A Little Twist on Life

A while ago I decided that it would be fun to make home-made soft pretzels.  I love going to ball games and buying them.  So yummy and soft.
All of the recipes on line seemed to be about the same so I decided to just pick one. 

They turned out to be pretty easy to make and they were super yummy as well.  Follow the directions below and make your own.  You will be impressed that you actually made them yourself!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt


Step 1:  Combine in a stand mixer the water, sugar, and kosher salt.  Sprinkle the yeast packet on top and allow the yeast to sit for about 5 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.  Add the flour and butter using the dough hook attachment for the mixer.  Mix dough on low speed and then change it to medium until the dough is smooth.  When the dough pulls away from the sides, about 4-5 minutes, remove the dough from the bowl.  Clean the bowl and then coat with vegitable oil adding the dough back into the bowl.  Cover the bowl and set in a warm place to let the dough rise, this will take about 50-55 minutes.

Step 2:  Preheat oven to 450.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and brush with vegitable oil.  Set this aside for a bit.  Go sit on the couch for a bit while the dough rises.

Step 3:  Divide dough into 8 equal parts on a well oiled work area.  Roll out dough into 24-inch rope and make into pretzel shape.  Some may not look perfect. HA.  Place dough onto cookie sheets.

Step 4:  Bring 10 cups of water and baking soda to a boil in 8-quart saucepan

Step 5:  Put the pretzels into the boiling water.  I did about 1-2 at a time.  Leave in water for about 30 seconds each.  When done, return to the cookie sheets.  Brush the tops of the pretzels with the beaten egg yoke and water mixture.  You can also sprinkle with the pretzel salt.  I didn't have any salt so mine didn't have any :(

Step 6:  Place the pretzels in the oven for about 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.  Let them cool for about 5 minutes and ENJOY!

They are fabulous!  Enjoy saying that you made them by yourself!

Yummyness....

This was my dessert the other night!

Thought I would share the yummyness that I enjoyed :).

BaByQ

This past Sunday was BaByQ day in preparation for little Ellie Cavness. 

There were 4 girls that helped host the shower.  And I guess you could say 4 guys as well helped with the shower...it was a couples shower.  The boys obviously grilled.  And was SUCH a good idea.

We decided to have a BBQ or BaByQ and grill burgers and hot dogs. 

When I presented this idea, I had a power point with all of the baby shower ideas that I loved.  The girls all made fun of me so I will never show them my ideas in a power point again.  haha.  So mean.

We had a ton of fun at the shower.  Below are the pictures!

I made 6 tissue paper pom-poms all out of Abby's colors from the baby room.  You can also see the invitation that we had our friend Miles design.  He rocks and made the PERFECT invitations.

The elephant was part of the theme.  The curtins in the baby room have pink baby elephants on them so we used the elephants where we could.

3 of the pom-poms were used inside over the dessert table and the other 3 were used outside hanging in the trees.

I bought Sixlets during Easter because that is the only time they use the colors above.  Aren't they just so bright and fun?  They are also her colors.  I also bought salt-water taffy and rock cany in the colors as well at Redmonds on the way to St.Louis.  Redmonds is one of the biggest candy stores and I am so lucky because everytime I drive to St.Louis I get to stop there.  Haha

We also used mason jars and made pink lemonade.  The jars we wrapped in silver and pink ribbon and then added raspberries on the bottom as well as straws.  They were super cute and made the table look fabulous.

Yummy!



The dessert table.  You can see the rock candies.  I also made the sugar cookies and cupcakes.  The cookies are in shapes of elephants, onsies, E's, and polka-dots.

Necco's were used as polka-dot decoration on the table.

Just an FYI- the elephant cookie cutters are actually the Republican Elephant. Ha.  The other elephants I found didn't have trunks that I liked.  These were perfect!



This is the backyard.  We had pom-poms hanging in the trees.  The wind was really blowing so they got blown around.  Abby ended up taking all 6 pom-poms home with her to possibly use in the baby room.  If you would like instructions on how to make them go to Martha Stewart and it will take you there.  They are super easy.  To start you just need 8 sheets of tissue paper for each pom-pom.

