OOOOOOklahoma!! {Parmesan Thyme Wheat Crackers}

You may have noticed I’ve been slacking a little on the blogging lately. Well, there’s a reason for that. We’ve been busy packing because… WE’RE MOVING!! It’s very hard to cook when your entire kicthen is packed up into boxes. We found out last week that we’d be moving this coming weekend, and we found out on Friday that the movers are coming TODAY! So, it’s been a bit of a crazy week.

We’ll be moving to the lovely city of Enid, Oklahoma… Wheat Capital of America. Sweet. There’s an Air Force base in Enid where Nick will be doing some training.

Fun Facts about Oklahoma:

• Okmulgee owns the world record for largest pecan pie, pecan cookie, pecan brownie, and biggest ice cream and cookie party.
• The town of Beaver claims to be the Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World. It is here that the World Championship Cow Chip Throw is held each April.
• An Oklahoman, Sylvan Goldman, invented the first shopping cart.
• Oklahoma was the setting for the movie “Twister”.
• Garth Brooks was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He grew up in Yukon, Oklahoma.

When I first found out about Oklahoma, I wasn’t really sure what to think. Truthfully, if Oklahoma weren’t shaped like a pot, I don’t think I could pick it out on a map! The fact that Enid is the wheat capital of America didn’t really help its appeal. I was picturing a whole lot of nothingness, lots of fields, tumbleweeds and tornados. When I Googled restaurants in Enid, under “Steaks and Fine Dining,” I found Chili’s and Applebee’s. Sigh. Garth Brooks is probably the only cool thing to come out of Oklahoma (and I’m sure many would disagree with me on that one).

The more I thought about the move, though, the less horrified I became, and slowly I grew more and more excited. It really is neat, getting to see all kinds of different places, even if they’re not the most exciting cities in the world. And you know what else? We’re moving into a house. A real, three bedroom house, with a kitchen that’s actually bigger than a closet! That in itself is a good reason to move to Oklahoma! Goodbye crappiest apartment complex in America. I will not miss you.

Since Enid apparently grows a lot of wheat, I decided to celebrate it with some Oklahoma wheat crackers!

Parmesan Thyme Wheat Crackers

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• extra parmesan and sea salt to sprinkle on top

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add wet ingredients.

Mix well with your hands, and form into a ball.

Roll the dough out (in batches, if needed) to about 1/8″ thick, and cut with cookie cutters (or cut into squares using a pizza cutter).

Transfer the crackers to a parchment lined baking sheet. No more parchment for me! I got to use my newest kitchen tool, a Silpat! I love it.

Sprinkle the crackers with sea salt and a little extra parm.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until crackers are slightly brown. I had a feeling my little panhandles would get crispy quicker than the pots, and they did, but they were still fine!

These crackers were really good straight out of the oven, dipped in steamy tomato soup. However, after they cooled, they lost their crunch and were just ok. Not nearly as good as my addictive Rosemary Olive Oil Wheat CRACKers!

Bear with me the next week or so. I hate to ignore the blog, but it’s kind of difficult to cook anything when all your stuff is somewhere in transit in middle America nowheresville. I promise once we unpack everything in Oklahoma, I’ll be back and better than ever! I mean, what else is there to do in Oklahoma besides cook in my big new kitchen?

Wish me luck!