Cooking and Baking and Bagels Oh My

So if I were to not work I would spend time cooking and baking. These past two weeks I have been pretending that I will never work again. It was a great two weeks. Now I want to cry. I love my kids, but baking and cooking and snuggling the dog is WAY better than working.

With that said, here are a few things I decided to make TODAY, my last day of not working.

I made a batch of bagels - they SUCKED. I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe but I put it in the bread machine and I think it kneaded like 20 times longer than it was supposed to. We ended up with hockey pucks that tasted salty and gross. First totally failed bagel attempt. Of course we had our neighbors over to see our "amazing" bagels and then the bagels blew. See below. So sad and hockey puck like with no brown toasted look to them. GROSS!!

To redeem myself (and to try to forget that I have work tomorrow) I decided to make another batch. I followed an egg bagel recipe from a book of bread machine recipes that my mom got me years ago. I channeled Bob Ettinger briefly in thinking that nothing could supersede Cooks Illustrated, but then I thought, "What the hell?"

I threw all the ingredients into the machine and followed the directions completely. I even boiled them for 7 minutes (well maybe 6) instead of the 35 seconds suggested by the Cooks Illustrated recipe. They were way way way more soft and doughy than the other recipe (from the magazine that must not be named). Here they are in the oven:

I then brushed them with an egg glaze and added sesame seeds and baked them at a much lower temp (375 instead of 450) for a much longer time (35 minutes instead of 14). They appear beautiful.

They have a nice crunchy exterior and a chewy and delicious inside. They are not YELLOW like the egg bagels you buy in the store which leads me to believe that stores add some sort of yellow food coloring or something else gross. So take that Cooks Illustrated - yummy bagels with a TOTALLY different recipe that did not BREAK my Kitchenaid. Yes, the sad news is that my second to last bagel foray broke my Kitchenaid stand mixer. The motor still works but the gears don't. It will no longer turn. Too much gluten I suppose. I am not excited to get it fixed, but alas it will happen sometime.

Ok so while making the bagels I decided to make a Canadian spiced meat pie. This recipe is from Cooking Light. First Tom (my assistant) chopped up the onions, carrots, celery, potatoes and chives. I was busy bagel making. Then I browned the meat with cinnamon and cloves and some salt and red pepper flakes. Then I sauteed the veggies. Then I added the meat back into the mix and added some flour and chicken broth.

After the meat and broth was all thickened I dumped it into a pie pan and added a pie crust. Now it is happily baking in the oven. Picture of baked and delicious meat pie to come!

So I will leave you with Harper's Bagel Bazaar's first advertising picture. The tag line is - if Harper wants 'em then you'll want 'em too.

Ok I had to add some pictures of the totally baked pork pie. So delicious.

Bagels Part Deux

So one of my favorite friends - Sara d came to visit (yes that's d with a lowercase on purpose!!!) this weekend. It was awesome. We chatted late into the evening Friday and then slept late on Saturday (if you don't count that I let Harper out at 4:30am). We drove into Ballard and walked around - did a little shopping at Buffalo Exchange - love that place. I tried on about 5 pairs of skinny jeans and hated them all. The best was the pair that were actually stuck ON my feet. I mean how was I supposed to get them on? And I love that they are about 8 inches too long. One day I will find my long lost skinny jeans. After our Ballard hang out (we ate lunch and met up with a friend of Sara's from L.A. who recently moved here) we made the dough for the BAGELS!!! Then we ran to the PCC to get stuff for "everything" topping. I might have stared at the container of Wheat Gluten for 5 minutes before I realized that even though it was calling itself "Wheat Gluten Flour" it was indeed just vital wheat gluten. We rushed home and primped for our night out and then we rolled the dough into bagel looking shapes.

While Tom was busy watching the Bulls lose to the Celtics - and yes he did BET against the Bulls. He won, but what kind of team spirit is that, we headed to the Park Pub down the street from our house. Lots of people from work and other friends met us out for a low-key and fun b-day celebration. I got some amazing Burts Bees stuff (love it - already using the lip balm and the hand salve), some wine, and a dozen amazing cupcakes. Possibly the best "gift" is knowing that Clark and Megan put a deposit down on a puppy that they will receive on New Years Eve. Now everyone obviously knows where I will be New Years Eve! I will be snuggling and talking baby talk to the puppy while Harper totally ignores it and pretends it does not exist. At least he won't chase it like it's a squirrel or cat.

