One of Chad’s famous bagels
I love my bagels. My wife loves my bagels. People love my bagels. I’ve often been asked for the recipe for them. So I’ll share here. Continue reading
Chad’s Bagel Recipe
Month: March 2017
2017 Week 13 – Week of 27 March
It’s spring break!
It won’t be too be much of a break for me, though. Due to my series of illnesses (see the Why? page), I’m way behind on everything. So, my “break” will be largely comprised of a mad rush to get caught up on the farm and on the class I was taking towards a masters’ degree (theory and practice of oral history). That said, I should also be able to work ahead on meals. Insanity characterizes the months of May and June, so I will work ahead on meals.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Breakfast | Zucchini Bread | Zucchini Bread | Zucchini Bread | Bagels w/ Pesto Schmear | Lemon Poppyseed Bread | Lemon Poppyseed Bread | Lemon Poppyseed Bread |
| Lunch | On the road | Salad: Spring Mix & spinach w/ smoked gouda, apples, toasted walnuts, and dried cherries | Bagels w/ Pesto Schmear | Movie Day @ Lew’s | Salad | leftovers | Salad |
| Dinner | On the road | Roast Chicken Wild Rice Green Beans | Chicken Breasts w/ tarragon cream sauce (use leftovers from roast chicken) Wild Rice Corn | Hamburger Stew* | Chicken Tetrazini (use leftovers from roast chicken)* | Homemade Frozen Pizza | Sausage Spaghetti Pie* |
| Notes | Spring Break! (all week!) X surgery & trip to several Amish stores for farm supplies | Make Chicken Stock | Make Pizza Sauce |
The items with an * come from the Taste of Home: Freezer Pleasers Cookbook. They make both the meal we eat and another (or several) to freeze and cook later. The doc says I can’t have anything processed, but that doesn’t mean I can’t create my own convenience foods! I’ll probably do a review of the book later, but for what it’s worth, I’m not too impressed. I’ve had it for a couple of years and not made anything from it because nothing is very inspiring, and many recipes reuse a lot of processed meals (hamburger helper, canned cream of mushroom soup, etc.) and ingredients. But, it may help me learn strategies to adapt to this change.
The trick to making your own frozen pizza is the crust. Use any pizza crust recipe you like, but only bake it most of the way: until the yeast has done its work and it has set as bread but not golden brown and crispy. Let cool, then top, wrap and freeze. Then you can go right from freezer to oven like a store-bought frozen pizza, only better.
Groceries: Kroger – $107.41, Whole Foods – $72.47 (mostly dairy products from Traders Point Creamery. I really miss living/working near them…)
New from the farm: Not much this week. Still harvesting lemons. Kind of surprised we don’t have asparagus yet.
Pesto Schmear
A schmear is a bit of cultural appropriation, and probably shouldn’t be used. But it’s also a yummy topping for bagels. Schmears are simple and perfect for improvisation, so you can use this same process for different ingredients. They can be very seasonal: basil-sun dried tomato-seranno pepper is a favorite summer schmear. They can be savory: oregano-sundried tomato. They can be sweet: toasted walnut-honey. You get the idea.
My most frequent schmear, especially in winter when I need a reminder that summer will be back someday, is pesto schmear.
2017 Week 12 – Week of 20 March
Here’s my first menu plan. I’m also going to try tracking what I spend at the grocery store (for human food, anyway), just to see how close we might actually come to being able to fulfill our whole diet from the farm and bartering with other area farmers and gardeners. We’ll call food from our farm freeish, as we largely eat the things weren’t pretty enough for someone to buy…
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Breakfast | Lemon Ginger Muffins | Lemon Ginger Muffins | Lemon Poppyseed Bread | Lemon Poppyseed Bread | Lemon Poppyseed Bread | Biscuits & Sausage Gravy | Yogurt |
| Lunch | Dining Hall | Leftover pasta w/ Peperjack Gouda Sauce | Coffee Shop (meeting) | Beef Veggie Soup Biscuits | On the Road | Salad w/ leftover lamb | |
| Dinner | Salad: spring mix, red onion, toasted walnuts, Gouda, Mandarin Oranges, sautéed chicken, Homemade Vinaigrette Ancient Grains Pene w/ Peperjack Gouda sauce | Pot Roast Potatoes Corn Biscuits | Beef Vegetable Soup Biscuits | Beef Vegetable Soup Biscuits Salad | On the Road | Grilled Lamb Chops Roasted Herbed Potatoes Salad | Roast Whole Chicken Potatoes Green Beans & Yellow Wax Beans |
| Notes | Hematology Appt. Harvest Lemons! Thaw roast | Rifle Season “ends” | Last day on the range for shooters going to Junior Olympic Nationals | Grades & Comments due Spring Break Begins! | Thaw chicken |
Groceries: Kroger – $21.92
New from the farm: Meyer Lemons!