Superbowl Party Homemade Pretzels

For me, Superbowl weekend is all about food, friends, and commercials.  I could care less about football, and especially so this year, since the game was awful.  This game bored me more that football normally does. Seriously.

Luckily, my lovely hubby saved the day by deciding that he wanted to try to make homemade pretzels.  It was a random idea and it turned out to be amazing one.  The game may have sucked, but I was consoled by the delicious food.  Yum.

So I thought I’d share the recipe with you fine people.

Let me just start out by saying that this is not my recipe.  I found it here at Sally’s Baking Addiction.

We didn’t quite follow her recipe though.  I can’t seem to stick to a recipe 100% in anything I make.  It stifles my creativity or something.

We made two different batches, since one of our friends is gluten free.  The first batch we made with regular all purpose flour, the second was with King Arthur all purpose gluten free flour.

The process is pretty simple.  The dough is a basic bread dough with flour, water, salt, and yeast.  You don’t need to let it rise or anything, just roll it out and bake it.

I usually mix dough with my kitchenaid, but Robert wanted to do this old school and mix by hand. It didn’t really take much kneading, so this wasn’t a bad choice.

And so we have a nice little lump of dough to work with.

We cut it into pieces, rolled it out,

and shaped it into pretzels (some recipes recommend you to dunk these in a solution of baking soda and boiling water at this point to get them to brown up nicely, but due to laziness, we just cooked them on broil for a few minutes to get the brownness). We brushed on some butter, sprinkled on some course ground sea salt,

and then we baked them.  And devoured them.  Seriously these were amazing.

This was our gluten free batch, which didn’t puff up quite as well and refused to brown, but still tasted quite good.  I know nothing about gluten free baking, so I just used the same recipe with different flour, but I’m pretty sure that you have to use something extra to get them to rise. That said, I’d eat these just as they were, and the friend we made them for like them, so I guess that’s what counts.

And there you have it: homemade pretzels!

After all that work baking (not really, they were actually super easy) we were too lazy to make any sort of sauce for them.  Luckily for us, the pre-made cheese (or cheese-like) sauce that you can get at the grocery store was a perfect pairing.  You could also do mustard, or just enjoy the pretzels for the buttery goodness that they offer.  Either way.

If you aren’t like me and you actually like the structure of a recipe, you can find it here. Or maybe my loose descriptions are good enough.

Either way, give it a try and let me know how they turn out!

Monday Photo Dump: Week #6 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Today we are launching the Monday photo dump since Fridays are now my afternoon at the animal shelter and I will no longer have time to edit and post my photos that day. You can find out all about that here.

I know I’ve made a lot of changes all of a sudden, but the format for this post is still the same and the pictures are still from the same part of the week, we are just switching up the days.  With that said, here’s last week’s photos, the first set for the month of February.

2-1-14: Can I just say that I love food photography.  We see a lot of people posting pictures of their lunch on Instagram and it’s kind of a running joke that gives food photography a bad name, but food that is prepared by hand can be gorgeous and really great to take pictures of, like this colorful pork stir fry that I made for a lazy night dinner.

2-2-14: More food! My husband had the random idea to make handmade pretzels for our Superbowl party.  It was actually pretty easy and very successful (I couldn’t stop eating them).  A recipe is coming soon.

2-3-14: Just some Jerry toes.  I sure do love Jerry toes.

2-4-14: It’s a pretty self explanatory shot of the penny jar.  I just like the colors of the pennies,

2-5-14: What used to be a nice view of a wooded area out of my computer room window is now construction.  They cleared the trees quite a while ago (which I was pretty upset about) and then just recently they started construction.  My work is now accompanied by the sounds of hammers and construction equipment.  This is my new view. I can’t wait until they are done building.

2-6-14: X marks the spot, I guess.

2-7-14: This is one of my shots from my day at the animal shelter.  I didn’t use this as something to post to get this dog adopted (for obvious reasons), but I do like the moment that was captured.  This dog is anything but vicious, I swear, but caught mid bark he does look kind of mean, doesn’t he?

