Let me start off by saying YAY SPRING! It’s finally break-up here in Alaska-everything is dripping, melting, melting, and it’s perfect. I missed you, summer. I missed you, sun!

Like every spring, I am experiencing a burst of energy and activity affectionally known as Spring Cleaning. I have cleaned every inch of my kitchen and have now moved on to baking to refill my freezer so I don’t have to bake during the summer, when our lack of A/C becomes a true sadness. Today’s experiment was BAGELS.

If you don’t have Peter Reinhart’s “Artisan Breads Every Day,” you really ought to pick it up! Most of these recipes rely on cold fermentation, which I think brings a particular extra something to the flavor of the goods they produce-my favorite pizza dough recipe relies on cold fermentation to make it exceptional. Additionally, Reinhart’s recipes are all listed in ounces and grams as well as by volume, which makes it easy to get everything exactly correct. (If you bake often and don’t have a kitchen scale, invest in a $20 model and see how much you end up using it!)

So here’s a crappy picture-I was trying to hold a Photojojo lens up to my Samsung phone, and while I like how you can see more of my kitchen in one shot, my finger at the bottom sort of kills it a little for me. Still, you can see unboiled bagels on the counter by the Keurig, and my kitchen window with its little plants and new ikebana vase in it. I emailed the Photojojo guys about replacement magnets so I can use these lenses more often and they were extremely kind and helpful-if you take a lot of phone pics, I suggest looking into their lenses. 🙂

This is the boiling liquid-a mix of water, honey, baking soda, and salt that you boil the bagels in prior to baking.

Here is a blurry-quick photo of them going in the oven!

And here’s the finished product! I put sesame seeds on half per Vince’s request. 🙂

I made strawberry cream cheese spread to go on the bagels since they’re plain! A cup of strawberries, two tbsp. powdered sugar, and one 8 oz. package of cream cheese. Blend and let sit overnight before use.

In case anyone was wondering (and because I want to show it off!), here’s my ikebana vase.

It’s so springy!!!

Laters-

Allie.