Bagel Attempt #1

I came across this simple bagel recipe in the cookbook, Church Socials, and decided to give it a try. Having never made bagels before, I was a little nervous. They turned out pretty good for my first try albeit a little nonuniform. My kids gobbled them up with enthusiasm, so that's always a good sign.  I'm definitely going to try some more bagel recipes. 

Bagels

from Church Socials recipe submitted by Rachel McClean Dabritz

1 envelope active dry yeast

2/3 cup water, boiled and cooled to luke warm (temp should be between 110-115)

2 TBSP sugar plus more for cooking

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 TBSP oil

1 egg beaten

3 cups flour (mine ended up a tad dry and I had to add some warm water)

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup of the water.  Let stand for 10 minutes.  (Your yeast should get foamy in the water.)

2. Place remaining water in a large mixing bowl.  Add sugar, salt, and oil and stir to combine. Stir in yeast, egg, and half of flour using a dough hook attachment.  Gradually add remaining flour.  Knead for 8-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic and springs back when pressed with a finger.  (The dough is very stiff.)

3. Transfer dough into large oiled bowl, cover, and set aside in a warm place until doubled in size, 2-3 hours.  (Tip: Boil a small amount of water in the microwave.  Place the covered bowl of dough in the microwave with the steaming water.)

4. Punch down dough, divide into 12 pieces, and form into rings.  Allow enough time so that dough begins to rise, up to 1 hour.

5. Preheat the oven to 400. Grease baking sheet. (I used my exopat mat.) Bring a stockpot to boil over high heat.  Sprinkle sugar into the water.  Place dough rings into the boiling water in batches, cooking until they rise to the surface (approximately 1 1/2 minutes). 

Remove with a large slotted utensil and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes (It took mine 15 so watch them!) or until lightly browned. Makes 12 bagels.

Sunday Morning Scones

Just thought I'd share one of my favorite recipes: Buttermilk Blueberry Scones from Average Betty.  She has really excellent step by step photos. You don't have to actually purchase buttermilk, just sour milk using 1 TBSP white vinegar or lemon juice per 1 cup of milk.  Do this step first because it needs to sit for five minutes.  She suggests using frozen blueberries because fresh bleed too much.  I think she said this backwards. Fresh blueberries bleed less than frozen.  I've been getting really good fresh blueberries at the store lately.

Of course I've made changes to this recipe to suit my tastes, and I think it is improved to perfection!  Instead of cutting with the biscuit cutter, I prefer to just dust my baking stone with a little flour, form a disk and cut the traditional scone triangles.  You will want to separate them some so that they don't bake together.  I do not coat with the buttermilk at the end, but sprinkle sparkling sugar on top and pat them in lightly before popping them into the oven. After baking, I make a glaze out of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Drizzle this glaze over the cooled scones.  YUM!

Regular Me and Chicken Spaghetti

Every six months or so I suffer from an identity crisis.  Just when I think I'm feeling comfortable staying at home with my children, I get that itch to seek employment; to do something slightly more incredible with my life than cooking, cleaning, laundry, shuttling people around, and bottom-wiping.  It can be depressing.  Now I know that raising kids is an incredible job, but I can't help but feel that I'm not living up to my own expectations.  Yes, I know too...enjoy them when they are little, and I do.  But.......

Yet, I really have no direction at this point.  Some days I want to go back to teaching.  This seems unlikely with the current teacher layoffs in our county. Some days I think I'll get my masters. But in what?  I love to read, so maybe library science.  I just have this fear that I'd spend all that money and not be able to find a job near my home. This kind of wallowing can go on and on. Luckily, I married a very patient man.  

What pulled me out of it this time was a conversation I had with my three year old son yesterday.  It went something like this:

Charlie in his favorite batman t-shirt and black "batman" socks

Me in my PJ top, robe, and blue jeans 

Me: There's my batman!

Charlie: I'm NOT batman!

Me: There's my batboy?!

Charlie: I'm NOT batboy!  I'm Charlie! I'm REGULAR Charlie!  (sounds like rehyoular Charwee)

Well if he's okay with being regular Charlie then I should be okay being regular Emily. Right? Not professional Emily.  Not extra educated Emily. Just regular Emily.  It's okay to just be regular. There's a certain peace in accepting that.  (Isn't funny how children can be the best life coaches?)

