Comments on: Beautiful Bagels

By: Shellie

Shellie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:36:09 +0000

I am drooling. PLEASE come cook with me! (And maybe MY hubby will get me a new freezer. )

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:42:07 +0000

@Sue about freezing cheese — yes, sometimes freezing cheese does affect the texture. BUT, cheese is such a luxury for us, that we are simply glad to have it, crumbly or not. I reserve cheese pretty much for meals only. (If we snacked on it, we’d have no cheese for soft tacos and casseroles.) And usually crumbly is okay for cooking. So it’s okay. I think that when the cheese was fresh to start with, freezing it once is not a problem. But freezing, thawing, freezing thawing is a problem. I’ve had plenty of cheese that had been treated that way before I got it. But again, it’s too precious to be picky over.

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:58:29 +0000

@Amy — I do use part whole wheat flour in most all of my recipes. I’ve found that I don’t like what it does to pie crust, though. But for everything else, I do add up to 1/3 wheat flour. I have to special order it from the bakery wholesale guys where I buy my bread flour. I nagged them for months until they finally ordered for me. I’m obviously the only person in the entire city who uses it. LOL. The first bag was 25 kg (about 50 lbs) and lasted a year. My latest bag is only 15 kg (30 lbs).

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:54:54 +0000

What a wonderful gift! You’ll just love having a freezer. We have a small chest one as well. I have a HUGE chest freezer that came with the house, but we have it unhooked right now. We are renovating the house and need to find a new place to keep it. I mainly use the freezers to hold meat until I have time to can them. But they are great for keeping bread and casseroles on hand for when I’m to tired to bake.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:37:52 +0000

Hey Jimmie… I was just looking at the bagel recipe this morning thinking to take the plunge, and do you use wheat flour? Can you get it there?

Amy
.-= Amy´s last blog ..Homeschool Planning – Part one =-.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:42:15 +0000

I am SO going to have my husband read your post, Jimmie! I’ve been wanting a freezer here in Peru for years! So much more so since we’ve moved to the jungle!! I can’t wait until SOMEDAY! fruit slushy drinks, pizza, grated cheese, bagels, beans, spaghetti sauce, pie crusts, pureed pumpkin… oh, yes. You have spoken my heart language We are lucky though we CAN get ground beef and cheese easily at our supermarket. Though there is a strike currently and prices are through the roof on everything.
Here they like to decorate the appliances with the oversized decals as well, but instead of the lovely artsy characters, they have the name brand enlarged 1300% and plastered on in lovely non-kitchen matching colors. of course. And you can’t get it off to save your life. That seriously influenced my purchasing back in the day we bought our most recent appliances… the plainer the better. I actually found a brand new plain white Frigidaire refrigerator… I could NOT believe it. I probably cried tears of joy…
Back to the freezer. Someday. I’m saving up my pennies starting last year. I’m SO happy for you! I really and truly appreciate what this means for you and I share fully with you in your delight! Someday you will share with me in mine!!

Oh, and I’m SUPER excited about the bagel recipe! THANKS so much.

Amy in Peru
http://fisheracademy.blogspot.com
http://apilgrimsproject.blogspot.com – 2010 Project365 blog
.-= Amy´s last blog ..Homeschool Planning – Part one =-.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:50:52 +0000

Beautiful bagels! We can get Costco bagels, but I am happy to say that my family actually prefers my homemade ones. I am trying not to envy your freezer. It’s not that we can’t buy one, I just am not sure where we would put it!

I am intrigued to read that you freeze your cheese. We can get butter here readily, but it’s kind of expensive. I always buy a bunch when I find it on sale and freeze it. A friend and I were debating the other day whether cheese would freeze well. I have had cream cheese get frozen accidentally in the “chill” drawer of our fridge, and the texture gets all crumbly. Does harder cheese, like cheddar, freeze well?
.-= Sue´s last blog ..New Year’s Greetings — a Pictoral! =-.

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:12:46 +0000

Can I say that my readers are the best? You guys are giving me the best freezer tips ever! I invite you all over for a cup of chai and some bagels from the freezer! And since all my Chinese friends think I’m stark raving mad to even want/use/need a freezer, it’s so nice to get some positive reinforcement from people who understand. (Chinese people like food FRESH. Frozen = bad. )

@Kim — I do this! The book freezing thing. That’s so funny that you described it as books. In my chest freezer, it’s almost like files in a cabinet. Yes, this is a great tip.
@Marsha — The yummy treats are disappearing. Hubby came back from a week out of town. There goes a bag of bagels and a bag of fried pies OUT of the freezer. Oh… got to cook more… fill up the freezer.
@Dawn — I hope you get one too. This is my first ever in 16 years of marriage.
@Kristen — beans? Oh, chili, soups, casseroles, plain with cornbread on the side. I notice Chinese people here don’t eat as many beans as I’m accustomed to eating in the rural South. I miss them terribly. These white beans fit the bill. I can’t buy canned vegetables. So I prepare fresh ones — or dried beans in this case –and (now) can freeze them!
@Melissa – I know with your big family to feed, you really need a freezer. Great tips! I haven’t tried freezing tortillas, but it’s on the list. They are so time intensive to make. I’ve been worried about freezing them ruining their texture and then wasting all my effort.
@Nadene — good idea. I need to get organized in there. I will keep my eyes out for some appropriate containers/boxes.
@DeeDee — I have no idea how you fed so many with a miniature refrigerator. Yes, I do. You shopped daily like Chinese people do.

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:59:08 +0000

@Lee –I hear you, girl. Sometimes people are so impressed that I make these things from scratch. But the reality is that if I want to eat it, I’ve got to MAKE it myself. There is no other option.

Yes, I made all the bagels you see there with that original recipe. I think it was around 22. They weren’t all uniform size, of course. Results may vary.

By: In Our Write Minds

In Our Write Minds — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:28:42 +0000

I’m a huge fan of homemade soups, so whenever I make soup (which is often at this time of year), I double or triple the recipe and freeze both individual- and meal-sized portions.

Now here’s my favorite freezer tip EVER. Fill sturdy zip-top bags with soup, spaghetti sauce, homemade stock, whatever. Squeeze out as much of the air as possible without springing a leak! Then lay the bags on a tray or cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze. With a small freezer, it takes longer, so work with smaller batches. Once frozen, the filled bags stack flat or on their sides like books! I do this with both gallon and quart sizes. Not only does this save space, the flat packages defrost much quicker than deep containers.

Glad you’re enjoying your freezer. What a treat for you!

~ Kim
.-= In Our Write Minds´s last blog ..Writing with your little ones =-.