I knew there was a reason I took a class about making pies. It certainly wasn't because I wanted to bake a pie. Nope, it was because I want to bake excellent crackers! Here's the start. For a first attempt, they were pretty tasty, and will certainly improve with practice.
The ingredients are very simple. Flour, good olive oil, your choice of herbs or seasonings, salt, pepper if you wish, and water, cold water. The thing I learned from the pie class that was so helpful? What "shaggy" dough looks like and what it means. Shaggy is the first stage of true water incorporation into the flour, the beginning of forming a ball. At this point of mixing the tiniest drops of water are all that's needed to have what the mixture requires. It's helpful, but not necessary to know your way around a rolling pin... and the one thing I don't have, a silicon mat for rolling. Okay, I'll spend the money for that before I make them again. Thinner dough will produce a better cracker.
The other part that makes me smile is the cost savings on making crackers. The crackers I buy at Whole Foods cost about six dollars a box.. maybe more, and now I see that box holds about 20% of what my recipe will produce. The cost for my crackers yesterday? About a dollar and I suspect I can honestly say that includes the electricity to bake them too. Can't overlook my time investment either. About an hour... no kidding. Cracker futures are looking really good...
I used to joke with customers that my wall vases were more than just a pretty face. Then I'd hold one just like it was a baseball bat and pretend to strike at an imaginary object. I always said in case of an intruder, you are not helpless. It's easy to use, and in one whack, the art is gone, but so is the intruder... ha! Let's hope it never comes to that, but it made a good topic while people were perusing my wall art selection... 
