baking

I've done a lot of things in my life. My mother gave me many opportunities and a well rounded childhood. One thing I don't remember doing much of {other than Christmas cookies} is baking. It's funny how timid and unqualified I can feel if I've never tried something. For someone who can be so confident about some things, I sure can be timid about others. So when Matthew said, "Let's make a loaf of bread", I felt lightheaded. Make bread? "Don't you need a baking stone?" I replied innocently and stupidly.

But I do love first times, so off we went to pick up yeast. We made Challah Bread together {using my Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook}, and it turned out in a beautiful golden braid.

Was it a challenge? Sure. Was it enough to name a post "baking"? No. A couple of days later Matthew was telling me some of the foods he remembers liking as a child, and he mentioned pretzels.

I love soft pretzels. And so our new hobby took another step. Pretzel making. After a quick walk to the gas station to pick up baking soda, we began our adventure. Using our good friend Google, we settled on Alton Brown's {one of my favorite food network hosts} recipe. Once we had made the dough we had to let it rise, so we pulled out our favorite board game {well, i say we pulled it out, but really we just leave it on our Dining Room table because of how much we play it} carcassonne. We have so many expansion packs that the game takes over an hour and we both normally get over 400 points. That was a little rabbit trail, but I suppose that is what this blog really is. One long rabbit trail. Anyways, one the game was finished, we rolled out the dough, made the pretzel shapes, dipped them in the boiling baking soda/water, covered them in sea salt, and popped them into the oven. Here they are after a nice little toasting.

It made so many that we shared them with friends {who loved them} and we ate them for a couple of days. They were delicious.

This is me highly recommending that you take some time to make pretzels with your family, and while the dough is rising you play your favorite board game. It made for a pretty great night. Well, that's a little update from the Nowak household. I hope that someday you feel inspired to do something new. :)