Day 51 - Pretzels

     Today I made pretzels with my eldest daughter.  I found the recipe on the Food Network website for Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels.  They received one of the highest ratings and looked really good and pretty easy, so why not?  It's something we've never done and we've always loved pretzels from Auntie Anne's and Wetzel's Pretzels.  They're always so yummy!  So, knowing how good those were, I really tried to not go into today's recipe with any expectations (heehee, remember yesterday?).
     I have to say that it was a lot of fun making these and they really didn't take that long either.  The only thing that took the most time was waiting for the dough to rise for the hour or so.  And the one thing that was kind of confusing was flipping the dough around after holding it in a u-shape.  They make it look so easy at those pretzel places.  The first one came out perfectly and then I don't know what happened, I was over thinking it, I think and trying to hard.  I have a tendency to do that.
     My daughter was also taking some of the pictures.  Enjoy!

Sugar, salt, water, yeast, flour, butter before rising.

 

After rising for 55 minutes.

Dough separated into 8 equal pieces and rolled into a 24-inch rope.

Holding the ends, making the U shape, and twisting.

Bringing the ends down to the bottom of the U.

Shaping.

Still shaping.

TA DA!!

On the parchment paper before being boiled.

Boiling in water and baking soda for 30 seconds.

Removal from the boiling water with two spatulas.

The ones on the right have been boiled; they are puffier and bigger.

Brushed with egg yolk before baking.

The finished product with some honey mustard sauce - 1/2 honey, 1/2 Dijon mustard.

     These were absolutely delicious.  They had a nice crispy crust on the outside and were really soft on the inside.  The middles smelled really good, too!  I didn't use pretzel salt, but used coarse sea salt and we all really liked that, too.  What a great project this would be over vacation with the kids.  I'm sure they'll really like them and have fun being in the kitchen.  Mine certainly did!
     The rating for Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels is 3½ rolling pins!  My rolling pin rating is based on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the absolute best.
     Happy baking!

