Great After School Snack - Pretzels

These nice big soft pretzels are really tasty and fun for the kids to roll out and twist. Make a double batch and freeze the leftovers so you can pop them in the microwave when the kids get home from school.

Pretzel Dough
1 tsp Yeast
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. honey
1 1/2 c. warm water
4 c. bread flour
2 tsp salt
3 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
pretzel salt, kosher salt or sugar & cinnamon

Stir yeast, sugar, honey, warm water in mixing bowl. Any mixer with a dough hook is great for this. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Mix flour and salt in bowl and slowly add to yeast mixture. Knead on low until smooth, 8 to 10 minutes. Put dough in large bowl oiled with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled. Bring 4 quarts of water and baking soda to a boil. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper & coat with cooking spray. When dough has risen, punch down. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut down into 8-10 pieces. Work with one piece at a time (keep rest of dough covered) roll into 24" ropes. Shape into pretzel and place into boiling water and cook until set, about 30 seconds or so then turn over and cook other side. A wire skimmer is a great tool to put them in the water with. Transfer the pretzels to the lined sheet, Beat egg in bowl and brush onto pretzels. Sprinkle with salt. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until golden brown, about 15+ minutes. If you want to make them sweet then don't use the egg wash and as soon as they are baked brush them with a little butter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top.
Tip-when rolling the dough into ropes, coat your counter top with cooking spray so the ropes don't stick together. The dough is very sticky.
Enjoy!

First Day of School & Kindergarten

What a whirlwind week. The kids had their first day of school and thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope that feeling continues throughout the year. My oldest daughter is in 6th grade, my oldest son is in 3rd grade and my youngest daughter is in Kindergarten. How amazing~! I can't believe that I have a kid in 6th grade.

My youngest daughter started Kindergarten and was so excited for her Hello Kitty Schultute (a german tradition in our family) and book bag.
The only one left out was our youngest who was so sad to be alone with mom. He especially misses his best pal the Kindergartner. I wasn't even going to send him to preschool but I may have to rethink that decision. All day long he asked about the older kids and he wanted to go and bring them home.

We are so lucky to live right next to the school. I walked the kids to school and they seemed happy. They seem to have nice teachers and hopefully they can make some good friends too.

For lunch they're all going to eat pizza. Can't beat school lunch when it's pizza day.

I love when school starts! I can get back into a good routine and the kids seem to enjoy it as well. I do miss them but know that they are learning some great things.

Hurray for school!

Monday Gratitudes

I'm back. Yea! The Olympics are over. Not that I didn't enjoy them, quite the contrary -I enjoyed them so much that I was losing precious sleep trying to keep up on most of the events. What will be your memories of the Bejing Olympics? One thing that will go down as my greatest memory this past week was that my youngest son just up and decided that he was going to use the bathroom and be a 'big boy' and not wear any more diapers. What a wonderful triumph! For that I am truly grateful. You have to love 'Lightning McQueen' underpants. They helped seal the deal for me.
Seriously though, back to the Olympics. I was in awe of the Jamaican runners. What speed! and to win by such a long stride. It was interesting. I hope that in the near future we don't hear of any doping that went undetected.

I'm also grateful that my youngest daughter learned to ride a bike on her own. She was probably ready to learn last summer but we lived on such a big hill making it impossible.

I'm grateful that my wonderful hubby loves to work outdoors. He has really done a lot of work cutting down old trees, getting rid of tons of poison ivy, cutting back the numerous junk bushes, weeds and getting rid of a ton of yard waste that the previous owners just left. In this picture to the right used to be a barn. We have found some very interesting things trying to clear everything out.

Monday Gratitudes

I love watching the Olympics! It's always great to see an American win an event but I still love to see the Germans win as well.
Something interesting about my family that you didn't know is that my Grandfather was a very fast sprinter and would have been able to compete in the Olympics but it was cancelled due to the world war.
I'm grateful that many nations can come together for a short time and compete in multi-sports events and leave their differences behind them - even if it is only for 2 weeks.
Well this is short...I'm glued to the Tube.

What Happened

Wow, I don't know what happened to my Monday Gratitudes. I mean I thought about the things that I was grateful for -but I forgot to post about it. So here goes.
Some of you know that I've been researching digital cameras for quite some time.
I'm pretty diligent in my research and hate to buy anything on the spot unless I've completely done all my homework.
That pretty much covers any electrical device on the market that I might need in the future. I just hate spending my hard earned money on something that is inferior or will not make my life easier.
Well to get to my gratitudes - my wonderful hubby bought my first digital camera. Yes you heard it, my first.

I have a wonderful SLR that takes great pictures and it just wasn't necessary to buy a digital camera until we had a steady job.
Making the decision between the Canon Rebel and the Nikon D40 was a little tough, but in the end the Nikon won! A few more pros for me than the Canon.

I'm grateful that my kids still love to go to Museums. We went to the state museum this past week and the kids had fun.

I'm grateful for the tall trees in our yard. It's nice to drive in from town and know which house is ours because the trees tower over everything. My kids have so much fun climbing.

Try-it Tuesdays Grape Salad

I think grapes are one of the prettiest fruits. I love how they grow in clusters and more importantly I love how they taste. Natures Best!

Here is a very good recipe.
I usually don't give this one out, but since it's so hot here, I thought you might be able to enjoy this cool dessert as a special treat.

3 lb. Seedless Grapes washed and drained (I love using all the grape colors)

8 oz. Sour Cream
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 c. Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
Mix well and fold grapes into mixture. Fits great in a 9X13 dish.

Topping:
1 c. chopped and toasted Pecans
1 c. Brown Sugar
Mix well and sprinkle on top of salad.

Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight and enjoy!
You can use light cream cheese and sour cream, but the completely fat free just isn't as good.