PRETZELS!

I know its been a while! Life has been really hectic for me. But I decided to take a break and make some of my favorite treats .... soft pretzels!

Here's the scoop:

Cast of characters: Flour, sugar, salt, yeast, oil baking soda. SUPER easy.

Dissolve your yeast in water. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes and get foamy, You may need to add a little sugar here to "feed" your yeast.

Mix together your flour, sugar, and salt.

Make a "well" in your dry ingredients.

Add oil ...

And foamy, yeasty, water.

Look at all the bubbles!

Knead it all together, for about 10 minutes, until its a smooth dough.

Cover it with some plastic wrap.

(Don't be jealous of my ingenious substitute. I was out of plastic wrap.)

Set it in a warm, dry place.

I use the top of my stove that is turned on to about 200 degrees.

After about an hour, it looks like this.

Grab about a 2 ounce handful and roll it into a "snake."

Then, twist it up to look like a pretzel!

I'm not sure where my head was, but I forgot to take a picture of the next step. I was probably getting too excited about eating pretzels to think.

Add your baking soda to some boiling water. Drop each pretzel in the boiling water for 30 seconds each. Pull them out and place them on a baking sheet.

This is what they will look like after they've been boiled. For the love of Pete, DO NOT SKIP THE BOILING STEP. You will not like the results!

Melt a little butter ...

Brush the boiled pretzels with butter annd sprinkle with kosher salt. Put them in the oven, set your timer, and watch every second tick by in anticipation of your carb laden treat.

Pull them out and sigh with appreciation in their beautiful golden goodness!

Now, plate them up with your favorite cheese sauce or mustard, go curl up on the couch and share them with your kiddo (who has been screaming for the past hour about wanting pretzels.).

Enjoy!

Recipe:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.               
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.                



Quickie: Love Day!

The older my son gets, the more I find how much I love to be creating something with him. So in honor of Valentine's Day, we spent our Sunday doing things we LOVE.

Sleeping in.

Getting our hairs cut. (Yeah, hairs. Cause you don't cut just one.)

Playing on a playground. (Even though it was indoors because all the snow is melting and it's a giant mud party outside, it still counts as a playground.)

Shopping for little nonsense things.

Making Valentine's day cards to go to people we love.

Baking for C's "Love Day" party at school.

And that's it. Our Love Day. Tomorrow I am spending some time cooking some food my boys are sure to LOVE. Along with a sweet heart shaped Valentine's cake for my Valentine.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  ♥

Naan

It is Tuesday, February 1st. On Sunday we heard about a major winter storm that was supposed to hit ... and Mid-Missouri is in a state of emergency. We are supposed to get 12-24 inches of snow! So, I decided to stay home from work, and felt that today would be full of boredom ... and the perfect time to try on making naan. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I like Indian food, like .... a lot. And with Indian food, you must have naan. Even though Butter Chicken came earlier in the week, they are best made and enjoyed together ... if you have the time. This isn't an easy weeknight process, my friends!

Here we go!

The cast of characters:

Dissolve a packet of yeast in WARM water. Add a tablespoon of sugar to proof.

Leave the yeast water (what is this called? I am not really a baker. I don't know the correct term.) for 10 minutes. While you are waiting for those 10 minutes, prepare the rest of the ingredients to go in.

Add the sugar, salt, milk, egg, and flour and knead to make a soft dough.

knead it for 8-10 minutes, or until it's smooth.

Put it in a well greased bowl (I used that non stick spray, worked great) and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rise for one hour.

After it has risen, punch it down (I won't lie this was my favorite part) and add minced garlic:

Knead it in.

Now start pulling off golf ball sized pieces of dough and rolling them into balls. Set them aside:

And cover them with a damp cloth:

Leave them for 30 minutes, they're going to rise again.

I used this time to revisit a past snow day memory. I was about 8 I think, and my little brother and I got stuck at school because my mom was stuck in non moving bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of a snow storm. Our teacher took us to the cafeteria and made us some frozen burritos with queso on top. I had some frozen burritos and queso (no judging, please) and that's what we had for lunch today. Yummy!

After you are done enjoying your guilt ridden treat, lets get back to the matter at hand.

Heat a skillet up on high heat. Roll out a ball of dough until it looks similar to a pancake, and place it on the skillet, and brush the top with melted butter: 

Flip it over after a minute or so:

Give it another minute or so, and serve it with your favorite Indian dish.

I only made 3 pieces. We were still stuffed from the burritos. I individually wrapped the rest and froze them for another time.

There you are peeps! A snow day snack. Now, I'm going back to playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my two favorite guys.

 Enjoy!



NAAN

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons salt

4 1/2 cups bread flour

2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)

1/4 cup butter, melted

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to proof. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
2. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
3. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 1 to 2 minutes.

Indian Butter Chicken

I am obsessed with Indian food. I could eat it every day, if I wasn't worried about ballooning up to a gazillion pounds. My husband is not a huge fan of it, but he gamely puts up with me and goes with me every now and then to our local Indian place.

I was perusing for an Indian recipe that I would be able to make at home without a ton of stress involved, and I came across this dish! And would you believe I actually remembered to take pictures?! Here we go!

The Cast of Characters:

Now, we're going to add all the spices and lime juice to our chicken pieces and marinate it overnight.

Chicken:

Garlic:

 

Salt: 

 

 Pepper:

Cayenne

Coriander:

Cumin:

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the Cardamom added, but it's there, promise!

Lime juice:

Now, throw it all in:

And shake it all up!
Let it sit in the fridge overnight. The spices will develop and make your dish so full of flavor!

Note: I was in a rush and didn't marinate overnight.
I just threw everything together and let it sit for about an hour.

Here is what it will look like when you pull it out:

When you're ready the second day to get this bad boy rolling, here's the next half of the process!

Melt some butter:

Chop some onions:

Add the onion to the butter:

Cook this until the onions are soft and starting to look transparent.

Now add the marinated chicken:

Cook this about 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be completely cooked through, because it's not done cooking.

Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce:

Stir it, cover it, and let it simmer for 30 minutes or more.

While you're simmering the chicken, soak your basmati rice:

Then just cook it the way the package describes.

I added some salt and lime zest to mine. It was yummy!

After you've simmered, you're going to have a beautiful and delicious smelling red sauce:

And now, add the cream:

Try not to stick a straw in and drink this stuff. I'm serious.

Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes, allowing it to thicken a bit.

Stir, stir, stir ... you don't want it to skorch.

When it's reached a thickness you can live with, plate it up!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Indian Butter Chicken! This stuff was SO good. I ate it, my son ate it, my dogs drooled over it, and my husband ate cereal. What can I say? You can't please everyone all the time. He did say it tasted good, he just wasn't in the mood for a rice dish. He's weird like that.

Here's the recipe:

INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN

•4 pieces Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut Into Bite Sized Pieces)
•5 cloves Garlic, Minced
•1 teaspoon Salt
•½ teaspoons Black Pepper
•½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
•¼ teaspoons Ground Coriander
•¼ teaspoons Cumin
•¼ teaspoons Cardamom
•1 whole Lime, Juiced
•1 whole Onion, Diced
•¼ cups Butter
•1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Tomato Sauce
•1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Petite Diced Tomatoes
•1 pint Whipping Cream or half and half

Preparation Instructions
Combine first 9 ingredients and marinate overnight.

Saute the onion in the butter until soft. Add marinated chicken and cook about 10 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Cook for 30 minutes over medium-low heat with the lid on. Add the whipping cream (I have used light cream or half-and-half also) and cilantro just before serving.

Enjoy!