So after beers and juice-like cider we came home. This morning Sara and I walked all the way up Phinney/Greenwood to 85th. I bought Harper an amazing red jacket for when we go snowshoeing as well as some "healing salve" (that I probably could have bought for humans at Walgreens for 1/5 of the price) for his super dry skin. The poor dog has little scabs where he scratches so much. Next on the agenda of insane spending of money - a humidifier. After our epic walk we went to the Ballard Farmer's Market and strolled around. We tasted a bit and then we treated ourselves (or so we thought) to some hot dogs. I got a regular hot dog and Sara got a chicken basil sausage. Seriously within 15 minutes of eating them we both felt strangely nauseous. Not sure what was up??? Maybe it was the funky tea that we tasted? But that can't be because we bought the hippie tea and drank it later with no nauseating feeling.

Then we made the bagels. The reason why they are bagels part deux is because while we did not follow the exact Cooks Illustrated recipe, we did add gluten this time. After seeing the dough (it was a totally different consistency) I was sure they would be amazing.

We boiled (30 seconds this time instead of 2 minutes) and baked - 14 minutes, on a pizza stone that was insanely hot. They turned out fantastic.

And that my friends is perfection. The bagel was chewy and crunchy. Salty and oniony and garlicky. AMAZING. The question is, will my Kitchenaid mixer ever work again. Ok it's not broken at all - but it was about to have a heart attack trying to kneed the dough. I suppose 7 cups of flour plus gluten is asking a lot of it.

And so as my parting birthday gift to myself - after dropping Sara off at the airport I decided to get a new phone. I was ready to buy something stupid because I was not prepared for the DROID update. However Tom called as I was walking in and instructed me to get a cool phone. So I got the little HTC Droid with all touch screen. I have no idea how to use it and I forgot to have them transfer my contacts so if you call and I say "hello?????" don't feel offended.

Happy bageling. I will be eating my everything bagels for quite a while. So if anyone is interested in making them, use the old recipe I have linked on here somewhere and then add 3 Tablespoons gluten. Also I am not sure that you need to make any sort of a "sponge". The Cooks Illustrated recipe does not call for a sponge that rises for 2 hours - so I dunno about that part. I would also divide your dough into at LEAST 18 parts. We did 13 the first time and had monster bagels, this time we did 16 and many were still gigantic. So I'd do 18 if possible.

My dog is gross

Ok so after making a fantastic fire Tom and I noticed a stain on the rug in front of the door. Strange that we didn't notice it before, but we are not always as observant as we should be. Tom looked at it and announced that Harper had obviously peed. I was hesitant to believe this seeing as Harper has not peed in the house since he marked on the Hodgman's couch because Tom's cousin's dog was over. That was over 4 years ago.

Not one to be grossed out by dog bodily functions, I got down at nose level and sniffed the spot. Pee? Nope. Puke spot? Yes. And where might that puke have gone you ask? Back down into Harper's belly of course. If it comes out looking like food, you might as well snarf it back down again.

With that said it brings to mind the disturbing fact that Harper continues to randomly puke. I was trying to describe this to someone yesterday (I'm sure they were NOT interested), and I realized that he hadn't been making that awful retching sounds that dogs make when they puke. You know, when you can actually hear their stomach swaying back and forth like a stormy ocean. So I decided (stupid) to look this up on the internet.

Now I have been bombarded with information categorizing Harper's "pukes" into regurgitations which are potentially caused by such a variety of diseases and problems that I will be unable to sleep tonight. My hope is that it is some stupid piece of bone that will dislodge itself. My fear is that it is something awful, or god forbid operable (this would make operation #3).

