My Weekend

Friday nightJoes BB team played in the state tournament in Richmond Ky. They set a new record for the lowest scoring game in state tournament 36-37. They were up with 9 seconds left and scored, however the ball was then turned over and with 5(?) seconds left the other team scored and won :o( I have never been a sports person before, I don't "do" sports. I found out why, its too stressful! I either don't care about what is going on or who wins, as in with professional sports, or I am so stressed that my heart cannot take it. I was literally shaking after the game was over, I had to sit down and regroup because I couldnt support myself let alone hold my child who was of course in her cheerleading uniform!Go CCS!!!

Then after working very, very hard to unload the tickets to see Wicked that my wonderful husband bought me for Christmas, we ended up going to see it ourselves. I didn't want to go because it was going to be too confusing to try to get Annie to my mom and get to Louisville to see the play. But I am SO glad that we did all the confusingness :o) Joe and I got up early Saturday morning, drove home from Richmond showered and primped, dropped Annie Girl off with my Mom and drove to Louisville and back! The play was even more amazing than I could have imagined! Joe said it was good however not as good as State Semifinals :o)
I have always loved the Wizard of Oz and I was hoping that the play would tie in well and that it wouldn't be to modern like so many things on Broadway are. I hate it when like the wizard is a black woman and the monkeys are all aisian migets and dorothy is jewish. I HATE it! The Wizard is a man and Dorothy is just a farm girl from Kansas! Anyway... They did a wonderful job tying the two stories together and the only dumb part is that Elpheba (the bad witch) goes to the emerald city to save the animals of OZ!! But it was not a very important part, so I choose to overlook it :o) It was funny and the music is AAAAMAAAAZIIIING!! Unfortunatly I have no pictures of Wicked to share with you.

Sunday was the super bowl and I let my husband dictate what food would be served. We had friends come down from Dayton to join us for the fun and we spent the whole day together. I have really been wanting to try my hand at making soft pretzels lately and I saw Alton Brown make them on the Food Network so I tried his recipie. It was so easy and Delicious! I was worried they wouldn't tase like real soft pretzles but they did! Here is his recipie

Ingredients

• 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

Directions

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.

I tried to put cinnamon & sugar on some, however the cinnamon burned because of the high temp of the oven so I would reccomend baking them plain and then rolling them in cinnamon and sugar afterwards. Also a note to those who didn't know: Wax paper and Parchment paper are not interchangeable!! Wax paper will stick to your food, ruin your baking sheet and nearly catch on fire when used improperly!!