December 2003 Archives

Recently I came across a bagel recipe linked by Dean at Textism. I always read Dean's recipes with curiosity, as he seems to be a food connoisseur. This time I thought "that can't be so hard. I'll try it myself."

My problems started at the grocery store where I couldn't find potato flour or malt syrup. Once I started work on the recipe, they continued when my first attempt at yeast growing failed (note to self: lukewarm means hot, not a little better than room temperature).

Finally getting a dough that rose, I thought I was on the right track. When I went to separate it into bagel size pieces however, it flattened right out. No problem, the recipe says let it rise for fifteen more minutes, so I thought I'd be ok.

I started poaching the bagels, however they kept reminding me of the bald rodent in Kimpossible. Not looking so good. I brushed them with egg, threw on some sesame seeds, and popped them in the oven.

Now two side notes. 1) When the last five things you've cooked in the oven have come out slightly more cooked than you expected (read burnt) maybe the problem isn't you. Maybe when the oven says 400, it means fires of hell. 2) When the recipe takes you to almost eleven at night and number one occurs, removing the smoke detectors will help keep your neighbors (who go to bed at 8) from slashing your tires the next morning.

As you might be able to guess, my bagels ended up burnt and my smoke detectors were blaring. To make matters worse they didn't look like bagels, they looked like pretzels.

The moral of the story here is that not only is Dean a PHP genius, but he also must have some Julia Child in him. Me? I'll stay out of the kitchen from now on.

Just so you know, I'm not dead.

I have a few things to say. One: I know I haven't posted too many book reviews lately, but that doesn't mean I stopped reading. I recently finished Dark Tide : The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo. It was an excellent and interesting read. There were many things I didn't know in there, such as the fact that the molasses was being used mostly in the production of industrial alcohol for amunitions to be sent to Europe for World War I. Also, During the time leading up the war, America saw numerous terrorist threats, including mail bombs, and carriage bombs (today's equivalent would be car and truck bombs). If you like historical stuff, or are interested in local history, check the book out. It's a good read.

I also recently finished Hoover Dam: An American Adventure by Joseph E. Stevens. It was also an excellent read, detailing an important accomplishment in American history: the building of the Hoover Dam. The book covers the political work that went into choosing everything from the site to the name, as well as the technical aspects of accomplishing such an enormous task. For example, if all of the cement had been poured at once, it would have taken over 100 years to cool. Instead, they had to frame out a cube, run pipes through it, pour the concrete into it, run cold water through the pipes to keep the temperature of the concrete low to avoid cracking and stress fractures, and then fill the pipes with grout. I find these types of man-made structures fascinating: human ingenuity is amazing.

Finally, I'm currently reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. So far it's a great read as well as an excellent counter-point to the current hot-stove season.

Hope everyone out there in blogland is doing well. Talk to you again soon!