sweet n' salty

Kent likes to hold Leon but as soon as I whip out the camera he pleads softly "no, no pictures. See it? See it please?" He would like to be the photographer and loves - like any other kiddo to look AT the pictures and videos stored on it. It seems useless to explain but I do anyway "Kent, we need to take a picture in order to look at the picture. Let's take a picture and then see it." I know, it's too wordy : ) . I snapped away and in this instance (most instances no, cross that out - all instances) couldn't capture Kent's wonderful, cheerful smiles that he has. Leon's expression is pretty cute in this one. It is General Conference weekend! For a Saturday conference treat I planned ahead to prepared to make Soft Pretzels! We went to Pennsylvania in July 2010 and while there we went to an farmers market in Lancaster County. While there, Wade's mom bought me an Amish cookbook that I was eyeing. In it is the ever popular recipe for soft pretzels! The following showcases my first attempts at being Amish: Wade was sleeping in - good because I wanted them baked as a surprise. Leon was down for a nap and together again, Kent and I were wearing aprons and high fiving in the kitchen. Rolling out the dough Kent was quick to manipulate it as a snake slithering and hissing along the counter top. Formed them, dipped them in the soda solution and popped the couple in the oven. Well, there really is some talent and skill to be had that I don't have. Ding! goes the timer. Kent can hear that timer a block away! He'll perk his head and in a speedy staccato declare "Timer!". Lumpy, uneven pretzels emerged from the oven. I now know that next time I really need to form the rolls smoother.

Wade paid the best complement though when he broke off a piece and popped it in him mouth "humm, they actually taste authentic" haha. Well good. May not look like they ought to but I agree - it's a good recipe! I had left over Brown Sugar Cream Cheese icing from yesterday's muffins so that was an excellent dip for our warm, soft, salty pretzels. The batch was devoured almost entirely before the 1st session even began. Here is the recipe:

1 pkg. yeast

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 t. salt

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt and flour. Knead well. Let rise 15 minutes. Roll dough and shape into pretzel form and dip in soda solution then sprinkle with salt.

Soda Solution

1/4 cup water

1 t. soda

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Brush with butter when out of the oven.

I found I had to add water in order to knead well. I refrained from including the whole wheat flour even though I wanted to. I opted not to brush them with butter because I knew we'd be dipping them anyway. I sprinkled using course sea salt. If your Amish you were good with all of these directions But I consulted the Internet to make sure I knew what I was doing and compare this recipe with others. This is a gooder! Enjoy! And enjoy Conference!