Pumpkin Two: Pumpkin Fritters

I told some friends yesterday that I don't think I became comfortable with motherhood until about 3 months ago.

Obviously I love my daughter, but I think mothering has been mostly alien to me. I have some theories about this, but we can skip the psycho(analytic) ones and say that having two kids is double intense. And double real. There's no continuing your life the way it was before kids.

A random stranger at the library called out to me as I passed and said, "Hold on to them. They grow up so fast." This first struck me as cliche, but he's right. In fact, almost every cliche that anyone has said to me about parenting has turned out to be true in some way. How much love they bring out in you, how much you would do to protect them, how you forget how about labor....
(HA! Not true on that one, but nice try. The only thing true about that was that I was willing to do it again, which tells you that the cliche about how sleep deprived parents get is true.)

I've been thinking quite a bit about how precious kids are, actually. Damaris alerting me to the whole Amazon fiasco , a young person we know in my very small community recently deciding to end his life, and the missing 3 boys have all made me emotionally aware of youth. I haven't figured out how to respond to these events.

Positive thoughts did come to me out of all of this. Reflecting on the incident that happened in my small town a former student contacted me and very generously attributed me with giving him hope when I tried to help him out with some challenges he was going through.

Mostly, every day, I wish I could have done more for him, and many other youth that are in desperate need, emotionally and physically, at my school. The need is as overwhelming to me as the world's problems, really.  Kids have more need than resources, at least in our world.

We have responsibility for our kids, but also for other kids. We should be helping to take care of the children that cross our paths. My husband and I talk about the circle of people that are closest to you, and how you can have the most influence and do the most good in that circle.

Here's where I'm going to ignore that whole "It takes a village" cliche.

When Amaya was eating these pumpkin fritters non stop throughout the day (she ate almost the whole batch herself) I almost told her no more, but since I was feeling a little sensitive about all of this, I sat back and enjoyed the fact that she loved them enough to come back again and again. I cook a lot of treats (Hey, they're better for photography) but I usually only let her have a small amount of sugar, even on Halloween or in the face of chocolate cookie dough cupcakes. For this day, I let it go. There's a difficult balance between the challenges and rewards that make a person.

Let her eat some fritters.

Pumpkin Fritters
These are a little crunchy on the outside, a lot creamy on the inside, and not sweet except for the sugar they're rolled in (so don't skip that step). Even though Amaya was content to eat them all, I think since they're fried you could probably use some self-restraint. Good luck finding some.

• 2 Cups pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• oil for frying
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Mix eggs and puree in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Add to the pumpkin and mix well.
3. Mix together sugar and cinnamon for dipping in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Heat 2 inches of oil in a large cast iron skillet (or similar pan) over medium heat. When it is very hot, drop 1 tablespoon of batter into the oil for each fritter. Fry about 6 or 7 fritters at a time. Flip after a minute or so and cook until the fritter is a light orange color and looks dry.
5. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Roll fritters into sugar and cinnamon or sprinkle sugar on top (according to how sweet you like).
6. Repeat for the rest of the batter.
7. Eat while warm.