I bit off more than I could chew...cinnamon raisin bagels

In the world of home made things, we are always learning something new, and there's not always someone around to tell us whether or not we have it right. If you're like me, sometimes, all of a sudden, you're working on something new and you realize that you are in over your head. For me this usually happens when I try to skip learning the basics of a craft (in this case bagel making) and go straight for the big boy recipe.

I wish I could say these bagels tasted as good as they look.



The plus side is that they just might be the first pictures I've ever taken of food that didn't make me lose my appetite. Their faults however, are many. They taste weirdly sweet, they cracked all over the place, so they're hard to cut in half, and they have no nice crust. And I have to say, I think it's all my fault.

The recipe is the Smitten Kitchen Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, and as usual, it is a good well written recipe. (what is the etiquette for linking to another person's recipe? On most food blogs, you see the recipe right in the post, even if it isn't their own, is that ok?)

The mistakes that were made were that I used whole wheat bread flour instead of white and bread machine yeast instead of regular active yeast. I think the whole wheat was the main culprit. I bought it because i could buy it in bulk at harvest and they didn't have any white flour in the bins. Whole wheat flour definitely changed the flavor and texture tremendously. Novice baker that I am, I didn't realize that the whole wheat flour would need more liquid, and so my bagels are really heavy and dry.

I learned something though. Maybe even a couple of things. The first thing is that the first time I try something new, I should probably use whatever training wheels are available to me in the form of more simple recipes (or patterns). And also, if I don't know how something will affect it, I should stick to the recipe! Experimentation is best done when you have the basics under your belt.

That being said...



Boyfriend found them so irrisistabel that he couldn't wait till the end of my photoshoot!

cooking with wine

Due to an unfortunate incident in college, I don't like the taste of red wine. The mouth feel of the alcohol, the astringent taste of the tannins, the smell all make my stomach turn a little. That being said, when i saw a recipe for this mushroom bourguignon from Smitten Kitchen, I was inspired to learn to cook with red wine.

Cooking with wine itself isn't necessarily complex, but what happens to the taste of a dish when you add wine to a dish is. The tannins in the wine are attracted to the protein and fat in the food instead of your tongue, which reduces the astringent flavor, while allowing the fruity flavors to concentrate as you cook the wine. The alcohol is generally reduced to nothing, or at least practically nothing.

The rules of cooking with wine are pretty simple, the most important, the one that every single site emphasizes before anything else is that you should never ever ever cook with wine that you don't want to drink. For this reason, you should never use cooking wine, which is subpar wine with salt added to keep people from drinking it and to "enhance flavor". For me choosing a wine was difficult, because I don't like to drink red wine. So instead of going by taste, I read the labels at the Wine Emporium until I found a red with a delicious sounding description. The wine I chose, Bodega Septima Tempranillo, has "sweet aromas of fruits, marmalade and citrus." which all sounded very appealing.

The type of wine depends on the recipes you use. For a recipe that specifies the type of wine, you should find out it's main characteristics and either choose that kind of wine, or a wine with similar qualities. If it just says "red wine" it is generally ok to use whatever red wine you like that has some characteristics you think would go well with your food. Certain recipes will call for a fortified wine such as sherry or vermouth, these wines have more intense flavors than normal reds or whites.

For my first try, I cooked the Mushroom bourguignon recipe, and it was unbelievably delicious! It had this really rich layered flavor that was incredibly delicious. I would have taken pictures, but brown mushrooms in a brown sauce is kind of ugly. The recipe takes some time, and assumes that you've cooked mushrooms enough to know how long to brown them so that they are brown, but before they begin giving off liquid. But you should try it because it's definitely worth it!

I still had a bunch of wine left, and since I couldn't drink it, I started scrounging for recipes. I came across all kinds of things, sauces, marinades, even wine sorbet (you can also buy wine sorbet online or in certain stores via wine cellar sorbet). This rissotto rosso with sage sounded great, but the real winner was this red wine cake. It seemed kind of romantic, because wine and chocolate are such staples of Valentine's day.

It was only my second cake, and I did pretty well, except that i took it out of the pan too early and some of it stuck. A tip for new cake makers, let the cake cool before messing with it! I also used jello with sugar, so it's a little extra sweet. But it's a beautiful color and it's tender and soft and pretty great.

All in all, cooking with wine was a success.

For more information, see the links below

An incredibly detailed article on coq au vin, with the Good Eats episode and Julia Child's famous recipe, as well as a bunch of interesting facts about wine and coq au vin


An intro to cooking with wine

a more detailed introduction with interesting facts about tannins via allrecipes.com

a very detailed set of articles about cooking with wine

advice from webmd wine can be used to reduce the calories in many foods. It can either add flavor so you don't need butter or in certain places it can replace ingredients that are high in calories!
The NPR story about the guys who sell what sounds like totally delicious wine sorbet (I really want to try the champagne flavor!) listen to the creator talk