Bagels for lunch

My sister inspired me to bake bagels.  As today was house work day (ugh), I thought it'd be a nice thing to do between mopping floors and dusting surfaces.  Unfortunately, all the online recipes seem to have been written by non-bread makers.  They barely allow time for their dough to rise and do not give consistent boiling and baking times and temperatures.  This meant my attempt today was a lot of guess work.  I've never made bagels before, how do I know what the boiling is going to do?  I have an inkling it helps the dough to rise.  I forgot to add sugar to the water which would've surely put the yeast into a spin of delight.   I'll have to give them a few more tries before I perfect them but today's attempts were chewy and delectable.  I had one with bacon and eggs. 

I guess I was spoiled by Julia Child's excellent teaching skills when I made those croissants last week.  Do any of you have any tips for me?  Or suggestions for what I should make next? 

Our Fellow Kiwi

Yesterday afternoon we went to a baroque concert put on by New Zealand's own James Andrewes and some of his friends.  James is the fourth kiwi we know in Bloomington.  Years ago he was the concert master of the New Zealand Youth Orchestra while Jbird played solo piano and sat in the viola section (at different times).  

The concert was pretty tasty stuff with the well known Correlli Concerto Grosso (Op. 6, No. 8), J.S. Bach's Concerto for two violins, and the less familiar Handel Concerto Grosso (Op. 6, No. 6).  All in minor keys as Jbird pointed out. He joked about coming home and playing a major chord to help cheer us up.

We studied baroque music throughout high school.  I've only seen it played on authentic baroque instruments a handful of times.  It was fun for me to note the awkward, small baroque bows with the lighter bow hold.  A few pretty carvings on finger boards.  The violins sans chin/shoulder rests.  James was the only one to have much left-handed shifting in the second slow movement of the Bach.  It was dare devil type stuff, shifting positions while merely pressing his violin against his neck.  I felt sure he'd drop his violin but he assured me he was used to it.  They were playing on gut strings, which can be hair raisingly hard to produce good tone quality.  They survived without too much squeaking.  

The concert hall was a small church which made for an appropriately intimate setting, surrounded by stained glass windows with the weak winter sun streaming through.

Part Intuition / Part Guess Work

While living in Bangladesh, I became quite the scone baker.  Good bread was hard to come by so I'd often whip up a batch of scones for a Saturday afternoon treat. I've always used the Edmonds Cookbook recipe but in recent years I haven't been able to bake them without that salty flavour.  As the recipe calls for 6 teaspoons of baking powder, that's not surprising!  I've tried sieving the dry ingredients and giving them a good whipping before cutting in the butter - it's still salty. 

The saltiness is easily disguised with plenty of butter, jam, and whipped cream if you have some.  We got our cream from the German butcher in the Bangladesh days (see this post).  But I felt dissatisfied with this - why should my guests have to pretend the scones are great when they're not?  Here in the States, I've taken to buying biscuits in a can when I find them on sale but they're full of artificial butter and flavourings.  Though they're delicious, I'm dissatisfied with that remedy too. 

As a little girl, I remember having scones which were rumoured to be made with a can of sprite and a cup of full cream.  They left a strong impression on me as the most incredible scones ever: smooth, creamy, and delicious.  I was excited to find somebody who knew the recipe this year, but then I returned to the States, to the land of the 'wrong' flour, so I never made them.  This morning I thought I'd try a little cooking science and I managed to adapt the recipe.  I'm feeling pretty chuffed - they are the same as my hallowed memory.  I didn't add raisins this time because I wanted to get the basic mixture right first, but raisins, or even cranberries, are my favourite addition to make.  I've included the recipes below, for comparison sake.  You'll see that the NZ recipe is much easier because there's already sugar in the sprite and it calls for self raising flour but I never have any of that stuff.

