Desperately Seeking Gina

Why is it so hard to come up with an opening line that will capture your attention, draw you further in, and leave you wanting to read more??  Actually, it’s not that hard.

Exhibit 1-  In a dazzling, lust-filled, passionate moment he took me in his arms and whispered the words I’d been waiting to hear for, what seems like, forever….

Exhibit 2-  The doughnut’s spicy pumpkin flavor lingered on my lips as the warm glaze oozed from my happy mouth and I wondered how exactly I could justify eating half a dozen of the delicious treats.

Alas, there is nothing that exciting going on here at the lake house.  I think the last winter “event” was our last blast of winter weather and life has returned to normal which is not all that bad-a decent paycheck at the end of the week will be nice.  Boredom decreases with the limited at-home hours and never ending list of to-do’s for weeknights.  I am loving the minutely increasing daylight as each day lingers on just a bit longer.

I am holding on to a little bit of our winter break, though.  I discovered a lovely, buttery soft pretzel recipe during my hours of boredom-busting web surfing during those weeks of home time.  I made these twice in five days and  I’ve almost perfected my pretzel roll & twist!  And, my arm certainly doesn’t need any twisting to whip up these salty lovelies after work {in fact, they were dinner & dessert tonight}.

Buttery Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water {110 degrees}
5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 kosher salt, for sprinkling
Melted butter for brushing

Method:

Combine yeast, water, and sugar.  Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Make a well in the center; add yeast mixture and melted butter.  Mix and form into a dough.  It may be necessary to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of warm water if dough is too dry.  Dump the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 7-8 minutes until dough is smooth.  Place in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat in oil, cover, place in a warm spot, and allow to rise until doubled in size {about an hour}.

When risen, dump dough onto a lightly flour surface and divide into 12-16 pieces {for some reason I always get 16…enough for 8 smaller pretzels and 8 bigger pretzels}.

Roll each piece into a rope and twist into pretzel form.  Continue until all pieces of dough are rolled, roped, and twisted.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Dissolve baking soda in hot water.

Dip each pretzel in soda-water solution and place on a greased baking pan.  Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 8 minutes until golden.

Brush hot pretzels with melted butter and additional salt if you’d like { I like!!}.

For a sweet twist…Cinna-Sugar these lovelies & coat with a glaze if your significant other has a major sweet tooth {mine does!!}

{these are made with Splenda & cinnamon since I ran out of sugar}

For the Cinnamon Sugar