To make matters worse, after discovering this possible life-altering information, Harper happily chewing on his mini-kitty glow ball (if you don't know what that is only ask me if you want the 45 minute story), suddenly just ATE the freaking ball. He has been playing and chewing on it for about a year and never once seemed interested in eating it, but tonight of all nights, he just up and SWALLOWED it. Tom was incredibly unhappy and said, "BAD!" to which Harper replied by licking his face.

I would say there is a 99.9% chance of puking or regurgitating or whatever the hell it is in the next 24 hours. Will keep you posted.

Moving South...23 Blocks

So yesterday we moved. I might say that it was one of our smoothest moves. I'm not sure if this is because we have now officially moved (if you count anything after graduating from Wesleyan) 7 times in the past 6 years. Yikers.

We had helpers (thank you helpers), and they were fantastic. Tom made me move two couches with him before any strong people arrived. That was painful, but I did it with minimal complaining. Then the ladies and I filled our cars with the random stuff and the men carried heavy things.

Now I'd say - 24 hours later (ok maybe 28 hours to be exact) we are about 85% moved in. I think we have just been SOOO ready to settle into something that we were way too excited to unpack the kitchen and all the other stuff that we have only 1/2 unpacked until now.

We have a wood burning stove which is ridiculously exciting for Tom. He had a cord of wood (4 ft by 4ft by 8 ft) delivered today and stacked it all while I was cleaning the old house. Now he is attempting our first fire. It sounds nice, but I don't think it is burning correctly b/c Tom has not left it, and it was orange two second ago, and now I see nothing. The question is, when Tom goes away in 2 weeks will I be able to make a fire by myself????

In other moving news - not sure if it is stress related or not, but Harper has now thrown up his food three days in a row. Always at a different time, never with much warning. And you know how dogs normally make that weird seasick sound where their stomach heaves? His has NOT done that. He will just look at you, go to the door, and then bleh - puke. He is eating and drinking and running. So I am not taking him to the vet because I know they will ask those questions, and when everything is normal they will not know what to say. I think it's stress or maybe too much cat poop eating, or something else gross.

Ok so the new house is cozy and cute. It's got two nice bedrooms. One bedroom has another little office off of it. The kitchen is cute - slightly awkward at times, but cute nonetheless with a little eating nook and built in table. Fun sparkly chandelier in the dining room. The neighborhood is already super friendly. We have been invited to borrow anything (eggs, sugar etc) from our next door neighbors. The next next next door neighbor has two sons, and one of them (in 7th grade) came over to help Tom stack wood. His mom apparently said she would buy us bagels next time they get them. Nice. The upstairs family seems nice too. We are a hop - skip - and jump from a soccer field at Woodland Park which until we get arrested or fined will be very nice for fetching Harper.

So Happy Days right now. This is by far the most relaxed I have felt since perhaps our honeymoon.
Oh yeah and I forgot to say that off of our porch (if you lean right), but more safely from our sidewalk you have a view of the ocean and the Olympics. Sweet!

Italian Plum Jam

Tom and I have had a very interesting time making (we'll we're not sure if we have succeeded) plum jam.
It was easy enough chopping the plums. It was easy enough boiling them with water. It was easy adding the sugar and then AAAAH we suddenly realized we had to boil the jam in a water-canner. What is a water-canner you ask? It's a large pot with a wire rack inside to keep the jars from touching the bottom. Do we have a water-canner? Of course not. So we ran to Fred Meyer (strange faux Wal-Mart) to buy one, but alas they didn't have one.

We decided we would pot a pot top in the bottom of a big pot. We tried that but didn't have enough room. We searched through our boxes and found our GIGANTIC lobster pot (thanks Liane). I found the perfect top to put in the bottom, and we are on our way to "processing" our jam.

Mixed with the death-plum farts coming out of Harper it is somewhat amazing that we are still alive. Pictures soon to come.

Italian Plum or Italian Prune....or both?

http://www.produceoasis.com/Items_folder/Fruits/ItalianPrune.html

This is the type of tree growing in our yard.
This is what Harper ate about 30 of yesterday.
This is what continue to make him fart uncontrollably.

Plum or prune? You be the judge!

This is the last piece of plum crisp that I made. It was delicious!

