True Comfort
After working for the past couple of weeks on the Moda Contest projects every spare moment and at last–at last, having it all behind me (phew!), I set out today to just kinda…you know…loaf around a bit. It felt lovely to not actually have anything in my hands that needed to be worked on or finished.
Then I had the overwhelming urge to make something but wasn’t quite sure what. I puttered out to the garage and ground up some wheat flour in case the craving went that direction. How about cookies? I thought.
But then I realized that Jillian had that area covered with a batch of Oatmeal Farm Cookies. So again, I wandered around waiting for the food inspiration fairies to come at me.
Before I knew what was happening, there were whole wheat pancakes on the stove just waiting to be my comfort food of choice.
Ummmmm….Applesauce, and whipped cream besides. Apparently, I need a ton of comfort today.
You know, it’s quite likely that I would be as thin as a rail if I just didn’t like food so much. HA!
Then without even realizing what I was doing, the baby’s ripple was on my lap and I’d fallen right back into the warm, soothing, rhythmic, handiwork of this lovely thing. I’d thought that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to pick up a hook at all for a while, but that just never seems to be the case around here.
In fact, for me there’s more gentle comfort in sitting back with a hook and ball of yarn and just letting my fingers do what they mindlessly do–for the heck of it–than in nibbling on a whole, entire plate of pancakes. How lucky is it that I was able to do…
both?
Heh, heh.
Isn’t life good?
:}
Crocheted Fabric Caddies
There’s a perfectly good reason why I was A.W.O.L. yesterday–and I’ll show it to you.
Ta-DA! I trust me when I say that these little cuties kept me quite busy–all the live-long day.
It was all for a noble cause too. You see, April and I decided a few weeks ago to enter the Moda Bake Shop Sliced Contest.
I think they might have had some sort of quilting project in mind, but you know me. If I can find a way to crochet something, I’ve just got to do it. Then, suddenly there were all these strips of fabric in front of me…
and one great, big blue hook with absolutely, positively nothing to do.
Now, there’s a chance that the judges will look at my sweet little caddies and say, “What the heck–this chick crocheted our fabric! What was she thinking?”
Well, I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that there were already a ton of people sewing with their fabric, but no one else in the contest, as far as I could tell, was goofy enough to try this approach.
Oh, I do hope that’s a good thing. In fact, I hope that they love these sweeties so much that they say, “These are exactly what we are looking for! Come and let us give you 10 million dollars, and a trip to Paris!!”
Yeah…that would be nice.
Ummm…perhaps I have this contest mixed up with something else.
So Much Love
Back from their honeymoon–at last, at last, the kids (oooh…can I call them kids?) came home and invited us to their wedding-gift-opening night.
What may have looked like chaos to some, was in fact, a huge downpour of love, for these two sweethearts. And oh, my goodness–so much love from so many…
dear, sweet, beloved friends and family.
It was sincerely incredible to watch them be so showered on and see them be absolutely delighted. Such thoughtfulness from so many. In the end, I’ll admit, I was nearly speechless…
nearly. :}
I do have one question though.
Who gave these guys permission to grow up…so fast?
Hmmmm?
Sheesh.
Soft Pretzel Bites
When our girl, Lyndi decided that she was having a huge craving for–of all things–pretzel bites, well…what could we do? Some requests simple must be respected, especially when they are this incredible. And to top it off–aren’t they just the cutest things? Almost makes you sorry to eat them. Ok, no it doesn’t. What it really means is that you can wolf them down even faster. Hee hee….
Soft, Adorable Pretzel Bites
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsps brown sugar
1 Tbsp or package active dry yeast
6 Tbsps butter, melted
2-1/2 tsps salt
4-1/2 to 5 cups flour
Olive oil
3 quarts water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp cold water
Coarse sea salt
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water, sugar, yeast, and melted butter. Mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt and flour then mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl–about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, and knead into a ball with your hands.
Grease a bowl–I used butter. Add the dough and turn to coat on both sides. Cover with a clean damp towel and let rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size–about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil or grease 4 baking sheets. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot over high heat and add the baking soda.
Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces…
and roll each piece into a rope.
Cut the dough into one inch pieces.
In small batches–15 to 20-ish, boil the pretzel pieces in the water solution for about 30 seconds.
Remove with a large slotted spoon and…
place them on baking sheets. They’ll be kinda slippery but make sure they are not touching each other.
Brush the tops with the egg wash…
and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove to a baking rack and allow to cool for a few minutes. Serve with mustard, cream cheese, cinnamon honey butter, or nacho cheese dip. :}
Soft, Adorable Pretzel Bites
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups warm water
- 2 Tbsps brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp or package active dry yeast
- 6 Tbsps butter, melted
- 2-1/2 tsps salt
- 4-1/2 to 5 cups flour
- Olive oil
- 3 quarts water
- ⅔ cup baking soda
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp cold water
- Coarse sea salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water, sugar, yeast, and melted butter. Mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Add salt and flour then mix on low speed until combined.
- Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl--about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, and knead into a ball with your hands.
- Grease a bowl with butter.
- Add the dough and turn to coat on both sides.
- Cover with a clean damp towel and let rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size--about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Oil or grease 4 baking sheets. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot over high heat and add the baking soda.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll each piece into a rope. Cut the dough into one inch pieces.
- In small batches--15 to 20-ish, boil the pretzel pieces in the water solution for about 30 seconds.
- Remove with a large slotted spoon and place them on baking sheets. Make sure they are not touching.
- Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove to a baking rack and let rest 5 minutes before eating.
- Serve with mustard, cream cheese, cinnamon honey butter, or nacho cheese dip. :}
Original recipe–un-tweaked–from Two Peas and Their Pod