common kitchen: wednesday's bagels

a sourdough bagel fit for any day of the week

From where I sit in the grass outside my house, I can see a sea of dandelions, a garden about to be tilled, blooming lilacs, 4 geese, 4 chickens, a boy happily scrubbing the upholstery of a new old free chair (his idea, I swear!), a buzzing bumblebee, green mountains, and a pink house. I can see my bike, a 10 or 15 year old Huffy I bought from a nice older lady over the mountain a few weeks ago who had a perfect barn quilt on her porch and a charming space where a front tooth might have been. I rode for the first time yesterday - the first time on that particular bike, and the first time on any bike in exactly 13.5 years. The last time I rode my bike was probably a week or two before I gave birth to my eldest son, Henry. I lived in Buffalo then and rode my bike to work and to friends’ houses and to the bakery and the bar and got really good at balancing Tops market grocery store bags on both sides of my handlebars. And then I had my baby and moved to the country and despite thinking I might get a new bike for many of those years, this year just happened to be the year it happened. And last night while I rode around, wobbly and free, I knew riding my bike with the boys was about to become one of my favorite parts of the summer ahead. Life is short and life is long and riding my bike last night made me feel both, but mostly I just felt the breeze on my face.

Where the day ended with a sunset ride, it began with sunrise bagels. Bagels are one of those things I also have thought about on and off for years – I’d say I’ve made them three or four times with underwhelming results and mostly had categorized them as something I didn’t need to be good at, despite being a kind of bread I very much enjoy. Maybe it’s a general sense of creativity and can-do spirit I feel in the kitchen lately or perhaps it’s written in the stars – call it my bagel return because this time I’ve got a recipe I love and the bagels are becoming a weekly staple. The recipe I’m sharing below makes 6 bagels. You surely could double it, and I bet you’ll be tempted. For me, there’s something about 6 bagels that feels so accessible. The stakes are low and the time commitment is shorter and they feel like something special for that one breakfast and somehow that makes them really extra special. Making 6 bagels just feels easier and more fun and while it may be less practical in terms of energy spent, I think I’ll keep making them by the half dozen.