Stuck inside yet again, the girls were stir crazy by late afternoon. I could either keep telling them to quiet down and stop tackling each other or I could give them something productive to do. I pulled out the flour, yeast and other ingredients and we made pretzels in honor of Lent.
Pretzels were created for Lent. The story is that a monk made them as a simple Lenten bread that used only the ingredients allowed under the strictest rules of Lent fasting. He then rolled the dough out into long ropes and shaped the rope so it looked like arms crossing over each other in the fashion that monks would pray.
I am not sure if making pretzels is the best Lenten exercise for us. The girls get very frustrated trying to shape the pretzels because the dough inevitably breaks at some point. Then I get frustrated with their whining. But then again, part of Lent is accepting our trials, right?
We enjoyed our pretzels with a pot of tea. It was a nice treat on an icy afternoon.