Relaxing Do-Nothing Weekend

This weekend was amazingly relaxing. I was even too lazy to bring Harper to the dog contest that entered him into. Two days of sleeping late. A breakfast out (smoked salmon eggs benedict), homemade waffles in, a long nap, walks with the dog in the sunshine. Honestly I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Now if I could just figured out what to do with the 9 million plums falling off of our tree. I am going to make Liane's famous chicken with plum salsa (or salza as she likes to call it) tonight. Is there such a thing as a plum crisp? We might find out.

Nothing much new on the house hunting front. We are still waiting for the house of our dreams to pop up on redfin for an affordable price.

School has gone incredibly smoothly for two weeks. I hope it continues in the same fashion.

I feel like I should keep updating the blog for any of you that read it, but other than waiting to see what happens after Harper eats about 20 plums in one day (so far gas and gross poops) there might not be anything super interesting that I post for a bit.

We went to a sports bar 2 seconds from our house called Bleachers today for the Bears game. It was PACKED with really intense SeaHawks fans who were drinking like there was no tomorrow. We had some nachos and chicken tenders. It was a gut-busting Sunday meal.

And that's the latest update. We are supposedly going to see 80 degree sunny days next week, so that is exciting.

Saturday in Seattle

We had a great Saturday.

We had planned to do a hike about an hour and a half north of the city, but we scrapped it because it was a teeny bit drizzly and cloudy, so we would have had no views. Bob and his wife Eileen (Bob is Tom's brother Dan's good friend from home) came over for blueberry pancakes and they brought some DELICIOUS bacon (which we made in the oven...it was great that way). We ate those and Bob basically decided for us that it wasn't worth it to leave the city. I'm not sure if I actually agree...because I don't care as much about the views as just about getting out and walking around.

We ended up going to Carkeek Park. We tried walking one trail but it was very overgrown and there were spider webs everywhere!!! This place is over run with spiders and I hate them. So we went on a different trail and walked around. Harper had a ball and we ran into a very friendly golden who tried to join our pack, and a puppy that was adorable. We took a picture in a giant hollowed out tree....I'll post it when I upload it.

On our way back from the hike/walk we saw a place on the side of the road: http://www.jensenssmokehouse.com/

We did a U-turn and went inside. They were super super super friendly and let us try all the different smoked salmons. We bought two (Red King and White King..I think they were called). We also bought some smoke pepper jack cheese. Then we came back to our place and ate MORE! We also added some Mt. St. Helens Goat cheese from http://www.soundfood.org/sfcommunity/sflocalfoodblog/34-port-madison-goat-farm-and-dairy.html

and some sourdough bread from the farmer's market. Yummy lunch!

Tom and I fought off taking an afternoon nap. Instead we computered and did some errands and then read. Eventually we decided to venture to REI to use up our wonderful gift cards. We only got mildly lost on the way there. Maybe we added 10 minutes to our time because we drove by the baseball field when a game was about to begin (oops). We got a water filter, a suitcase for us to share for now..later we will add a second, a map of where we want to go hiking/camping next weekend, a book on hikes to do with dogs, a pair of running shorts for Tom, a National Forest Pass, and an REI membership. YEAH to people who bought us the gift cards because they helped us out a LOT!

We made it home somewhat tired, but instead of succumbing to eating out, we buckled down and made some yummy peanut noodles with chicken and mangos!

Edmonds Dog Beach

We drove about 1/2 an hour north/west to the Edmonds Dog Beach.

It was huge (we were there at low tide) and there were tons of friendly dogs, but still LOTS of space. Harper was incredibly friendly and even tried to play with a dog for a bit (wow!).

There was insane seaweed everywhere and it was sort of a death trap and a bit gooey but it was fun. There were also blackberry bushes everywhere and Tom and I went a little "tourist" on the dog beach and started picking them.

I think we will attempt a pie or something tonight.

Harper swam/ran in the water and chased dogs and it was WAY WAY better than him at the dog park.

I'm starting to think (in my Caesar Milan way) that I am more stressed at the dog park and sort of waiting for annoying dogs to annoy him, compared to how I am at a big dog beach. Maybe Harper's snappiness is all my fault.

