A weekend of preparing for being away

Today is one of those days when I count my blessings.  The rolls I made yesterday (Lion House rolls) were enjoyed by my 4 year old--I allowed him to eat one yesterday morning since the recipe gave me 20 this time instead of 18.  And, they were enjoyed by everyone at the potluck last night.  The potluck was attended by great people who all enjoyed being together to celebrate the start of my middle son's fourth grade year and his classmate's birthday.  My Lion House rolls are still not as "pretty" as are those made by my friend who gave me the recipe, but they taste really good.

(The pictures below show the dough before rising, after rising, and when the rolls were baked.)

Then, this morning the weather was excellent for running.  And, I ran the distance of the half marathon to prove to myself that I should be able to do it in 5 weeks for the Baltimore Running Festival.  I had an awesome run this morning. 

Now, I am getting ready to be away from home for a work conference.  I'll be away longer than I like, and I'm trying to make sure that there will be handmade bread products for each day while I'm gone.  I have until early Monday morning to complete this quest.

We began with soft pretzels. I made the dough and had help from both my 13 year old and my 4 year old with twisting them.  We had fun and turned out 23 pretzels.

Why did we start with soft pretzels?  My adorable 4 year old said that for tomorrow's Orioles game I should buy soft pretzels there.  His 10 year old brother commented that we could take homemade soft pretzels.  My 4 year old liked that idea.  Then, he suggested using the pretzel as the "bread" for a sandwich and putting hard salami in the sandwich.  He didn't actually use the words "hard salami" but referred to the meat we'd used on our crusty Italian rolls earlier this week.  Finally, when we were at the grocery story, he suggested that I also get brie to bring to the baseball game.  I suggested we put brie on the pretzel salami sandwiches.  Pretzels are made.  We'll see how the sandwiches turn out tomorrow.