Sweet smells

The last few day have been full of nice smells in my house. Last night I made homemade soft pretzels. (first time ever cooking something bread-like) They were fantastic. I will definitely make them again... on a special occasion. The dough needed to be kneaded for quite a while. I've never kneaded bread. It's haaaaard. :) My arms, back, legs and neck all hurt afterwards. (I set the bowl on a bench and was bent over... gave me more momentum but caused the achies) It took about three hours all together. Knead dough, allow dough to rise one rough, roll out half of dough, make into pretzels, dip into stuff, allow rise 15 more minutes and then finally, cook for 5-8. The only change I will make the next time is that I will not roll into pretzels. Rolling dough out like this takes a great deal of time and effort. After you *finally* get the dough rolled out into a pencil thin line, you have to make it into a pretzel shape, dunk it in a baking soda/water solution and then put aside for a while. I cannot count the amount of pretzels that stretched and snapped after putting them in the baking soda/water. The curse words were flying. I made three perfect pretzels... out of 12. And those three? I didn't think to grease the pan and they stuck to it, till the next day. Yeah, laugh it up. I ended up cutting them into one inch pieces and they were perfect for dipping that way.

Tonight I made spice cake with vanilla icing. It turned out well and I was surprised that Jasmine likes it. Typically, you give the kid a piece of cake and she'll eat all the pieces with frosting and toss the rest. She actually ate all of the piece of spice cake I gave her. I was more interested in frosting the cake. I have only gotten to use my new icing tools for cupcakes. The cake told me... I need practice. haha As I've said before, I do not have steady hands, thus my piping skills are lacking. It might have looked better if there had been an earthquake at the same time. Even out my own shakiness a little. :)

Thank you for the well wishes for Isaiah. It'll be a few more days before we notice any real sign of improvement if the prednisone is working but he seems a little more bright eyed today. That could just be wishful thinking on my part however.