Pretzel Day

OK, I admit that this is not the most nutritious meal, but man was it good! We are always looking for something fun and different for the kids on the weekend, and this fit the bill. The pretzel recipe is here. I make a few modifications: 1. I bake them at 425 degrees; 2. I line the baking sheet with parchment paper. I also find it easier to let the dough rise on the countertop, covered with oiled plastic wrap. This way you can slice off pieces of dough with a pizza cutter and roll them into pretzels.

TO MAKE PRETZEL DOGS:

Preheat oven to 425

1. Cut off enough dough to flatten into a strip about 1.5" wide and 12-14" long.

2. Starting at one end, wrap the hotdog in the dough.

3. Dip into water-baking soda bath (see recipe) and place on lined baking sheet.

4. Bake until golden brown.

5. Serve with ketchup and mustard for dipping.

FOR CINNAMON SUGAR PRETZELS:

1. Follow recipe, just replace butter with margarine.

Beanies and Weenies

At the behest of the kids, we had beans and hotdogs for lunch. We also thew in some leftover veggie soup. And, as you can see, they don't really photgraph well. For the beans, I cut up some Yves Veggie Dogs and fried them in a bit of oil in a cast iron pan (seems to me like you need to make beans in cast iron). Then I added ye olde Heinz canned beans (sans pork variety, of course) and brought to a bubble. For the adults, I garnished with some chopped onion and ketchup (Ooh! Fancy!).

The veggie soup is my wife's standard--a great way to get lots of veggies into the kids and clean out the fridge at the same time. Sautee some onions and celery in oil, and add whatever you want (potatoes, corn, peas, peppers, etc.) Add water and boil until veggies are soft. Add alphabet pasta and canned beans and cook until pasta is soft. Add spaghetti sauce for flavour and colour, and season with salt and pepper.

For afters we had some leftover peach upsidedown cake from FatFree Vegan. Delicious!