Pretzels

Yep, pretzels. Something Bella and I haven't been able to have in a long time. And something I've been meaning to attempt baking from scratch for a long time. Adam and I have been very good lately about making a menu weekly and shopping as a family, making cutting our expenses and keeping to a budget much easier. However, this means that he and the boys are buying certain things, like pretzels and bagels, that Bella and I cannot have. We have our substitutes for dairy that we're all happy with, as most of us have showed issues with it and we are all off of dairy for now. But with Bella and me the only two who can definitely not have wheat, those are the things that are most divided for us.

With this last trip to the store, a big bag of pretzels came home with us. That really bummed Bella out. Just the motivation I needed to finally try that pretzel recipe from the wonderful Bob's Red Mill gluten-free recipe section. Bella did most of the mixing, but wasn't 03.

up for taking on the shaping. That was just fine by me, because I enjoyed it. Here is the pretzel shaping from Bella's perspective.

Not perfect by any mechanical comparison, but homemade inconsistency is perfection to my senses.

Bella did all of the egg-white brushing.

Or should I say Astrid the Viking... She also did all of the salting.

While all of this was going on, the boys were watching and helping with what they could, while Helena was finding her belly button.

A very important and apparently surprising skill to develop.

And when all was said and done, the most important critic loved them.

 Aren't they lovely?

We are definitely going to be making our homemade pretzels again!