Bagels and a Bowl of Sunshine

     It all started when I bought cream cheese for a recipe to cook up at Cazadero.  I was going to make a green chile egg dish (delicious, by the way!) and had 4 oz of cream cheese left over.  As almost any body with extra cream cheese would think, I thought that the extra would be great with bagels.  Of course,we didn't buy bagels so that craving had to stew in the back of my mind for almost a week.  Until yesterday. 
     I came out of my cooking slump yesterday.  I haven't been doing much cooking lately for two reasons: One, I have been away from home for work a lot.  Two, other people (like my wonderful husband-to-be) have been cooking for me.  What luxury!  However, I have been meaning to make bagels for a few months now.  I went back to my favorite cookbook How to cook nearly everything by Mark Bittman and followed the recipe.  Here it is:

Bagels

Ingredients:


3 and 1/2 cups bread or all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses or sugar
Neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for baking sheet (if needed)


Procedure:

1. Put the flour in a food processor. Add the salt, yeast and sweetener and process for 5 seconds. With the machine running, pour (don’t drizzle) 1 and 1/4 cups water through the feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, then remove the cover. The dough should be in a well-defined ball, only slightly sticky and very easy to handle. If the dough is too dry, add water 1 tbsp at a time and process for 5 or 10 seconds after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for a minute or two longer by hand, adding as much flour as necessary to make a smooth, tough, very elastic dough.


2. Dump the lump of dough into a large bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise for about 2 hours at room temperature, or up to 12 hours in the refrigerator. If refrigerated, bring back to room temp before proceeding.


3. Deflate the dough ball and let it rest on a lightly floured surface, covered, for about 10 minutes. Cut it into 8 or 12 equal pieces, depending on how big you want your bagels. Roll each ball into a 6 to 8 inch long rope and then shape into a circle. Keep all the balls covered as you work and lightly flour and cover the shaped bagels as well. When they’re done, cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.


4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and heat the oven (if using a pizza stone, put it in during preheating). Drop the bagels, one at a time, into the boiling water; don’t crowd. The bagels will sink, then rise to the surface. Boil for 1 minute on each side, then remove them with a slotted spoon and put on a lightly greased rack to drain.


5. Put bagels either on a pizza stone or a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the bagels are nicely browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Keep for 1 to 2 days.

     I forgot how much I love working with dough and baking stuff.  They were so very much fun to make!  I also realized I cannot make a bagel look good if my life depended upon it.  Oh well.  They tasted delicious.  Definitely different from the soft sugary stuff you get from the store.  These were chewy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Yum!  I covered them with sesame seeds and enjoyed them with all the cream cheese I wanted!

My lopsided but delicious bagels



The long awaited bagels and cream cheese


     Next on my list was a Bowl of Sunshine.  What's that, you ask?  Well, I am talking about the Bowl of Sunshine soup by David Wells, a gentleman known for making recipes for cancer patients.  Scott read about this butternut squash soup and really wanted to try it.  After all the cooking he has been doing for me, I decided to reward him by making this soup.

Bowl of Sunshine soup

Notes:
   High in powerful antioxidants: Vitamins A (beta carotene), C. Low calorie source. A great potassium and folate source. High in fiber. Excellent for improving circulation, and relieving nausea and indigestion. Bright visual color is appealing and stimulating.


Yield: 10 (12 oz.) servings


Prep time: 45 minutes


Cooking time: approx. 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 TB. olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup ginger, peeled and sliced
2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup rice vinegar or sake
1 lg. butternut squash, peeled seeded and rough cut
3 quarts H20
3 TB. orange zest (orange part of skin only)
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on bias (angle)
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:


1) Heat soup pot on medium heat w/olive oil until smoking.


2) Saute onions, garlic, and ginger for 2 to 3 minutes until translucent.


3) Add rice wine and simmer for 2-3 minutes.


4) Add butternut squash and 2 quarts of H20.


5) Simmer slowly for 2 hours.


6) Ladle contents into a blender and puree.
CAUTION: Always be very careful, pureeing hot food in as contents may erupt. You may want to remove the top and cover with a plate. Always leave some space for heat to escape.

7) If needed, you can adjust consistency w/remaining quart of H20.


8) Return pureed mixture to rinsed pot, heat and simmer.

9) Add cilantro, orange zest, and scallions.


10) Season w/salt and pepper and serve.

     So, I found out a few things from making this recipe.  One, was to make sure the soup was at a simmer rather than just putting the heat on and then leaving and coming back two hours later to realize that no bubble were coming up at all!  The squash, alas, did not cook to the consistency I wanted and so it made more of a grainy soup than a coming apart liquefied soup.  I was also panicking since my blender is leaking (an immersion blender would be perfect here!) until I realized that I had a food mill.  Alas, I lost the instructions for my food mill so I experimented with the different disc sizes.  The first one (large) was too large but the second one (medium) was just right.  I feel like Goldilocks with that statement.  It is a bit inconvenient using a food mill compared to an immersion blender, but I bet it is a lot easier than using a standing blender.  Plus, it was just fun to use the food mill again!  The verdict?  I put in too much orange zest (in my opinion) so didn't really like the soup all that much.  I actually stopped eating it about halfway through my first bowl.  Plus, I should have cooked the butternut squash more.  Scott, however, loved it!  And, since the soup was for him in the first place, that's all that really matters!




Bowl of sunshine soup in the pot (after the food mill)




Add a little bit of garnish



The stir fry that we also had for dinner that night (thanks to my wonderful Scott)