Bagels

After a recent article on Slate about making staples from scratch, I decided to make some bagels.

Bryan: When did bagels turn into staples?
Em: I like bagels.
Bryan: I like bagels too. That's not my point.

I used this recipe, as recommended in the article. It was pretty easy, despite the number of instructions.
Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
• 2 pkgs dry yeast (about 4.5 tsp? Check your yeast container)
• 3 T. sugar (I used brown)
• 1 T. salt
• 1 1/2 c. hot water (between 120-130 degrees F.)
• 3 Quarts water
• 1 1/2 T. sugar
• cornmeal

As you can see, I skipped the egg glaze, because I don't have any eggs in the house. The ingredients are in three colours because the recipe has three parts. Clever, innit?
Methodology

1. Put 3 c. flour and the other dry ingredients (from the part in RED) in a bowl and mix. Add the hot water (also in red) and stir. Add the last half cup of flour a little at a time. Eventually the dough will get thick and heavy and you won't be able to stir it with a spoon anymore, so turn it out onto a floured counter and knead it for about ten minutes, until it is firm and solid as pinched, adding flour as necessary.
2. When the dough is ready, put it in an oiled bowl and cover it. I stuck it in a humid microwave. Leave it to rise for about an hour, until it is doubled.
3. Bring three quarts of water to a boil and add the sugar (this is the orange part). Reduce the water to a very slow simmer.
4. Punch the dough down and divide it into 10 pieces. Make each into a ball (see picture on left). Let them stand for a few minutes to relax, then flatten and make a hole (I cut an "x" in the center with a knife, then opened it up and squished the edges a little). Cover and leave the bagels to rise about 10 min. - this is called a half proofing, I think.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking sheets (probably two of them) and sprinkle with corn meal.
6. Drop bagels 2-3 at a time into the simmering water. I used a stir fry spatula for this, since I don't have any deep frying baskets or nonsense. They will sink and rise again in a few seconds (or if you left them too long, they will not sink). Flip them about 30 seconds after they rise again and let them simmer another 30 seconds (total 1 min.) Scoop out and drain on paper towel, then put on the cookie sheet.
   
7. If you're doing an egg glaze, do it now.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until brown. When the tops are brown (about 12 min in), you can flip them. A long chopstick is ideal for transferring bagels to a cooling rack.

Notes

*That was pretty easy, and the bagels are delicious.
*Difficult to tell when whole wheat bagels are browned, since they are, um, already brown.
*I don't really have any changes to the recipe. Seriously delicious after a long run. Eat them with cream cheese. Mmm.

Cornbread Muffins

Cornbread. We originally made this for Thanksgiving, then I misplaced the recipe. This past weekend, B decided he really wanted more cornbread, so after considerable googling I found it again. From Epicurious, with very few adaptations.

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• 1 c. cornmeal (I used half white and half yellow)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a finely grated Colby/Monterrey Jack mix)
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 3 T. honey
• 1/4 c. melted margarine

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 425.
   
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Add in cheese.
   
3. Mix buttermilk, eggs, margarine, honey in another bowl.
   
4. Add wet into dry and stir to combine. Don't over-stir.
5. Measure in 1/4 cupfuls into a (greased) muffin pan. Bake ~10 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

• Maybe cook 9 minutes instead? It was a little overdone. I guess 8 minutes and then let it sit and finish with residual heat, that would be ideal.
  
• Otherwise, very tasty; not too dry, quite dense. Goes well with chili.
• Needs a trifle more salt, maybe more honey? B says he remembers them being sweeter last time.
• Makes 12 muffins.
  

Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Well this was delicious, but a little too liquid. It dripped down all the cupcakes it was applied to. But it was very tasty, and after I was done frosting the cupcakes, I put some on some matzo, and that was good too.

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. margarine
• 8 oz. cream cheese (I used fat free, I think this was a mistake on my part)
• 3 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. rum
• 1 tsp white chocolate Godiva

Methodology

1. Mix margarine and cream cheese.
2. Add sugar slowly. If you want it less sweet, add less sugar.
3. Add the liquor.
4. If it is too soft, try refrigerating it.

Notes

This goes on chocolate cupcakes, of course.

