Pretzel Bites

Okay these pretzels from The Slow Roasted Italian are the BOMB! They were unbelievably easy to make but have the quality of "mall pretzel bites.......but BETTER!" (as said by my kids) They don't feel or taste like you just cut up some dough and put them in the oven. They are amazing! My only regret is that I only made one batch. It was enough for our family of 4 ( and a half if you count the little guy who hate maybe 3 and then focused on his chips), but we all were kind of sad that they were gone so I would have loved to have some leftovers! Oh, the best part? You don't need to wait for the dough to rise.

I read a few recipes for pretzel bites and read through comments. I saw a lot of people complaining of their second or third batches coming out with a really bitter taste to them. Everyone seemed to conclude that it must have been because they put their pretzel bites into the baking soda bath, baked them in the oven, and then put the next round of pretzel bites into the baking soda bath (rather than having all of the bites in the baking soda bath without long waiting times between more being added into the bath).

So, in my directions I have you getting all of your pretzel bites in and out of the baking soda bath before you bake any of the them. They all turned out great, so who knows if waiting to put in other batches later on causes a bitter taste.

What you will need:

• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 C warm milk (110*-120*)
• 2 T honey or sugar
• 3 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C baking soda
• 8 quart pot of water
• 1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp. cold water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450*
• Warm your milk up and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer
• Sprinkle the yeast into the milk
• Add the sugar to feed the yeast
• Let the yeast get nice and foamy, about ten minutes
• Once the yeast is ready, add in the salt and mix together with the paddle attachment
• Add in the flour, one cup at a time. You want the dough to be tacky but not sticky. (I ended up with 3 cups and 3 tablespoons)
• Once your dough is ready, replace the paddle attachment with a dough hook and knead for about 3 minutes
• While that's kneading, spray your counter top lightly with some non stick spray. Using flour will make the dough too difficult to work with
• Turn your dough out onto the counter and divide (I just used a pizza cutter) into quarters. 
• Start boiling your 8 quart pot of water
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with non stick spray, set aside.
• Beat one egg with 2 tsp cold water, set aside
• Grab one of the dough quarters and divide that piece into 4 more pieces
• Roll out each of those 4 pieces gently until you can cut at least 4 pretzel bite size pieces from it
• Continue on with the rest of the dough, you should end up with at least 64 pretzel bites
• Carefully add the baking soda into the boiling water
• Dump a bunch of the pretzel bites into the boiling water and let it sit for about 20 seconds
• Remove with a spatula or slotted spoon of some kind and place onto the baking sheet
• Do this with all of the pretzel bites until they have all been in the baking soda bath 
• Brush pretzel bites with egg wash and add kosher salt
• Bake for about 15 minutes (mine were done after 10)

Olive Garden Bread Sticks Copycat

My family is no stranger to the Olive Garden. My husband worked there off and on for 8 years, including working as the culinary assistant. So he gave me a few pointers on these bread sticks, but part of it just wasn't going to happen (drenching them in "well it's not really butter....I think it's worse than margarine. It melts at room temperature so they just paint it on until it's completely saturated"), and some wasn't possible (being shipped to my doorstep so I can just pop them in the oven).

I feel like the flavor of these were super spot on and extremely delicious. They were all eaten in a few minutes! The texture was mostly there, but I think I kneaded my dough too long by accident so they weren't as soft! I also didn't portion out  or "roll" the dough at all. I chose a much easier way, which turned out to work perfect! So I'll write the recipe the way it originally is from Cooking Classy , but I'll include my notes at the bottom, too :).

PS- most of my pictures for the next few months will be sad to look at. I don't have any special lighting so once it's dark so early, I'm working with dark natural light and bright awkward artificial light. So it is what it is!

