What I have been doing all. morning. long.

Making Bagels!

I used Rose's recipe, which was so great because she had her father help her.  She asked him, during a taste test, "Dad, are they like what you used to eat when you were a kid?"  And he said, "No.  They're BETTER!"  And they really were heavenly.  I used 3 cups of whole wheat flour and 2+ cups of bread flour.  It yielded this lovely soft but chewy inside and a crispy-chewy-crunchy crust.  They are SO good.

But.

Dude.  SOOOOO much work!  I told Chris, it would be worth it if we were still living in Brunswick and there wasn't a bagel place for miles around, but here we have a Brueggers just down the road, so I don't know how much I'll actually make them.  They are really freakin' good, so maybe...but we'll see.

The Boy seemed to like them...

That was our lunch today.  I had meant them for breakfast, and started them at 7:30...but they weren't done until 11--so we had them schmeared with cream cheese or peanut butter and jam...they were every bit as good as the ones I ate in New York.


In other news:  I got up this morning at 6:30 to work out.  I haven't worked out since well before we moved down here...which would be, oh, 5 months.  Let me just say, I kind of wanted to die.  And in the middle of my near-coronary experience in the living room I thought to myself, "This is why doctors say that exercise needs to be a routine.  Because when you get out of the routine it is just so very painful going back to it."  Over all, I'm pleased with myself for getting out of bed and getting (some of) it done.  Tomorrow my goal is to make it out bed a bit sooner so that I can get it all done.  My other goal is to be back in my jeans by Christmas.  And for those of you who know me well, you know this is pretty typical of me.  I wear loose clothes all summer long so I don't really notice that the ice cream as accumulated on my bum...until winter.  Then I have to bust my bum into some shape so that I can wear my jeans.  I have a longer range goal to actually...you know...STICK WITH the exercise come next spring and summer, but we'll see.  In the meantime, I have to put some bagels in the freezer before they go stale...