Soutwest pretzels and queso

So we ate our pot roast early then needed something for a lighter dinner and this is what I came up with. The pretzel recipe is from Taste of Home's Simple and delicious magazine, and I found the queso recipe on Taste of Home's website. I thought it was wonderful. I did cut out the cayenne pepper and doubled the cumin afraid that the pretzels would be too spicy for the kids, but they weren't spicy at all that way. I think next time I will try them with the cayenne so I'm including it on the recipe here with what I did in parenthesis. For the queso I did half of what the original recipe called for, changed the amounts of the types of cheeses... so I'm writing that out exactly as I did it. It was the perfect amount of queso and pretzels for our family, but some of the kids didn't like the queso. I thought the queso was very sticky for a dipping queso, but I loved the flavor. I kept it warm in a mini crock pot and just served a spoonful at a time and that worked for us.


Pretzels
Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 pkg (1/4 oz.) quick rise yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin (I used 1/2 today)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I omitted this today)
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (120-130 -mine was 118)
• 1 egg, beaten
• coarse salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, salt, minced onion and spices. Add water. Beat just until moistened. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (I used all 2 cups)
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes (I just left it in my mixer with the dough hook.) Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 16 equal parts. (I made a circle and cut it in pie shapes. I liked that because it seemed to make rolling it out nice and easy.) Roll each portion into a 15-in. rope. (I used parchment paper as a guide. It is 15 inches.) Cover and let rest 10 minutes longer.
3. Twist into pretzel shapes. Place on greased baking sheets (I just put it on parchment.) Brush with egg. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Brush again with egg; sprinkle with coarse salt. (I found that I had to brush them individually then salt them. When I brushed them all and went to salt them, the salt didn't stick because the egg dried to fast on the warm pretzels.) Bake 10-13 minutes longer or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Serve pretzels warm with dip.

Queso
Ingredients

• 3/4 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 4 oz. can (2 ounces) chopped green chilies
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 1/4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

In a saucepan, saute onion and garlic in butter until tender. Add chilies; cook and stir for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Gradually add small amounts of cheeses and milk; stir until melted after each addition. Serve warm.