Mall Pretzels

I had the letter P for preschool and wondered if there were any recipes for pretzels out in the big wide world. Well, I found a winner on allrecipes. These are really easy, really fun, and really yummy! The kids loved them--which is a shocker. I made them Pigs in a Blanket and half the kids wouldn't touch them (weird, huh)? But these, they devoured. I did too!

Mall Pretzels

Ingredients

* 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 1/8 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup bread flour
* 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 2 tablespoons baking soda
* 2 tablespoons butter, melted
* 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour. (If the dough doesn't rise long enough you end up with a tough, rubbery dough that will not stay put.)
2. Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.
3. After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. After rolling out the dough, making the pretzel and dunking it in the water/soda, lay it on a paper towel just long enough to catch most the water and then put on the cookie sheet. This way they won't puddle in the excess water and it's easy to reshape them. Use ordinary baking sheets, sprayed with Pam and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

The original recipe had you put them on parchment paper, but I don't recommend that. The parchment paper sticks and gives additional fiber to the pretzel since you can't peel it all off. Enjoy!!!

Homemade Pound Cake

I made this the other day, trying to replicate a pound cake I had on our cruise. This one wasn't the same (the one on the cruise was almost like a vanilla bean pound cake), but it was delicious! I didn't even put anything on it, although I'm sure it would be yummy with berries or some sort of sauce. But it is so yummy by itself too! The outside is almost carmelized and the inside is moist. This is a Paula Deen recipe:

(Sorry the picture is terrible, and my cake tore a little in the center!)

Mama's Pound Cake

1/2 pound (2 sticks) softened butter, plus more for pan
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla. Pour into a buttered and floured tube pan (bundt) and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (mine cooked for one hour and was perfect).

3-Year Anniversary

Since it's our 3-year Anniversary in February. How about we all come up with our top 5 recipes we make over and over from the blog. And, then we can label them as our favorites? Put your selections in the comments!

Love you girls! I'm so glad to keep in such close contact with all of you!

Italian Barbecue Sauce

So I made Rachael Ray's Smoked Mozzerella and Chicken Sandwiches with Italian Barbecue Sauce and although I thought they were great, I absolutely loved the barbecue sauce. The recipe made quite a bit. I was skeptical at first, but after taking one bite of the sandwich, I was back in the kitchen piling on more sauce. I am going to make this sauce next time I want an open faced chicken sandwich or grill burgers. The chicken sandwich recipe also calls for arugula, it gives the sandwich a nice spice to go with the sweet/tangy barbecue sauce. Trust me, use this next time you have a barbecue, it is so good.

Italian Barbecue Sauce

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped (medium to large)
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14.5-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I used a plain can of diced tomatoes, slightly drained)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock and heat through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, brown sugar, and Worchestershire sauce. Add pepper to taste. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, about 7 to 8 minutes.

Mini German Pancakes

For some reason German pancakes have never been a big hit in my family.  I love them and just recently heard a friend saying she makes hers in her muffin pan.  I tried it and tada...they loved it!  I have been obsessed with putting orange grind in everything.  Santa always leaves oranges in our stockings and I figured we would have oranges and I could use the grinds in the pancakes.  It was sooo good, you have to try it!

Mini German Pancakes
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. orange grind
4 tsp. melted butter

Mix all ingredients except melted butter in a blender or electric mixer. Make sure there are no clumps left and slowly add the melted butter. Spray a muffin pan with pam and fill each muffin space half way. Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes!  I filled mine over half full because I was too lazy to make two batches and it took about 18 minutes.