Saturday mornings don't get better than this

When Kersten and Chuck said they were going to the airport at 7am on a Saturday, I quickly volunteered to drive them. Why? Well, easy. First of all, because I'm a wonderful friend. Really, the best. Secondly, Kersten and Chuck have provided so much generosity to me over the years (living in their apartment several times, bringing me and my 2 coworkers to the airport with 6 huge pieces of luggage, taking care of my monster dog, etc). Third, you never know when you're going to need a huge favor, so it's always smart to stockpile. But the fourth and most important reason that I didn't mind getting up so early on a Satruday was because I was full throttle in the middle of a project that would fit in perfectly with this schedule: BAGEL MAKING.

As a half Jewish New Yorker, it is hardwired into my DNA to love bagels. Also, I really like cooking things that most logical people would just go to the store and buy at a much lower cost, both in terms of time and actual US dollars. The effort I had to put into this bagel making process was enormous - it involved purchasing special flour online (and I splurged for the organic variety, because I'm into that [sometimes]), making the dough and refrigerating overnight, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But I thought it would be worth it, because all that time and effort would result in me being able to say that I make my own bagels. And if you're wondering if it was worth it, the answer is simple: hells yeah.

Here's a rundown of the process:
1. Make dough
2. Put in fridge overnight
3. (Next morning) Boil. THEN bake.

First, a requisite photo of the ingredients. Really, bagels don't require too much, except for that ridiculously difficult to find high gluten flour. Seriously, you have to buy it online, and paying for shipping on flour just seems wrong.



NEXT: An action shot! The recipe recommends that you roll out the dough then form it into rings. But I ain't no fool! That seems hard. Instead, I followed a user's suggestion to just make circles and then poke holes in them. My method (TM) was to poke a wooden spoon through, elongate the hole, then spin it around on the spoon. I am mid-spin in this photo.



Since this is probably getting a little boring, let's cut to the chase. I did some other stuff, like poking all the holes, refrigerating, watching maybe 4 innings of the Red Sox game, drinking a couple of beers, going to sleep, then doing all the aforementioned airport stuff, then finally I boiled and baked the bagels. And I was THRILLED when I opened the oven to discover these beautiful specimens on the pizza stone:

I made myself some delicious Ethiopian coffee, turned on the TV to catch the end of "The Prince and Me" (side note: horrible movie. Why do people keep hiring Julia Stiles? Don't get me wrong, she seems like a nice enough person, but her acting is rough.) and enjoyed my delicious bagel. The only uncomfortable part was that Buna really wanted to go out, so she kept staring at me and whining. But I forgave her, because she is the best dog ever (you be the judge - look at this photo), and the long weekend was off to a promising start.