Beignets

This morning, our church hosted Rev. Hadley Edwards, Pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church. Bethany UMC is located in the upper 9th ward in New Orleans, and with 800 members, is the largest African American church in the Louisiana annual conference. It got plastered by Hurricane Katrina - the church sat under 11 feet of water for nearly three weeks. Pastor Hadley gave a two hour presentation this morning on life since Katrina, both for Bethany UMC and New Orleans. He'll also be preaching tomorrow. If his talk this morning was any indication (he's a very dynamic speaker, and could sell ice to Eskimos), the services will be packed to the rafters.
I got in early to help cook up some beignets - another member of the committee got some Cafe du Mond beignet mix (the real deal). Being Domino's pizza alumni, I volunteered to work and cut the mixed dough. I did pretty good, I think - I didn't injure myself with either the rolling pin or the knife, and folks seemed to enjoy the beignets (likely due to the cooking and sugaring prowess of my fellow kitchen laborers, rather than my flailing about with flour).