Soft Pretzels

This was such an exciting discovery for me! Making pretzels was not only easy, but a lot of fun. Here's what you'll need:

for the dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons rock/kosher salt

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

4 cups flour

2 ounces melted unsalted butter

for the dough after put into pretzel shape:

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

6 tablespoons melted butter

First I got my biggest quart pan, and put water and baking soda in to use later. Then I put all the ingredients together to mix up the dough. First I used a spatula, then took it out of the bowl and used my hands to kneed it. Once it was feeling soft, I covered it with a bit of vegetable oil, and a cloth to rise. I put the water on around 30 minutes into the rising process, on low, and preheat the oven at the 30 minute mark as well, so you can have a nice production going!

 After the dough has risen (about one hour), it's time to shape your dough into that familiar pretzel shape, or make a twisted log, whatever suits your fancy. Matt started by rolling out this portion (by the way you can make around 13 with this recipe, we doubled it because we knew we would be eating them up quickly!) into what looks like a string.

 Then get ready to boil your pretzels.

 Leave your pretzels in for around a minute.

 Now you can use that melted butter you've got. Brush the butter all over the pretzels, and sprinkle salt to your liking.

 Now they are ready to bake in the oven. Of course you have already preheated your oven to 450 degrees, so go ahead and bake until golden brown in color for around 12 to 14 minutes.

The end result is fantastic! You can eat then as is, or with some mustard. So yummy, sort of like a bagel with a bit of a shell, and soft on the inside. Try it out!

Fruit Leather

Yum, yum! Home made fruit roll up's!

You will need:
1 pound peaches (from our tree outside)
1/4 pound strawberries
1/4 raspberries
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon li hing powder (found in abundance in Hawai'i, to find out more read on) this is a wonderful salty, sweet, and tart powder that can be used on all sorts of treats, and adds a great flavor to this fruit leather.

 First, Matt peeled , and pitted the peaches.

 He then chopped up about 1/2 cup of rhubarb (fresh from our garden!).

 Then he added the rest of the fruit, in this case strawberries, and raspberries, along with sugar and li hing powder for that extra kick! At this time put the mixture on the stove top on low (around 2), and let it cook down until it looks like the photo below...

 Now it's time to blend it up until smooth.

Let the mixture cool a bit, then spread it out on baking sheets. Now it's time to dry this stuff out. Pop your sheets into the oven, that has been preheated  to 175 degrees. This is the longest part of the process, taking up to 5 hours. The end result is so delicious, and perfect for hiking, and snacking!

 Delicious.

Fettuccine Shrimp Alfredo

So, I was looking in the freezer, and noticed we had a big box of breaded shrimp to eat up. I also noticed that  I'm not so down with the breading, and thought it would be delicious with some fresh alfredo after I removed the breading. Even better yet, Matt suggested that we make an alfredo that calls for an egg, so we could find yet another use for our fresh eggs the chickens give us (up to 3 a day now!).

Here's what you will need:

1/4 lb butter

1 egg yolk

4Tbsp. cream

1/2 c. grated parmesan

parsley

salt & pepper to taste

garlic

pasta

*1/2 tsp. nutmeg (I've tried this and I think I used a bit too much...it tastes nice, but be careful with this powerful flavor!

First I put oil & garlic on the pan for the sauce. This is how I start almost every meal! Get's the smells going and always adds flavor!

 Then I started the oil in the shrimp pan. I deep fried these for around 15 minutes on medium heat.