Six Flags

The Steffeys came to town for an action-packed weekend. We did our neighborhood Fit Trail on Friday night and I so wish I had pictures of that spur of the moment fun. We all felt decidedly fit after that. Saturday we were at Six Flags ALL DAY and it was so fun and so tiring.

I'm not really a roller coaster ridin' type of gal, but the rest of the family is. Especially Riley and Nate! This is all 5 of them on the Evil Knievel ride. I'm pretty sure the hands up towards the back are Riley's.


The Tenholders at the end of the fun day


For some reason I love this picture of Logan


Sisters on the ferris wheel


What was he thinking about?



Mom and daughter on the wheel


Father and son


The guys. Why does my guy have to make a weird face, seriously? But he's cute.


Gals. We're cute.


Logan playing the "ring the bell" strong man game. He was amazing and won a super awesome glow in the dark cape that my mom may or may not have stolen.



The wind up:


He just made it ring, people!


And probably my favorite picture of the day: the sisters with Attitudes.

Incubus

Before the concert:



The Stanleys will probably hate this picture:


During the rockin' show:


It's hard to tell, but everyone broke out the lighters for an acoustic version of "Drive"

Polka

It wasn't until Julie & Joe's wedding that I realized how fun the polka can be. The blur of hotness is me and my cousin-in-law (??) Lynn showing the rest of the wedding guests how the polka is truly danced. Wow.

Zucchini brownies

We are enjoying our summer's bounty of zucchini in our garden. For my first zuc recipe of the year I decided to try zucchini brownies. I wanted to make them pretty healthy, so I heavily modified this recipe.

I didn't make the icing, because gross. And I subbed canned pumpkin for the oil, whole wheat flour for half the regular, and took out the walnuts. My final recipe looked something like this:

• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1 1/2 scant cups white sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1 bar of Dove dark chocolate with blueberries and almonds, chopped into small chunks

And the final brownies looked like this:


I think that they were enjoyed by all. Definitely not as sweet and buttery as regular brownies, but still tasty!

this is what I do

Only with less cars barreling towards me and without the fancy handheld computer.

Jackamo

Meet Jackamo. He has the most fabulous life imaginable. We rescued him from Chihuahua Rescue and Transport in January 2006. He's going to be 10 this year, but he still has a lot of life and spunk left.

Most of his time is spent lounging around on this pillow, the pillow on the right side of the office loveseat (NEVER the left), in our laundry basket (do all dogs like to lay in dirty laundry?), and sleeping on his blanket in the basement waiting for us to get home.



Likes: pillows, being under blankets, anything soft, cuddling, belly rubs, chasing laser pointers, treat treats, us, car rides, going on walks, laying by the fireplace until his belly reaches 105 degrees, laying in the HOT sun on the deck, making funny stretching sounds, having parties

Dislikes: kids on skateboards/rollerblades, going outside in the rain/cold/snow, earthquakes, being away from us (and refusing to eat), waking up, dogs larger than him (um, dude....), the rabbits in our yard, being told "goodnight, dude", people talking to him in a condesceding baby voice just because he's little and having to give them "the look"

Homemade Pretzels

For a fun weekend project we decided to try making homemade soft pretzels. I have been so inspired by food blogs like Smitten Kitchen and East Village Kitchen lately. I always have several recipes I'm waiting to try, but lately my head is swirling with recipes for pastries, breads, appetizers, and everything else that I'm tempted to arrange my life around my cooking schedule. I don't think my little kitchen holds a candle to theirs, but I'm working my way up! The biggest difference is that we're trying to incorporate the foods we grow into our cooking. I take so much pride in cooking with the vegetables and herbs grown in our backyard.

This recipe, however, is so simple. There are several steps and it is a little time consuming, but it was an afternoon well spent. We're the rare couple who enjoys cooking together more than cooking alone and we even manage to work well as a team.

This recipe is inspired by this one.

Mixing the dough - just flour, yeast, water, and salt. It starts out like any other bread.


Kneading the dough a few times before letting it rest and rise.




Punching down the dough after doubling time of about an hour.



Rolling out the 18 portions into 18" long strips. This is when the digital food scale came in handy - making sure that each portion was equal in weight so that the final products would be the same size and cook at the same speed.



Twisting our them into the pretzel shape. I actually really liked the rolling and shaping - it was so fun!



Our pretzels resting again before their bath.



More pretzels. Note the heart shaped pretzel Nate made for me! ::swoon::


We neglected to take a picture of the pretzel bath because it all happens so fast. Basically, pretzels are separated from any other bread because before they are popped into the oven you dunk them for about a minute in simmering water with baking soda and sugar added. It cooks them a little then they finish in the oven. The ones we were able to sprinkle with some leftover pretzel salt were definitely the best. The course granules are really needed for these little guys!




We added a good honey mustard (Bolthouse Farms brand) and some peach slices and called this a meal. I highly doubt this will be the last time we make these twisty guys!