Dogs dogs dogs dogs. For those who know Quincy...I am on the hunt for a Quincy replacement as a sister for Harper. Tom is NOT into this idea....but I figure once we buy a place and get settled maybe maybe he will warm up to this. I have found Quincy's twin online and I hope more turn up.

Dog Park - First Attempt

Oh man. It's like a change in the world going to the dog park again in a big city.

It's really not so different from Chicago, however Harper is no longer a puppy who loves all dogs. Now he is a grumpy old man who growls WAY too often.

I was there about an hour. It is nine thousand/million (not really) times the size of the St. Ronan park, and it is one of the SMALLEST in the city. Good lord that is crazy. It is way bigger than even the Chicago one I used to go to.

We ran into two dog walkers who each brought probably 7-8 dogs. The rest of the dogs around were totally fine, but when 15 come inside in a matter of 5 minutes it is just a little overwhelming I think.

Harper only did minor growling. I kept correcting him and making him NOT stand next to me and protect me. There are just SO many dogs for him to get all figured out, it is insane. On the upside, it took me about a 7 minute drive which is way less than I figured it would be. Another plus for our house and it's location.

Discovery Park

I met up with my freshman roommate from college Alicia in Magnolia this afternoon. What a wonderful way to spend my last "free" day before heading back to the grind.

It was a quick and easy drive south and over the Ballard Bridge. I missed the turn off, but I made my way anyway. I went up some hills and down some hills. I found the park without a hitch despite my wrong turn along the way.

Alicia looked great. Just as good if not better than at 18 when I met her. We walked with Harper down to the beach area. It says NO DOGS ALLOWED on beaches, but there weren't many people - and no cop looking people, so we let him on. He swam a bit and dug in the sand and explored and we gossiped and caught up. It was a hike up stairs back to the top, but we made it. Slightly sweaty, but alive. It was really nice to catch up and fill each other in on the many years since Wes.

I checked out Tom's office on my way home. It's got a nice conference type room and three nice offices. Bathroom down the hall. Very simple and cool views of the water. Great location in Ballard. It will be hard for him to take lunches to work with all of those places to eat! The traffic gets super busy down there though. Jeese!

And now I'm safely back home and ready to make some halibut meuniere for dinner. Then we head out to check out houses for sale. Full day before heading to work tomorrow.

Trip Cross Country Day 8

Day 8-

We sad our sad goodbyes to Ketchum. We made yet another amazing Dutch Baby pancake with berries and then let the dogs fetch a little on the Dollar Mountain Bunny Hill thingie.
We stupidly followed the GPS out of town and I ended up driving up some pass on a dirt road going very slowly. Tom kept getting confused because he couldn't find us on the map and we had been very excited to stop off at Redfish or Red something lake that Naomi had told us about. However we never saw it.

When we got to some random town in Idaho we realized the GPS had taken us an insane way, and that we had missed the entire drive through the Sawtooths, and the stop off at the lake.

We got out and had burgers at some place. It was 97 degrees outside!!! We were in shock because Jackson and Ketchum had been relatively cool. We jumped back into our ACed car and kept trucking. We stopped at a random river and let Harper run in a little bit. It was COLD cold cold water.

At some point we passed the 45th parallel - the spot mid way between the equator and the north pole. Ok something like that. I can't remember the exact info. I failed to get a picture, just like every time we passed the continental divide I could NOT for the life of me get a picture.

We entered into Montana at some point. We stopped at a Forest Ranger station and Tom asked them some questions. We could see the dead trees that had been burned 9 years ago in some insane forest fire. There were a LOT of dead trees.

We stopped about 14 miles south of Missoula to go to a campground. It was a really nice place along a river and we set up our tent and hung out in the river briefly. It felt very refreshing and Harper was having fun. Then we decided to go to Missoula - the infamous town that I was convinced I would be in love with.

