if you find out how, tell me as well. I am tired of all the gimmick pretzels as well. I am also tired of paying high prices.

Time to look at Google again:
[link|http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=homemade+pretzel+recipe&spell=1|http://www.google.co...el+recipe&spell=1]

If you find one that works and tastes like a mall pretzel, please let me know and I can try and make some myself or have my wife do it. I figure about $2USD to $5USD a pretzel is too damn much and it would be cheaper to by the ingrediants and bake our own. We should be able to make our own dipping sauce too. :)

Too many pretzel companies trying to compete, so they add in the extra crap to try and make their prezels different from the others. I am like you, I like the traditional pretzel better.