New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was spent at the Munoz house with friends.  We packed up our soft pretzels and ice cream sundae fixings; the kids packed their jammies and chipmunk movies; and we pulled on our boots and hats.

There was, of course, castle/ball pit play. 

A little friendly fighting over a particular ball.

Multiple rides on the "roller coaster car". 

Speedy Gonzalez got the wind swept hair look on her ride. 

And knowing my son (despite the appearance of flatulence), there is probably a sound effect coming out of him at this moment on the down slope.  He is FOREVER. MAKING. SOUND EFFECT. NOISES.  All the time.  One of the most annoying boy traits.  

Post play time and snacking, the three oldest cousins piled into Celia's bed in jammies to watch a whole lot of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Meanwhile, the adults played some games and hung out. 

Our actual ringing in of the new year happened about a minute or two too late this year.  Boo!  But it's a pretty low key celebration anyway.  And at about 1:00 a.m. or so, with our children still refusing to fall asleep upstairs, we called it a night and headed home for bed.  :)

Happy New Year!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

I tried a really fun new recipe from Smitten Kitchen that I've been meaning to test out for years.  My former co-worker, Megan, originally turned me onto the SK blog for the homemade oreos (which are deeeelicious, by the way).  And then later, Megan raved over the soft pretzels she'd made for a party she was attending.  Megan suggested I prepare them for a crowd because they were better on the day they were made and also on a day when I had plenty of time for the lengthy recipe.

 

I decided to bring them to our New Year's party at my sister in law's house and, in truth, the recipe wasn't nearly as long as I expected.  (Deb generally takes the long route for all food preparation.  Haha!)  I used the dough hook on my stand mixer for the first time ever!  Not sure what was holding me back from trying it ever before??  But as with everything for me, it was probably just the fear of the unknown.  I was like "hold ooooonnnn... are you telling me this eliminates most of the kneading?"  It's a beautiful thing, that dough hook.

After all was incorporated, I still turned the dough out onto my pastry mat for about 10 or so kneads "until all was smooth", as Deb directed.

Then into an oiled bowl it went, flipped once and covered with a towel.  I forgot to upload the picture of how I let it rise, but I placed it in my oven alongside a glass bowl of the hottest faucet water my sink could manage.  This creates a nice warm, draft-free environment.

Meanwhile (because the first rise is one hour), Sophie and I mixed up some marshmallow-laced hot fudge sauce to take for sundaes at the party as well.  Here she's stirring some hot cream into our bowl of chocolate, cocoa powder and a bit of instant espresso.

Once that was combined, she whisked in some marshmallow creme for a glossy, fudgy sauce.

As the tradition goes, the cook gets to lick the utensil afterward.  :)

Post-rise, I punched the dough down and divided it into 16 balls.

Each ball gets rolled into an 18" strip and twisted into the pretzel shape.

Then they rise again for 15 minutes.

Here's the odd/unexpected part.  The unbaked pretzels are poached in a simmering bath of water containing baking soda and sugar.  I assume this gives the outer "shell" a crispier texture during baking while leaving the inside puffy and soft.

After the bath and just before baking, the pretzels are brushed with an egg glaze to create that beautiful, golden color and sprinkled with sea salt.  I brought yellow and dijon mustards to the party for serving and the kids and I split a pretzel fresh out of the oven... to see if they were okay for others.

Ta da!!  Totally worth the wait.  Soooo yummy.

NOON Year's Eve

We spent the morning of New Year's Eve at my grandparents house, visiting, playing a game and having lunch.  Will received a new game called Brain Quest for Christmas and we decided to give it a try.  It was really fun!  And educational to boot.

Will was most often the designated question reader.

Sophie helped grandma set the table for lunch and we ate a cabbage roll casserole with some peas and bread and butter that I brought over.  We missed an extended family outing to New Riegel for ribs for grandpa's birthday recently so I wanted to bring them a meal and visit.  I soooo love spending time with my grandparents.

Grandma has some sparkling grape juice to go with our meal and we toasted NOON Year's Eve together!

The kids loved the special treat of drinking from an adult wine glass.  :)  And yes, we did bring Sophie's t-shirt-sleeve-headband along.  ;)

Cheers!

We made it home for nap time before making our way to the Munoz home for further celebrations in the evening.  I tried out a fun new recipe to take along with us for the occasion.  Details to follow...