Day 39 - Blueberry Muffins

     So I climb into bed last night and I'm lying there for about 10 minutes when I feel something crawl across my nose.  I SAT UP IN BED SO FAST!!!!!  I'm brushing my nose, rubbling my hands all over my face.  I'm running my fingers through my hair, then I'm doing wide sweeps of the covers and of my pillow.  All of this is going on in the dark mind you because the light switch next to bedroom door was off, so I couldn't turn the light on my nightstand on.  I was freaking out!  And I was making so much noise rustling the covers I'm extremely surprised my husband didn't say anything.  I race to the light switch, turn on the light and then closely examine the pillow, covers, floor and surrounding area because there is NO way that bugger is crawling on me again!  Nothing.  I didn't see a thing.  For all I know, I probably smeared him on my pillow, but I'm sure I would've felt that.  I was so eeeked out and jittery!!  You have to understand that I'm really not afraid of bugs, snakes or spiders.  I was the one at the vet clinic everyone came to to extinguish the little critters because no one else wanted to do it, except the doctor.  So, I really am not bothered by them WHEN I CAN SEE THEM AND DON'T FEEL THEM CRAWLING ON ME!!  Ooohh, chills just thinking about it.  I finally calmed myself down, turned off the light and climbed back into bed.  Every single one of my senses was on high alert, especially all those nerve endings on my skin.  I'm lying there wondering if I should go into another unoccupied bedroom and then I started thinking about the mouse we had in our old house. 
     Back in Rhode Island, I was sitting at the kitchen table with the kids and there was a package of Keebler Peanut Butter Sticks on the counter.  The mouse came out from behind the oven and ran over to the cookies, took one out and tried to squeeze back behind the oven, but had the cookie positioned the wrong way - like carrying a log through a door, he had it the long way instead of the end going through first.  He figured it out though.  It was pretty remarkable to see him reposition himself so that he could finally fit and take his prized possession with him.  Usually, people scream and jump on to chairs when they see a mouse, but I was entertained. However, I was really disgusted with the fact that he ran on the counter and contaminated a newly opened bag of really good cookies.
     So, yeah, this was something I thought about while lying there in bed, too.  Little creepy crawly things that really don't bother me.  What really does bother me are things that fly and come into my home.  Again, back in Rhode Island we had a chimney and on occasion birds would fly down and then be stuck in the house trying to escape.  That really frightened me because they're scared, they're flying around and they're so doggone unpredictable.  Ha ha I haven't even gotten to today's recipe yet, but this is a story I have to share.  Our daughters were about 5 and 3 years old at the time and shared a bedroom.  Our son was an infant, and I had put him down to bed and was reading the girls their nightly bedtime story.  This night will forever be stuck in my head.  The book we were reading was  Emma at the Beach.  It's about a good, little witch named, Emma, and her friends, a cat, an owl, and a bat.  We're sitting on one of their beds, one of them on either side of me when I notice something black about the size of a small shoe on the floor that I hadn't noticed before.  I thought it was a pair of pants one of the girls had thrown on the floor.  I continued reading and the thing started to move.  Interesting.  What the...?  Then it started to fly!  It was a BAT, circling around in the bedroom!  OH MY GOSH!!!!!  I'm screaming.  My daughters are screaming.  I was FREAKING OUT!!!  All I could think about were stories where the bat gets stuck in a girl's hair and has rabies and bites her in the neck.  EEEEWWWW!!  So the three of us are screaming.  My husband's downstairs and I'm thinking why the heck (ok, hell) hasn't he come up yet with all this noise?  Light bulb goes on in my head:  I'll stand up, get the bat to follow me out of the room and the girls will be fine.  Ok, I stand up, open their door, look for the bat, run out of the room and slam the door behind me.  PHEW!  I hated doing that, but we're all ok, and every thing's fine.  Wait, the girls are still screaming.  Where's the bat?  OH MY GOD!!!!  They're in their room with the door shut and the bat is STILL flying around!!  WHAT KIND OF A MOTHER AM I???!!!  OH MY GOSH, I HAVE TO GO BACK IN THERE!!!  So, I stood there in the hall, yelling for my husband, who came running up the stairs, and then took a VERY deep breath and quickly opened the door to get the girls out of their room.  What a night!  Our neighbors ended up coming over because we knew their boys would be interested in seeing it.  We eventually caught it in a hamper and took it outside to release it, but it will forever live in our memories.  So ironic that we were reading a story that had a bat in it.
     Last night, after climbing into bed the second time, a couple minutes later I thought I felt something touching my leg.  Again, I'm on even higher alert and wondering if I'll be able to fall asleep.  Finally, exhaustion just took over and the lovely Mr. Sandman paid me a visit.  Yes, you can bet I washed our bedsheets this morning.  All this previous chit chat had no relevance to today's recipe, but was something I wanted to share.
     Blueberry Muffins was the recipe for today.  They came from Alton Brown at http://www.foodnetwork.com/
Here's the link, since I can't post the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/blueberry-muffins-recipe/reviews/index.html.  It called for cake flour, but I didn't have any, so I used regular.  And I also used Greek yogurt for the 1 cup of plain yogurt.

The sugar, egg, oil, and yogurt combined.

 Ready for baking!

Complete yummy goodness...

     I have to say that these were the most delicious blueberry muffins I have ever made.  Ok, to be honest, I've never made blueberry muffins from scratch, they've always been from those store bought mixes.  Not any more!  These are definitely the way to go!  They were so good!  The tops were nicely browned and a little chewy and crunchy and the inside was so moist.  MMMMMmmmmmmm......deliciousness!  The only problem I had was that even though I greased the muffin tins, they still stuck when I went to turn them out and about a quarter of the tops came off.  Next time, muffin cups.  This is where I'm going to gain most of my weight, eating the scraps of the goods that won't hold together.  A bit here, a piece there, it will all end up on my hips creating, are you ready, it just seems so appropriate with today's post, a MUFFIN TOP!  Sorry, hard for me to hold back on that one.  Also, they didn't rise up, they were more like flat muffins.  Maybe that was because I didn't use cake flour.  I didn't care though, those little bits and pieces were still delicious.  My rolling pin rating:  on a scale of 1-4 rolling pins with 4 being the best, Alton's Blueberry Muffins scored a 3½!
     Happy baking!

