I Dream of Pretzels

I have always loved pretzels, especially big, warm, soft pretzels, and I never thought I'd be able to make my own. Until this weekend.  

It was fun, a little scary and ultimately delicious! Be brave and try something new!

What you'll need:

• 1½ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2¼ tsp instant yeast
• 4½ cups flour
• ½ stick of butter, melted
• brie cheese, sliced
• 8 cups water
• ½ cup baking soda
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Sea salt & Fresh rosemary, for garnish

Directions!

• First gather your salt, water, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until frothy. Mine never got quite frothy so don't stress if yours doesn't froth either. 
• After the 5 minutes add in the flour and butter and mix it up. I mixed by hand but you can also use a standing mixer if you prefer. Once your dough is actually dough like and pulling away from the sides of your mixing bowl transfer it to an oiled bowl. Once transferred, cover with plastic and let sit for atleast an hour. The goal is for your dough to double in size so you may want to wait more than an hour.
• Once your dough has doubled, dump it onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out a bit and divide it into about 8-10 pieces. Size is really up to you, just depends how large you want your pretzels. Remeber they will grow in the oven so you may want to start smaller. I know next time I make them I will start smaller. 
• Once your dough is divided roll it out into long flat rectangles. Place your brie slices inside and pinch dough closed, safely concealing your brie. 
• Give the dough a nice roll to ensure your brie is all sealed and twist into a pretzel shape. I started from the bottom, brought the ends up like at the top of a heart shape then twist and pinch ends back down.
• Now grab your baking soda and water and bring that mixture to a boil. While that's boiling preheat your oven to 425. Once the water is ready give each pretzel a 30 second bath. Place pretzels on a baking sheet once you remove them from water. 
• After the pretzels take a dip, brush them with olive oil and garnish with fresh rosemary and seasalt, then throw them in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

And there you go! They are so delicious and fairly easy. Note if you want to make plain pretzels do everything the same just skip the brie and rosemary! Or replace the brie with your fave cheese. Just have fun with it and enjoy these delicious snacks!

Recipe borrowed from Port and Finn

-K

Pumpkin Pecan French Toast

This week on the blog we are all about food and fall right before Thanksgiving next week! To kick off the week I have whipped up some pumpkin pecan french toast! Perfect for a fall brunch with friends, but so good you can eat it anytime throughout the year!

Ingredients:

One loaf of good quality bread cut into 10 pieces
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For sauce:

1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup pumpkin butter
2 tablespoons butter (as needed)

First whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

Spray and heat the skillet. Dip the pieces of bread on each side in the mixture and cook on skillet until golden brown flipping once.

In a small sauce pan mix together the chopped pecans and pumpkin butter over low heat. If the sauce is too thick add in the butter to thin out the sauce to more of a syrup consistency.

When the sauce and french toast is completed serve with strawberries, a light dusting of powdered sugar, and some maple syrup.

Enjoy!!

-A

Monthly Mood: July

July is here and now it really feels like summer. July has already gotten off to a great start. Last week we loved our July 4th/Independence day theme, so much so that we skipped our Monthly Mood board, but have no fear, because to start you off this Monday we have all the things were looking forward to during this great and sunny month!

TO DO:

• 4th of July Party: This past weekend was packed with great BBQs and day parties turned all night ragers with the help of great food, drinks, games and friends. 
• Later this month Ashley is looking forward to hosting her cousins bridal shower, can't reveal any themes or plans yet but knowing Ashley it will be amazing!
• Berkeley Kite Festival: A great place for a sweet, windy date or just a nice place to visit with friends and family. Definitely check it out if your around. July 26&27 
• Kira is looking forward to spending some quality time with her brother and seeing one of her favorite groups, Foreign Exchange, in concert this month. They are amazing, if you don't know there music take a listen here!  
• And at the very end of the month Kira will be spending some time in San Diego! She is very excited to visit one of her very best friends and all of her favorite places from her college days.

TO EAT:

• Italian! Ashley was lucky enough to study abroad in Italy and take a cooking class there. This July she wants to recreate some of her fave Italian dishes for only Kira everyone to eat & enjoy.
• Homemade lemonade sounds like the perfect beverage for that July heat.
• Summer months bring out the beer gardens and the patio happy hours, we are both looking forward to visiting these spots; Westbrae Biergarten, Picante, and Lake Chalet.

