Yummy Bagel Goodness
As with pizza dough and cinnamon rolls, it really improves bagels to put the dough in the fridge overnight. The lactic and acetic acid produced during the retardation process makes a big difference. Or, I guess, you can just buy it to add to your dough and skip that step. However, we had fresh bagels for brunch because all I had to do was take them out of the fridge, boil and cook. You can have them a little faster in the morning without having to make and shape the dough. Ditto for cinnamon rolls.
There are times when I just want to get things done or I’m dealing with something really hot, so I scoot the kids out of the kitchen. I do think that there is great benefit to letting them help, and I’ve had Ada in the kitchen helping since she was two. She’s progressed enough that she gets to use my paring knife for cutting, although never without me standing there with her. For brunch today, she made the eggs. She still doesn’t have the hang of breaking open the eggs, but she can crack them without any egg explosions. She knows now to pull them apart and not squeeze them, but as soon as she gets egg on her hands, ick! I need to spend time having her dunk her hands in a bowl with egg innards–a therapy technique we used for her SID when she was a baby. She seasoned the eggs–salt, garlic, onion, diced red and green bell peppers–with my guidance. Learning is greatest through experience, so I’d love to just have her taste her results of dumping a ton of salt in, however, we all were planning on eating the eggs, so I supervised quantity.
I admit that I don’t spend as much time with Jay helping in the kitchen as I did with Ada at his age. For brunch, I gave Jay the task of making the bacon. Bacon is the only food that I cook in the microwave. His job was to put the paper towel on the plate, lay the bacon on the towel, although he only did three before he said, “Mommy do it.” Then he topped the bacon with another paper towel and pressed all the buttons on the microwave. I think that I’m going to try baking the bacon in the oven on the broiling pan because that would save the waste in using so many paper towels. I know that they make microwave plates specifically for making bacon, but I really don’t feel like I need a specialized dish just for bacon when a plate, which has many uses, works with paper towels for grease soaking. I only make it in a pan on the stove when I need to utilize the grease for something. Microwave bacon cooking results in it being crisp, never burned, and grease clean-up is as easy as tossing the towels.
In other Jay food news, he woke up at 6:00am, circumvented the pantry lock and got out cereal and goldfish crackers. Mac did early morning duty since he was up anyhow. I woke up a little after 9:00, and came out to find Jay sitting in the massage chair with a bag of peanut butter chips on his lap. As soon as he saw me, he shoved the bag behind his back. You know, then I wouldn’t know he had them or somehow couldn’t get them. I put them away and made him wait for brunch. He loves bagels, but not for their chewy, flavorful goodness. He loves them as a plate for vasts amounts of cream cheese. I’m cracking down on giving him more cream cheese until he also eats the bagel. He finished one half and asked for more, so I made him another half. He then took a big finger full of the cream cheese off the top and shoved it up his nose. He looked at me as to say, “See what your stinginess has forced me to do? Don’t you wish now that you would give me cream cheese on demand?” He then later stole a whole bagel from the cooling rack, got out the container of creme cheese and a butter knife, and piled a big blob on top of the bagel. I didn’t catch him until he came walking up to me happily eating the cream cheese off the top of the bagel. He is now under a blanket lying on the loveseat with his car pillow. He’ll be asleep in no time–with a belly and nose full of cream cheese*.
*Not really, I cleaned as much as I could at the table. Then later, he came running into the kitchen with some running out of his nose. Mac, not knowing what happened, said, “Jay, what’s that coming out of your nose?” I said, “Cream cheese. He was saving some for later.” I wiped that off. I’m pretty sure it is all out now.
