When money allows

I've been baking and cooking again, but really only when money allows for it. It's difficult not having a job that supports your "extra" expenses, which in my case, aren't actually that varied - I find most of my income and savings these days (as a student) go towards groceries or food. Antisocial hermit that I am, I have not been out to a restaurant with anyone in nearly a month, and in fact, most of my "eat-out" moments consist of me picking up steam table Chinese food from the Fresh Grocer down the street for $7.95 (3 options from the buffet with rice), grabbing pho option #15 for $8.69 from the Vietnamese place down the street, buying beer to nurse at home in my bed, probably the greatest expense, or purchasing coffee  for $2.90 at the one coffee shop I've found in Philadelphia so far that's been relatively acceptable. Do note that all of these moments end up with me eating alone in the near-dark of my room, maybe with Netflix for company...but that's about it. It's not that many expenses, you think to yourself, and that list of food items is definitely not necessary for life...yeah, yeah, I probably would be better off avoiding the steam table. Either way, when you factor in rent, electricity, office supplies for my abstracting job, internet, ordering checks from the bank, etc....let's just say I've been feeling pretty poor lately. It's time to soak the dried beans in my pantry, and to restart tabulating my expenses into that cob-web laden spreadsheet I've been ignoring, for my own preservation and edification.

What else am I going to do? Well, I paid most of my bills today and after seeing the dwindling account dwindle even more (and after finally dipping into the "parental" account to pay rent  - the account that exists which I have never previously used because it gives my parents a legitimate reason to hold more power over my life), I made a vow to stop shopping for groceries for new cooking projects until my pantry and refrigerator are near empty, with the exceptions of milk and eggs and fresh vegetables. So, there are going to be lots of simple things in the upcoming days, or things that I made awhile ago and stored in the freezer for later consumption (tamals, tubs of chicken broth, pulled pork leftovers, etc.). Who knows, maybe I'll even go a little vegetable heavy and stay away from the meat - meat is usually so expensive and god knows I have a ton of dried back and pinto beans, canned tomatoes, and frozen peas to dig into. Also, boxed macaroni and cheese anyone?

To tie it all in before I leave you again, bread is something I see as a luxury. I will be attempting to make my own bread again, as most of the time, I'm not willing to spend money on bread unless it's a well-made crusty baguette or something equivalent...and then it's an expensive luxury. Also, I'm not too keen on the plastic-bag-wrapped loaves that comes off grocery shelves - they serve their purpose for peanut butter sandwiches and grilled cheese, but other than that, I'd rather have something more toothsome. A year ago (or more), I decided to start making my own bagels, because I could never find a bagel place in Baltimore that made me happy. I've run into the same problem here in Philly, with the exception of a food truck, where a sesame bagel with all the works cost me $7! I'd rather just make them at home for next to nothing. So here's a tried a true recipe. The only bad thing about these bagels is that they go stale within a week, so don't make too many at a time - they're best enjoyed the day of and day after the bake. My next experiment will be to make a bagel with a levain, as I've heard that helps bread keep longer, but until I get started on a levain, as I've been saying I would for months now, that project will just have to wait.

Plain Bagels
6 large bagels

2 heaping teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 TB granulated sugar

1 1/4 C lukewarm water

3 1/4 C bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

olive oil

1 TB honey

Activate your yeast by placing the yeast and sugar in a large bowl, then pouring lukewarm water into the bowl. Do not mix. Let sit undisturbed for 15 minutes or until the mixture is frothy. While you are waiting sift together the bread flour and the salt.

Once the yeast is frothy, add in about 2 1/4 C of the bread flour-salt mixture, reserving about 1 C of the flour for kneading. Stir the yeast-flour together using a fork, until a sticky dough comes together. Then, scrape the dough out onto a clean, floured surface and begin kneading. Note, the dough will be pretty sticky so have a scraper handy to help you while you knead. Slowly incorporate the remaining 1 C of bread flour while kneading, until the dough becomes smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky - this will take some time. It's pretty therapeutic though.

Once the dough is elastic and smooth (gluten activated - the dough should bounce back when you press on it), place into a bowl with ~2 TB of olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour (or until doubled in size). Punch it down and then let it rise again for 15 minutes. After the 2nd rise, divide the dough into 6 equal parts and shape into bagels. Place on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in the refrigerator for 1 hour. After the 3rd rise, remove the bagels from the refrigerator and let them warm to room temperature (10 min, a 4th rise)? In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a simmer and mix in 1 TB of honey and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 

Using a slotted spoon and without overcrowding the pot, boil each bagel for approximately 1 min on one side, then flip and boil for 1 minute on the other side. Remove from water with the slotted spoon and place onto parchment paper on a pan. 

Bake bagels 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to ensure evening browning. Remove when lightly toasted and bottoms of bagels are brown. Cool and serve with cream cheese, a slice of tomato, and 2 strips of bacon (aka my favorite bagel combination).