Goodbye blue box!

I started cooking most of our food from scratch about 5 years ago and it's been great.  The transition from mostly convenience foods to mostly from scratch hasn't always been smooth, but what didn't work has simply proved a learning experience and has led us to something that does work.  There are still a few things I buy rather than make, but mostly I cook.  A lot. 

Over the past few years I've made at least two dozen different macaroni and cheese recipes.  I've tried baked ones, stove top versions and even a couple that were cooked in the crock pot.  I've tried ones with milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream.  I've tried various kinds of cheeses and different spices and seasonings, to no avail.  I simply couldn't come up with one that the kids would accept.

So when I discovered foodgawker.com, the first thing I searched for was macaroni and cheese.  Of the 163 results that came up, only a few looked like something I'd really want to make.  I'm not looking for a gourmet recipe, I don't want to buy specialty cheeses and use exotic spices.  I'm looking for a simple, delicious comfort food type recipe. 

Today, I think I've found that recipe.  Here is the recipe I used, called Stove Top Macaroni & Cheese.  I had never made a recipe on the stove top that called for egg before, so I was curious to see how it would go.  The only thing I did differently than the recipe is that I left out the hot sauce. 

I think I overthickened the sauce just a bit, because the finished macaroni was a little thicker than I'd like and didn't have a much of a saucy texture.  But that was my only issue and it's one that's easily fixed, just by cooking it a little less next time. 

The kids liked it pretty well, too!  So today I'm saying goodbye to the blue boxes and hello to yet another thing I can make from scratch!

Bagel Love

Yesterday Pibb and I started our third BBA Challenge project - bagels.  I've been making bagels for a few years now, and they've been good.  But not great.  So when I realized that Peter Reinhart had a bagel recipe in this book, I was ready to jump at the chance to try it. 

Opposite of the other recipes we've tried so far, this one has a large time commitment on the first day and a very small one the second day.  So yesterday we made the sponge, which involves letting a mix of yeast, flour and water sit at room temperature until it's foamy and risen, about 2 hours.  Our house is cold, so I set the bowl next to the stove, where I was also rising Kaiser rolls.  After the sponge was done, we added the rest of the yeast, flour and other ingredients to make a very stiff dough. 

The book said to knead the dough for 10 minutes, but I actually kneaded about 12 as I wasn't satisfied with the dough at 10 minutes.  After the dough was ready we split it into 12 equal portions and let it rest for about half an hour.  Then the fun part - shaping! 

If you've ever played with playdough, you are already very nearly a bagel shaping expert and we've spent many hours rolling, shaping and sculpting with play dough, so the shaping was pretty simple.  We rolled the dough balls into long snakes, wrapped them around our hands and just worked the ends in.  Then it was into the fridge to retard (or a very long, slow rise) overnight. 

All we did today was boil and bake the bagels - less than 15 minutes of hands on work.  The bagels don't need to come out of the fridge until you're ready to boil them, so you could have them boiled, baked and ready to eat in less than 30 minutes, if you want to eat them super hot!  We let them rest about 20 minutes before we ate them today and it was the perfect.

 The book suggests that the formed bagels can sit in the fridge up to 48 hours before being boiled and baked, so these would be great for busy weekends, holidays or brunch with guests. 

Here's how this recipe differed from my typical bagel recipe: The ones I normally make are start to finish, two and a half hours, tops. That means that the dough is a little tougher and the shape is lumpier than a typical bakery bagel. With this recipe, the overnight rest in the fridge gave the dough time to even out and relax, making these bagels very smooth and "professional" looking. My typical recipe also wants the bagels to be flipped over halfway through baking, leaving them flat on both the top and bottom. These are baked at a much higher temperature, for a shorter time and don't get flipped. Again, that leads to a more professional appearance.

These are the bagels I normally make - good, but not amazing.



Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice bagels - AMAZING!

The color in this picture is a little washed out, the bagels were more toasty golden in color.  Pibb ate the first bite and I could tell just from the sound of the crust as he bit into it that these were going to be way better than the others.  Bryant took the next bite and it was immediately clear that the other bagels were not going to be gracing out table again anytime soon, if ever. 

As you can see in the picture, half the bagels were left plain and the other half were given a sprinkle of homemade "everything" blend.  The blend was a little salty, but otherwise, crazy good! 

All in all, I'd call this one a huge success!