What you will need:

• 1 C + 2 T warm water
• 1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 T sugar, divided
• 3-3 1/4 C flour*
• 1 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3 T vegetable oil
• salt*
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder*

Directions:

•  Using the whisk attachment (or just a whisk yourself), whisk together the warm water and yeast with 1/2 tsp sugar until the years is dissolved
• Let that sit for a good 10 minutes until it's nice and frothy
• Add in the reamining sugar (1 T+ 2 1/2 tsp)
• Add in the salt
• Add in the vegetable oil and, using the paddle attachment, blend until just combined
• Add in 1 1/2 C of the flour and blend until just combined
• Switch to the dough hook and add the last 1 1/2 C of flour while the dough hook kneads the dough until the dough is pulling away from the sides, smooth and elastic (still slightly sticky), adding in up to another 1/4 c of flour if needed*
• Place ball of dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap to raise in a warm setting for about 1 1/2 hours
• Pinch down risen dough
• Divide dough into 12 equal pieces (2 oz. each by weight)*
• Roll each piece into a 9" rope*
• Place each rope onto a buttered baking sheet
• Cover and let them raise again for another hour
• Preheat oven to 425*
• Bake for 11-13 minutes*
• Run the end of a stick of butter over the top of the bread sticks straight out of the oven
• Sprinkle on the salt and garlic powder

My notes-
*It says you can add up to 1/4 C more of flour, but I found that after the initial 3 C it was plenty
*I would reccomend not using regular table salt. Something a big bigger or more crunchy is nice. I just used some Kosher salt with a tad bigger
*I didn't measure out the salt or the garlic powder, I just sprinkled them on until it looked right
*Instead of portioning everything out, I rolled out the dough into a large square. Using a pizza cutter, I trimmed off the edges so I had a nice straight sided square. After that I cut strips into the dough with the pizza cutter horizontally, and then one slice down the middle vertically, so I had strips of dough.
I put them on the baking sheet and kind of sculpted the ends just a little so they were a bit more "round" but it's not necessary. They'll still come out round once they've baked!
*Since my bread sticks were a little shorter, they were done after 8 minutes and I turned the broiler on the for the last few seconds to get the golden brown look

Hot Dog on a Stick's Frozen Lemonade Copycat Recipe

Welcome back, summer! It was sooooooo warm yesterday, and it's expected to get up to the 80's today! It's about 9:30am and my daughter is already out on the porch doing "experiments" with lemons, jell-o and food coloring. I heard her say, "Oh my gosh! My hypothesis was right AGAIN!" so it sounds like she's having herself some fun in the sun. Later today I'm taking each of my girls on a one-on-one Mommy-daughter date to soak up the sun together.

With it being so warm yesterday, while we were out I got an intense craving for something fruity and refreshing. I finally figured out exactly what I wanted. A frozen lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick. They are my FAVORITE. Unfortunately, the nearest one was about 15 miles away.

I decided I could just make my own. Like, how hard can it be? I'd made my own homemade lemonade recipe before and it turned out amazing, so this shouldn't be any different. Still, I was hoping to be able to find a copycat recipe on the net somewhere to double check any secret ingredients. I couldn't find a single thing!

What I came up with, I think, could be sold at Hot Dog on a Stick and no one would know the difference between theirs and mine. I was SOO happy! My girls went nuts over it, too. It had quenched my craving for a fruity and refreshing drink and I can't wait to have some more today.

I am sure there are plenty of different ways to make frozen lemonade, but I wanted a specific taste. It had to be like Hot Dog on a Stick's, and it is. Therefore, I give you, Hot Dog on a Stick's Frozen Lemonade copycat recipe-

What you will need:

• 1 C hot water
• 1 C + 1 T sugar
• 1 C fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
• 7 C ice

Directions:

• Make a simple syrup by dissolving 1 C sugar into 1 C hot water
• Juice your lemons
• Add lemon juice and syrup to a blender
• Add 1 C of ice at a time and blend together
• After all your ice is blended, drop the last 1 T of sugar in and blend

Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider

I thought I'd let you all in on a fun Fall recipe to get you in the mood for the bare tree's and brisk air! If you are looking for something "close enough" to Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider, this is not it.

If you are looking for exact, this is your recipe (minus the caramel sauce but hey who cares?)

The caramel apple cider in this picture had the optional added whipped cream at the bottom of the glass. If that's not your thing, this would be less creamy looking.

This recipe is for a single serving (12 oz.)


