Blueberry Muffins

I baked blueberry muffins from my one of favorite recipes today. In the past, I have tried many different recipes for baking blueberry muffins, carrot cake, banana bread, raisin & oatmeal cookies, apple pie and cheese cake. From the many trails, I have chosen the best recipe for each of these. It was very fun to do. I now have a standard recipe for each of these baked goods.

Potato Chips & French Fries

I tried to make potato chips today. I cut some potatoes with a slicer, soaked the slices in water, dried them and then fried them in oil. I learned that making potato chips is hard! I spent a long time making them and produced only a little.
I made french fries too. The french fries were much easier to make than the potato chips.

Sunrise

I saw a nice sunrise at 5:50AM today. The sun was over the crowds and reflected on the lake.

Seminole Orange

I bought oranges at the store today. When I cut them, the inside was a very orange colour and had a sweet taste.

Poppyseed Bagel

Here is my latest poppy seed bagel. It was good when we toasted it and spread some cream cheese on it.

Amanatsu & Amanatsu Cake

I saw my neighbor when I was walking this morning. He gave me a big orange called "amanatsu" from his back yard. The orange size was the same as both of my fists.
I baked a cake using it. I used the juice from half of the orange in the cake batter. While the cake was baking in the oven, I made syrup from the other half of the orange. I soaked the cake in the syrup after I baked it. The orange's sourness was good for the cake.

Picking Raspberries

I went wild berry picking again. I only got a little this morning. I guess the season has almost finished. I also noticed that there are different types of raspberries and that each has a different size.

Plain Bagel

I baked bagels again. I am still not satisfied, so I used a different recipe today. The bagels were OK. I spread cream cheese and strawberry jam on it.

The Food Van

There is a van that comes to our neighborhood twice a week selling food. It comes at exactly 1:00 pm every time.
It's very convenient for the older people in our neighborhood since there aren't any grocery stores near here and they always know what time the van will come.
I could see many snacks and bread in the van this time.

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

I baked raisin oatmeal cookies recently. After I got my great ice cream scoop, I bake some more cookies.
I used the smaller sized ice cream scoop this time and the cookies were all the same size.
How easy it is to bake cookies with this scoop! Of course, I enjoy eating the cookies as much as I enjoy baking them.

Cold Buckwheat Noodles (Zaru-soba)

Andrew loves cold buckwheat noodles (soba) with dipping sauce. Buckwheat noodles are usually made from buckwheat flour and wheat flour. Today, almost all of the ingredients of the buckwheat noodles were buckwheat flour.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I baked cinnamon raisin bagels today. The bagels were flat and wrinkled because I let them rest too long. I have to be more careful when I bake bagels.

Anpan

I baked some sweet bread today. I put anko (sweetened beans paste) in the buns and sprinkled white poppy seeds on the top of them, and then baked them.
The picture below is when I cut the bun. It is called anpan.

Pineapple Vinegar Syrup

The strawberry vinegar syrup is almost finished. I made another syrup today. I chose a pineapple.
The ingredients were one pineapple, along with the same amount each of vinegar and rock sugar. It will take a week to become syrup.

Raspberries (cake)

When I went for a walk last evening, I found some wild berries. I was very excited that the season has come! I decided to pick more berries this morning. Picking berries in the bush was a kind of zen for me. I didn't think anything while I was slowly walking and concentrating on the berries.
I also enjoyed blowing a perfectly shaped dandelion.
After I walked about half hour, I got handfuls of berries.
I baked a cake with the berries.
The wild raspberries have a little less flavor than raspberries from stores but they are fresh and juicy.

Bagels with Dill Cream Cheese (& tiny bagel)

I baked a different recipe for bagels today. The recipe is unusual because it is uses a little oil. Unfortunately the bagels were soft and not chewy like regular bagels.
I mixed some cream cheese and dill together to put on the bagels.
This is Andrew's favorite way to eat bagels.
I actually made a tiny bagel for fun.
Here is the tiny bagel and Marilyn.

Trimming the Trees

When I was doing the dishes this morning, I saw my neighbor from the kitchen window. I was curious what he was doing because I don't have many chances to see him, so I used the zoom on our camera to get a photo of him.
He was standing on a ladder and trimming his tree.
After he finish trimming, he carefully came down the ladder. His tree looked very neat after his hard work.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I baked cinnamon raisin bagels today. They didn't rise as much as usual. I might have kneaded them too much or something. I never know because I'm beginner in bagel-making!
The bagels were dense. I tasted one and put lots of cream cheese on, so then it was a little better.

Plain Bagels

I tried another recipe today. The recipe is from a person who is Jewish American and introduced bagels to Japan in the 80s. He uses the traditional rope method to make the bagel shape which is to create a rope and wrap them around the forefinger, long finger and ring finger and rolling the doubled ends on the counter to seal the ring. (He recommends the poke method for beginners.)
I like that the bagels looked shinier than my previous ones.

Method for Making Bagels (Cinnamon Raisin)

When I make my bagel shape, I follow this method:
After kneading, I divide the dough and roll it into balls and then let it rest.
I flatten the balls and roll them tightly.
I roll the dough until it is 20cm long.
I make it a little flat on one side.
I then connect both ends...
and stick them together.
This is my method. I don't poke a hole in the center of each dough ball as many English recipes say.After another rest, I boil the dough in the malt extract water and then bake them in the oven.
This time, I mixed cinnamon in the flour at the beginning and raisins in the dough when the kneading was almost done so the raisins were even this time.

Black Sesame Bagels

I baked sesame bagels today. I chose black sesame seeds this time. Since I didn't know how much I should put on, I put as many sesame seeds as I could. I guess the bagel has too much sesame though.

Plain Bagels

I baked plane bagels today. My bagels still don't look the store’s bagels.