Maybe food is my yoga?

I really love food. And as I've grown up I've come to really enjoy making food. There's something so fascinating about taking the same ingredients, like flour, eggs, sugar and salt, adding a few other items, changing the quantities and seeing what the result will be. And there's something about cooking and baking that is really soothing to me. I can get lost in kneading a yeast dough or watching the mixer spin. The kitchen is a steady constant that always yields a delicious reward. 

Saturday style, refashioned skirt

I picked up a dress from the Old Navy clearance rack simply because I was drawn to the print. I noticed at the time that there were a bunch of the same dress on the rack in all different sizes but I didn't care and I bought it anyway. It was cheap! And I loved the stripes and color combination!

I wore the dress once and I hated it. I felt fat, the waist was too high, the neck was too big and the arms were gathered just below the elbow in just the wrong way that made everything on top look huge. Gross. I wasn't going to wear it ever again. A couple days ago I noticed it hanging in the closet and the thought of altering it popped into my head. Should I take it in, cut the sleeves? A skirt, how about that?! I ran off to get my pinking shears, I cut the bodice off and voila! Since it's knit I don't need to seam it and I've got a cute, casual drawstring skirt I love!

Gourmet, you say?

We did gourmet for sure last night. We made burgers topped with brie and truffle aioli. I made the buns, I packed the burgers, Thomas hand-cut the fries. And it was awesome. We picked up the book Burgers by Paul Gayler last weekend and I think we're going to be making a lot from in there.

Burgers is packed full of awesome gourmet burger ideas and not just with beef. There's salmon burgers, lamb, vegetarian and turkey burgers. Plus tons more. And even if you don't follow the recipe exactly this book is loaded with unique toppings and tasty inspiration. The Niçoise Crab Burger might just be next on my list! I highly recommend this book to anyone, because who doesn't love a good burger?? I certainly do!

Philadelphia Soft Pretzels {recipe}

I have been on a huge pretzel kick for the last few months. Pretzels are not something that's readily available in Southern California, my grocery store sells one brand of pretzels. One. From a major snack company. There's no Snyder's of Hanover out here. And I spent so much time lamenting the lack of pretzels that my sister sent me a case of Unique Pretzels straight out of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside. Yum!

But then I got thinking about soft pretzels and how delicious they are. A good, buttery, soft pretzel. When I worked in Philadelphia pretzels were a regular thing. A print vendor would show up at our IKEA office with a huge bag of soft pretzels and a vat of mustard, not bagels and cream cheese or boring old donuts. Hot, fresh, soft pretzels. I kept talking about them and I even got my husband to dream back to his Pennsylvania days where he remembers snacking on soft pretzels on a hot summer afternoon at the swimming pool. That was it, I had to find a recipe and make them. Then on a quiet Saturday morning, this recipe from KH Photography pops into my RSS reader. 

I got right to work!

Ingredients:
1½ cups cool water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
22 oz. all-purpose flour (about 4½ cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter melted, cooled to about room temperature
olive oil, for greasing the bowl

For finishing:
cooking spray
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water
pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions:
For the dough, in a small bowl combine the water and yeast and let rest for about a minute. Add sugar and salt to the yeast mix. In a large bowl combine flour, melted butter and yeast mixture. Knead mixture for about 5 minutes. You could also do this in a stand mixer fitted first with a paddle attachment to combine and then secondly with a dough hook on medium speed. Transfer the dough to a large bowl lightly greased with olive oil, turning the dough once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 90 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450° F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot. In the meantime, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll a segment out into a 24-inch long rope. Make a u-shape with the rope and holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and onto the bottom of the u-shape in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 or 2 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and return to the baking sheet. Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.

Transfer to a cooling rack for about 5 minutes before serving, if you can keep people away for that long! 

Serve with honey mustard or your favorite dipping sauce.

The recipe is adapted from here.

A little garden time

The weather isn't bad here in California but you can definitely tell that the plants know it's spring. There was nothing in this bed when I moved in. I had no idea what any of these plants were, how they'd interact with each other or how to take care of them.

Thankfully, I caught on and am now rewarded with some of the most amazing colors I've ever seen. I mean what's better than hot pink and orange? Not much!

I hadn't seen aloe in bloom before this last year. This aloe was given to me by my neighbor, I proceeded to neglect the poor thing in a pot until my mother-in-law finally just stuck it in the ground. Now I can't stop staring at it's crazy yellow blossoms, this one is about 4 feet tall!

This is a tree fuchsia with a different aloe bloom behind it.

And for good measure, here's a little bit of Lola doing what Lola does when she's not doing something else... like sleeping in weird positions or begging you to play or pitifully drooling for a treat.