Soft Pretzels

The theme of tonight's small group gathering is "cravings." I've wanted to try making homemade pretzels for months. Niels and I don't eat much fast food when we're home, but we have given in to the sweet smells of Auntie Ann's Pretzels. I can't even remember the last time we had one, but that's how long I've wanted to try making them.

Since I double messed up my last attempt with yeast by using hot water with expired yeast (hot water kills yeast--who knew?), we took a family outing to Giant Eagle to get ready for today's experiment.

I used Daniel's playtime to search the web for instructions on how to make the pretzel shape. My recipe was not at all helpful (form rope into pretzel shape--thanks a lot!) I found this very helpful video from, all all places, Auntie Anne's! I even learned some tips not cover explained in my recipe.

So, I combined both to come up with...

de Jong Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

INGREDIENTS:
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110
degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour (note: I used whole wheat, which made the dough harder to work with, I think. Next time, I'll try half and half)
1/2 cup white sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

DIRECTIONS:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Make sure the water isn’t too hot or it will kill the yeast. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

Yeast just after adding the warm water.

After 10 minutes. I think I was supposed to stir it more.

• In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt.

• Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water.

• Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or warm, damp towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Before rising.

After rising. (And after I punched it down!)

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.

I would do this after the pretzels are formed because by the time I was ready, the water was cool and the soda had separated!

• When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces with a pizza cutter.

I think I was supposed to roll the dough out more, but this worked too.

• Roll each piece into a rope, starting in the middle and working out.

I may have just been really slow, but I had to wet my hands a couple times because the dough got try. It might have been the whole wheat as well. I think Daniel will enjoy helping me do this part in the future. He tried to help today. And Bailey tried to help herself when I was with Daniel!

• Twist into a pretzel shape, by looping the rope in half, twisting twice and fold it over.

1. Make a U shape

Twist it twice. (Imagine twisting a twist tie).

Pull the ends up and push down where the dough intersects.

This took a LONG time!

• Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a clean, dry towel to blot extra liquid before placing on lightly sprayed baking sheet.

• Sprinkle kosher salt on the salted pretzels. (I made 5 salted, 5 cinnamon/sugar and 4 almond)

• Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

• While pretzels are baking, melt ¼ cup butter and prepare sugar/cinnamon mixture and crushed almonds.

• After baking, follow the directions below depending on the type of pretzel.

For salted pretzels: Dip in butter with tongs (one side), and let drip dry before placing on plate.

For cinnamon/sugar: dip entire pretzel in butter, then immerse in sugar mixture to coat. Do both sides.

Almond: butter, then coast in toasted almonds.

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

Yesterday, I was starting to feel better after the weekend's adventure, so I made dinner. I first tried this recipe last year, but apparently forgot how good it was!

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

INGREDIENTS:

1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 1/2 cup minced onion 1 egg 2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce 1 1/2 cups water 1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, onion and egg. Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. In a separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water. Chopped spinach in one of my new mixing bowls from IKEA. LOVE it! Ricotta cheese, egg, and minced onion in my other new bowl. All mixed together, with the parsley, pepper and garlic salt. (We didn't have garlic powder). Tomato sauce and water.
3.	Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. I've read about using a pastry bag to stuff these, and a ziploc bag as a substitute. Actually, I found that using my freshly washed fingers was the easiest and fastest way! Ready for the oven!
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft. It looks a little crispy, but it was really good! I've had a harder than usual time with multi-tasking and planning my time this week. Niels was home later than usual and we had to run an errand, so we turned the oven off a little before it was done so we could get back from the store before Daniel's bedtime. So, it might have been slightly overbaked, but at least it wasn't burnt!

Nutrition Information Servings Per Recipe: 6 Calories: 547

Amount Per Serving Total Fat: 18.6g Cholesterol: 80mg Sodium: 1310mg

Amount Per Serving Total Carbs: 68.7g Dietary Fiber: 9.2g Protein: 27.2g

The calories are a bit high on this, but the portion sizes are pretty big. We used 8 serving portions so it was a little more respectable! We have plenty leftover. (Mom, there may be some left over by the time you get here!)

This recipe is very generous, so I had quite a bit of extra sauce and spinach mixture after filling the 14 manicotti shells that came in the box. So I looked to see what kind of other pasta I had on hand. I found some pasta wheels from when Daniel was on a pasta kick. I decided to use those for a pasta wheel experiment.

We'll see what Daniel thinks of his new wheels in a few hours!

