Getting ready for Christmas Cooking!!

I love the smell of turkey in the oven! This year we may be planing a visit up North to see family. I hope we can go.
We spent Thanksgiving up there and had dinner at my sisters and my mom said Christmas dinner is at her house.
So we all help out and they always make me prepare the mash potatoes. Yes the are yummy.

Terresa's Mash Potatoes...

1- 5 pound bag of red potatoes
2 sticks of real butter
garlic powder
onion powder
pepper
1/2 cup boiling water
2 heaping tables spoons Caldo con sabor de pollo
1  cup milk

Leave as much of the skin on the potatoes. clean and boil till done.. Drain and put in mixer.

add butter and mix
add garlic powder (to smell)
add onion powder (to smell)
pepper (to smell)

take 1/2 cup of boiling water and add the caldo con de pollo till dissolved.  Add to the mash potato mixture.

Add 1 cup milk and mix till smooth.

And you don't even need gravy, its that good with out it!

Enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Aunt Annie's Soft Pretzels

I have seriously neglected this blog, so sorry.

I found this online some where! Can't wait to try this out :)

Aunt Annie's Soft PreAunt Annie's Soft Pretzels

Serves/Makes: 12

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Directions:
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. Or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

* The longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be. (Of course I don't have the counter space!)

*Sweet butter, not regular butter, is one of her secrets!


Nutrition:
per serving: 196 calories, 4g fat, 34g carbohydrates, 5g protein.