I refrigerated this and it didn't actually help, I think because I used fat free cream cheese and margarine instead of butter. Even after having been in the freezer overnight, it is still not going to go in a piping bag. But it is delicious, I cannot help but stick my fingers in. Which brings up another point - do not drive under the influence of this frosting. I kept adding rum, trying to get a bit of a "kick", and finally added the Godiva for that (it was Meyer's rum, so pretty high quality stuff). And then all of a sudden it was almost too much.

Almost is the operative word here, I guess.

I can't think of any really good ways to fix it when your frosting is too runny. Maybe cornstarch, if I'd had any (I didn't) would have thickened it. Anyway it worked pretty well if you didn't mind getting frosting all over your fingers. So the moral of the story is that if you want decent frosting, don't try to skimp on calories.

Book Review: One Perfect Day

One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead

A survey conducted by the wedding website The Knot in 2008 found that the average wedding cost about $28,000. With something like 2.3 million weddings in America each year, this amounts to an absurd amount of cash changing hands - $160 billion annually as of 2006 (when Mead was writing). Each year, more articles on the attendant craziness and "bridezilla" culture appear - brides who spend $5,000 on a Vera Wang wedding gown, who ask their bridesmaids to get botox, plastic surgery, or worse. And each year, the rate of divorce seems to go up.

How did we get here? What prompts this sort of behavior and why is it culturally acceptable? In fact, in a world where women make as much as men and are as likely to keep working afterwards, where we enjoy the ability to live with our significant others before marriage, why get married at all?

These are the questions that Rebecca Mead sets out to answer in One Perfect Day. And what she finds is very interesting to anyone who has been to a wedding or had thoughts of getting married herself.

The story Mead puts together is one of a fairly secular public with no particular institutions to turn to for guidance in putting together a wedding - with the exception of the bridal industry. Where traditional practices have been rejected for disallowing the sort of personalization that those about to be married demand for their ceremonies, the "traditionalesque" has sprung up to replace it, replete with bits of ceremony stripped from other religions, or even from TV shows or films that sound good. Huge industries have sprung up to allow the bride to find exactly the right meringue, which is then sewn for her by four hundred Chinese laborers making $0.50 per hour, or to remind her that her invitations match her shoes.

If family and culture dictate tradition, Mead says, traditionalesque is dictated by industry and driven by profit. Even the idea of a diamond engagement ring is a relatively new one, developed by the DeBeers company in 1938.

So does this hollowing of tradition lead inevitably to the hollowing of a culturally significant turning point in a person's life? Not necessarily. Mead attends numerous weddings over the course of the book, some of which seem especially poignant (for example, a wedding by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas) and some of which seem perfunctory or disappointing (including a tiny wedding in a church in Hebron, WI). In a world with no set bodies to prescribe what is meaningful, meaning is where you make it.

The one complaint I have about this book is that gay weddings and the question of "Why marry?" are addressed only in the epilogue. She does have some poignant things to say about the former (for example, addressing the way that every gay marriage seems like a triumph), but though she raises the latter, even asking a handful of brides, she never offers a good explanation. Perhaps, like the rest of a wedding, the reason must be created by the couple to suit themselves.

Rye Bread

From this recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
  
• 2 1/2 c. warm water
• 2/3 c. molasses
• 5 c. bread flour
• 2 c. rye flour
• 2 T. wheat gluten
  
• 1 T. salt
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder

Methodology

1. Mix yeast, water, and molasses. You can pour molasses easier if you rub the cup with a little oil first. Also, make sure the measuring cup is big enough for all the liquid or it will get everywhere and be yuck.
2. Put yeast/water/molasses mixture in a bowl (I used glass) and add salt, oil, cocoa powder, 2 c. rye flour, 2 c. regular flour, and the wheat gluten. Mix it up, it will look like cookie batter.
3. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until it is all added. Towards the end it will look like there's extra flour, so just knead it in, then turn the stuff out and knead for about five more minutes, until it looks like bread dough. You know.
4. Microwave some water for a few minutes, then stick the bread in an oiled bowl, cover it with cling film, and stick it in the microwave. Go edit something for 90 minutes or so.
5. When it has risen, punch it down, divide it in half, and put each half in a loaf pan. Put the pans (covered) back in the microwave to rise another 45 minutes.
6. After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. At the 45 minute mark, it should be ready to go. Slash the top of the bread with your knife and stick it in the oven.
7. Bake 40-50 minutes, until it sounds hollow when you tap it.
   

