Pretzel Maker here we come!!

These homemade pretzels were absolutely amazing! Dip them in mustard and you will feel you are the mall at the Pretzel Maker (only BETTER!!). I am going to make these again and play around with different flavors--Parmesan, cinnamon & sugar, etc. They were not hard to make either, so give them a try! They made the perfect after school snack.


*Wrapping the pretzels took a little practice. Don't give up, just keep twisting and you will get it.


*Boiling the raw dough pretzels was an unusual step, but made the pretzels have that perfect chewy texture. Don't over boil them though, or they get soggy and too mushy.

Homemade Soft Pretzels
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007
Makes 8 pretzels
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside. Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

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Last chance to win!!

The contest for two SIX MONTH MEMBERSHIPS to Deals to Meals is going to end Wednesday night! If you have not entered to win this contest (whether you are a member already or not), you are welcome to visit the website www.crazibeautiful.com and click on the Business Savvy link. Once you click on this link you will see our logo on the left hand side. Scroll down and leave a comment with your email and name and they will enter you into the contest. We were excited to be featured on their website and are excited to give away two memberships for FREE!

Good luck to everyone!

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How about a Pizza Party?

Around our house we LOVE making a quick tasty pizza on Saturdays. This is one simple and fairly fast homemade pizza. Start to finish about 1.5 hours. So forget delivery pizza and make your own. You can use this dough for any type of toppings, be we personally LOVE this tomato sauce because we make it with tomatoes from our garden.

Pizza Margherita...Here is the recipe:

Dough: 2 3/4c. All-purpose flour

2 T. cornstarch

2 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. table salt

1 1/4 tsp. instant dry yeast

1 cup warm water

Pizza Sauce:
2 T. Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can crushed tomatoes
Salt & Pepper

Directions for dough:
Combine flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and yeast together. Mix until blended. Add warm water while mixer is on low. Combine for 2 minutes or until all dough is thoroughly combined and pulled away from edges of bowl. Allow to sit for 2 minutes and then mix once more for 30 seconds. Remove from bowl and place in lightly greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Allow to rise in warm area for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Until the dough has doubled in size.

**Preheat your oven with your baking stone in it to 500 degrees for 30 minutes.**This is the key to making a GREAT pizza at home!

Directions for sauce:
Cook the oil and garlic together in a pan over medium heat until sizzling and fragrant. About 1 ½ minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and simmer until the sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once finished add ¼ c. fresh basil, gently stir until combined.

Directions for pizza:
Remove dough from bowl onto a lightly floured surface and divide into two balls. While working with one dough ball place the other in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin roll dough out until it is very thin about 14” pizza. Once the dough is to the desired size place on a clean parchment paper on a backing sheet. Then begin by placing the red sauce on the pizza until 1” from the edge. Place olive oil around the crust of the pizza. Remove from baking sheet sliding the pizza and the parchment paper onto the baking stone that is HOT in the oven. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place 1 c. of sliced fresh mozzarella cheese on top. Return to oven for another 4-5 minutes until cheese is slightly cooked but warm through. Remove from heat and place on baking sheet and add tsp. Olive oil, ¼ c. fresh basil and coarse salt. Serve hot. Repeat process for the other pizza dough. ENJOY!!!

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Buttermilk Biscuit Mistake

Ahhh!! I am sorry to anyone who followed the recipe below for the Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. We were on vacation when I made that post and the scratch piece of paper we had the recipe on had one of the ingredients down wrong. The buttermilk should be 3/4 c. instead of 1/4 c. If any of you tried to make them and they didn't turn out right, this would be why--sorry! Try them again, they really are worth trying and are a great food storage recipe (now that it is corrected!). Good luck :)

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Deals to Meals Give-Away!

I would like to thank Julie from the website www.CraziBeautiful.com for featuring our business on their website. Their website is DARLING and is filled with great, inspirational information on honoring women. Their website is done so well, so if you have a minute, check them out.

They have featured our business under the "Business Savvy" section. We are giving away TWO 6 month membership for FREE, so enter a post/comment under the Business Savvy section and you will be entered to win!!

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Shelving facts...

Here are some quick facts about the food storage shelves my fabulous hubby built in our basement. Our storage room is not very big, but thanks to his great shelves, it actually fits a lot! Having a 'food storage room' really helps makes rotating and using your food storage MUCH easier. Try to organize your food storage room like a grocery store. Keeping it organized will help you be able to store more food, but also make it easier to use and rotate through.

For those of you who have asked for more details on our shelves, here it is:

Todd's Shelving Facts: The dimensions of our cold storage room is about 15ft. x 5ft. I used 16” deep shelves that are around 12” apart. This holds almost every case of food that you can buy. Since the shelving sheets I purchased were 4’x8’ that also meant that I could cut exactly three 16”x8’ shelves out of each sheet without any waste. I also made my first shelf 24” off the ground for any of the larger cases, buckets, or tubs that we use. We have a “cold-storage” room that is all cement built directly below our front porch, so it is a great climate control for our stored food. As far as the material goes you can use the ½” thick shelving sheets and then brace them underneath with a 2x2 or 2x4, or you can use a ¾” sheet and support the shelf every 3-4 feet with a vertical brace.

I hope that helps :)

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Commonly Asked Question

Commonly asked question:
QUESTION:
You say that you use tupperware tubs to store your long term stuff (beans, rice, wheat, pasta etc) I love this idea. Do you dump the contents straight into the tub or do you store the bags in the tubs? It seems that it would save a lot of space in the tub to just dump out the beans (for example) into the tubs, but is that okay? What about sugar and oats? I see that you have them in the bags in your drums, but what about 5 gallon bukets or tupperware tubs with good lids?
~Kristin

ANSWER:
That is a great question! sorry if it was not clear on the blog postings. If you have a food safe 5 gallon tub (which the ones sold at Maceys, Harmons this week, and Walmart are), then you can dump the items straight into the bucket and not have to store it in it's original container. However, if you are storing your food in a Rubbermaid tote (like the ones on my blog) then you will need to keep the items in their ORIGINAL wrapping or buy a food safe grade plastic liner that you can put in the bottom of the tub. IF you have the food safe liner (you can buy them online) inside the tote then you can dump the items straight into the tub. In my storage I just keep the items in their original packaging because it is easier to rotate through and know which items are older and which ones are newer (I put the date on the box of any long-term storage items: rice, oats, pasta, etc.). The plastic garbage cans work really well for those items that you will have a large amount of (wheat, flour, sugar, oats, etc.). For a family of 4 you will need 400lbs. of wheat, 80lbs. of oats, etc. You would need a lot of storage tubs to store these amounts of food. It is easier (and more cost effective) to put these items in a large garbage can (in their original container).

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