We made homemade pretzels!

Hi world...

{oops, I haven't blogged in a million years.}

It's the weekend and I'm happy and we made homemade pretzels last night!  We were in the mood for a snack, but wanted something different than the usual chips/salsa or bread/hummus combos.  So Brett came up with the idea of making homemade soft pretzels.  It was seriously way easier than I thought it would be!  We used this recipe and they turned out awesome.  Brett even whipped up some homemade beer cheese using some of his homebrew.  I mean, come on!  It tasted heavenly.  Here's the recipe written out:

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30 Minute Homemade Soft Pretzels

Yields: 8-10 Pretzels (FYI - we cut the recipe in half and made 6 smaller pretzels)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups luke warm water
1 packet of highly active yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg
course sea salt (we didn't have course salt, so we just used fine salt - same taste!)

Directions:
-  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
-  In a large bowl, pour in the warm water and yeast, stir with a spoon until the yeast is dissolved, about 1 minute. Add in the salt and sugar and stir until incorporated.
-  Slowly add in the flour about 1 cup at a time, mix with a wooden spoon until it gets sticky, continue to add in all your flour and at this point is when I started to use my hands to finish mixing the dough. The dough should no longer be sticky.
-  Knead the dough for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface, once kneaded, shape into a ball, with a knife or your hands separate the dough into about 1/3 cup sections, or use smaller or bigger sections depending on how large you want your pretzels.

-  Roll the dough into a long rope about 20 inches long and form the pretzel shape and place on your parchment paper.

-  In a shallow bowl beat your egg and dip the pretzel (both sides) into the egg wash and place back onto your parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt.

-  Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, and turn the oven to broil for the last 3-4 minutes until the tops of the pretzel are golden brown, be careful to keep an eye on the pretzels once you switch it to broil because it might take only a couple of minutes for your pretzels to brown depending on your oven.

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Simple as that - try it and let me know how it goes!

Happy weekend!*

Homemade Pasta

This past Saturday we made pasta... like homemade pasta noodles.  We were in the mood for a pasta dish but didn't want to just eat your basic boxed noodles and jarred sauce.  So homemade pasta (and sauce) it was!  Keep in mind, we don't have a pasta machine or anything.  We did everything by hand.  And it really wasn't that hard!  Though, you'll probably want to get your manly, strong husband to roll out the dough, because that clearly was not happening by me!

We used this super basic recipe for the noodles:    

1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons water

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the flour, add the slightly beaten egg, and mix. Mixture should form a stiff dough. If needed, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons water. 

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 3 to 4 minutes. With a pasta machine or by hand roll dough out to desired thinness. Use machine or knife to cut into strips of desired width.  Dry for about 2 to 3 hours.

To cook the noodles, boil in water for only about 2 to 3 minutes.  Homemade noodles finish cooking a lot faster than boxed noodles. 

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We doubled the recipe (and ended up having enough leftovers for a whole second meal...).  We also did not let the noodles dry for the full 2 to 3 hours.  We are too impatient for that and we were hungry!  We let them dry for about an hour and they seemed to work out just fine.  Also, like I said before... we don't have any fancy pasta making machines, so we hand cut the strips with a pizza cutter and dried the noodles over our two kitchen chairs... yup.  Who needs fancy cooking machinery?!  Worked just fine!   

While the noodles were hanging to dry, Brett made the homemade sauce.  His homemade sauce is sooooo good.  And here is his lovely demonstration of how he makes the homemade sauce.  Please note, you must be very animated or else it won't come out well!

See how he humors me?  What a guy.  Once you make the sauce and boil up the noodles, it's time to eat!  And here is the finished product...!

Yum, it was SO good.  Definitely a weekend dinner, since it takes a lot of prep time, but seriously worth it!!  Let me know if you try it!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

'Tis the season to add pumpkin to basically everything.  I started making these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies last Fall and they were such a hit!  They have more of a muffin-like texture than normal cookies... and they are heavenly.  Here's the recipe:  

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Dissolve baking soda and milk together, then stir into flour mixture.  Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Add vanilla and chocolate chips.  Drop by the spoonful on a well greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes until lightly brown.

Pair these babies with a pumpkin spice latte and you are good to go!*

(Still more California posts to come... just need to get around to writing them!)

Homemade Granola

A lot of people have been asking me to share my recipe for homemade granola. Granola is so expensive when you buy it at the grocery store.  Making your own is so much cheaper!  So here ya go!  My recipe for homemade granola...

4 cups quaker old fashioned oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add-ins:

1/2 - 1 cup nuts (optional - any kind you'd like)

1/3 - 2/3 cups raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together oats, cinnamon, and salt.  In a separate small bowl, mix together oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.  Combine the two and stir until well blended.  Spread mixture onto a baking sheet covered with wax/parchment paper.  Bake for 10 minutes, then take out and sprinkle on nuts.  Bake an additional 15 minutes, then take out and sprinkle on raisins.  Let cool, then transfer to tupperware container to keep fresh.  (This amount usually makes about 2 baking sheets worth of granola.)

Today, I made a fall variation of this granola recipe -- Pumpkin Spice Granola!  All you have to do is use the above recipe, but instead of 1 tsp cinnamon, add:

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

Then, follow the rest of the directions just the same.  So, there ya go.  Try it!  Homemade granola is soo delicious and will seriously make your house smell heavenly.  Let me know how yours turns out if you decide to try it!*