Notes
*Awesome crust.
*If your oven heats unevenly at all you may want to be very careful in judging them both baked at the same time.
*I think I would like to put some toasted seeds (like sunflower seeds) on top of the next one or perhaps oatmeal. Maybe make it with raisins. Something sweet. Anyway this went well with some cherry jam.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Aren't they pretty?

The white filling is leftover almond-chocolate chip filling from hamentashen we made earlier in the week. You can use whatever jam you want, though (the red ones are cherry). Don't overfill them, or the jam will run out when it boils in the oven.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• jam or other filling
  

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Cream butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, and salt together. Add almond extract.
3. Add flour slowly until dough forms. If it's too soft, put it in the fridge for 10-20 min.
   
4. Roll into 1" balls and put on a greased cookie sheet. Push your thumb into them, then fill the indentation with jam or what have you.
5. Bake 8-12 min. Bryan's oven runs cool, so they probably could have gone even longer, but I was getting impatient.

Notes
The original recipe (found here) suggests there will be 36 cookies. In reality, this made a lot more. Also they are delicious.

If I were doing them to be super artsy, I'd use loads of colors of jams. I don't even usually like cookies that are not chocolate based, but these are great.

Potato Gnocchi

From Italian Cooking for Dummies.

Ingredients

• 4 potatoes (1 large, 3 small)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 c. flour (you will probably use more)
• salt and pepper

Methodology

1. Cook potatoes in microwave. Scoop insides out of skin and mash with a fork.

2. Add eggs and salt and pepper. Mix. Add flour until you have dough. This will eventually require that you knead the dough with your hands, so be sure the counter is clean.

3. Roll out into 1.5" diameter log, cut into 1" pieces.

4. Run over the tines of a fork and drop into boiling water for about 3 minutes. Scoop out about one minute after they begin to float to the top.

5. Serve with pesto.

Notes

*Easy easy easy. The longest part was waiting for the potatoes to cook in the microwave.

*0/7 on the disaster scale.

Three-Bean Rainbow Chili

For all your chili needs. Based on this recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 zucchini, sliced
  
• 3 large jalapeño chilies, seeded, diced
  
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 5 cups water
• 1 26.5-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 15-ounce cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 15-oz can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15-oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 3/4 cup bulgur (cracked wheat), rinsed
  
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. salt
  

Methodology

1. Cut up the vegetables or make some other people do that. Put the olive oil, carrots, onions, jalapeno and bell peppers, and zucchini in the pot and sauté over medium-high heat until tender, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Add the spices, then the rest of the ingredients. Stir, then cover and let it boil until the bulgar is cooked, about 20 minutes.

3. Serve with cheddar cheese and/or bread.

Notes

*The original recipe said that it made 6 servings, so to feed 6 people B and I decided to multiply it by 1.5. Now it makes about 27 15 10-12 servings. If you want to cut it back down, I'd suggest cutting the black and kidney beans to one can each and taking away the smaller can of tomatoes.

*Be careful when you serve it, since it will be quite hot. Try not to burn yourself or others, it is a little embarrassing to have your cooking experiments end in injury.

*The dish was well-received by all. 0/7 on the disaster index!

Em oi! #187 & 188

Compared to next week's comics, #188 is not so exciting. I'm fond of #187 though.

Em oi! #185 & #186

Got a bit hung up on other stuff this weekend and these, consequently, were not posted.



I suppose I have no additional commentary on them, except that the longer I look at 186, the less satisfied with the art I am.

Random Vegetable Curry

Does that sound like kind of an apathetic title? Because this is kind of an apathetic recipe. Luckily it was delicious.

Ingredients

• 1/2 eggplant, chopped
• 1/2 sweet potato, chopped
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 1/4 blocks baked tofu, chopped
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1 tin nuoc cot dua (coconut cream or coconut milk)
• 1 T. red Thai curry paste
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 1-2 T. soy sauce
• 1 handful spinach
  

Methodology

1. Put veg in pot with a little oil. Add coconut milk and let it simmer.

2. Add curry paste and brown sugar. After a while, add in the tofu and the chickpeas. Cover and let everything boil until the sweet potato is tender.

3. Add the soy sauce (to taste). Throw in a handful of spinach at the end and let it wilt.

4. That's it.

Notes

*This came out well. Good with toasted pita.

*About 250 calories if serving 6, if 8 about 192.

