My thotful spot

Where is your thotful spot, that place where you go to find your own thoughts? Winnie the Pooh's thotful spot was in the 100 Aker Wood. Mine is at the beach.

When I've had a stressful few days, I book time with myself to spend an hour at the beach. We have 4 Puget Sound beaches within 5 to 15 minutes, by car, from my home. In summer, I walk down the hill to the long stretch of Sound beach closest to our home. My kids like the activity of the busy downtown Edmonds beach, with ferries, scuba divers and harbor seals to watch. I prefer the mostly quiet, but beautifully designed Mukilteo beach, a 12-15 minute drive from my home.

Yesterday morning, I needed some time with my thoughts. I brought my camera along, so that I could show you a bit of where I live.

For a little geography, the Puget Sound is the large body of water that connects the Seattle area to the Pacific Ocean. Going west, there's us, the Puget Sound (filled with islands), the Olympic Peninsula, and then the Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday, I went to my favorite beach, Mukilteo beach. There's quite a lot to see at this beach. There's the lighthouse. It's open for tours many month of the year. Lighthouse keeping is an interesting subject. I like to think of the families, who lived here, quite isolated from much of the population. They were a self-sufficient lot, going months between deliveries of goods, and a bit of the big city news.

The ferry terminal is just to the north of the public beach. In the Seattle area, the ferries are just an extension of the highway system, criss-crossing the Sound to islands and the Olympic Peninsula. This past summer, my kids and I took a ferry over to the Peninsula to the Scandinavian town of Poulsbo. In November, the whole family took a different ferry to San Juan Island, to roam the waterfront town of Friday Harbor. Yesterday, I just sat and watched the ferries come and go from Whidbey Island, the island just across the Sound from us.

I always enjoy my encounters with the wildlife here. The gulls hung around for handouts from my snack.

A blue heron languished by the edge of the water. And I had a friendly chat with a harbor seal.

He was quite close to the shoreline, and apparently very interested in my presence. I was the only human on the beach, and he seemed to want someone to play with. He barked at me for several minutes before diving back down. Only to pop back up a few feet away.

There's a very long stretch of this beach, perfect for "thotful" walking.

I looked for sea glass, beautiful rocks, and the perfect shell as I tread over the coarse sand.

In a rocky area,

I searched for crabs, one occasionally washing out of his hiding place with the incoming waves.

There are several man-made features here.

And a wedding circle, very busy on summer afternoons. Yesterday, it was just me, on a bench, enjoying the view.

Spending time at the beach doesn't solve any of my problems or worries. But I always come away relaxed and ready to handle whatever crisis may come next.

Weekend breakfast pastry: Toffee Schnecken

Toffee Schnecken -- gooey, chocolate-y and warm from the oven

Do you have a sweet tooth? I sure do!

Friday morning I begin to think about Saturday breakfast treats. (Okay, I'm stretching it a bit to say Friday morning. This week I was thinking about Saturday's treat on Thursday evening. Yep! I've got a sweet tooth!)

Many weekends it's whole wheat cinnamon buns. A fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon bun with coffee, now that's my idea of a Saturday breakfast that is tempting enough to get the troops out of bed in a hurry!

This week, I was in the mood for something a little different. I perused several cooking sites, then I remembered my mom's recipe for Toffee Schnecken. I hadn't made this in a while, so it seemed the perfect treat-y item. (Treat-y -- is that even a word? We'll just say it is!)

Scnecken (or schnecke), by the way, is German for snail, often used to refer to sticky buns made in the rolled up and sliced fashion. Toffee Schnecken is a rolled and sliced sticky bun pastry, filled with toffee bits, chocolate pieces and nuts. It's baked in muffin tins, so the bun grows up, instead of expanding sideways, and looks a bit like a snail, but in a good way!

As luck would have it, I still had a package of toffee bits in the pantry. I bought these on sale, and never got around to using them. I like my Toffee Schnecken with chocolate pieces added. But they're entirely optional. My mom's recipe did not call for the addition of chocolate. So, it's up to you -- chocolate, yes, or chocolate, no.

Toffee Schnecken

2 packages active dry yeast, or 5  1/2 teaspoons (27.5 mL)
1/2 cup (120 mL) lukewarm water
1 cup (240 mL) lukewarm milk
1/2 cup (120 g) butter or margarine (I used margarine)
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
2  1/2 teaspoons (12.5 mL) salt
1 large egg, beaten
4  3/4 (570 g) to 5  1/4 cups (630 g) flour (I used about 3  3/4 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat -- so that it's healthy-like, ya know?)
1/3 cup (80 g) butter, softened (nothing but the real thing here in the filling, the flavor matters most here, but you could use margarine)
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1  1/4 cups (185 g) toffee candy bits (sold in the baking section, often next to the chocolate chips, otherwise, you could take a few Heath Toffee bars, and smash them up)
1/2 cup (84 g) chocolate chips (optional, but oh, so yummy!)
1/2 cup (75 g) chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds (optional, when I'm out of nuts, I don't sweat it, they're quite good without the nuts, even)
corn syrup

The dough:

• In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add milk, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of flour. Beat well.
• Mix in enough flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured surface, add more flour as needed, and knead until smooth and satiny (about 7-8 minutes).

• Cover with plastic and a towel. Allow to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

• Butter well,  2  12-count muffin tins. Spoon 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of corn syrup into each muffin tin section (this forms a gooey underside to each pastry).
• Punch down the dough, divide into 2 portions, and make your filling.
• On a floured surface, roll each portion of dough out to 12 X 9 inch rectangles.

• Spread half of the filling onto one rectangle. Roll up, jelly roll style, beginning at the wide end of the rectangle. Slice the roll into 12 pieces, and place into prepared muffin tins.
• Repeat with the other portion of the dough.

The filling:

• Cream the butter and 1/4 cup sugar together. 
• Stir in the toffee bits, chocolate chips and nuts.

Cover the filled muffin tins with plastic, and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. These can be prepared the day before baking, up to this point, for a fresh schnecken in the morning, if desired. They don't require additional rising time -- just set on the counter for 10 minutes and bake.

Just before baking, remove from the refrigerator, uncover and allow to stand at room temperature, while the oven preheats to 350 degrees F (176 C).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Quickly turn the pastries out of the pan, immediately after baking, onto a rack to cool briefly before serving. If any stick to the pan, slide a table knife around the edges. As the syrupy bottom of the schnecken cools, it will harden. The last couple of pastries may need to be popped back into a warm oven, to remove them from the pan. Makes 24 pastries. 

I freeze half of the pastries, for grab-and-go breakfasts during the work week. I just do a double wrap in plastic, and I am good to go.

Grabbing a cup of coffee and pastry at Starbucks can become an expensive habit, over $4 just for one person. I make pastries at home, as a way to treat my family to something special, in an affordable way. This recipe (made without nuts -- I was out of nuts), cost me about $4 for the batch of 24 pastries, or 17 cents per pastry. A home-brewed cup of coffee and 2 Toffee Schnecken will run about 50 cents. Not bad at all for a Saturday morning treat!