Pretzels!!!

Mmmmm!

Pre-bake and boil

Big soft pretzels are one of my favorite foods.  They always have been.  I remember my first Red Sox game, waaayyy before I was a fan, on the most sweltering day of the summer. I had said that the only 2 things I wanted were a soft pretzel and a foam finger.  Both items were attained before the game even started, so it is no surprise that I went to the van with the sick and the elderly in our group less than halfway through to listen to the game on the radio in the comfort of air conditioning!  Now that I am actually a huge fan, the pretzel remains on my to-do list at every game.  It is also there at fairs, movie theaters, and frankly even BJ's.  So, I am shocked that I did not think of baking my own soft pretzels until today.  I was thrilled when Kenzie came up with the idea, and even more thrilled when I found that my favorite food blogger had a recipe for them that seemed fairly easy.

boiling

As far as yeast breads go, these were easy and fairly quick.  They only had to rise for an hour, and be boiled for 30 seconds before baked for 13 minutes.  The dough has got to be one of the best I have ever touched.  It was ridiculously velvety and soft.  I would sleep on this pretzel dough.  I will confess that it was hard to roll each of the 8 pieces into a 24-inch rope, and my ropes were definitely not as long.  This maybe explains why my pretzels are a tiny bit ugly, but then again, so is all of my food, so my manta of "eat with your eyes closed" still applies.  Unfortunatey, the recipe only made 8 pretzels, and Rachael and I, being the only ones home, devoured three of them rather quickly.  Somehow there are only 3 left right now, and no one is 'fessing up!   Hopefully they will be there still when Mom and Kenzie get home from furniture shopping, but who knows?  These pretzels are way too delicious to last long.  Crunchy outside, and absolute perfect pretzely-soft inside!  Cannot wait to make these babies again, and definitely double the recipe.  Which brings me to my big announcement:

My new baby!

My new mixer has arrived!  Unfortunately it was delivered after I made the pretzels, but I am still thrilled.  It will definitely make doubling the recipe next time easier, since it is almost double the size of my puny current mixer. 

One last note: I have decided that, when I made a recipe twice this year, it is a good sign.  It means that I have tried it once, it was a hit, and I chose to feed it to my family another time.  For this reason, if a recipe makes it to Take Two, I will be putting the recipe directly on my blog, rather than linking to it.  For this reason, I have to yet again share the recipe for creamy chicken taquitos.  Last night, Tracy, Gary and Seth were coming to visit, and Mom brought home a rotisserie chicken from BJ's and asked me to do something amazing with it.  I know the taquitos were a huge hit at the last party I went to, so I figured that would be the perfect thing for this get-together.  I doubled the recipe and added beans, and made 25 taquitos... all of which were gone by the end of the night!  That does not always happen, so I was pretty pumped.  I tried not to be offended when my mom and Rachael insisted on dipping them in sour cream and hot sauce ;)  I definitely recommend these as the perfect party food. 

Recipes:
Soft pretzels

Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Adapted from Annie's Eats (www.annies-eats.com), adapted from Pennies on a Platter and Our Best Bites

Yield: about 12 taquitos

Ingredients:
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup salsa
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro
1-2 green onions, chopped
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, etc.)

1 can beans (you can use black, kidney, pinto, whatever you like. I used kidney because we had it)
10-12 6-inch flour tortillas
Cooking spray
Kosher salt

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2)  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, spices, cilantro, green onions, chicken, beans, and shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

3)  Briefly heat the tortillas in the microwave to make them soft enough to roll easily, about 20-30 seconds. Place a tortilla on a work surface. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the filling mixture down the middle of the tortilla. Roll the tortilla up tightly around the filling. Place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and filling, spacing the assembled taquitos evenly on the baking sheet.

4)  Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt. 

5) Bake 15-20 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Serve with sour cream and salsa, if desired
(or hot sauce if the people you are feeding are insane).