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Me and the Girls
Any bagel experts out there?
Image via Wikipedia
I’m thinking of trying my hand at making some bagels this weekend. I’ve baked a fair bit of bread but never tried bagels. I want to make the Montreal style bagels, those smaller, denser, chewy bagels, as opposed to the grocery store jobs that are more like a bun with a hole.
I know I have to boil before I bake, but does anyone know what different boiling times do to the final product? Should I boil one minute, two minutes? My plan was to use my basic bread dough, see how they come out and make adjustments after that. Any tips? If I want to add poppy seeds, do I need to put egg on as a poppy seed glue?
Advice appreciated….
Election Signs
The strange theatre involving election signs for our upcoming Toronto municipal election has started. They’ve been campaigning for months already. Do we really need signs? It’s a reminder that the election is just a few weeks away.
I’m still undecided on both Mayor and Ward 6 Council. It’s very unusual for me to be undecided….
Trains, Trains, Trains
Boxcars, by Butch Hancock
What will music be like when there are no more songs about trains or cars? For now, we still have a few and I’m right there clinging to them. Here’s Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band from their fantastic album The Mountain.
A post full of train songs wouldn’t be a post full of train songs without the late Utah Phillips singing Daddy What’s a Train. This video has some excellent footage too!
And now, a lovely (if short) version of Elizabeth Cotton’s Freight Train played by John Fahey and Peter Lang.
Of course there’s Algoma Central 69 by Stompin Tom Connors
There are so many fantastic train songs, this post could go on and on. Instead, maybe I’ll make it a series of train song posts. Let’s go out with some boogie woogie. Here’s Mabel Scott performing Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train.
Maybe this one isn’t really about trains, huh?
What are your favourite train songs?
While we’re on the subject of Tex-Mex…
watch this excellent clip featuring Augie Meyers: South Texas Soul
Who were you thinkin’ of…?
It’s been a while since I posted some Texas Tornados around here…. Let’s change that right now.
If you got the dinero, I got my Camero….
Cold and Damp
What a cold and damp day around here, cold and damp enough that tonight we fired up the woodstove for the first time this season. That’s better. Much better.
Search term of the day…
Today, someone landed here after searching: Nasty Mushroom.
Speaking of mushrooms, I drove out to my local forest today to see what I could find. I left the dogs at home. I don’t want to let them roam the woods with hunters around. There were lots of mushroom pickers out, but I didn’t see many mushrooms. Curiously, when I do best, in mid-summer, I never see any mushroom pickers and typically have the forests more or less to myself. I don’t know what all these pickers were after, because I came home with empty baskets..
The Hound
I posted a couple videos by Hound Dog Taylor over at SqueezeMyLemon this morning. He was a tremendously energized player. When I hear his music, I think of something I heard Utah Phillips say on some recording or another: “I prefer a rude vigor to a polished banality”.
Miss Ellie Mae
27th Street 