A Simple Shower with Sailor’s Knot Soft Pretzels

Over the weekend my friend Holly and I  hosted a sweet and simple baby shower. The expectant mama is my good friend and neighbor Andrea, and this will be her third little girl! We decided to keep it really low key, steered clear of traditional shower games, and basically provided a couple hours for friends to get together, chat, eat, and (of course) craft a little bit!

Making hair clips is one of my favorite activities for a baby girl shower. Some of the guests had attended this shower that I hosted where we made them, and hadn’t done it again since! Everyone loved learning a new flower-making method or two. And those with girls of their own all commented that they were going to do some of their own soon! We stocked Andrea up with a whole new pile of clips (that I’m sure the baby’s older sisters will be happy to use until her arrival:)

Because the mama’s favorite look for her girls is nautical, we decided to use that as a loose theme. The invitations had three small sailboats on them, and were navy and white. Holly found an idea for easy centerpieces. Throw some rope into glass containers and call it good!

For the food, I thought it would be fun to make soft pretzels in the shape of sailor’s knots (since I’m such a knot guru these days), and serve them with different dips. I used this recipe, and they turned out amazing. I kind of want to eat some right this minute.

Holly made the dips, two sweet dips for the cinnamon sugar pretzels, and two savory for the salty. Oh my, let me tell you that the queso poblano and the cookies and cream dips were off the charts. I’m sure the others were great, too, but I couldn’t fit any more food in me after the first…ahem…three pretzels.  We also had a bowl of fresh fruit, a plate of chocolate brownies (that I may or may not have dipped into cookies and cream…) and blackberry limeade to drink. Delicious.

Here’s the cute mama-to-be. She is moving from next door in two weeks, and I can’t really think about it because it makes me so sad. Our four kids use the two neighboring apartments sort of as if were one apartment, knocking and coming and going most of the day to play. We are able to trade monitors at night and nap times for dates and runs to the store. Between us someone usually has flour, sugar and eggs to share. And, as if all of that weren’t enough, they are wonderful friends who we love to spend time with. We will miss them. But are excited to meet their baby girl when we visit family later this summer.

Now, even though I have my knots pretty much down, tying the sailor’s knot pretzels took some figuring out. I’ve included a little step by step below, in case anyone wants to make them, minus the hour of experimental tying time…

Oh, and come back tomorrow to see my round three project for Sewvivor and cast a vote for me!!

Sailor’s Knot Soft Pretzels

You’ll begin with a big ball of cough, which you cut in half, then half again, then into quarters. The recipe yielded 16-18 pretzels for me. Take one of the small balls of dough and put it on an unfloured work surface.

Roll the ball into a long rope, about 1/2″ thick

Cut 1/3 off of the rope, you should now have two pieces

Lay the smaller end on the right side, at a diagonal. Cross the longer end over it, about 1/3 of the way down

Wrap around the smaller end once, like tying a basic knot.

Pull the right bottom leg of the X shape over to the left

Loop the longest end over the top of it

Then loop that same long end under and through that hole you’ve made

Gently roll the knot into place, and stretch the legs of the knot out

Trim the ends, to the legs are similar lengths, if you’d like

At this point in the recipe, you dip them in the baking soda wash, then bake

Brush the hot pretzels with melted butter, sprinkle with salt or cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!