Bagels

I love to cook. Not sure if I mentioned this before or not. I also love gadgets. Put those two together, and I love kitchen gadgets as well! I always wanted a bread maker, and got my first one 5 years ago with points earned in Sainsburys Nectar scheme. It was great, and my machine had a great life, but it had to go to the great garbage dump in the sky last week as it stopped working. We had some good times together, and my younger daughter will only eat bread that I make in the bread machine. I have now upgraded to a lovely Panasonic bread machine, which my husband has even learned to love, making pizza dough by the ton the past couple of weeks. Being a New Yorker at heart (I grew up in Connecticut, parents from Da Bronx), I have been homesick for bagels for the past 6 years. I only get good ones when I go back over the summer, and despite what they say here, the Brick Lane Bagel bake is not good at all. They don't even know how to spell bagel, I think they say something like baegel or something. Anyway, I looked for some recipes online, and made these yesterday...







Ta Dah!! They taste mostly like the real thing. Could be a little chewier, but way better than anything I have had this side of the pond. H&H bagels, they are not, but a good substitute. I got the recipe here. The only change I made was to half the sugar, and add 1 tablespoon malt syrup instead. You can get it in the healthfood shop.

On to knitting. I have put aside some other projects, and started the Aleita Shell. Thought it would be nice with the warmer weather coming (hopefully!). The Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny cotton is lovely, and great stitch definition as well.









Also working on the Leafling socks from the Rockin Sock Club






At the shop we got some great new yarns in this week. First of all Shibuiknits sock yarn. Yummy! I bought a couple of skeins a while back to test, and beside the fact that it is super soft, the colors are juicy to say the least.

We had another surprise when we got a big ole box of Koigu!!! As usual, the colors are great, but the big excitement is that we got some of their newest yarn, Mori. It is a mix of Mulberry silk and Merino. The skeins are the same size, and as you would expect with silk, it has a lovely sheen that only silk can provide.

Come in and check it out!