Pretzel buns!

Friday night we hung out with friends Ruthy & Andy at  Carlee & Brad's .  We had a FANTASTIC dinner & then split up by gender.  We girls talked about baking and babies and budgets (I had a great time, ladies!) while our husbands watched variations of the song We are Young by Fun on Youtube, pretty much for an hour.  We kept hearing hysterical laughter from the other room. Random, but we had a blast.  Thank you, Carlee (& Brad), for a great Friday!


We had a lazy rest of the weekend.  The most notable thing we made were these:

Pretzel Bun burgers with Tomato Jam

On Sunday, Ruthy (check out her blog DiscoveryStreet!) checked in on facebook at one of our favorite restaurants in Tacoma, Dirty Oscar's Annex.  They make the most amazing burgers with pretzel buns & tomato jam.  We decided to try to recreate both.

I found this pretzel bun recipe on allrecipes.  Their top rated recipe for anything you search for is pretty much failproof.  These buns didn't disappoint. (I will share Matt's tomato jam recipe in another post.)

Matt sprinkling the buns with salt before they went into the oven

What you need:

• 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups warm milk
• 6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 2 eggs
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• sea salt
  

  

  finished product- these were so good!

  What to do:

  1. Sprinkle the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar over 1/2 cup of warm water in a small bowl. The water should be no more than 100 degrees F (40 degrees C). Let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam.
  2. Add milk, shortening, eggs, oil, 3 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Blend with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Mix in remaining 3 cups of flour by hand, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough will be VERY sticky.
  3. Drizzle some vegetable oil in a large bowl, then place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp, warm cloth and let rise in a warm place.  (I like to periodically place the damp dishcloth in the microwave for 30 seconds, so that even if you can't find a "warm place", the dough in the bowl can rise.)   When dough has doubled in volume, about 1 hour, uncover and punch it down.
  4. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  5. Pull off baseball size portions of dough and roll into "snakes" about 6 inches long. Roll each "snake" into a spiral to give the tops some texture. Set each formed bun aside.
  6. Mix the baking soda and 4 cups hot water in a bowl. The baking soda does not need to dissolve completely. Dip each bun in the baking soda solution before placing on a baking sheet. Brush each bun with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in the preheated oven until brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.  Try not to eat these too quickly!

18 months in review

in the past 18 months since I last posted (I know, I'm sorry..), here are a few pictures of what we've done:

we have worked:

Matt's 6 commission check day

and renovated our kitchen:

before: oak cabinets, laminate flooring & countertop

during: painting the cabinets, added granite counters, tile floors & can lights

after!  we love.

we've added this fur machine to our little family:

Mia, day 1 with us

Mia now...she sat here throughout his whole nap & he 

never woke up.

and she has become Paris' best best friend

Paris & Mia's tough life

we have traveled to Philadelphia for my baby sister's high school graduation:

matt taking on my Grandma, the queen of Scrabble

with my parents & sis at the Liberty Bell

with Anna in Philly

peonies in the lobby of the Plaza

to Mexico to watch our friends get married:

and to Bermuda to hold hands with each other.

the beachfront at our hotel

crystal caves

I've been promoted twice...

and have had one miscarriage.

And through it all, all of those joys and that one incredible heartbreak, I have loved, loved, loved being married to my wonderful husband.  He is my best friend, makes me laugh and makes my knees go weak every day, and I am so blessed to be his wife.

Traditions that Matter. AKA "Becoming My Mom"

There are certain holiday traditions that I have never really thought much about until this year.  I'm a new wife, have a whole house to decorate and no other women to contend with, decor-wise, and for the first time in my life, I won't be in my parents' home on Christmas.

One thing I didn't expect to adopt from my mom's Christmas traditions is making orange balls.  My mom has kept a bowl of them in the kitchen every Christmas I can remember.  She makes one or two new ones each year and saves the ones that keep their cloves.  Some of the oranges she has are 20 years old!  They've gotten all shrunken, but they still smell amazing.  It's a unique scent that I totally associate both with my mother and Christmas. 

So this year I decided to make my own!  I had the day off work, there's 3 inches of snow on the ground, so I spent some time today in front of the fire, sticking whole cloves in oranges with my dog and cat salivating at my feet. 

I think I'll keep them on the stovetop so they get even more fragrant with the warmth! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving time!

We are hosting 20 people for Thanksgiving this year.

Matt insists on hosting his family because he *loves* leftovers and the host gets the bulk of them.  (seriously).  :)

So as his wife this year, I get to be the hostess!

I love party planning.  I love the anticipation of everyone in our home and sharing such a wonderful, nostalgic holiday.  Thanksgiving is such a beautiful holiday- it makes so much sense to my soul- and I can't wait to welcome our west coast loved ones!

When I get excited about planning for anything, I tend to get stubborn about a few creative details- typically the first few that pop in my head during the planning process.  For this Thanksgiving, I'm most excited about centerpieces of mums in fall colors and of these turkeys with my nephews for place settings. 

adorable, right?  and a good activity for my super-energetic, culinary enthusiastic nephews!

what are your Thanksgiving plans or projects?

Puppy or Kitten?