So there you have it, last week’s photos.  I didn’t do a theme, which left me with kind of a hodgepodge of photos, but I think they captured my week pretty well.
As always, if you have any theme suggestions leave them in the comments below.  Otherwise, I’ll see you next time!

Valentine Mini Sessions! | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Looking for a last minute gift for Valentines Day? Why not a mini photo session for you and your honey with Mikaela Joy Photography? This offer is only good until February 14th so don’t miss it- book today!

‘My Furry Valentine’ | A Photo Contest with One Love Animal Rescue

Have you heard? Mikaela Joy Photography is pairing up with One Love Animal Rescue for a Valentines Day photo contest featuring rescued pets in the Savannah area.

Think your pet has what it takes?

All you have to do is send a picture of your beloved pet and your story to One Love (via their facebook page) and they will add it to the contest’s album.  Spread the word and get all your friends to like the photo because on February 14th, the photo with the most likes will be the crowned the winner.

The winning furball gets a free photoshoot with yours truly.

The contest has been running for about a week now. We have 25 entries and the votes are starting to add up.

This contest has brought about some amazing stories already, so what I’d like to do is take a moment to showcase a few of our frontrunners and their stories.

Our current first with 43 votes: (text in italics written by the pet’s owner)

“This is Rudy. We found him back in May on the side of the road. We thought he was dead because all we saw was a pile of bones with a little bit of bloody, dirty hair. We stopped and got out and was amazed when he lifted his head and started to wag his tail a little. He came home with us where he got lots of love and food while we tried to search for his owner. The vet said he had mange, heartworms, malnourished, and probably was a bait dog. During the month of June, he stayed with us and showed us just how much of a lover he was. He got along great with my dogs and cats and always wanted to be right by your side or in your lap. He rode in the car with us, slept with us, and even sat in the bathroom peeking through the shower curtain while we took a shower. Still, no one stepped forward as the owner or offered to adopt him so in July he went to Palmetto Animal League. It broke our hearts and we missed him so much but we were hoping someone would step up and give him a loving home since we already had dogs of our own. We kept tabs on him and would go visit and play with him, each time being disappointed that he was still there and sadden when we had to leave again. At the end of September, we finally decided that he must have been meant to be with us so we adopted him from there. Here it is January and he is still the best dog ever. He hasn’t met another dog, cat, or human he doesn’t like. He has helped us gain the trust of other homeless dogs on the streets so we could bring them home and find them a family of their own. It’s pretty amazing! There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t put a smile of all of our faces. He’s even won the heart of my husband who didn’t really trust the bully breed in the beginning.”

Coming in second (so far) with 36 votes:

“These are my two babies with their dad. He is often away for work- this was one night when he got home after working a very long day. Maggie, the white one, is my soul mate. She picked me, and I owe so much to her. She kept me grounded in so many ways when I was in school, and I believe if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have met my husband. Ginger is her daddy’s soul mate. He is currently deployed and Ginger was literally sick with sadness for weeks. She loves her Maggie and will give anything for some play time and stuffed animals. They have a cat sister and a human sibling on the way. They are going to be the best big sisters.”

And currently in third place:

“Meet my furry rescued valentines, Milo and Otis! My husband and I adopted Milo (the black lab) almost four years ago when he was a terrified, little puppy in need of some tender love and care. After weeks of love and patience, Milo warmed up and became the fun-loving guy we know and love today. Otis was a misunderstood grumpy little guy that we rescued over 2 years ago. Once he met Milo and knew that he would be loved forever, he came around and became the sweetest, quirkiest pup. They are our little furchildren and our lives wouldn’t be as filled with laughs, love and adventure without them. They have been brothers since the day we brought them together and are nearly inseparable. Milo and Otis not only stole our hearts but they stole each other’s.”

