Saturday Bakefest

It all started with bagels.  I’ve been wanting to try making bagels for some time now but have never had the opportunity.  I’ve searched for recipes online but most of what I found are very time consuming, not to mention space consuming as the bagels have to be proofed in the ref overnight.

I finally found a recipe that might work from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I decided to mix a batch of their master recipe to be used the next day.  Their idea is very ingenious.  All you have to do is mix the dough, keep it in the ref, then use as needed within the next two weeks.  It ‘s great to have some dough waiting for you when you want to bake some bread.  There’s no kneading and not much waiting.  I’ll probably mix another batch and use it for bread next time.

Anyway, as I was planning what needs to be done on Saturday morning to make the bagels, I began to rethink my recipe choice.  Bagels require so much work, shaping, boiling, then baking.  I’m guessing 1 hour probably won’t be enough to get breakfast on the table.  So I searched for more ideas and decided to make Bacon and Eggs in Toast instead.  We’ve made a similar recipe before using sliced bread and that was a success and we’ve made it maybe three times.

I kinda had a difficult time dealing with the dough.  It was very wet and I had to dust the board heavily with flour.  It also tears easily.  My toast cups didn’t turn out as beautiful as theirs.  It was messy as the eggs were a bit large so it overflowed while cooking.

I also forgot to put salt on the eggs so it turned out bland.  The cheese I put at the bottom was mozarella, so it didn’t provide much contrast to the eggs.  If I’ll make this recipe again, I’ll use quickmelt.  I’ll also use small eggs so it won’t overflow.  We had bacon bits so I put that on top of the eggs and also sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top.   It looked quite decent on it’s own.

My kids enjoyed it and asked why I only made six.  So, I guess it’s not so bad and maybe deserves a second chance.

For lunch, we had pizza.  I used the same dough to make 4 pizzas.  We each get to decorate our own although toppings were a bit limited that time.  We only had bacon bits and mozzarella.  What I did different this time was brushing the pizzas with olive oil mixed with garlic.  Then we spread the tomato sauce and toppings.  We usually add mushrooms but we didn’t have any and it was raining so we didn’t want to go out and buy some.  I’d like to add onions and bell pepper but if I didn’t want to bother with slicing if I’m the only one to put them on my pizza but maybe next time, I’ll get to convince them to give it a try.  So, we had bacon pizza for lunch.

We still had some dough left so I decided to make calzones for dinner.   I stuffed it with all the remaining bacon and cheese we had and added some hungarian sausage.  In hindsight, I really should have put in some onions to balance the taste and maybe the kids won’t notice.  I guess I’ll do that next time.  It had a lot cheese so it overflowed from the holes on top and again made a big mess.

It was still good though.

So, Saturday turned out to be quite a messy and tiring day but I actually loved every minute of it.  I really enjoy working in the kitchen and turning out stuff that my family appreciates and like.  As Nigella would say, “When I’m in the kitchen, I’m happy.” 🙂

Sausage and Three Cheese Pizza

Last Saturday, I gave in to requests and had another pizza day at home.  It was the third time we made our own pizza at home.

The first time, we really prepared for it, buying mozzarella, bacon and mushrooms for toppings.  And we really liked it.  We were so excited we forgot to take pictures of it.

The second time was upon the request of my sisters.  It was Good Friday so we can’t have any meat on it so we just topped it with tuna and cheese.  And again we forgot to take pictures.

We still had some cheese left over and my kids said they want pizza again and they’re okay with just having cheese pizza.  We had mozzarella, cheddar and quickmelt that we grated for a three cheese pizza for the kids.  They each had a pizza to top as they wish.

We still had one Italian sausage in the freezer so I chopped that up, put in some fresh basil and the adults now had sausage and three cheese pizza.  This was my pizza before baking.  Doesn’t it look pretty?

Jon decided to make two flavors, one side was just olive oil and garlic, the other was like mine.

So after a looonnnggg waiting time (I didn’t realize that gas was running low so it took a long time to heat the oven and it didn’t get as hot as I wanted) it was finally time to eat!!!

Pizza anyone?

Epic fail: Sourdough pancakes

As mentioned yesterday, I found a new recipe to try today, sourdough pancakes.  Unfortunately, my family gave it the thumbs down.  After the first bite, Jon already noticed it was different and asked what I did differently.  As Yumi was eating, she actually told me, “Mom, please don’t make this pancake again.”

The pancake was too thin, and the taste was different from what we were used to.  I wasn’t crazy over it either although personally, I would have given it another chance.  I think I overmixed it which made it so thin but then again, it was the taste they didn’t like.

We already make our own pancakes from scratch and found a recipe that we like and always use.  I am quite successful with that recipe and our pancakes turn out fluffy more often than not.  I guess I should just stick with that and just find recipes to try for other types of bread.  Well, I found one for sourdough bagels.  Maybe we’ll have that for breakfast tomorrow…