Adventures with Pretzel Dawgs

ALTERNATE TITLE: PRETZEL DOG BLOG

I love a good pretzel bun. Whenever it's offered on a menu in a restaurant, you can be sure I will order it, even if it's an extra charge. They are just so fluffy and buttery and I can't imagine my life without them. (Er...)
 
ANYWAYS.

I'd seen pretzel roll recipes on blogs before, and they always scared me. First of all, I've never made bread dough of any kind... active yeast, what is that?!?!? Then there's the whole LYE thing (or baking soda solution), where you drop the rolls into boiling lye/baking soda water - this is necessary to make them nice and pretzely. So, I was happy just ordering them in restaurants and didn't really think to make them myself.

BUT THEN.

I saw this recipe on a food blog that I have mixed feelings towards. Overall, I like the recipes on here and have found some great dinners and treats to make, but sometimes they are a bit complicated. The name of the recipe itself immediately caught my attention: Jalapeno Pretzel Dogs with Cheddar Beer Sauce. HULLO. But, I wrote it off as one of her too-complicated recipes and moved on (dreamin' 'bout pretzels). 

DAYS LATER...

I was browsing the #howsweeteats hashtag on Instagram to see what recipes of hers REAL PEOPLE had been making/reviewing. I couldn't believe when I saw multiple people posting pictures of their own pretzel dogs with cheddar beer sauce! Could this be easier than I thought? Right then, I committed to making them. I picked a day (obviously a weekend day, as I'd made the mistake of determining to make a complicated recipe on a work night once before and it was terrible... we ate at like 10 pm); invited a friend over to eat them (then I HAD to stick to my plan); and went in search of ingredients.

JALAPENO FLAKES WHAA...?

Yeah, I couldn't find these. Looked in literally four different stores. Oh well! So these are now simply Pretzel Dogs with Cheddar Beer Sauce. (All the other ingredients were very easy to find.)

ONTO THE STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS!

First you combine the yeast, honey, oil, and water and wait for SCIENCE MAGIC to happen! Here is the bowl of foamy yeast mixture after sitting for ten minutes. Whoa.

This is what it's meant to look like... right?

Then it's time to mix the yeast/water, the flour, and some melted butter in a stand mixer fitted with a kneading hook (yikes).

I just realized the hook is not pictured here... just take my word for it: it's scary.

It really does come together pretty quickly and eventually forms a nice little ball of sticky dough. Put it in an oiled bowl, cover it (colorful polka-dot dish towel not required), and say SEE YA for about an hour. In that time, I cleaned up a bit, shredded a whole lot of cheese for the sauce, and prepared mah workspace.

Bye-bye, little dough ball

Look at the dough after an hour! It really does double in size!! (Sorry, first time working with this yeast stuff... it's exciting!) It also somehow transformed from a somewhat shaggy little ball of dough to a smooth, shiny balloon. It slid easily out of my bowl and onto my floured countertop.

You look... different.

Knead it a bit (confession: I totally Googled bread kneading how-to videos during the hour rise time). When it's nice and... ya know, kneaded... break it apart into 10 equal pieces. I found it easiest to tell how big each piece was to roll each one into a separate dough ball. Then it's time to rock and ROLL!

They see me rollin', they hatin'...

Roll each of the ten pieces into a long strip (12-16 inches in length). Don't forget yo' flour. As Katie mentioned, you do need a lot of space for this (or maybe just I do? There's probably a more consolidated way to do this...). These are what you're going to wrap around your DAWGS.

Just pretend like you're rolling snakes out of Play Doh. Remember that?

Next step is, you guessed it, wrapping the hot dogs with the dough strips. For the first one, I was thinking to myself, "How the hell do I do this?" but as soon as you start wrapping/rolling, it honestly comes naturally and it just wraps up perfectly. Yay! Get your wrapped doggies all ready and then it's time to drop them into a pot of hot, boiling, bubbling over baking soda water. Double yay!

Rollin, rollin, rollin... keep them doggies rollin.. Rawhide!

This is the film noir portion of the pretzel dog rolling.

Take tongs and drop them one by one into the baking soda water and let them float round for 30-45 seconds. Like I said before, this step is what separates a boring bun from a PRETZEL BUN! Between each dog bath, the water WILL bubble over. I mean, there's a whole lot of baking soda in there. But good news: baking soda is a cleaning agent, so it's easy to wipe up from the stove after :) (No photos of this step... too stressful.)

