Food Smells and Memory Triggers - A Walk Down Memory Lane

Homemade Pretzels, yum!

Today was a typical Sunday in January. That, in my world, means cool weather, lazy Sundays, and football. I got kinda "snacky" earlier and was craving the staple food familiar to all of those who hail from Philadelphia: The soft pretzel. I wandered out to the kitchen an whipped up a batch of homemade pretzels. And while they were good, they are definitely not Philadelphia soft pretzels.

It is funny how certain smells totally transport me back to my youth and some of the more memorable, yet everyday, events in my life. The smell of bleach and Tide combined with moist earth was the distinct smell of my grandmother's basement. It was such a unique smell that I am only blessed with wisps of it on very rainy or humid days. When I was growing up my parents would take us to football, baseball, and hockey games as well as to the more cultural things of theater and concerts. As we would drive out to south Philly, whenever we would get stopped at a red light, you could count on a guy standing in the median selling soft pretzels. Now I don't know if they do that anymore down by the stadiums, but when I was a kid we lived for those soft pretzels with tangy yellow mustard. We also liked to buy dill pickles out of a barrel at the deli, but those I know are gone. My son and my granddaughter never got the joy of fishing out their own crispy dill pickle to wrap in a piece of paper and snack on all the way home from the deli. Pickles in a jar are just not the same.

Baking these pretzels today took me back in time for sure. It was a bittersweet walk down memory lane. How about you? Do food smells transport you back in time?

Here is the recipe for my pretzels. Keep in mind, this is my recipe, not a chef's and they certainly don't even come close to the ones in Philly, but they will sure do in a pinch!

Rancho No Dinero's Soft Pretzels

• 2 packets of Yeast 
• 1 1/2 cups warm (not hot, but warm) water 
• 5 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Garlic powder 
• butter (melted)

Using a dough hook on your mixer, add the water and the yeast to the mixing bowl. Give it a stir. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the sugar and mix. Let stand 5 minutes. Add 3 cups of the flour and the salt to the bowl. Start the hook to give it a stir. Add the rest of the flour. Let the mixer do the work for 3 -5 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl and put it on a floured surface. Knead for 3 minutes. Cut up into even chunks (I did 12 and used my crinkle fry cutter). Roll each chunk out into a long rope and form into pretzel shape.* Put on a greased or, like I did, lay them on parchment paper. Brush on the melted butter and sprinkle with salt and garlic powder.

Bake in an oven at 450 for 8 - 20 min (depending on how thick they are). You want them to turn a golden color, but not be hard as a rock. Sometimes slightly under cooked is better than over cooked.

Serve with mustard or butter, depending on your tastes. Dipping it in cheese sauce is a good way to eat them too.

Enjoy!


*if you have baking soda, add half a cup to a saucer of water and bring to a boil. Drop each pretzel into the water for 30 - 45 seconds and then drain before putting on cookie sheet or parchment paper. Then do the butter step.

Mason Jar Monday - Easy Mason Jar Time Capsule - Scrapbook in a Jar

A Year of Memories

Today's Mason Jar Monday DIY is an easy-peasy time capsule. Also called a scrapbook jar, Mason jars make a great way to preserve memories in addition to food.

Limited space in my tiny house means I don't want a ton of scrapbooks hanging around. You can read my post about using a digital photo frame to store and display thousands of photos in a small footprint, however memories are not limited to photographs. Many of my best memories are tangible. That seashell you found on the beach, the heart-shaped rock your special someone gave you, and the homemade Mother's Day card from your kindergartner are all precious memories you want to save. How, in a tiny house or in a small home, can you store these without them taking over your limited space making it looked cluttered or sloppy. An easy way to store and display these memories is by using a mason jar to create a time capsule scrapbook jar and then store and display it neatly on a shelf.

Dusty on Top

I have been doing this for two years now and I just love it. Throughout the year I collect trinkets such as squished pennies, ticket stubs, shells, pine cones, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other memorable bits I find interesting along the way. I write important dates such as the birth of a friends baby on a scrap of paper and I drop it into the jar. On New Years Eve I empty out the jar on the table and go through the "memories" from the year. I add a letter to myself in the future that talks about the past year and hopes for the upcoming one. Once I am done traveling down Nostalgia Lane, I put everything back in the jar and seal it up. I add it to the shelf as a decorative piece. Anytime I want to reflect on a particular memory, I can simply open the jar and "touch" history. I figure at the end of five years, I will consolidate each year into its own resealable bag and fit all five into a single gallon size jar to save space.

I am thinking this would be neat for a "Baby's First Year" time capsule too. You could add things like the birth announcement newspaper clipping, a pair of booties or baby socks, a tiny diaper, hospital bracelets, diaper pins, a favorite onesie, pacifier, lock of hair, etc. Jot down firsts (sits up, sleeps through night, smile, etc.) on a piece of scrap paper and drop it in. By the end of baby's first year you will have a nice record of their growth from birth on that is stress free compared to trying to remember to update a baby book. In fact, you could just empty the jar on a table, arrange it all in order from oldest to newest and then create a physical scrapbook or fill in a baby book.

This and That's Inside

For those who are planning a wedding, why not place a jar and some pretty scraps of paper on a table with pens? Invite your guests to leave you messages of love and advice for a happy marriage. On your first anniversary sit down over a glass of wine and read them together.

Pet owners may just want to create a jar for each of their pets. Every vet visit just drop in information about vaccines and treatments. Keep expired or updated tags too.

To label your jar, you can slip a paper printed with the information between the ring and the lid, as shown in my picture. If you have a Cricket machine or something similar you could cut out and stick on vinyl lettering/numbers to label your jar. Creating a label from a canning jar label would be nice as well.

Mason jars make a fantastic impromptu time capsule that are economical and practical. What would you include in your time capsule?