I drove in and I was not impressed. Sort of junky strip malls on your way in and little "casinos" everywhere. I don't think they actually have true gambling....just Keno and other electronic things. We got into more of the residential area and it looked cute. We parked and strolled around Main Street and Front Street. We bought some camp suds at an outdoor gear place and tried to stay out of the sun which was insanely hot. We ended up ordering a pizza from the Mackenzie River Pizza Company (I might have made up this name) and went for a walk on the river as it was baking. We watched some people doing crazy kayaking on the river and then ate our pizza on the grass. On our way out of town we drove toward the campus and parked near some sports fields. Harper ran into the river and then we went for a walk. There was an offleash dog area which was a grassy area with river on either side and then a small trail for a little bit. It was fun and we walked to the end and back.

We headed back to our campsite. Tom and Harper went into the river. I swear it was 40 degrees. I do not know how Tom was able to dunk his head and body in there! We tried to dry Harper off, but he insisted in rolling. Now if he had rolled in the grass that would have been fine, but no, he only would roll in the sandy/ash from the fire pit. So needless to say he was disgusting. We played some music and hung out on our campsite. Then Tom made a fire and we sat around it reading a book aloud. Liane had given us, "Peace Like a River" and we had taken to reading it aloud to each other in the car. Harper would NOT settle down, so we moved into the tent and continued reading until we were sleepy. It was a pretty warm night, and luckily Harper snuggled our feet and not another more heat producing part of our bodies.

Trip Cross Country - Day six

MOOSE!!in the truck in the rainharper with an elephant hat on

Day six-

We got up in Jackson and took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood. We climbed a small hill and sat up there briefly. We drank some hot chocolate and bummed around the house. Then we threw the Frisbee and drove Harper crazy outside. Around 10am we headed to Bubba's or breakfast.

We checked out Orvis while we waited for our names to be called. Eventually we sat and ate some wonderful breakfast. I tried to order the grits but the waiter said, "they are instant," which made me think I should change my order back to hash browns.

After breakfast we picked up Emily's car and headed back to the house. We packed the car and threw the dog in and headed up to where we had heard we'd see buffalo and moose. We saw some herds of buffalo - one was not far from the car! Then we drove to where we should see the moose, but it was not there. We gave up on our moose and started driving back. There were cars pulled over on the road, and there was a moose! Check that off our wildlife checklist.

We dropped Emily off at home and took off for Ketchum around 1:30pm. We drove over Teton Pass and then were pretty quickly in Idaho. We tried to listen to "Idaho" by Yonder Mountain String Band, but it was not working on Tom's ipod.

We stopped for gas outside Idaho Falls and switched drivers.

We saw lots of farms and some weird lava flow things. We didn't have to do any more climbing of mountains, so we just coasted right into Ketchum.

We arrived, unpacked let the doggies run around like crazy and then we headed to Naomi and Brad's friend Laura's house for a bbq. We sat in the back of the pick up truck while Brad drove. That was a fun experience. We ate delicious food and hung out with super fun people. We even roasted marshmallows over the grill.

On our way to sleep Tom ingeniously pushed the couch up to the bed. Instead of lying on top of us, Harper slept on the couch next to the bed. We might now have a bed/couch in our future. Our first sleep in a BED in a while. It was great.

Last offical Belize Day

Monday-

Last day!!! Had breakfast by the pool while our ankles got re-bit by bugs. Can't leave without bug bites right? We also played pool while breakfast was being cooked.
I started off throwing the darts ALL over the place, but by the end I had improved considerably. I was still only able to get one point while Tom had like 15 points. I need to practice.

After breakfast we went for a kayak in the lagoon and attempted to catch fish (that did not work). Then we showered, packed, and got in the truck with Dale to head to the airstrip.

We took our puddle jumping flight back to Belize City and then hung out for a while eating at the restaurant. When we went to go through the check in line (where they charge you $70 to get through!!), we couldn't find my slip of paper thingie. So we had to go back and get another one and then wait in line again. Then of course we found the slip in my passport later. When we went through the security they stopped Tom and made him give them his conch shell. They said he could have checked it, but could not carry it on. We were somewhat pissed about that.

We had an uneventful flight to Miami and then a delay into Chicago. We arrived around midnight and Dave picked us up at the airport. Harper was incredibly excited when we got home and danced and peed and licked our faces. Great honeymoon!