Get your doggies onto their parchment papered baking sheets. I did five per sheet, because they will puff up during baking and you need some space between them. Brush them with a beaten egg (I knew I bought that brush for a reason...) and sprinkle with salt. I used Maldon flake salt, which was perfect and not TOO coarse/crunchy/salty. Then git 'em in the oven. I did two separate batches (instead of putting both sheets in at once), which was great because it gave me more time to make my cheddar beer sauce.

Giving the doggies a nice little egg wash massage.

Whisk your cheese, flour, and beer into a lovely, creamy, super delicious sauce and keep whisking while your pretzel dogs bake.

I really like this photo because of the shape my hand/claw has formed. Whisking in a bunch of freshly shredded cheese into the sauce.

Still whisking my cheddar beer sauce as the second batch of pretzel dogs bake!

All your whisking efforts will be rewarded with this creamy dreamy cheddar beer sauce (serving suggestion pictured)

Finally, rejoice as you take the second batch from the oven. IT'S TIME TO EAT!

Tada! The final spread.

Everyone should make these. Seriously - if I can do it, anyone can. Enjoy!

Note: These made excellent leftovers. The cheese sauce will definitely solidify in the fridge, but it microwaves beautifully back into a  smooth sauce, and the dogs reheat great too.

Ellie, today

It's so hard to take a picture of my Ellie these days.  As soon as she sees the iPhone, iPad, or camera, she snatches it right away!  Or at least stops doing the cute thing you were trying to capture.

I feel like I could never have enough pictures of Eleanor at this age.  I want to have these memories of my sweet baby forever, so sometimes I get a little panicky that I can't get shots of her!  But this morning, we called Gran for a short chat, and Ellie got out all of her crayons and coloring books and put on a little coloring show!  Gran was able to get some photos of Ellie, which were very much appreciated.

Sometimes I wish I could freeze time with my little boo boo.  She is 19 months and 2 days today.  I love you, Eleanor!  Love, Mama

FOR HEALTH

Everyone has their own little health tips that they swear by and believe that everyone else should swear by, too.  "It's the secret to youth and vitality!  Good skin!  Weight loss!  Cures cancer!!"  Who knows what works or what is true.  Honestly, the answer is that no one knows.  Especially when it comes to nutrition and diet.  No one knows, so just give up.  No, no - don't give up, but find out what works for you!  Doing experiments on yourself is fun.  Self-experimentation is the most rewarding and interesting experimentation, because what is more interesting than yourself?

For me, some health routines come and go, and some stay.  I will tell you what I'm doing each day currently.  I'm feeling good, placebo or not!

1. Vitamin D3.  2,000 IUs and as much sun as possible (but not too much sun - don't burn).  I'm putting this first because I truly believe that Vitamin D deficiency is an epidemic right now and responsible for many, many of today's modern diseases and ailments.  I tell everyone I know, unsolicited, to supplement with Vitamin D3.  AT LEAST 1,000 IUs a day.  If you take one vitamin, or do one thing at all for your health, do this.  This one has stuck, I've been taking this for years (4,000 IUs a day for a while, 2,000 throughout pregnancy and since).

2.  Magnesium. 400 mgs of "Super Magnesium Triple Blend".  Just about everyone is deficient in magnesium, too, and it's quite an important mineral for our bone and digestive health.  It's responsible for a lot, actually.  It is present in the soil and thus in fruits and vegetables grown in soil, and in animal products that eat roughage grown in soil.  Apparently modern farming soil has less and less of this mineral, though, and it's hard to get enough from diet alone unless you are reaaaallly trying. So magnesium is another one to take.

3.  Multivitamin.  I take a gummy women's multivitamin.  It's really tasty and I look forward to it.  I forget to take it some days, but I don't stress.  Key components that are good coverage are folic acid, B vitamins, and an array of other shit.  Just good practice, though not as necessary as the previous two things I've mentioned.

4.  Apple cider vinegar.  I have been taking 1 tsp - 1tbsp of ACV mixed with water each day.  Depending on who you talk to, ACV will help you in about 1,000 different ways.  It will definitely help with insulin regulation, and it will most likely just make you feel good.  So I've been taking it regularly.

5.  Drink water.  I'm putting this on here just because it's something I have to remind myself of each day.  Water = good!  Drink it!

6.  Probiotics.  Your body is like 90% bacteria.  You want lots of the beneficial kind!  They help with digestion and help keep the pathogenic bacteria at bay.  Really great for the immune system.  Take the pills and eat fermented foods like yogurt and kefir.


