Pretzels and Backsmithing

A couple weekend's ago our friends Nate and Stacey came over for the day. We spent the morning in the garden. Stacey was helping me weed and plant things as I'm having a hard time bending and squatting for long periods of time being over 5 months pregnant. I told myself that this pregnancy wasn't going to slow me down. That I was strong and I'd keep bustling like I always do. And I was WRONG! 

But that's ok. We are just thankful for our new little blessing to come. Everything else can wait. 

After gardening, Stacey and I headed to the kitchen to make homemade soft pretzels while the boys made their way to the shop to spend the afternoon blacksmithing. 

Stacey received a delicious gourmet pretzel mustard dip as a gift from a co-worker and she wanted to make soft pretzels to dip in the sauce. 

The recipe we used is from Alton Brown Alton Brown Soft Pretzels.

Traditionally pretzels are dipped in a diluted lye solution, which is extremely alkaline and give pretzels their pretzel-y flavor. However, lye can be a bit intimidating to cook with so we appriciated that this recipe used baking soda as a substitute. 

 The most fun was rolling and shaping the dough!

 They turned out DELICIOUS! And Stacey's mustard dip was a perfect accompaniment!

 The guys spent the day making large hooks. Nate will use his for his boat and Zach will use his to connect chain to the tractor to haul things.

 I finally remembered to give Stacey her birthday present. A silly little crochet potholder that I made to match her chicken-themed kitchen. The pattern can be found over at Bag-O-Day Crochet and More. 

We finished the day with cool drinks and pretzels at the picnic table.