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...


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!