*Needs more curry paste.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

From here, with some changes.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 c. white whole wheat flour
• 1 c. quick oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
  
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. margarine
• 1/2 c. + 2 T (6 oz) low fat plain yoghurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 c. + 1 T. dried cranberries
• 1/2 c. + 1 T. chocolate chips

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Mix flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Mix brown sugar, margarine, yoghurt, vanilla, and the egg in another bowl. Stir the wet into the dry until all combined, adding a little extra flour if necessary.

4. Add the chips and cranberries. Drop in heaping teaspoons two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until brown.

Notes

*Makes about 30. I forgot to count before I got into them, but I think it's about 30. With my changes, it works out to about 104.5 calories/cookie.

*Very fluffy and cake-like. I was worried that they weren't good, but then my taste-testers ate about 8 of them between the two of them, so I figure they're okay. Next time maybe I'll use actual butter and just leave out the yoghurt, see if that makes them a little crisper. Also regular oats instead of quick oats.

Em oi! #184

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Vung Tau was like. Amirite, Ly?

Another script found while moving.

Em oi! #183

This raises the question of "Should I ask?", which I guess I'm not entirely comfortable with.

This was a panel from a script I found while moving. It was never drawn, since it had too many people in the panels to look clean.

The Remarkable Ice Cream Cake

So I have this idea that major life changes should be rewarded with cake. It seems like a good way to let people know that you approve of their choices - in this case, quitting an awful job.
This recipe has a lot of parts and takes a while to put together, but it's not actually very difficult. It's vegan because the friend I baked it for is vegan, but it doesn't have to be.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 1/3 c. flour (I use white-whole wheat)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (or a bit more)
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. pureed pumpkin
2 T. oil (like vegetable oil or canola oil)
1/2 c. molasses
1/2 c. hot water.

Ice cream:
1 quart vanilla soy ice cream (I used "It's So Delicious" brand because it was on sale)
1 package candied ginger (you can get this at an Asian food store, esp. around Chinese New Year)

Compote:
1/2 c. frozen berries
2 T. orange marmalade
2 T. grand marnier
1 T. brown sugar

Crust:
4 sheets cinnamon graham crackers
1 T. oil
1-2 T. brown sugar

Methodology

1. Cake: Preheat oven to 350*. Combine wet ingredients (pumpkin, sugar, molasses, oil, water) and dry ingredients (everything else) in seperate bowls. Mix dry into wet. Put in an oiled bread pan and bake ~35-40 minutes (I recommend checking after about 25).

2. Ice Cream: take the ice cream out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter. Open the package of ginger and chop it up in the food processor (or cut it by hand) into bite-sized pieces (think small, like raisins). By the time you finish, the ice cream should be softening but not soupy. Scoop it out into a large bowl, then add in the ginger and mix. This may take a bit of muscle to combine it well, but it shouldn't take too long. If it's really difficult, wait a few minutes until the ice cream is softer. When combined, scoop the ice cream back into the carton, cover, and return to freezer.

3. Compote: In a small sauce pan over low heat, put the berries, the marmalade, the grand marnier, and the brown sugar. You may want to add a little water, but not more than a tablespoon or two. Keep an eye on this, stirring occasionally, until the berries are melted, then turn up the heat to medium and let it simmer until you have something a bit less stiff than jam but more stiff than, oh, strawberry soup or something. This is called a reduction, incidentally. If you have corn startch, you can add that as a thickening agent (maybe a teaspoon?) when you turn the heat up, but I'd go slowly with that. When the berries are reduced, turn off the burner, put them in a container, and stick it in the fridge to cool. Incidentally, you may want to use your spoon to break up some of the larger berries to create a more uniform sauce.

4. When the cake is done, turn it out of the pan to cool. After about 30 minutes, wrap it in foil and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Wash the pan.

5. So everything is cool. Line the pan with cling film, leaving the pieces long so plenty hangs over (later on, you will wrap these pieces across the top of the cake). Take the ice cream out of the freezer and (when it is soft enough) spread a layer about an inch thick on the bottom of the pan and a little ways up the sides.

6. The cake is sort of wedge shaped, since the bread pan is a flat-bottomed, gradually widening V-shap (like this: \____/). Cut the cake in half and put the bottom half in the pan (by this I mean the same part which was touching the bottom of the pan when the cake was baking.

7. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of grand marnier on the cake, then spread the layer with berries. You should have just enough to go across. You could also use raspberry jam or something here.

8. Put another thin layer of ice cream over the berries.

9. Put the last piece of cake on. I had to cut mine somewhat thinner to make everything fit in the pan. You can drizzle this with liquor if you want, then cover with ice cream. Put the whole thing in the freezer.

10. In a dish, crush up the graham crackers. Add the oil and sugar, mixing until you get something like a graham cracker crust. Spread this across the bottom of the cake. Cover the whole pan with cling film and return to freezer for about an hour.

11. To serve, unwrap the cling film. Put a plate on the bottom of the pan and invert, then remove the pan and cling film. You can add frosting on top now, if you wish.


Notes

*If you are not vegan, you can use regular ice cream, change the flavours around, etc. This was ginger + gingerbread because my friend really likes gingerbread. If I were making it for myself, it would probably be coffee+chocolate+rum with orange/raspberry in the middle, something like that.

*0/7. There were no problems at all, and I've been asked for the recipe a number of times already.

Em oi! #182

I love cookies.

I love boys who bring me cookies.

I know that's not really very deep, but that's the sum total of my thoughts on this.

Em oi! #181

As promised, the comic. (This one is Saturday's).

So I was going to write a formal review of Brideshead, Revisited, but this pretty much covers it.

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

The original recipe was this one, though I'm not sure if that's the original site I downloaded it from.

My best friend and I messed with the recipe a bit, as you can see.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 2 ripe bananas (overripe is fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp soy milk
• 1 1/2 T. brown sugar
• 1 1/2 T. honey
  
• 2 ½ cups quick cooking or rolled oatmeal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• dash cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 1/4 c. chopped walnuts
• 1/4 c. chocolate chips
  

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas in a bowl. Measure 1/3 c. (6 T.) of (smooth) peanut butter into a bowl and stick it in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Combine it with the bananas and add in the vanilla, sugar, honey, and soy milk.

3. Mix in the dry ingredients (oats, baking powder, flour, salt, cinnamon, and mix-ins).

4. Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto greased cookie sheets; they don't spread, so you can put them pretty close together. Bake ~13 minutes.

Notes

*May have needed more salt, but I ran a half marathon this morning, so I'm not really one to judge.

*Maybe more peanut butter next time? Also probably won't do walnuts again. I'm just not big on nuts in cookies, except possibly brownies.

*Batch made 34; a test batch I made last week made 17, so I'm fairly confident in this number.

*0/7 disaster rating. Without raisins or walnuts, and using just brown sugar instead of sugar and honey, these have about 70 calories/cookie. I'm not sure how that changes with the extra stuff.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

I haven't felt much like cooking recently, but I had some extra pumpkin in the fridge I needed to do something with.

Ingredients

• 1/2 jumbo yellow onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• about 2 T garlic or other oil
• 1/2 cube bouillion
• about 1/3 c. frozen corn
  
• 1 15-oz. tin of pumpkin, less one cup
• 1.5 c. water
• 1/2 c. skim milk
• 2 T. curry powder
• 1 T. garam masala
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• a sprinkle of cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste
  
• 1 T + 1 tsp brown sugar

Methodology

1. Drizzle oil in a pot and throw in the garlic until it sizzles. Add onion and corn. After a bit of cooking, add bouillion cube, sugar, and spices. After a few minutes more, add about a cup of water.

2. Add the pumpkin. Mix, then taste and reseason if needed. Add another half cup of water and half a cup of milk. You can add more milk or water if you want a thinner soup.

3. Serve with bread (I used rye) and (white, sharp) cheddar on top, if desired.

Notes

*Makes about enough for 3. If I'd had the blender, I'd've purreed some carrots and put those in, too.

*1/7 on the disaster index. Careful when it boils.

Banana Bread Recipe, perfected

A few changes to this recipe to make it better. Yes.

Ingredients

• 1.5c white whole wheat flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3c. buttermilk
• 6 oz low fat plain yoghurt
• 1 T. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips, or until it looks right

Changes are bolded. Mix dry and wet as before, combine and bake at 350 for ~1 hr. If veganizing (which I haven't tried), I would replace the buttermilk with soy milk + vinegar and add plain or vanilla soy yoghurt or about 1/4 c. soy margarine. I will have to try this sometime.