New Recipe: Pretzels!

Recipe: Alton Brown's pretzel recipe Verdict: Yummy! Modifications: I used whole wheat flour and I could not find pretzel salt, so I used coarse sea salt. Rob loves big, soft pretzels dipped in pizza sauce We often eat them as a snack on the weekends. We decided to try making them ourselves. Here is the dough after rising. I swear this is the first time I have had dough successfully rise. I was so excited. I was sure that it would not rise fully, because I had a little accident while mixing the dough. The recipe calls for a stand mixer. I thought that my food processor with a dough blade would make a great substitute. Unfortunately, my food processor does not have the necessary liquid capacity, so as I was adding flour, yeast and water were leaking out of m food processor. I scrambled to switch to a bowl and do the mixing by hand, but I was terrified that I had lost some of the yeast that I would need for the dough to rise. Apparently I was wrong. Voila! Next we formed the pretzels. The dough was really airy. It was weird to roll out and shape.

Next step is boiling.

Then each pretzel gets salted, and finally they are ready to bake in the oven. Some of our salt dissolved on the wet pretzels, but it did not affect the final product.

Out of the oven, golden brown. These pretzels were tasty The process is time-consuming, but it was fun. I will definitely make them again some day.

New Recipe: Cream of White Vegetables

Recipe: Cream of White Winter Vegetables modified from Vegetarian Soups for all Seasons
Verdict: Lisa says "Yummy," Hubby was not such a big fan.

I modified this from the original recipe. Here is my version.
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
Lots of garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds of whte turnips, peeled and diced (for me this was 4 small turnips)
Crushed red chili pepper flakes, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup of soymik

1. Place the potatoes, turnips and spices in a soup pot. Add enough water to almost cover the vegetables.

2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 35-40 minutes.

3. Allow the vegetables to cool a little, then transfer to a blender and blend.

4. Transfer back to pot and add soymilk.

5. Reheat and serve.