I love Auntie Anne’s Pretzels that they have at the mall. I hadn’t however had one in a really, REALLY long time.  I had this sudden inexplicable craving for them one night but by that time the mall was naturally closed.  I decided then to try my hand at making my own.  The results tasted JUST LIKE Auntie Anne’s (with maybe a little less butter).  Now I don’t need to go to the mall to get my pretzel fix.

- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp yeast (you can find in packets at the grocery store)
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 tbsp jalapeno chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- coarse salt
- melted butter (unsalted margarine)
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 3 cups water

In a bowl of room temperature water add yeast and allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until it gets foamy. In a bowl combine flour, sugar and yeast. Add chopped jalapenos. Knead the mixture to form a dough. Roll it into a large ball. Remove dough from your bowl and lightly oil the entire inside of it. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with a dish and allow the dough to rise for about 20-25 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Lightly flour a surface for you to put the dough out on. Divide the dough up into equal parts. Take each part of dough and roll out into a “rope.” Be careful not to make it too thin. Then, 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. In a small pot simmer 3 cups of water with baking soda. Keep the heat very low. As you finish each pretzels quickly dunk into the baking soda water and then place onto baking sheet.

Bake pretzels for about 10 minutes or until the outsides start to turn a golden color. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter immediately. Sprinkle coarse salt over each pretzel if desired. You can eat them warm or wait to eat them later. With the salt and the spice from the jalapenos I didn’t create a dipping sauce to dunk these in. They were flavorful on their on.

Since I had a bit of pumpkin pie leftover from Thanksgiving I had wanted to do something with but although frankly not really. I was pooped from cooking so I gave the reigns to my brother to find something to do with it.  His suggestion was just to make a pumpkin pudding by mixing the leftover pumpkin pie mix with marshmallow fluff.  There, there you have it that’s the recipe right there. Can’t get any easier than that.  And as someone who is not a fan of marshmallow anything I found this to be quite tasty.

I had some leftover white beans from a dish I had made, not a whole lot left maybe about a little less than a cup. It was at the point where I had to either use them up or throw them out. I hate being wasteful when it comes to food so I definitely wanted to use the beans up but in what? Then I thought about creating a hummus. After all it’s just beans and olive oil and super super quick and easy to make. It’ll take all of 5 minutes of your life

- 1 cup white beans rinsed
- 1 small garlic clove (go as small as you can with this since 1 cup isn’t a whole lot in the end)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor or blender drop in beans, garlic, salt, pepper and about 2 tbsp olive oil. Hit blend. Keep adding olive oil until you get a nice creamy consistency. Once you have the desired consistency take out into a bowl and serve with pita bread or chips. Quick, easy snack

Fried food. Who doesn’t love fried food? One fried food I had always wanted to try but never did because no one would suck up and share with me was fried pickles. It’s a Southern classic and I’ve always been intrigued. I mean I know you can fry just about anything, after all fairs deep fry Twinkies, Oreos and the like (neither of which I’ve tried yet for fear of artery blockage) but I decided if I wanted to try something so badly I was going to have to make it myself. I went on a frying spree throwing in onions and zucchini rounds as well.  Lucky for me, fried pickles are pretty tasty no need to fear ordering them anymore!

- 1/2 package tempura batter (can be found in grocery store)
- cold water as needed according to tempura instructions
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying
- 1 cup sliced onion rings
- 1 cup sliced zucchini rounds
- 1 cup sliced pickles (don’t do thin slices)
- salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl follow tempura batter instructions (usually will just entail mixing the tempura with water). Place oil in a frying pan. Put the pan on medium heat and allow oil to start getting hot. Depending on what kind of stove you have this can take a coupe to several minutes. Set up another bowl with panko bread crumbs. To check to see if the oil is ready take a tiny dollop of the batter and slowly drop into frying pan. If it floats to the top and the oil is bubbling then it’s ready.

Take a slice of each veggie, dip in tempura batter, roll around in panko bread crumbs and SLOWLY drop into frying pan. Let it fry for about a minute or so or until the outside is a nice golden brown. Remove from pan, shake off any excess oil and place onto a paper towel lined dish (this will allow it to absorb any remaining oil). Hit it with some salt and pepper. How quickly each piece will cook will be dependent on how thick each slice is. Remember the thicker it is the longer it will take. Also, don’t forget the more you put into the pan, the temperature of the oil will go down and it will take longer to cook so try and make sure you don’t overload your pan. Repeat the steps above as necessary for each veggie and then eat on up!