I opened the freezer to poke the dough. “No. I decided to make doughnuts for our bake sale recruiting table and I’m like halfway through and I realized I need a candy thermometer.”

“I think this is it. Hold on,” Gideon said. “Mom! Is this thing a candy thermometer and can Ruby borrow it?”

I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but Gideon eventually said: “She doesn’t want to loan it out.”

“Tell her it’s a doughnut emergency,” I said.

“She’s having a doughnut emergency,” he said.

“Oh, and tell her it’s for charity,” I said.

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