Oktoberpretzelfesting

I absolutely love Autumn. For me, Autumn means lots of carding and spinning in the evenings, weaving while indulging in a bit of Syfy telly, knitting and crocheting as fast as my digits can move those needles and hooks. It also means lots of warm woolen sweaters and fun coats. Fall weather enables me to wear boots every day, should I so choose. In addition, it is also all about decorating and exposing my, uh, alter-ego(s) for the most wonderful of holidays, Halloween. For me, Autumn means a month of rigorous menu planning for Thanksgiving, a process I enjoy immensely. And, as soon as the daily degrees take their Autumnal dip into the 60s (hey, it's SoCal and that's cold to us) my baking books literally leap from their shelves, begging to be perused and used. Fall is fantastic!

Last weekend was the first weekend of the season to actually feel like Autumn. Saturday was cloudy and cool. As such, I had the urge to go get knee deep in baking flour. By noon, the dining room table was covered with oven-centric tomes and I settled upon a recipe that I've used many, many times...bagels. Whipped up a batch of dough shortly thereafter and was boiling and baking those glorious rings by evening. My peeps were none too happy to take the fresh, hot, crispy, chewy rounds of doughy goodness off of my hands. In fact, the entire batch was gone within hours.

Feeling the pressure to produce more carb-based foodstuffs for my loved ones, I went back to my baking manuals the next morning and decided on a recipe I had yet to try...Hot Buttered Pretzels. Mixed up a batch of dough in morning and after a day of Oktoberfesting, I worked up eight soft twisted lovelies for a stint in the oven. They were a bit malformed (I'll blame the copious amounts of beer I imbibed earlier that day for my lack of pretzel twisting ability), but no matter because they tasted better than any pretzel that can be obtained from your local mall. Shiny, salty, buttery goodness...


Got a shot of the only pretzel that actually looked like it was supposed to. The moral of the story? Don't drink and twist.

More Autumnal adventures to come!

Saturday Morning Bakes

I spent the morning baking, an activity that I'm rather fond of. This particular creation happens to be a mixed berry pie, sporting the requisite lattice crust. So easy too! Just use your favorite pie crust recipe (or open up a box of ready made pie crust if you're patience for that sort of thing is lacking...no judgments here) and throw together a filling of 5-6 cups of berries, 1 cup of sugar, 4 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. Pour the mixture into an unbaked bottom shell, weave yourself a lattice top, dot a little buttah over the top and slide into an 450 degree oven for a half hour. Continue to bake at 350 for another half hour, or until brown and bubbly and PRESTO....yummy, yummy pie!

Happy weekend everyone!

Beauteous Bagels

How did you spend your Thanksgiving weekend LadyLinoleum?

Well, I sported a few pies atop my head while darting to and fro about the western reaches of the Los Angeles city limits AND when not driving around while donning pie, I attempted a bit of baking! Oh yes, bagel baking...

Are they not beauteous???

Okay, I admit it. My rings o' dough are probably not the most handsome examples of bagel-dom. However, they're not a bad first attempt and, more importantly, they taste like heaven. Seriously good. Really, my lips shall never touch another store bought bagel again. Okay, not really, but you get my drift.

Inspired? Come on, you know you wanna boil and bake some chewy bagel-y goodness! I know that homemade onion bagels are definitely on my upcoming weekend's slate of baking activities...Yum!!

Recipe source for bagel-y goodness: Fannie Farmer Baking Book