National Pretzel Day (recipe included)

Yesterday, April 26th, is National Pretzel Day. It is a day that celebrates all shapes (from traditional pretzel shapes, to sticks, to squares and more) and sizes. As it was National Pretzel Day and I love making bread and bread type things, I decided to make pretzels with Mason. First I had to find a recipe, then after I found a great looking one I checked to make sure we had all the ingredients and sure enough we didn't. After a short walk to the nearest grocery store, we got started and roughly 30 minutes later had these glorious pretzels.

Did you know that pretzels are believed to be the world's oldest snack dating back to 610AD in Southern France? Monks apparently baked this strips of dough into the shape of a child's arms folded in prayer (what is now the 'traditional' pretzel shape) and added a little salt and the pretzel industry was born. 

The recipe I used is: 1 pkg. dry yeas; 1 1/2 c luke warm water (hot tap water); 3/4tsp table salt; 1/2 tsp sugar; 4 c flour; 1 egg beaten; course salt. Mix water and yeast in large bowl and let the yeast do it's thing for a few minutes (don't touch after stirring!). Then add table salt and sugar and stir in flour a cup at a time. Once all (minus a half cup of flour) is mixed in, put the half cup of flour on smooth surface and knead the dough with your hands (note, if you put flour on your hands, it will clean off easier). When all flour is kneaded in and dough is a smooth consistency, cut the dough into small pieces and shape into whatever shape you desire. Place on either foil lined dusted with flour cookie sheet or greased cookie sheet (both work great). Brush each with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 400*F for 15 minutes (you'll want to watch them if you make smaller pretzels to make sure they won't burn). Either eat warm with a beer and company (which is what I would recommend) or let cool for later. Dipping in mustard or jam is really good too!

Enjoy!

I can.

I've been working out and losing weight for a while. I walked with my mom picking up trash on our street (a total of 3 miles per walk) and then started walking more. 2 years ago I took a self-defense course here at University Wisconsin-Milwaukee and I loved it. The punching and kicking was fun and a great stress re-leaver  for me. Last summer I trained with my mom for our half marathon that we did in August. This whole school year I've been taking kick boxing classes at school, which like the self-defense course, was fun, a great stress re-leaver and has built up my muscles. Along with kick boxing I sometimes go for a jog or walk in preparation for my mom's and my marathon in (yikes) roughly 75 days. But it's not just about the distance (26.2 miles!) but also the strength because in August my mom and I are enrolled in the Dirty Girl Mud Run (a 3 mile course with 11 obstacles) and in September a Tough Mudder (10-12 mile course with 26 obstacles). With all of this working out, and shrinking in jean size (now down to a size 10!), I still didn't see what others were seeing, that is until I looked at old pictures. 
Here I am (tye-dye shirt) in 2008 (I pushed my friend's pudding into her face, so much fun):

Now here I was a month ago on the cruise celebrating my mom's 50th and my 22nd birthday (the one in the pool): 

I never would have allowed a picture of me in a swim suit - much less a bikini - be on the internet. But now I feel great and am much more confident. 

I've already lost 45 pounds.

 

Stress

Stress, defined by dictionary.com, is the physical pressure, pull or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain. I am definitely stressing right now. Let me explain.
I have several countdowns on my computer so I know how many days are left until a particular event. One of these countdowns is to Graduation as I graduate from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 37 days on May 20th so a little over a month. Seems like a lot of time, but now when you have so much going on. First of all, there is no break in homework. Readings for classes are getting longer, having to watch movies in order to respond to them in German seem to never end and the homework in general is piling up. Second is finals. I have one 'traditional' final this year for one of my criminal justice classes. By that I mean, go to class after studying, sit down, and take the final in class and then forget about it until grades are posted. In my other classes, I have one exam on the 24th of April which I can't really study for as it is just transliterating the text that he will give us in class. For that class I also have a presentation that I need to work on and a paper which together is 50% of the grade and is considered the final. For my online German class I have another presentation and a final paper (all in German) that together consists of 30% of my grade (which I'm not doing too hot in that class at the moment). My other criminal justice class I am actually looking forward to the final (how weird does that sound?). That final is basically a 20 page paper on 5 of the countries we studied talking about their criminal justice systems and how they differ from US's system and what I like about them. I might actually have more than 20 pages for that. Third thing that is getting at me is work. I don't have to prepare for work or anything like that, it is just that work hours always pick up at the end of the semester and the amount of homework one can complete during work is very little. To top it all off, I still need to finish applying for Grad School for Fall. Basically meaning that I need to remind the people that are writing my references to do so and take this MAT test which is an hour long test on next Wednesday (which I probably should study for). 
Then there are the few things in this next month that will make my stress decrease. One is kick boxing. It is 3 hours a week where I concentrate on nothing else but punching and kicking the pads and not worrying about anything else. Then there is family and friends. Whether it is calling someone up on the phone, to playing Gears or watching a movie, it all helps relax me (only if I finished stuff due in the near future). 
With all that being said, I should probably go do some more homework and hopefully not go crazy. 
37 days and counting down!

Baking

This one goes out to my sister, Christina, or @xtinaluvspink on twitter. 
Yesterday she saw this recipe for Salted Dark Chocolate Nutella Cookies so we decided to make them when we came home and were going to have them for Easter dessert. We got followed the instructions and got the ingredients out and started mixing stuff together. Christina lined the baking pans with wax paper and we threw them in the oven. Dad, Christina and I were standing in the kitchen talking when not even 2 minutes go by and we smell something funny. Christina opens the oven door and out comes this blue cloud of smoke. She quickly takes them out of the oven, Dad and I open windows and turn fans on and then we realized Christina's mistake. The instructions said to use parchment paper. Christina used WAX paper.
Dad and I flipped the cookies onto parchment paper and saved them and threw them back in to finish baking. Later we frosted the middle with Nutella (we were going to do a whipped Nutella and Hazelnut Liquor but we didn't have the latter so we opted just for the Nutella). After dinner, which was full of laughs, almost to the point were soda nearly came out of my mom's nose, we tried the cookies. Skeptical at first because of the possibility of it tasting like wax, we all looked at each other and bit in. They tasted amazing. The cookies were crunchy enough to add texture without being dry. The salt on top was the perfect compliment to the Nutella on the inside. A big glass of cold milk was definitely needed but man were those good!

Moral of the story is: follow the directions. When it says parchment paper, don't think that you can substitute it for wax paper, especially when going in the oven. 


Here is the recipe for those interested: Salted Dark Chocolate Nutella Cookies