Platonic Pretzel Rolls

A number of people who I’ve talked to find it strange that I have a male roommate.  One of my coworkers said she would only live with girls and wouldn’t know how to deal with a male roommate who wasn‘t her boyfriend, (particularly one found off Craigslist).  Another person told me it was impossible for members of the opposite sex to live together platonically.  I disagree with both of those people.  For one thing, guys are far easier to live with than girls because in general, they’re pretty direct.  If there’s a problem in the house, they’ll just tell you about it instead of leaving a sticky note on the fridge and then avoiding you for a week.  And it works both ways, if something your guy roommate is doing is pissing you off, you can yell at them without worrying about hurting their feelings.  They’ll take it in stride, either fix the problem, (or not…) and move on. 

Secondly, not only is it possible for members of the opposite sex to live together without being anything more than friends, it’s absolutely necessary.  When roommates date, it always ends poorly and generally results in someone having to move out.  It took me over a month of solid looking just to find a place to live and I have no intention of having to repeat that process because of something silly like dating my roommate.  Furthermore, I have a boyfriend who does not want to even entertain the idea of roommates dating.  He has nothing to worry about though, because my roommate Diesel doesn’t have a sweet tooth and doesn’t really care about food and that’s essentially in direct opposition to everything that I believe in.    

When I first moved in I tried to be a good roommate and share some cookies that I had made.  I gave Diesel the cookies along with my rent cheque and he politely accepted them but didn’t seem too enthusiastic.  I thought maybe he just wasn’t feeling well.  But then on a separate occasion I baked some banana and chocolate chip muffins and left some with a note to help himself.  He didn’t touch them.  Another day I left cookies cooling on a rack, open for the taking and he couldn’t have cared less.  Eventually he told me he just didn’t have a sweet tooth and would rather have chips or a salty snack than baked goods.  At that point I considered moving out because I couldn’t possibly be friends with someone who would reject my baking.  I calmed down though and got over it, more for me. 

I thought maybe he would appreciate good savoury food at least, that is until I found out that his main concern with his meals was quantity over quality.  He told me he’d been to a few ‘fancy’ restaurants with multiple course meals and that he wasn’t very impressed as he always left hungry.  I suspect he’s a fan of All You Can Eat buffets.  When I made a roast chicken he commented that I could have just bought one already roasted at the supermarket for $9.99 so why bother making it at home?  When I bake bread he tells me they sell that at the supermarket too.  These comments are met with great sighs from me.  On the upside, however, it should leave my boyfriend feeling very confident that I will never, ever want to date my roommate.  I couldn’t even consider dating someone who wouldn’t appreciate the food I made for them and would rather order Dominoes than eat a homemade gourmet pizza.  And do I even need to go into detail about how much it would break my heart to try to date someone who refused my baked goods?  It’s the biggest insult I can think of.

So yes, it’s very possible to live with a member of the opposite sex and have a completely platonic relationship, it’s especially easy if you disagree on fundamental life basics.  These pretzel rolls are the only thing Diesel has eaten that I’ve made that’s elicited a bit of a positive response.  It went something like this: “Those bread things you made weren’t bad, but you know can buy bread at the store, right?.”  High praise.

I found the recipe for these pretzel rolls over at Sweet Pea’s Kitchen and she found them at Stresscake.  Make them and enjoy!