7.  Eat organic when it comes to the "dirty dozen".  You can sign up to receive a PDF version of the Environmental Working Group's "Guide to Pesticides in Produce."  They emailed me a guide, and I'll be happy to continue to receive their newsletter.  They update the list of pesticide-heavy produce each year - try to buy the organic versions of these.  The top five are apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and grapes.  I think I just ate like 2 pounds of non-organic grapes over the weekend...wish I'd known this before I did that!

8.  Make your own food whenever you can!  REALLY limit your consumption of processed, packaged, frozen food.  It has tons of added salt to preserve it, if nothing else.  And usually lots of questionable extras.  It's cheaper to cook your own, too.  A few hours of meal prep when you have a low-key evening can do wonders.  Throw some sweet potatoes/russets in the oven.  Bake some chicken.  Chop some veggies to cook throughout the week.  You get the idea.

9.  Don't limit saturated fat or dietary cholesterol - eat it for your brain.  Egg yolks, bacon, beef - all of those fatty things that contain high amounts of dietary cholesterol - are actually VERY good for your brain (in moderation - don't go crazy). They are the best sources of choline, the importance of which is just starting to be understood for brain and heart health.  It's particularly important during pregnancy - maybe AS important as folic acid.  So eat some eggs every week! Really, 1-2 a day would be optimal.

10.  Fish.  Eat 'em, and stick to the low-mercury ones for the most part.  But you also want fatty ones for the Omega-3s (best source of these, and of dietary vitamin D).  The sweet spot is wild caught salmon!

I'm not going to put sleep on this list, simply because this is a list of what I do for my health, and I don't do this.  But YOU should.  Sleep is so important.  Hopefully I'll be able to add this soon, ugh.

What little/big things do YOU do for your health?  I'm always so interested in this!

Smitten Kitchen Cooking Fears: Progress

A while ago, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs, compiled a list of her readers' most common fears in the kitchen.  A lot of them hrang true for me - certain techniques or recipes that seemed too daunting, or too much work to be "worth it".  Since first reading the post in question, I have come a long way in my culinary journey.  I actually enjoy cooking in and of itself - it's actually more about the journey now than the destination.  The end result is just a bonus that I can enjoy (hopefully with others!). And, usually, it's never as difficult as you think.

The list, alphabetically, and notes on my experience with each.  The color scheme goes:
RED - LEGITIMATE FEAR AND AVOIDANCE
ORANGE - HAVEN'T MADE, BUT NOT TOO SCARY
BLUE - HAVE MADE, AND IT KIND OF SUCKED 
GREEN - HAVE MADE, AND WILL MAKE MANY TIMES AGAIN

artichokes - OK, these are actually still REALLY annoying to prepare, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong...

biscuits - Come to think of it, I've never been compelled to make these! I'm not intimidated, though.

bread - I have made several types of bread, with very good results! I'll continue to make breads, because they are really not that much work, with great payout.

cakes - Done. I've made layer cakes completely from scratch.

canning - Ah, haven't done this one, and don't have plans to. I actually AM afraid of canning incorrectly and getting botulism or something horrible.

caramel - I have made simple caramel and brittles. Just need a candy thermometer and patience.

chicken, whole - Done. Not my favorite food, though, so haven't repeated it too much.

crepes - have not tried making these!

deep frying - my most recent conquest. Very successful - crispy and delicious! Though my apartment smelled like duck fat for a while.

eggs, poached - I've made decent poached eggs and they were just ok...need to up my game here

fish - no fear here. I've made many kinds of fish, yummy and easy

fried chicken - Now that I'm in the frying game, I'll definitely try this!

frying - Yep.

gnocchi - seems time intensive, but if I ever had a gnocchi craving I guess I'd try it? Meh.

gravy - I've made gravy, but need LOTS of practice to perfect it.

meat, steaks, and chops - No problemo

phyllo - I have a few recipes requiring phyllo bookmarked. It doesn't seem difficult, actually...should I be worried?

pie or tart crusts - seems complicated...Pilsbury is quite good!

rice - jasmine rice is no problem. A rice cooker would certainly make this even easier.

risotto - something to try.

sauce, hollandaise - Haven't made this EVER. Not worried about it, though

souffles - yeah these are a little daunting.

yeast, anything - pizza dough and bread so far. I have many active dry yeast packets to use, and am not afraid to!

other (the biggest category - who knows!)