Matt & I are talking about expanding our little family.  (No, I'm not pregnant.  We're not planning on "taking the goalie out of the net" for another couple years.)  No.  For months now, I have been bugging Matt to get a kitten.

Don't get me wrong, I love our Paris girl.  She is a perfect dog.  (Except for her love of our new leather couch...but who can blame her?  We love it too.)

Anyway.  I grew up with both cats and dogs.  Big dogs (labs like Paris).  (REAL dogs, people.)  And I love them.  But I also like cats.  They're easy to take care of.  They sit on your lap for hours while you read.  Before I met Matt, I had a cat named Lola.  She had six toes on each paw.  She was pretty great.  But she ran away the day I met Matt.  (THE DAY I MET HIM!)  Which I think is kinda weird, but I digress.  (Who am I kidding, I digress every other sentence.  If you're still reading this far, you probably don't care about the digressions.  It's kind of Kelly-speak.  Everything is relevant to every conversation, in my opinion.)

Here is Lola.  (She is sitting on my Bible.)  I used this picture on her lost kitty posters to no avail.

  My conversation with Matt on Lola's absence went like this (it was 3 days after our first date):
Matt:  What'd you do today?
Me: After work I put up posters for my lost cat.
Matt: I didn't know you had a cat...are you a crazy cat lady?
Me: Oh, totally...I knit blankets with her picture on them and tell people what she thinks of them all the time.
Matt:  (laughs..cuz I am funny and was joking and am NOT a crazy cat lady despite my unyielding desire to have a cat on my lap while I am reading...)
Matt: I like cats.
(my heart stops).
Matt: I mean, I love dogs.  But I grew up with cats and dogs and I like cats.  I never understood people who say they HATE cats.  I mean, how can you hate something that is cute and furry?
Me: You have no idea how much my heart just warmed to you right now.

I fell for him hard and fast.
Fast forward 15 months.  We have been married for over a month.  We're successfully keeping our dog alive and semi-successfully keeping our house clean.  I think we are ready to shake up our little world with a furry mess-maker.  And I have begun emailing Matt pictures like this:

these are real kittens that I could own right now and have no right to have images of on here. 

and NOW Matt is all anti-cat and is, in turn, now trying to talk me into getting a puppy!  And not just any puppy.  A lap dog that will somehow be the best of both worlds.  Which sounds ridiculous considering the way we both feel when those dogs are running around your feet at other people's houses...(they don't feel like dogs...not real dogs.)

But last night we found this:

also dogs I don't own and therefore shouldn't have pictures of on the internet...

the second picture, this one right here,   ^ ?  We squealed over that picture on and off for 2 hours last night.


I mean, my husband is a pretty big, muscle-y, manly man.   Here he is with his groomsmen, looking all B-A...

But he gushed over that puppy with me for a serious amount of time.  And now claims that "yippy dogs are only yippy when they are allowed to be".  (which doesn't really make any sense except to imply that he can train a dog to not yip.  right.  I mean, Paris was on the couch again today when I came downstairs from my shower.  She didn't even care that I WAS HOME while she was doing it!    Who are we kidding about this dog training business?)

So now we have a choice.  Free kitten.  Or $200 hybrid "designer" fluffball.  I have been given the decision.  (I think...or rather, I have been presented with the option of changing my mind and choosing the puppy.)  :)

Thoughts?  Which should we get?

Either way, I think it'll be a nice friend for Paris.  Although there may be some jealousy issues...

don't look so sad, Paris.  You're still #1.  See?  I made your picture biggest.

Columbus Day

Today is the day we celebrate the lie possible truth that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.  Most of the country celebrates it by going to work but inconveniently being unable to receive mail or go to the bank.  At MY bank on Saturday, my friend Natalie and I quickly learned it wasn't funny to ironically tell customers to enjoy their "holiday weekend".  No one got the joke.  Or appreciated it, at least.  (Which didn't stop Nat & I from repeating it throughout the day, just to amuse each other.) 

Anyway.  Regardless of the validity of the holiday, I am appreciative of a whole day off.  And what am I using my precious spare time for?  Basically to be a super-housewife! 

Laundry, dusting & some organization this morning.   Taking the dogs with me to go grocery shopping this afternoon, and THEN, I am making:

(I loooove cooking in the iron skillet.)

Chili and cornbread!

 

 

and Pioneer Woman's apple cake in an iron skillet:

I am obsessed with her.  I'm also planning to use her recipes for cornbread and chili.  Yum!

Final Countdown!

I am getting married in 4 days.  FOUR!!  Which means that I'll probably start blogging more once the wedding planning is finally over. 

I have just found the process of wedding blogging incredibly overwhelming.  I mean, I am the kind of girl who already tells everyone she knows what my new shoes for the wedding look like, etc., so my spare time has been reserved for more important (no offense) things like spending time with Matt and trying to wrap my mind around becoming a wife.   (That last part hasn't really been mastered, btw...I'm planning on just leaning on God...it's been successful in the past.)  :)


but I'm super-excited to be marrying my Matt this weekend.  This picture from my East Coast shower about sums up my feelings on the matter:

(I am jumping on a trampoline with my aunt...in the play veil that was forced upon me.  we may have had a bit of champagne prior to getting on the trampoline...)

see you when I'm a "Mrs."!  (how crazy is that?!?!)