There are a lot more pets in the running and the voting/submissions are still open.  Head on over to to One Love’s Page to vote for your favorite pet’s or submit your own.  Don’t forget to like Mikaela Joy Photography to keep updated with the contest’s new developments and to see photos from the winners shoot!

Friday Photo Dump: Week #5 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

  Ok, so I know I’m a day late.  I had to work today (I normally have weekends off) and it completely threw my week off.  I crawled into bed last night and my last thought was, ‘oh crap, it’s Friday isn’t it? I didn’t post my photos!’

And then I went to sleep, because I had to be up at 330 this morning, and therefore it didn’t seem that important.  So here I am posting last week’s photos a day late.
Enough excuses.

This week’s theme was cold, and despite the fact that my fingers were numb for the majority of the time I spent at work, I didn’t really have a lot of cold to take pictures of.  See in Georgia, even though it may be freezing outside, it’ll still probably look like swimsuit weather (and then the next day it probably will be swimsuit weather, as a matter of fact).  So let’s just say that I struggled with this week a bit.

But even if they weren’t what I was envisioning, I still think I came up with some pretty interesting photos.  Let’s see what you think!

1-25-14: After meeting with some potential clients about a Wedding, I spent my morning wandering around Savannah (there’s a post to come with photos of that whole adventure).  Every time I am downtown I try to take a photo of the fountain, and I never actually like the photos I take. But this time there were icicles on the statues and the light was hitting them just right and– well you can see it for yourself.

1-25-14: What better way to warm up on a cold day than… ice cream?  What can I say, I just love the stuff.

1-27-14: The nice thing about this winter being a little cold is that I got to bust out all my old winter clothes.  It’s even been scarf weather lately!

1-28-14: I’ll confess, I was a bit uninspired this day with the whole cold thing.

1-29-14: Ok so Wednesday was kind of a big deal.  This was the day of the big southern storm that everybody was all freaked out about.  It even had a name- Winter Storm Leon.  Sounds pretty intense, right?  The forecast predicted in snow in Savannah which hasn’t happened in basically forever and I was very excited.  Well what I woke up to that morning was rain.  We got some sleet and some serious ice build up, and half of my coworkers called in to work due to ice and closed bridges, but I didn’t get any snow. It was very disappointing.  I did get these wicked icicles hanging off the back of my trashcan though.  Maybe that counts for something?

1-30-14: After that storm craziness, I just needed a cold beer. Or cider. Close enough.

1-40-14: Which leads me to Friday: more rain.  This started as a picture of water droplets on my car but I started messing around with it and it became something abstract, yet pretty cool in my opinion.

So there you have it: my week of cold photos.

I still don’t have a theme for this week, so if you have any last minute suggestions please leave a comment below. Otherwise, I may just make it a freebie week.  We’ll see.

How I Feel about Winter Storm Leon (In Poem Form)

For a blog called “Poetry and Pesto,” there sure hasn’t been a lot of poetry on here lately.

Well, have no fear, I am about to change that.

So I live in Georgia, and right now there is this big hype about the fact that it might snow tomorrow.  Apparently it hasn’t snowed here in like 20 years.  Well, I’m from Washington State where it snows all the time, so I’m finding the whole thing quite entertaining.  I get that down here our houses and vehicles and power lines aren’t prepared to handle snow, but come on guys, its a possible inch. In fact, I will be legitimately mad if it doesn’t snow after all this hype.  I haven’t seen a proper snow in years!

Anyway, I wrote my feelings on the matter into a poem, partly because I was inspired to do so, but mostly because I didn’t want to work. Here it is:

So there you have it– My thoughts on Winter Storm Leon (in poem form).

Enjoy the soon to come snow!

 

Chia Seeds (What do you do with that?)

Alright everybody, after some grocery store inspiration last night (Thank you publix cashier), I have come up with a new segment for the blog called, “What do you do with that?”

Let me explain.