Which leads me to......Chicken Spaghetti.  Just regular chicken spaghetti.  It isn't too fancy.  It isn't too hard.  But it IS rather good and comforting and filling.

I followed Ree Drummond's recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks pretty closely.  I can't seem to ever follow a recipe exactly...part of a rebellious nature perhaps.  Here is the link to her recipe: Chicken Spaghetti

Here is what I did differently:

Instead of cut-up fryer chicken, I cooked a whole chicken because it was cheaper to do this even when buying humanely treated. 

1. Rough cut 2 onions, 3 stalks celery, and 2 carrots.

2. Rinse chicken and remove gibblet bag.

3. Place chicken in the pot and cover with vegetables, about 10 peppercorns, and a dash or two of salt.

3. Cover all with water.

4. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 2-3 hours.

5. Remove chicken.  Remove and discard vegetables and pepper.

Follow Ree's recipe from here.

This made a very large casserole.  It could easily be made ahead and popped into the oven later.

Toad-in-the-Hole and Being Holed Up

Holed Up - sitting at your PC - Day and Night - in the dark in your jammies without any human interaction (The Urban Dictionary)

I woke up feeling great today!  After being sick from one ailment or another since the beginning of December, I truly feel like the world is my oyster...I'm on top of the world...watch out world, here I come!  There's something about being sick and then getting better that gives one a new lease on life (and the freedom to use cliches whenever the heck she wants).

With the single digit weather and winter storm blast last week, I have been holed up in my house with stir crazy children and dogs.  Now I'm holed up in my house with all this energy and feeling a bit stir crazy myself. In the warmer months, I'd take to the outdoors and dig in the dirt or hack away at something that needs a good trim down. This is not going to happen for awhile as I'd like to keep my fingers and toes.  

I could take on some indoor project.  The walls are barren and sad from lack of decoration, and there are several areas in need of some organizational attention.  But that's just not very appealing to me.  

So, I think I will bundle up, hit the store, and cook up something tasty or two.

My inspiration today is the wonderful book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.  (Thank you Doug and Carrie!) I've read it cover to cover a couple of times.  The pictures of ranch life are just absolutely beautiful, and Ree Drumounds commentaries are fun and informative. Many of the recipes are tried and true and have been around for years and years: Texas Sheet Cake, Buttermilk Biscuits, Country-Fried Steak (though here in Indiana we are very fond of the Pork Tenderloin version of this), Chicken Spaghetti, etc, etc.  Maybe her versions are somehow better.  They are definitely worth a try. (I was shocked to see that she doesn't put cinnamon in her Texas Sheet Cake, which in my opinion is THE ingredient that makes that cake special.)

I haven't tried anything substantial from it yet. I did manage to make a very simple recipe called Egg in the Hole, more commonly known around these parts as Toad in the Hole. It is not only simple and tasty, but it is the perfect thematic tie-in to being holed up. Just click the link to find the recipe.  The only thing I changed was toasting the cut out piece of bread in the butter as well. Then I slipped it underneath the finished Toad in the Hole.  I didn't want to waste it! Enjoy! 

All About the Brontes Challenge 2010

Here are my picks for the All About the Brontes Challenge 2010 hosted by Laura's Reviews:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Juvenilia by Charlotte Bronte

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James

The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte by Daphne Du Maurier

Emma Brown: An Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Bronte by Clare Boylan

I am focusing mostly on Charlotte, but wanted to add Agnes Grey because it's the only Bronte novel I've never read....or maybe I have read it and just don't remember.  Daphne Du Maurier is one of my favorites so I added the Branwell Bronte biography (if I can find it somewhere).

This challenge begins on Jan.1 and runs to June, so there is still plenty of time to sign up! Laura has an extensive list of books and movies on her blog.

