Looking out my window, the wind is racing, and changing the day from gray to sunny to gray to sunny and everything in between. It's a continuous movement, and I find myself mesmerized by how constant the weather changes are. The reliability of change. A lovely thing, once I start to think on it a bit more.
 |
| From The Vagabond Table |
Another lovely thing is my finally cracking open Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce (a Christmas present I'd begged for last year) and trying my hand at a few things, most notably the Soft Rye Pretzels (!) for our annual Oktoberfest shindig that went down last weekend.
 |
| From The Vagabond Table |
In all honesty the roomie and I made 2 types of pretzels, and while the 2nd recipe might have been slightly easier in terms of rising times, this one was the more hearty and flavorful of the two, being a mix between white and rye flours. If the idea of rye conjurs up images of rye bread, try your best to put them aside...rye bread also gets its flavor from caraway seeeds, not necessarily the rye, and, in an earnest suggestion between you and me, rye deserves a second chance.
 |
| From The Vagabond Table |
I found that pretzels are pretty fun to make...kind of like when you rolled play-doh into logs and worms when you were a kid (which is quite a useful skill to maintain in the making of pretzels) and that it's even more fun to knot them up and boil them and sprinkle them and bake them and suddenly have pretzels on your hands. Real Pretzels! Not the hard kind from a bag at the grocer, but the warm, crackly, soft kind, (mall-variety, but infinitely better).
 |
| From The Vagabond Table |
These pretzels are even better when served with this Beer Mustard recipe I'd adapted a few years ago, these Bratwurst Bites and this incredible red cabbage dish . Happy Oktobering to you all and may you soon find a Soft Rye Pretzel in one hand and brew in the other. Prost!