Walmart has these cute multi use buckets in the gardening section.  They are about $5.00 and come in different colors.  They are a little flimsy and just perfect for multiple purposess.  We used them for water, filling with ice and then adding the bottles.  And we used the other for all of the single chip bags that were outside by the food table.  They were the perfect color and we added the pink ribbon to dress them up even more.

Emily made the BEST sign.  It was placed in the front flower bed at her house.  You couldn't miss where the party was!

The Mommy and Daddy to be.  Ellie is due to make her appearance on July 2 and everyone is so excited to meet her!

Dessert or Desert?

Teacher Appreciation week was this past week at Elm Tree Elementary.  We had a fun filled week but today took the cake.  Subs covered every classroom from 11-1 today while we ate and played games.  Really we all just relaxed at the workplace.  I participated in a three-legged race and won an iTunes gift card and another teacher won a broken toe...

There was also a dessert contest.  Of course the tables were full of desserts that teachers and staff brought.  Gues what?  I was the only one that brought cookies.  There was cake after cake.

And everyone ate the cakes.

There was no cookie love.

Thanks guys.  Only 5 hours of work...

To make the below cookies :)

It's cool.  Maybe I will take a cake decorating class next year so that I can make a better cake then the art teacher.  I think that is my new goal.  haha

To all the ETE teachers and all the teachers out there that have a harder job then anyone gives you credit for; you rock!

To this day I remember the spelling difference between Dessert and Desert thanks to my 7th grade teacher.

Dessert has 2 s's because you always go back for seconds....

Italian Chicken

Hey All!

It's been a while hasn't it?  I guess I got a little busy.

Here is a dish I made a while back.  It is one of my "safe"dishes.  That means I can make it for Matt and I KNOW he is going to be eating it.

Isn't it sad that I have to go about fixing dinner that way?  Ha  I guess we all need those kind of dishes don't we.

Does anyone ever buy the Italian Dressing packets?  You find it by the ranch dressing packets.

I bought the Italian Dressing packets once because I like to use the seasoning on fresh green beans.  Talk about yummyness.  But one day I looked on the back of the box.

I found just about the easiest recipe ever.  It calls for like 4 things.

Wanna know what they are?

1.  Chicken breast (the cut used for chichen fingers is what I use...I can't think of the correct term. ha)
2.  Parmesan Cheese  (1/2 cup.  I use both fresh grated and the kind we shake on spaghetti)
3.  Garlic Powder  (Just add a tsp. or two depending on what you like)
4.  Italian dressing packet

Obviously the box will have the real recipe if you want to get technical with me.

Stick it all in your GREASED dish and mix

 

Coat the chicken with the seasoning

Then bake at 350 until the chicken is done

(can you tell I just wing it now?)

 

And there you have it.

Italian chicken with green beans and garlic bread.

Oh---the white small casserol dish I used is from Crate and Barrel and is PERFECT for making dishes for 2 and was like only $7.00 or something cheap like that. :)

Happy Cooking!

Autism Awareness

It is officially April 30, 2011 and there is 1 more day left in April which is Autism Awareness Month.  I hope that everyone has learned at least ONE new thing about autism and how it effects us ALL.

When I was gowing through elementary, middle, and high school, I didnt know anyone with autism.  In fact, I had never heard of it.

Now, I choose to have the wonderful children with autism as a part of my everyday life.  Autism is no longer a disability that we don't know about.  There is no teacher in the public school system today that will not have a child with autism in their classroom.  It is time for us ALL to learn everything that we can to make these children as successful as possible.

There is that saying, "Once you have met one child with autism, you have met one child with autism."  It is the truth.  Please be aware and understanding for not just autism but ALL disabilities.  All need to be believed in.

Earlier this month I went over to one of our parents house to make the cookies below.  This parent has a sweet child with autism and in honor of autism awareness month and the awesome teachers that work with ALL of the students with autism at the wonderful Thomas Jefferson Elementary school, we made the cookies below.  Dont they look just yummy?  4 hours of baking later, we had the finished product...Autism Awareness Puzzle Piece Cookies.  (For those of you that need to know, I ordered the cookie cutter on-line.  Lots of places carry them.) 

And yes, a child with autism did help make these cookies...

Happy Easter!

Matt and I wish everyone a very Happy Easter!  We love you all!  Stay dry and warm on this rainy Sunday!

Below are just some Easter cookies that I made for today...Matt has already eaten half of them.  Enjoy!