TO WEAR:

• Fake pants, pants. Ok Kira coined this term recently while shopping, basically we're both over Jeans and want to explore the world of linen pants, cotton joggers and any other breathable loose fitting pants for the summer heat and beyond. 
• Dresses! Everyone, well a lot of people, love a great sundress. The more the merrier. Kira is all about finding great dresses to sport along with her new short hair & Ashley is just one of those dress girls. Name an occassion and she has a dress for it, summer is no exception.

What are you looking forward to this Month?
And don't forget to follow our blog adventure on Instagram and Twitter! 

-A&K

(Something Clever About This Being Our 100th Post)

100

Happy Monday!! Today marks a very exciting day in our little AKA world. It's our 100th post! We have been doing a lot of talking lately about our blog and trying to figure out our voice. Sometimes blogging can be really frustrating and hard. You want it to be as authentic as possible, which is then nerve racking because what if no one wants to read it - aka the most sad. We want to start becoming more "real" on our blog, featuring more posts about who we are, both as friends and individuals, and our vibes. In the blog-sphere it is really easy to get trapped into thinking about what we should be doing which can defer you from what you want to be doing. We look at some of the blogs we follow and think "how are they doing so many crafts" or "how is she affording all of those fab shoes" but in reality no one really lives like that (well some people do but not about 95% of us) and that's totally okay!! We don't want to be like every other blog that is out there.

We love dressing up! 80's forever

So enough ranting/updating. Below are some of our favorite pics and posts! Enjoy!

Ashley had a craving for Banana Pecan Raisin muffins and whipped up this recipe 

Since starting Fashion Fridays everyone has been so much fun to work with - we loved working with Outlook.Clothing on their post. They were the best promoters!

Kind of appropriate since Ashley is starting a new job today - but her Office Chic post was a lot of fun to plan and the colors are so damn pretty!

Many months later and Kira is still obsessed with her dresser makeover.

Kira's crew neck obsession (yes it's an obsession) was one of Ashley's favorite posts

Lets pretend Kira's mouth is open because she was singing

Being half way through the year already is a trip. It's nice to look back at our New Years resolutions to see what we have accomplished and where we still need to work. Ashley's resolutions here and Kira's here!

Ashley's 21! Maybe Kira's a little too excited!

This brown sugar scrub has made it into our beauty routines - and the picture is one of our favorites ever on the blog!

Pie is amazing and it was so fun to bake a pie for the very first time in celebration of Pi Day, math tastes good y'all!

And lastly one of our fave posts is the introduction to our new and improved site. The amazing Ashley won us a blog redesign and it really boosted our confidence and passion for the blog!

Peace out and stay tuned for the next 100

-A&K

Easy Panzanella Salad

Spring time makes me crave fresh flavorful ingredients. Recently I wanted to make a quick and simple flavorful dinner. I complied what ingredients I had and decided that a panzanella salad would be the way to go. A panzanella salad uses thick pieces of bread that has been quickly soaked in different liquids such as juice from a tomato, olive oil, or balsamic vinegar. For my salad I soaked it in tomato juice, which brought out the flavor of the meal.

I saw the image above on myrecepies.com and it inspired the dish below! 

Easy Panzanella Salad 

Serves 1 

2 thick slices of bread (ideally stale or day old bread) cut or ripped into bite sized pieces 

10 cherry tomatoes

4 basil leaves cut up

1/4 cup of thinly sliced red onion 

1/4 cup of garbanzo beans 

1/3 cup of cucumber sliced

Salt and Pepper to taste 

1 tablespoon of olive oil + 2 tablespoons 

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar 

Start by preheating the over to 425 degrees. Place the bread in a bowl. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and squeeze the juice into the bread with the bowl. Mix, cover, and let sit for about 10 minutes. After it has soaked, place the bread on a backing sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and bake in oven for about 10 minutes. The bread should come out crispy and golden brown.  While the bread is in the oven, cut up the basil, red onion, and cucumber and place in a medium sized bowl along with the garbanzo beans. When the bread is done mix with the other ingredients and drizzle on the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. 

Have fun with the ingredients! There are tons of different ways to enjoy panzanella salad!

Follow along on Twitter and Insta here! 

-A

Interweb Goodies

Happy Hump Day! Here's some of our fave links of the week, enjoy!

Heading out in an adventure? Don't forget to do these things

Some tips on finding comfy high heals, yes comfy high heals!! 

Spice up your life, with this article from Lauren Conrad.com

Emily, from Cupcakes and Cashmere gives you her tips for the best Instagram pictures

The New York City Ballet has a new star

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more finds throughout the week!

-A&K