Pretzel Bread

And we're back in the kitchen!

I'm not sure when Chris' love for pretzel bread started, but he has always been one to enjoy it whenever it appears on a menu.  His recent addiction to the pretzel bread version of hot pockets lead to our baking venture to create our own.

We used the Fleischmann's sponsored recipe found on All Recipes and pretty much stuck to the directions.

Chris measuring out the brown sugar

As you can see, Chris did the majority of the prep while I took pictures and assisted with the boiling solution and egg wash.

One of the interesting parts, I found, was boiling the dough for 2 minutes prior to baking the bread.

About 30 minutes worth of baking and we were left with some delicious pretzel bread.

We have actually tried this recipe twice.  The first time Chris followed it to a T and came out with two great loaves.  The second time around, we attempted to double the recipe and honestly the results were not as great as the first time.  We have one package of rapid rise yeast left, so we'll give it one more go...sticking to the measurements as it.

Have you tried any fun recipes lately?

Cotton Anniversary

The traditional gift for the 2nd wedding anniversary is Cotton.  While Chris and I didn't gift each other anything tangible this year, we do have a wonderful reminder of our cotton year!

How perfect is this?  Earlier this year the Texas A&M Aggies (where I went to college) participated in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX.  I wasn't lucky enough to score any tickets but did watch the awesome game on TV.  My parents surprised us with this lovely framed picture as a belated anniversary gift.  One of my mother's co-workers took the picture which my mom had framed at Michaels. So thoughtful!!

In other news, Chris finished his busy spring semester and has begun his last (better be advisors or we're going to have some words) 4 electives for the summer.  As a break in between sessions, we took the day off and signed up for the lunch wine tour over in Grapevine (similar to the night one that we took back in 2011).

It was a great break from our regular routine and has us even more excited about our trip to San Francisco and Napa in a couple of months!  Should be a lot to celebrate in August!

If you're married, do you stick to the traditional anniversary gifts?  We did for the first year, but I'm not so sure that we'll stick to it in the years to come.

Baby Quilt

After finishing my first quilt last year I wasn't planning on making another any time soon.  I think it was the sheer size of the first quilt that had me overwhelmed and scared to do it again.

But I decided to give it another go, this time in a baby size that would be much more doable!

My best friend Kristen (who I threw the overseas baby shower for last time) is expecting her second son, and we all know how much I love the colors blue and green!

I wandered through JoAnn's for a while until I happened upon these fun and more importantly soft fabrics.  The chevron pattern was very easy, using the same half square triangle units that I used on my patchwork pillow.

I used the same instructions for piecing it together and the binding from my last quilt.  There is one change I would do next time around.  I used more batting with this quilt to make it thicker, but still used the same 2.5 inch wide strips for the binding.  Unlike my last (thinner) quilt, the 2.5 inch width wasn't quite big enough for the binding.  Next time around I'll go for 3 or 3.5 inch.

I will probably go just a little bit bigger with the next baby quilt.  I really wanted to use my leftover light blue fabric on the back, so I cut my front piece down to match those measurments.  

For only my second quilt, I don't think it's half bad.  Best part is that Kristen loved it!