4th of July Pretzel Sticks! (A Pin a Day #7)

Huzzah! I did it! 7 days of trying pins and making ish work! Woot!

So anyway, this last one is kind of a cheater one... but technically is was a pin I saw...there just isn't a tutorial, because 1. it's kind of self explanatory, and 2. someone needs to learn how to Pin things *cough cough*.

Anyway, I saw the picture and I decided to make this another fun thing to do with Audrey while she was visiting us for a few days. The kid is 6, so she's got the attention span of a commercial break, so the projects we do have to be quick and easy, or she will just rush through them to get back to the Disney Channel and drive me insane with the amount of work I put into it verses the amount of care she put into it. But like I said, she's 6...

We don't have her this year for 4th of July, so I figured we should do a fun holiday project for the BBQ we're going to on Wednesday, and since it involves licking the spoon and sprinkles, plus a trip to Micheal's she was totally into it.

Auntie Anne's Pretzel Copy Cat recipe! (A Pin a Day #6)

You know what I love about going to the mall? Hint: It's not the parking lot situation.

It's the food court. And even more so, it's the soft hot, freshly baked pretzels, with butter and salt and even though they run you like freaking $4 each, I don't think I can turn one down if I tried.

I figured there had to be a recipe on Pinterest of a tired and true Mall style pretzel shop pretzel, and after sorting through a page or 2 of results, I decided on the Copy Cat version of an Auntie Anne's Pretzel, because good old Auntie Anne is who I was trying to be today.

I had promised Audrey that we would make cinnamon pretzels when I picked her up from day care on Friday, I figured we could make them together and then blog about them. We had a fun day of learning about yeast, and how dough rises and what makes the dough feel so soft and spongy when we roll it out. I think the recipe below is pretty spot on in taste to a mall style pretzel, but we obviously do not have the skill that goes into rolling out and twisting the dough into the famous Auntie Anne's shape. Instead of being big, and thin, ours were more thick and chubby, but they tasted delicious just the same.



 

Meatballs! (A Pin a Day #5)

My family loves meat. We are 100% total meat eaters and you would be hard pressed to find another family who loves meat as much as we do. Half of us also love fruits and veggies, so I think it evens it out. In fact! Charlie can not even fathom a meal without meat, he even puts bacon on his grilled cheese (which is really good BTW). I am always on the look out for different ways to prepare the same old chub'o'burger that I buy at the store and always have on hand in the freezer at a moments notice (that reminds me, add chub'o'burger to my shopping list...)

I came across this meal while trying to figure out what I would make for dinner for the #5 blog post. These meatballs looked too delicious to pass up, and trust me, I looked through A LOT of meatball pins...