Pretzel Smokies!

Well as you can tell I have been out of commission for a week. Having and taking care of a baby has consumed my life! But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! Zara is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I will tell my birth story another time but tonight I got the cooking itch, even though I'm supposed to be taking it easy I just needed to cook! I did over do it a little so I'll be sitting the rest of the night and probably go to bed a little earlier. It's Alabama football Saturday so we needed football snacks! I decided to make Pretzel Smokies because we had them at the mall right before I gave birth and James just absolutely loved them so I tried topping the ones we had. That's always a goal for me haha! 

These were super easy cause I had a little help from a premade flour mix called Fleichmen.

First I put the pretzel mix in a large bowl.

Then added the yeast packet.

3/4 a cup of warm tap water.

And a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Then mixed till it formed a ball.

Then covered with a towel and out on the stove for 25 mins till it rose a bit.

Then cut it in half and cut that into small pieces 

Took a piece and rolled it out

Then cut it in half

And rolled the smokies in each half till I had as many as I wanted.

Kept these covered so not to dry out. Then I took a large sauce pan and filled with 6 cups of water and added a packet of baking soda. Brought to a boil.

Then one by one I dropped a wrapped smokie into the water

Boiled for 10 seconds each

 

And placed on a sprayed baking sheet and topped with a sprinkle of pretzel salt.

Finally I baked them at 400° for 12 mins till they turned golden brown.

For the honey mustard I took a couple tbs of Dijon 

And a couple tbs of honey

Mixed until combined and then put a jar of cheese whiz dip in the microwave until warm and put that in another dish 

Served together with the dips, delicious!!!

Now that we have our snacks we will finish the game. ROLL TIDE!!!

Baby Zara

Well we are home from the hospital finally! I'll have to write more when I get some free time but I just wanted to let everyone know where I have been the last few days.

Here is the new and best addition to our family!

Zara Olivia Cox born 11-7-13 at 7:50am. She was 7lbs 6 ounces and gorgeous in every way! I had a planned csection because she was breeched. James watched her little butt come out of me first haha. 

I had staples on my incision and they were removed right before we left the hospital. We had great nurses and baby nurses, they really took good care of us. 

I am so glad to be home and ready to start healing and living this life with baby Zara. 

I'll start cooking again once I feel up to it, until then I've got a bunch of freezer meals that I made to keep us from eating too much junk. And yay since I'm breast feeding I still get to eat like I'm pregnant haha!!

Hope you all had a great weekend and thank you for all the kinds words and well wishes for baby Zara :)

Football Food

Well it's becoming more real. I have 4 more days till my scheduled C-Section. I am freaking out!! Don't get me wrong, I'm so ready for her to be out and not be pregnant anymore! But the surgery scares me and I'm just worried if I have what it takes to be a good mom. I've never even held a baby so I have no idea what I'm doing. Stress is getting to me and I cried some today. I wish I could fast forward this week and be on our way home with her. Hospitals are the worst!! I'm supposed to be taking it easy but I just had the itch to cook. It relieves my stress! And I only have 3 days left of cooking cause we are taking my grandmother to dinner for her birthday on Tuesday at our favorite place Perry's. So I decided to make some football food for dinner.

First I made the Honey BBQ Sauce for the chicken.

I put in a medium sauce pan 2 cups water

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

3 Tablespoon molasses

3 Tablespoon packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/4 teaspoon onion salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

And brought to a boil, then simmered for an hour and a half till it was thickened.

For the chicken I put in one bowl a cup of milk

One egg

Whisked that together and in another bowl added a cup of flour

A pinch of cayenne 

Pinch of paprika

And a pinch of garlic powder

Stirred together and took 3 chicken breasts and cut them into 2 bite sized chunks.

Put them in the bowl with the egg and milk mixture

To start the chicken I added the chicken pieces to the flour in small groups 

Put the pieces back in the wet mixture to make a double coating and back into the dry. Then put each piece on a cooling rack on a sheet pan.

When I finished all of the chicken I put them in the fridge to dry out the coating so it would stick the best.

For the corn I took off the husks and put a pat of butter and some salt before wrapping them in foil and baked with the potatoes for an hour.

For the Potatoes I took 5 medium sized russet potatoes. Scrubbed them clean and put them on a foil covered baking sheet. Then sprayed with oil.

Baked them at 400° for 40 mins then let them cool and sliced in half lengthwise. Then used an ice cream scoop and got as close to the skin as possible.

Put the insides into a bowl to use for potato pancakes or something later.

I melted 1/4 cup of butter

Brushed it on the insides of the potato skins

Sprinkled with salt

Then flipped over and brushed that side with the butter and salted them

Baked for 10 more mins. Flipped and baked for 5 mins. Took them out and grated some sharp cheddar into them. Cooked some bacon 

Chopped that up and put it on top of the cheese, baked till the cheese melted and put a dollup of sour cream and chopped green onions on top

To finish the chicken I fried them at 350° for about 4 mins each batch of about 5 pieces.

Pulled them out into a bowl with a paper towel to drain

When finished with all the pieces I took out the paper towel, and poured some of the honey BBQ sauce and tossed to coat.

Then put them on the plate and served with the corn, the potato skins, and a dish of homemade ranch.

Soooooo yummy! Now to watch the Texans play with my husband :)