Dutch dinner, part 3: Chicken Sate

I really was super woman yesterday, even though multi-tasking is not my forte. In my defense, our three Dutch dishes were not supposed to all be made at the same time! The original plan was for Niels and I to do all the prep work on Tuesday night. That didn't happen though, because Niels had an meeting at church and I was not feeling well. (I've been pretty exhausted and lightheaded the last few weeks and am waiting for some test results to hopefully clear things up). So Wednesday afternoon, the house was a mess and Niels had to work a little later because he was on Daniel duty that morning while I was at the doctor having said tests done to me. Nothing like a little stress! That said, Niels got home about an hour before our ten dinner guests, in time to help clean up, vacuum, run to the store to get the frying oil I forget, entertain Daniel and help me finish up the meal. (He's super man!).

So, meal #3, Chicken Sate, is a little less documented. We had to improvise a little bit, because I also forgot to get skewer sticks. Sate is marinated chicken served with peanut sauce, which of course, I made from scratch, because I'm a little nuts sometimes. :-)

Indonesian Chicken Sate

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves, skinned, boned & cut into 1/2" cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. lemon juice

Instructions:

Combine above ingredients and let marinate 2 hours. Thread on skewers and grill approximately 5 minutes on each side or until done, or broil in oven. Do not overcook or it will be dry. Serve with peanut sauce.

Chicken in marinade

PEANUT SAUCE:

3 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
4 tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. dark soy sauce
1 tsp. dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes (or hot chili paste)
1/4 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ground coriander

Niels says that the peanut sauce should look creamier. It's possible that the all natural peanut butter, which also has a drier texture is the culprit. It could also be that my brain was pretty fried at this point, and I made a mistake! At any rate, it was delicious and there wasn't any left!

Bitterballen

At last night's small group, we had a Dutch theme in honor of Liberation Day. In addition to Hutspot and Sate, I made bitterballen, a sort of deep fried meatball with diced veggies and seasonings. It's using dipped in mustard or Dijon sauce. Of course, in Holland, you can find these in the freezer section of the local store. Since we live in America, woefully far away from a Dutch store, I made them from scratch. Now that I know how time-intensive they are, Niels knows how much I love him!

Bitterballen

Ingredients:
4 tbl. butter or margarine
1/2 lb ground beef or veal
1/4 cup carrot, finely diced
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
A grating of fresh nutmeg
1 tbl. fresh lemon juice
2 tbl. parsley, finely chopped
5 tbl. flour
1 cup beef broth or milk
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp. water
Oil for deep frying

Instructions:

• Heat one tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over moderate heat and cook the meat, carrots, and onions until the meat is browned and the carrots are tender.

• Drain the meat in a colander, then place in a mixing bowl. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice, and parsley and stir to combine. Set the meat mixture aside.

• Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over moderate heat and stir in the flour to make a roux. I had no idea what a roux was!

• Cook this for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the beef broth or milk. Continue heating, stirring constantly, until the sauce boils and becomes quite thick.

• Combine the sauce with the meat mixture, stirring to combine them thoroughly, and chill this mixture for at least two hours in the refrigerator, until it has become solid.




• When the mixture has solidified, roll it into balls about 1 inches in diameter, using your hands. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs, then in the egg and water mixture, then in the bread crumbs again.

• Fry a few at a time in a deep fryer with at least 2 inches of oil at 375 degrees until golden (about 2 to 3 minutes). Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Family Fitness and Homemade Hutspot

Here in the de Jong household, every year has had a theme. 2006 was "Fall in Love." 2007 was "Adjust to Marriage." 2008 was "Pregnancy." 2009 was "Adjust to Parenthood."

2010 is "Family Fitness." In addition to making an effort to be more active, both Niels and I are trying to get to a healthy weight. This makes meals interesting, because Niels is trying to gain weight, while I am focused on losing it! And, now that Daniel eats what we eat, we've been much more mindful of what we serve. Last year we started a habit of trying three new recipes a week. We didn't always make our goal, but we did greatly expand our menu options. We've continued this tradition this year, and as my confidence has grown, so has the variety of our meals.

One of Niels' favorite Dutch meals is hutspot, which is basically potatoes and carrots mashed together:

Hutspot

(follow the link for nutritional information)

1¼ hours | 20 min prep

SERVES 8 -10

Ingredients:

6 onions
6 carrots
8 potatoes
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
salt
pepper

Directions:

• Dice & boil onions and carrots 20 minutes. I actually found some rainbow carrots. They come in shades of red, orange and yellow. I thought they'd add a festive look! Aren't they pretty?!

• Drain.
• Boil peeled and quartered potatoes 20-25 minutes, til tender. We use red potatoes because they taste great even with the skins on them, and I'm all about saving the time of peeling them!

• Drain and dry thoroughly.
• Add onions and carrots mash well.
  
• Add salt, pepper, butter and milk.
• Mix.
• Warm all together and serve hot.