Almost every trip to the grocery store I buy something that most Americans would consider to be weird. Maybe I watch too many cooking shows, but for some reason, where most people would give it a glance and walk by, I find celery root, rutabagas, or parsnips in the grocery store and I see them as an interesting challenge.  I often fill my fridge with foods that I have no idea how to cook or eat.

Every time I get in line with these items, the cashier will ask the same question about at least one of them, “What do you do with that?”  I always have the same response: “I’m about to find out.”

So this segment will chronicle my experience in figuring out how to cook my unusual food purchases.  I grocery shop twice a month, so you can expect these posts about that often.  So, shall we give it a go?

This week’s item is: Chia Seeds

My first step in any unknown food endeavor is to check the internet.  In this world a person can teach themselves just about anything with a little youtube and pinterest.  I am sure to take full advantage of that.

Well according to Pinterest there is approximately a million things you can do with chia seeds. Case in point:

After a lot of browsing I did discover a few interesting things about the little guys.

• They are super healthy.  They are high in protein (great for all you vegetarians out there) and, according to a pinterest user called mygreenworld, they are high in antioxidants, useful for weight loss, good for the heart and brain, and much more. (http://www.pinterest.com/mygreenworld)
• They are also very useful in cooking.  A blogger who goes by Wellness Mama says she uses them as a gluten free substitute for just about everything.  She even uses them as an egg substitute in some recipes (seeds instead of eggs, really? This is where I get a bit skeptical).  She also says that they make a great thickening agent in many recipes, which is something I’d be very interested to try since my cooking usually involves a lot of flour. (http://wellnessmama.com/4981/10-uses-for-chia-seeds/)
• They actually taste very good!  This one I didn’t learn with research so much as trial and error.  I happened to be making a tortellini salad last night, and since the Chia Seed bag said they were good with salads, I thought I’d give it a go, so I threw a tablespoon in.  They added a slightly sweet and nutty flavor which went perfectly with my haphazard recipe.  Doesn’t it look good?

Does anyone else have any great ideas for how to use Chia Seeds? Let me know in the comments!

And if you are interested in seeing some of the recipes that I use in my cooking (well adapt into my own, anyway) you can follow me on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/mikaelajoyphoto/

 

 

 

Friday Photo Dump Week #2 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

My first full week of my photo a day project is complete and I’m here to share the results.  Want to see?

 

January 4th, 2014: A close up shot of the Christmas decorations that I just can’t bring myself to take down (more out of laziness than the fact that they are pretty, although they are.)

 

January 5th, 2014: This morning started out with some canadian bacon that my dad cured and my husband cooked (delicious!)

 

January 6th, 2014: After having company at my house for almost a month during the holidays, I needed a few days of me time.  So after work I got lost in a good book.  In case you are wondering, the book is Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and it is quite good.

 

January 7th, 2014: Just another lazy day with my pets and my books.

 

January 8th, 2014: It’s been surprisingly cold for Georgia this week, and the weather inspired me to start a knitting project.  I picked this gorgeous yarn, but the problem is that the yarn is very thin.  I might be done with this scarf by summer, just when I don’t need it anymore.

 

January 9th, 2014: With the house to myself this day, I consulted my Julia Child cookbook and made a huge mess of the kitchen, leaving not much time for anything else.  I did happen to snap this shot of Blitz being cute though.  He does it every once in a while.

 

January 10th, 2014: I wanted to play around with Bokeh today and using it as the subject of a photo, rather than a background.  Technically that just means I took a blurry picture, but hey I think it looks cool. I took this using the Christmas lights since I still haven’t taken down our tree.  I should probably get on that before it dies, huh?

This week was a pretty slow one, but it is exactly what I needed.  I spent some time in solitude, just relaxing and working on my own projects.  It may have left me with photos of food, books, and cats, but that’s not a life that I’ll complain about.  I could pull of crazy cat lady/librarian any day.