Cream Soda Scones in the USA

Ingredients
1/2 Cup soda water - I didn't have any lemonade

1.5 teaspoons sugar water - I'm not sure why I didn't just put in granulated sugar

1/2 Cup heavy whipping cream - Yes, that is the title used for normal cream here in the States

1.5 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn cream of tartar - I don't know why I included this, I've just seen it in lots of recipes and thought it might do something good

pinch of salt

1 1/2 Cup flour - I started with 1 cup but needed to add another. I kept it a really sticky batter.

Directions

1. Sift dry ingredients

2. Gently fold in wet ingredients

3. Plonk onto tray  - You never want to touch your scones too much, they'll turn out dry

4. Cut as best

4. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 + minutes. Should make about 7.

Compared to the:
Lemonade Cream Scones in New Zealand

Ingredients

4 Cups self raising flour

300 ml cream

one can lemonade/sprite

pinch of salt

Follow the directions as above, except there's no need to sift the dry ingredients, and you'll need 220 degrees Celsius. Should make about a dozen.

Book Club Time

I just attended my second ever book club meeting.  I hosted but I decided not to go all out with the snacks.  I made biscotti a week ago and boxed fudge-brownie that very night.  With tea and coffee, I thought that was enough.  I'm glad I made that choice because one of the ladies brought some delightful coconut cupcakes which could really shine.  

We had all read the book March by Geraldine Brooks.  It's pretty great, and horrendous, all in the same breath.  In reading the book I felt that I learned a lot - about human nature, the American civil war - so I enjoyed our brief discussion.  She writes from the perspective of the father and the mother from Little Women by Louissa May Alcott.  It's such an idyllic, beautiful, romantic classic.  I loved the way Geraldine put a spin on that, showing us the reality in amongst all that perfection. 

p.s. I'm reading "the Jane Austen Book Club" which is a lovely light read, about a book club which only reads Jane Austen books.  It is a great portrayal of personalities as they combine to create a book club atmosphere.  A nice read.

Fancy Husby and His Sis

Have you seen much of my fancy little-sister-in-law, Soph?  (Click on her name to see the link).  She's the one in the black top, with the blonde curly hair.  It's always nice to see her and/or Jbird involved in any great musical opportunity like that one (he's not in that group).  The competition is fierce for them both, and they work hard for it.  My heart actually swells with pride when I get to view anything like this, in the flesh, or on tape.  I'm glad to be here and I can't wait to find out what this semester has in store for them.

And that's all I have to say about that. 

Savings Galore/It's All About the Moolah

I spent the first three years of my working career hating Mondays.  This bled into Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then a general dread of Sundays because Monday was the next day.  I was hating a larger portion of my week than I enjoyed so I decided that I would have to start looking for something good in every day of the week. 

My good thing about Thursdays is grocery shopping.  As a redeemed shop-a-holic, it's a little release for those old feelings of joy on finding a good bargain.  

Today, I found two great bargains on things that I know would normally take up a third of my budget.  The first one was 100 loads of washing detergent, the Pyrex hypoallergenic kind, which my skin doesn't hate me for, for just $5.39.  Wow.  It was a close out sale and I was tempted to buy two.  However, that big bottle will last us nearly two years, as it is, and what if we don't end up sticking around for that long?  I'm a little skeptical - what have they put in that stuff that makes them need to close out?  I thought it was golden, apart from normally being a little bit pricey.

Bargain number two: I was in dire need of razors.  I have put off buying them for a long time because I hate the cheap disposable ones, and the other kind are super expensive.  Well.  There was another closeout sale AND I had a $2 coupon.  I bought a fancy venus gillette with three cartridges for just $4.86!  It's normally at least $12 and maybe even closer to $20 in NZ.

I was happy to use another coupon for some B6 tablets, saving a glorious $3 from the cheapest ones I could find online.  I was even happier to splash out on artichoke hearts, blackberry jam, nutella, and a (reduced price) lovely steak for our valentines meal.

After a projected savings of $30 (including the other store savings), bringing my bill down from $95 to $64, I feel as though Kroger were paying me to shop.  Of course, this is the problem with us shop-a-holics - we see 'saving' as free money.  It's not.  $64 is actually a little more than we budget for.  Luckily I only spent $40 last week.

