Auntie Anne's pretzel making kit

So, I'm going to start this out by saying: I am NOT good at rolling and shaping pretzels. I suck at it. The husband says it doesn't matter what they look like, as long as they taste good I'm sticking with that.  They must've tasted great cause he almost ate all of them.
I found this nifty little Auntie Annes pretzel making kit at Jungle Jims while grocery shopping last week.  He's been bugging me to learn how to make soft pretzels at home, so I figured we'd give it a try.

Auntie Anne's pretzel kit

The kit comes with a pouch of yeast, a bag of baking soda, a bag of cinnamon sugar, a bag of pretzel salt, and a bag of dough mix.  First you dissolve the yeast in warm water, wait two minutes, and then dump in the dough mix.  After mixing it all up, you knead it.  Then it goes into an oiled bowl for 30 minutes to rise.  After the thirty minutes is up, you end up with a big ball of dough.

big ball of pretzel dough, pre-rise

I didn't take a picture after rising, cause I was just too hungry at that point.  You then cut the dough ball into 10 equal sized pieces.  Each piece gets rolled out into long strips (apparently a lot skinnier than what I made them) and then it shows you how to make the classic pretzel shape.  It doesn't matter what they look like, as long as they taste good... right husband???  After making the pretzels into shapes, you dissolve the bag of baking soda in hot water and dip each pretzel in before baking.  After baking you brush them with melted butter and then your choice of cinnamon sugar or salt.  We did half and half. 

butter and salt pretzels

Dad says the cinnamon sugar ones tasted more like a donut than a pretzel, but the ones with salt did taste pretty close to the ones at Auntie Annes at the mall.  So they tasted good, they just didn't look all pretty.  The husband ate the up though. Next time I will roll them out skinnier before shaping them.  I will say, the kit was worth the money though, they were pretty tasty.

Sometimes I even cook for the dog...

my happy dog - Max

The weather has been crappy and rainy lately, and the dog has been moping around the house.  To cheer her up, I decided to make her a batch of homemade dog bones.  They made a good treat for watching the Puppy Bowl with her today.  A couple of years ago, I found a cookbook called "The Doggy Bone Cookbook".  It comes with a little red, plastic bone cookie cutter.  Since these days, everything at the pet store is imported from China, and apparently the Chinese dislike dogs enough to poison them with things like melamine, I figured it couldn't hurt to start baking my own dog treats once in a while.  The book has a variety of different flavors.  Max has tried the "peamutt butter" and the "trick & treat" pumpkin bones. 

Chasing cheese doggy bones (and stars)

Today we tried the "chasing cheese" bones.

To make a batch of Chasing Cheese bones, you will need:
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp softened margarine
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup milk

preheat the oven to 375. Mix together the cheese and the margarine.  I really mashed the cheese up so it would mix in well.  Then stir in the flour and the milk.  I used an extra 1/4 of milk, because the mixture was still a little dry.  Then roll these out to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter.  For a special treat, I mixed a few bacon bits into a few of the dough balls that i rolled out.  Max loves them, and I feel safe giving her these, cause they're made out of stuff I would eat.

for more doggy bone recipes, check out the Doggy Bone Cookbook by Michele Bledsoe

one of my favorite store bought things: Bonbonerie cupcakes!

You can find these tasty little things at Jungle Jims in the bakery case.  Of course, you can also buy full size Bonbonerie cakes, but if you're just buying yourself a little snack, these are perfect.  They're not cheap ($3 - $3.75 for one cupcake) but they're so rich, they're worth it occasionally.  They're so pretty too.
The first one I tried was the opera cream cupcake. Chocolate cupcake with opera cream filling, a layer of chocolate glaze, a dab of buttercream icing finally topped with a white chocolate diamond.  These are to die for.  You can only eat one cause they're so rich.  I've also had the full size opera cream torte, and its so rich and sugary it will make your teeth hurt.

opera cream cupcake

Then I tried the carrot cupcake, with cream cheese icing of course.  It also has toasted pecans on top of the icing.  It was good, but nowhere near as good as that opera cream cupcake.

carrot cupcake

The last one I tried was the salted caramel cupcake. I had to try at least 3, cause just eating one would make for a BORING blog entry. ;-)  This one was chocolate cake, salted caramel filling, some kind of fluffy chocolate filling, chocolate glaze, a little chocolate coin and a dab of salted caramel.  Since I love my salty mixed with my sweet, this one was one of my favorites.  I can see an obsession starting here.

salted caramel cupcake

So if you're feeling the urge for a super-rich cupcake, but lack the time or the energy to actually go bake yourself some, either hit up the Jungle Jims bakery counter, or visit the Bonbonerie in Cincinnati.  You can check out some of their really pretty cakes at their website:

The Bonbonerie

Mexican cheese fries

I LOVE cheese fries. I know they're unhealthy as hell, but they're soooooooooooooo good.  Outback's even made a list of the unhealthiest restaurant foods out there.  Basic cheese fries are french fries, cheese, bacon and ranch dressing. Frischs has a new thing on their menu called "haystack potatoes" which substitutes hash browns for the fries, and adds diced white onions and tomatoes.  A couple of years ago, I got a deep fryer, so now I prefer to make my cheese fries at home, so i can put whatever I want on them and experiment.  The recipe I'm going to share is one of my own creations that I thought was really tasty.

homemade Mexican cheese fries

One night, while craving Mexican food, I decided to make Mexican cheese fries. You will need:

• frozen french fries. I personally love Ore Ida extra crispy seasoned crinkles
• cheese. For this batch I used some leftover 4 cheese Mexican blend from taco night
• bacon bits
• 1/2 ripe avocado, cut into cubes
• Taco Bell chipotle sauce
• oil for frying

Fry your french fries per package directions (or if you want to be all healthy, you can bake them, but they're just not as good).  While fries are still hot, sprinkle with shredded cheese and bacon bits.  Drizzle on the chipotle sauce and then sprinkle with cubed avocado pieces.  Yummy.  I decided I liked the chipotle sauce because its creamy like ranch dressing, but is a lot spicier.  There's nothing better than some spicy Mexican food.  If you feel like sharing, let me know what you put on YOUR cheese fries :-)