homemade, like it should be

As many of you may know, I know my way around the kitchen. I cook almost all my food from scratch in the states, and it's been the same here. Lately I've been getting really bored with the food available and I have a lot of time on my hands, so I've been trying to branch out and try things that I've never made before.

Back in Ohio I realized about a year or so ago that I have a natural knack for baking things. I can make cakes, pies, bread, rolls, almost anything baking related. Well, I decided to try making bagels. Even with the proper equipment this can be a very difficult and time-consuming process, but I wanted to learn. I only have a toaster oven to use to bake my breads and such, so you can imagine how time consuming and tedious a lot of this is.

I made one batch a few weeks ago and they were okay, but something was wrong with the dough and they were a little too... I don't know how to explain. Well, lets just say that the dough just didn't "feel" right. This time around I tried something a little different and they came out PERFECT. I'm eating one right now. Delicious.

I have thought about going to culinary school for baking, just so I can learn some new things. However, someday I need to try to get a real job. I can't be a student for life, though if I had a million dollars I'd spend the rest of my life learning. That's a topic for a different day, though.