The Longer the Waiting (The Sweeter the Kiss) | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Jen and Matt were the couple of the hour when I took their photos at Bethesda a little while back.  Jen is a friend of mine and while I know her pretty well, I’d only met Matt once before these photos.  You see, Matt works overseas and these two chose to spend a precious hour of Matt’s month at home with me, taking some photos.

Because of their limited time together, I really wanted to make something special of this session.  After all, a picture can be a huge comfort while in a long distance marriage.  As an army wife, I’ve thought a lot about what I would do when my husband gets deployed, and I know that I would want to get some good photos taken before he left.

This was also a special shoot because of the fresh emotions that come from a happy reunion.  It was important to me to get shots that really captured what these two feel for each other.  In a way this session was kind of like shooting a wedding.  We were just missing all the chaos of an actual wedding.

All of this combined made this session feel pretty important, and one that I truly wanted to get right. We were all nervous at first, but as usual we took a few shots and everybody started to loosen up.  We wandered haphazardly around Wormsloe for a while (I’d never been past the main area with the trees and therefore didn’t know what was what) and then finished out the shoot at Bethesda.  We explored, talked, and tried out whatever poses we could think of (some that worked, some not so much) and most of all, had a really good time doing it.  I quite enjoyed working with Matt and Jen and am excited by how the photos turned out.  Most importantly, I hope they are too!

If you like what you see here, please check out my website http://www.mikaelajoy.smugmug.com where you can see this full album and more of my work, as well as contact me to book a session of your own.

Promises and Pistols | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

On Sept 29th, my brother in law and his fiance got married and they chose me as their photographer.  When they first asked, I said no.  I didn’t think I was ready for an event as big as a wedding, and looking back at the pictures I took on the day they asked, I was right.  I still wouldn’t agree to anyone else’s wedding just yet, but they are family and they insisted, so of course I said I’d do it.

Just because I said I’d do it doesn’t mean I was confident though. For the days leading up to the ceremony I was pretty stressed- probably more so than my own wedding! I spent way too much time worrying about what I was going to do and how I was going to do it, but when it came down to it, everything seemed to fall into place and I think I pulled it off.

The ceremony was small and beautiful.  I helped the bride, Mallory get ready and took a few pictures and then rode in with her dad to the park where the ceremony took place.  The boys set up the arch and decorated the dock with bows, and (thank god for my husband) did a wonderful job putting everything in the best possible location in terms of lighting.   The ceremony was conducted by Robert, the groom’s brother who is also my husband. A group of close family and friends gathered on the dock to watch Matt and Mallory looking so happy together (Look at Matt’s face when first seeing his bride!)

After the ceremony we made our way around the park for portraits.  We had a slight setback when Mallory (who is pregnant) got sick after I suggested Matt pick her up and spin her around (my bad), but it turned out all she needed was a cheeseburger.  After that we were good to go.  At this point the stress had melted away and we were all relaxed enough to just really have fun with the pictures.  We even got some photos of Matt and Mallory with some kick-ass guns on the railroad tracks.  We were told to leave halfway through, but it doesn’t matter.  I got the shot.

Afterwards we went to the reception at a friend’s house for a delicious low-country boil followed by champagne and cake.  I think the highlight of the whole thing was during the cake cutting when Mallory forgot to put the knife down before smearing cake in Matt’s face, and accidentally stabbed him.  What a great start to a marriage!  This wedding was unique, quirky, and so much fun, just like the bride and groom.

It really meant a lot to me that Matt and Mallory trusted me to capture this life-changing event of theirs, even when I didn’t fully trust myself to do so.  It’ll be so great to see this photos in big print on their walls and I hope that it will help them to savor this wonderful moment in their lives.

As for me, the experience has made me realize how much I would love to do weddings as a job in the future.  I know I’m not ready yet, but it’s something to work towards and that is a very exciting prospect.

Anyway, congratulations to Matt and Mallory!  I’m excited to be a part of this new life that you two are starting together and I wish you only the best.  You two deserve it.