Day 20 - Créme Brulée

     Every morning that I drop my daughter off at school I become infuriated.  This morning was no different.  It has to do with the drop-off line.  We were instructed at the beginning of the year as we were dropping off our children to pull up to a certain area to drop off and then to follow the line around so we could exit the parking lot.  I thought it was a good system and was a way to keep parents out of the school lot while the teenagers are driving in to avoid accidents and confusion.  It takes a little longer, but it works.  I cannot tell you how many people have now created their own way of doing things and of course, others are following.  DID YOU NOT GET THE MEMO?!  The first few weeks of school, the "line Nazis" (I know they were just doing their job) were so strict about it and no one could veer from the rules.  Now they just stand there as parents drop kids off right in front of them, (I mean, two feet from her!) in the middle of the school parking lot.  I am speechless.  Ok, no I'm not because I feel myself getting ready to go on a tirade.  So, you can just skip to the recipe if you don't want to continue reading.  I am needing to blow off some steam.  This morning before I even entered the school entrance some woman coming from the opposite direction cut me off and I know she said something beforehand to her daughter because her daughter looked directly at me and smiled.  It wasn't a thank-you-for-letting-us-go-ahead-of-you-smile, it was a Ha-look-how-my-mother's-going-to-weasel-her-way-in-front-of-you-smile.  THEN the woman takes a short cut through the parking lot to move up seven cars in front of me.  Grrrr...my blood is boiling - and I have low blood pressure!  Ok, if you're late for work, you need to LEAVE EARLIER!  And parents wonder why their children lie and cheat, and why they can't trust them?  It's the example we set as parents.  They pay attention to so much more than we think they do.  I know, one of my faults is that I'm too nice and I go by the rules.  Oh, maybe that's two.  Rules are made for a reason.  Yeah, and then someone always says, "rules were made to be broken."  I haven't even told you about the kids being dropped off in the middle of the street, so that their parents don't have to deal with entering the school parking lot.  The point of all this is that I really would hate to see someone get hurt because of sheer impatience. (Deep Breath).  Well, until tomorrow morning...
     Ok, so I started the blog soon after I returned home this morning and went off on my rant.  I then took a breather (ok, played a game to relax) and decided to get to work on contacting various editors/publishers to see if I could post their recipes.. I use A LOT of recipes from the Food Network site, so I CANNOT tell you how excited I was to hear that I can post the link to the recipe, but I cannot reprint the recipe itself.  Reposting doesn't matter.  As long as you have a way to find those recipes yourself, it's great.  I am overjoyed because there is one recipe that I have been DYING to tell you about and it's Alton Brown's Créme Brulée.  It is to DIE for!!! The first time I made this I received rave reviews from people who were very partial to the ones they have had in restaurants.  Oh my gosh!  If you take any recipe away from this blog, I'm telling you, it has to be this one.  That is of course, if you like créme brulée.  Alright, it doesn't have to be the only recipe you try, but you should at least attempt it.  My husband took the first bite of his tonight and said, "Wow."  If he's subdued when he says it, that's how I know when he really, really likes something, and he was.

     Créme Brulée
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/creme-brulee-recipe/index.htm
You'll need this link for the vanilla sugar: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/vanilla-sugar-recipe/index.html

  
     The ingredients.

     The cream and scraped vanilla bean after boiling.

     Egg yolks and vanilla sugar.

     Egg yolks, vanilla sugar and cream mixed together.

     In the ramekins and ready for the oven.

     After being torched.  

The problem with the one on the upper left is that there was too much sugar on the top.  I overloaded it and the sugar wasn't browning as nicely and was taking forever to melt.  Consequently, it tasted burnt and you really don't want that to be the taste you're going for.  It can completely ruin it.  When you put the sugar on, make sure it is a thin layer all over the top; it will brown very nicely and form a hard, thin caramelized layer on the top.

     Many of the restaurants I have been to have served it with whipped cream or just plain.  We really like to have the fresh fruit on it with some mint.

    

   The rolling pin rating for this Créme Brulée:  4!

  Cuisson heureux!