Baking Croissants

Would you like to know the difference between baking an ordinary white loaf of bread and baking croissants?  According to Julia Child, it's a stick of butter (112 grams), excessive amounts of resting time, and a special rolling/folding technique.  My romantic notion of baking my own croissants and having them fresh for lunch, stuffed with ham and cheese, was soon forgotten.  They took me the entire afternoon.

 I found The French Chef Cookbook at a book fair, and have her dvd set.  Though I find many of her recipes too rich and impractical for every day use, it's fun to watch her and then try that recipe when I feel like I'm up for some kitchen entertainment.

I didn't follow her exact resting/proofing times as I was impatient.  Despite this, it took me 5 hours.  I enjoyed allowing myself to wallow in smashing and mashing up the butter with the rolling pin, and my palm.  To spread the butter through the dough, she folds and rolls, folds and rolls, rests the dough.  And then does the same again.  The result is 82 layers of dough and 81 layers of butter.  

How do I express my delight at the end product?  After two years of making croissants out of the can or buying them at the super market (both of which use vegetable oil), these were infinitely better.  Light, buttery, delicious, fresh.  I've put half of them in the freezer, not yet baked, to enjoy hot from the oven one day for breakfast with Jbird.  What a treat!  I put some ham and cheese into a couple.  Unfortunately I have a tendency to snack on our chocolate chips so I was out of luck for making chocolate ones this time.

What a delight to have the time to indulge. 

Sleepy Man Banjoy Boys

Holy Cow.  This youtube clip blew my mind yesterday.  Do those boys do anything but play?  I guess they must, see their toys in the background?  They are amazing!

We walked down the aisle to some fun celebratory bluegrass after our marriage ceremony.  I was the one who chose the song, and I was smiling anyway, on that happy happy day.  Yet I remember it making me laugh out loud in a fresh, surprised way.  

I was hoping we'd see a lot of bluegrass while we're here but we haven't seen much.  Just a few buskers at the farmers market and on the street.  Maybe it's time I started looking up the festivals to see what we can get to. 

Fruit Cake Postlude

I wonder if you've been reading long enough to remember the two posts I wrote about Christmas fruitcake, here and here.  I thought I would let you know how the American versions turned out, I haven't had any reports regarding the New Zealand one.  We finished the first one last week and we've made a start on the second one.  They are crumbly and rich.  The crumbliness is because I used a NZ recipe and guessed on the required flour quantity, obviously not decreasing it quite enough.   

We have so many treats - timtams, biscotti, and fruitcake, I hardly remember to get to the latter.   Unfortunately I normally add it on at the end of lunch and it makes me feel a tad ill, it being so rich and me being partially full already.  I'll have to try for my afternoon tea snack tomorrow with a cuppa.  

Here's to a month of fruitcake!

Bejewelled Fingers

For my birthday (last week), my parents-in-law gave me cash and instructions to buy something for myself.  The possibilities were endless.  After much debate, Jbird and I decided I should find a ring.  I had been given one for my 21st by my sister and brother-in-law.  Sadly, the gold holding the amethyst had worn away, causing the amethyst itself to chip and crack.  

The stores here are limited to Sears, Zales, and Kay - I didn't find anything much there but did learn a bit about gold quality, sizing, and stones - so I started shopping online.  I soon found myself entrenched in so many decisions.  Ebay seemed to be the cheapest option, if I could win an auction.  I lost a beauty because I didn't realise someone would outbid me right in the last second of the auction.  I had bid 5 minutes too early.  It was 14k yellow gold (I'm a yellow gold gal) with a nice sized sapphire and two little diamond chips.  

Tonight I managed to win an auction!  I would have preferred a higher quality gold but it should be an every day wear as my old one was.  It was a good price, 10k yellow gold band, with 8 small sapphires in a swirly pattern.  We'll have to wait to see it before we know if the picture holds up to its true self.