Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Oktoberpretzelfesting

I absolutely love Autumn. For me, Autumn means lots of carding and spinning in the evenings, weaving while indulging in a bit of Syfy telly, knitting and crocheting as fast as my digits can move those needles and hooks. It also means lots of warm woolen sweaters and fun coats. Fall weather enables me to wear boots every day, should I so choose. In addition, it is also all about decorating and exposing my, uh, alter-ego(s) for the most wonderful of holidays, Halloween. For me, Autumn means a month of rigorous menu planning for Thanksgiving, a process I enjoy immensely. And, as soon as the daily degrees take their Autumnal dip into the 60s (hey, it's SoCal and that's cold to us) my baking books literally leap from their shelves, begging to be perused and used. Fall is fantastic!

Last weekend was the first weekend of the season to actually feel like Autumn. Saturday was cloudy and cool. As such, I had the urge to go get knee deep in baking flour. By noon, the dining room table was covered with oven-centric tomes and I settled upon a recipe that I've used many, many times...bagels. Whipped up a batch of dough shortly thereafter and was boiling and baking those glorious rings by evening. My peeps were none too happy to take the fresh, hot, crispy, chewy rounds of doughy goodness off of my hands. In fact, the entire batch was gone within hours.

Feeling the pressure to produce more carb-based foodstuffs for my loved ones, I went back to my baking manuals the next morning and decided on a recipe I had yet to try...Hot Buttered Pretzels. Mixed up a batch of dough in morning and after a day of Oktoberfesting, I worked up eight soft twisted lovelies for a stint in the oven. They were a bit malformed (I'll blame the copious amounts of beer I imbibed earlier that day for my lack of pretzel twisting ability), but no matter because they tasted better than any pretzel that can be obtained from your local mall. Shiny, salty, buttery goodness...

The Great Pretzel Experiment
Got a shot of the only pretzel that actually looked like it was supposed to. The moral of the story? Don't drink and twist.

More Autumnal adventures to come!

11 comments:

Ellen Bloom said...

Yummers!!!

Caroline B said...

Baking while under the influence? Nothing wrong with that!

Yarny Days said...

YUMMY>

Anonymous said...

Is this where I am supposed to leave my email address? I ordered the pie-rets from you. Thanks!
Linda
lindac2628[at]gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Hi, I just ordered the "wearable web" pattern yesterday and haven't received it. I know it hasn't been 48-72 hours but I would like to get started asap since Halloween is next week! You should see the payment on paypal from Roxine Shears (roxis@aol.com). Thanks fo much for your inspirational patterns!

brs said...

I think I just gained 5# just looking at those things! I wish I could cook like that.

I'm looking for the creepy pumpkin that was demonstrated on Uncommon Threads last month. I've been searching the internet but have had no success. I wrote the instructions down, but must have written something wrong because the section of my pumpkin looks like a ragged dish cloth. Where can I get help?

Kelly Mc said...

Off topic, this is about purchase of the pie hat patterns. It has not been quite 48 hours, I am itching to get started this weekend on some gifts :)

Thank you -

tangledgrace@gmail.com

Batty said...

Wow, those are amazing. I see some buttery, pretzely goodness in my near future. Who cares about shape? It's all about taste, and they look delicious.

Chris Tolomei (alicethelma) said...

I just discovered your blog and I think it's totally fabu!

Peacelovandme said...

D: i want one they look so good :)

Opatija Ferienwohnungen said...

good shape....