Blog Update and Margaret Atwood Novels

Blog Update

I've noticed a lot of blogger folk are giving a kind of "State of the Union Address" about the direction and progression of their blogs.   The end of a year and the beginning of the next is a good time for reflection.  When I started this blog last summer, I thought to focus only on cooking.  Since then I have branched out to other things such as crafts and book reviews.  So I guess the focus of my blog is a bit unfocused.  For now, I'm okay with that.  So expect more random entries in 2010.  Random/unfocused is sort of the theme of my life right now!

Margaret Atwood

I am adding Margaret Atwood to my ever growing list of favorite authors.  This year I read two of her books, The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. Out of all the books I've read this year, these are the only two my mind continues to return to ponder. Both take place in the future and most people would label them science fiction. However, Atwood doesn't like this label and would prefer to call them speculative fiction.  I agree with this and would add that even people who would not typically enjoy science fiction would really like these books.

Oryx and Crake reveals a futuristic society that is divided between the elite science community who live in "safe" gated compounds and the pleebians who live outside these communities in an atmosphere of violence and disease. The science community focuses on using genetic engineering to make life better. Jimmy, who later is renamed Snowman, grows up in a compound where his father creates pigoons, pigs who have been genetically engineered to grow human body parts. Jimmy befriends Glenn, who later becomes Crake. They grow up together playing violent video games and watching internet porn. Both boys become fascinated with a young girl on the porn site, who they later meet and rename Oryx. 

The book begins with Snowman/Jimmy as a grown man. He seems to be the last man on Earth with Crakers, genetically engineered humanoids, as his only companions. In these scenes, Snowman is just trying to stay alive. He is hunted by the genetically engineered animals such as pigoons and wolvogs. Through his flashbacks, the reader learns how he (and the Earth) has ended up in this dire situation. It is an incredibly complex and interesting novel.

After reading Oryx and Crake, I wanted to reread The Handmaid's Tale, which presents an alternate future outcome of society.  The Handmaid's Tale is written from the perspective of a handmaid, a woman whose sole purpose is for breeding, much like Rachel used her servant in the Bible to bear her a son.  Her life depends on her ability to do this. 

This handmaid experienced the transition from a society much like ours to this one where she has been stripped of her rights. Everything has been taken away from her including her daughter and husband from her previous life.Women are not allowed to own property or to read. Some women become Wives through arranged marriages.  Others become household workers called Marthas. It is heartbreaking and amazing portrait of survival....and eventually escape.  

An Irish Country Christmas

If I could only use one word to describe An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor it would be charming! Reminiscent of Jan Karon's Mitford series, this novel centers around the lives of two country doctors and the colorful people they encounter in the small town of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland, 1964. Much like Father Tim, the doctors O'Reilly and Laverty go beyond the call of duty when caring for their"flock." 

O'Reilly, the owner of the medical practice is a large bear of a man while Laverty is the competent young assistant with hopes of becoming a partner. They both experience uncertainty in their romantic lives. O'Reilly, a longtime widower, renews a relationship with an old sweetheart, Kitty. Laverty laments over his girlfriend, Patricia, who is away at school and doesn't seem to be making much of an effort to come home for Christmas.  

There are laugh out loud moments as well as heart-wrenching ones. One of my favorite parts begins with a little boy who is upset about not being cast as Joseph in the local Christmas pageant. I don't want to give away what happens, but his plan for revenge ends with one of the most hilarious scenes I've ever read in fiction.

An Irish Country Christmas is the third book in the Irish Country Doctor series. Of course, there is a little catching up in the beginning for people who are new to the series like me, but overall is could be a stand-alone book. I will definitely be reading the first two books.  

Taylor has also written a Christmas short story available to read for FREE on his website. 

Here are some of my favorite Irish expressions I learned while reading:

bletherskite: a nonstop talker

heart of corn: someone who has a heart of corn is good natured

gobshite: an insult literally meaning dried nasal mucus

take your hurry in your hand: wait a minute

hooley: a party

This novel is my third and last selection for The True Book Addict's Christmas Challenge.  I tried to read Tidings of Great Joy by Sandra Brown, but couldn't get past this line on page 12,"He bit into the succulent slice of turkey breast.  It never had occured to Ria that teeth could be sexy, but she felt that bite right above her belly button." With a roll of my eyes, I put this book down never to pick up another Sandra Brown book ever again!