What you will need:

• Apple juice
• 6 T* Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Syrup ($7.95 for 1 LITER!!!! This will last you forever!)
• Whipped Cream
• Caramel sauce

Directions:

• Heat the apple juice and cinnamon syrup on the stove (non aluminum pan) until it is steaming and warm- no need to bring to a boil
• (optional) Add a dollop of Whipped cream at the bottom of your glass to add some extra creaminess to your cider
• Pour your cider into your glass
• Top with whipped cream
• Drizzle with caramel sauce (I used the ice cream topping caramel, but you can purchase the caramel they use at Starbucks as well!)

*Barista's at Starbucks use about 3 "pumps" of the cinnamon dolce per (12 oz) serving. Each "pump" is equal to about 2 T, so if you are wanting to make this in your crock pot (like I will be doing soon!), you can measure accordingly!

Johnny Carino's Italian Nacho's

There are a few things I'm still extremely upset about after having moved to Portland. No Texas Roadhouse. No Johnny Carino's. Sometimes I kind of live for Carino's Italian Nacho's. It was a nice surprise to log into blogger yesterday and see that sweet Alli over at Cupcake Diaries shared a copy cat recipe.

Alli mentions that this copycat recipe came from Texas Housewife. When I checked the site, she had said to use the Asiago Cream Sauce, and Alli had posted the Alfredo Sauce. I asked Alli about it and she (a former server at Johnny Carino's) said they use the Alfredo Sauce.

So! Enjoy the recipe!

Are you trying to tell me that I made a ton because that looks like a full sized baking sheet?

You're right. It is.

What you will need:

Nacho's-

• 7 oz. wanton wrappers
• canola oil
• 1/3 C ground Italian sausage
• 1/3 C cooked chicken. sliced
• 2 C mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 C tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 C black olives, sliced
• 1/4 C pepperoncini peppers, sliced
• 1/4 C jalapeno peppers, sliced
• heated Alfredo Sauce

Alredo Sauce-

• 1 Quart heavy cream
• 1 C Parmesan
• 1/4 C. whole milk
• 1 T black pepper

Directions-

• Put your chicken in the oven (I just used chicken tenderloins with salt and pepper on them)
• Separate your wonton wrappers and heat your oil to 350 degree's
• Fry the wrappers for about 60 seconds or until they are light golden brown
• Brown your Italian Sausage
• Slice up your tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini's and jalapeno's
• When the chicken is done and out of the oven, pile your chips onto a baking sheet
• Top the chips with your toppings, including the Mozzarella cheese
• Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes
• While that is baking, use a large pan to make your Alfredo Sauce
• Pour the heavy cream, whole milk and black pepper into your pan, and bring it to a consistent boil
• Remove from heat and fold in the Parmesan cheese
• When Nacho's are done in the oven, top with the Alfredo Sauce

Rough River Clam Chowder: From The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City

If you love Clam Chowder as much as I do, this is a must! I have tried many many many many many clam chowders in my day; seaside and all. This is the best copycat and it is served at The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City from Pedro Mauricio, Executive Chef.
It's a bit spicy because it doesn't call for a specific amount of Creole Seasoning. The amount used in this recipe is my personal preference and you're welcome to use more or less.

What you will need:

• 1/2 lb. bacon
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 C carrots
• 1 C Vegetable Stock
• 5 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 C Heavy Cream
• 3 6.5 oz. clams (The first time I made this I just used 2 6.5 oz clams and I added more this time around. I liked it better with more but it's up to you)
• green onions, diced
• 1 T Creole seasoning + to taste

Directions:

• In large pan, cook bacon until crispy

• Once it's crispy, crumble and set aside to use later; do not drain the grease out of the pan
• Add minced onions and carrots to the grease

• Let the onions and carrots get tender (once the carrots have softened I use my spatula to cut them in half. I don't like spoon fulls of massive carrots)
• Once they're tender, add in your diced potatoes and 1 C vegetable stock

• Bring to a boil
• Turn heat down and let simmer for about 4 minutes
• Pour in 3 C of Heavy Cream and bring to a boil
• Let simmer until potatoes are soft; about 15 minutes. (You will know the potatoes are soft when you can stab one with a fork and it slides off as you pull the fork up)

• Add your crumbled bacon, clams and 1 T Creole seasoning

• Let it simmer about 3 or 4 more minutes
• Top with green onions and sprinkle some more Creole Seasoning on top