Per request, homemade bagels

I can't take the credit for this one. I totally siphoned it from Hubpages. So rather than put the recipe here and risk someone thinking it was my recipe or my idea, just click here to get the recipe. I'll post my tips and hints.

Here's the thing with bagels: they are so much better if you make them yourself. We are lucky if any smidgen of our batch is left by the end of the day. Plus, you get to control the salt/sugar/fat/preservatives added to your food. And, let's be honest, it's cool to say you made your own bagels. They take me just over an hour to do, and they're probably my favorite bread product to make because they are so yummy and so fast. So here are some of those recommendations:

• Do you like cheese? When you get the bagel out of the boiling water, set it on a heaping pile of Asiago, Parmesan, and/or Romano cheese (I use all three because they came in a shake bottle). The cheese crusts on when you bake them, and oh baby are they just divine!
• When you roll your bagels, you might run into the same problems I do: those ends just don't want to stick together. Well, then scrunch 'em! That's what I do on some of them. So they won't look like a perfect circle? Who cares? I think it makes them look cute and rustic, and besides, the scrunched finger marks disappear during the rising/boiling process.
• I grease my baking sheet with cooking spray. Works just great and it's way easier than massaging oil into something.
• When you let your dough rise on the counter, cover it with a damp towel. This recipe doesn't call for this, but the dough stays much more pliable and kneadable this way. I find if I don't use a towel, it gets all crusty.
• Bagels sound hard to make. Like really hard. In real life, they are the easiest bread product (other than frozen rolls, and even that's arguable with the time commitment) I've ever made. Don't be scared - just try it!
• Because there are no preservatives, any bagels that are not immediately consumed should be put in a plastic bag to keep air off them. They stay moist longer this way.

So what do you eat on a homemade bagel other than cream cheese? Well, here are some ideas:

• Chicken salad
• Homemade butter and homemade jam
• Turkey club sandwich (splurge and buy the peppered turkey at the deli counter - you'll thank me later)
• Breakfast egg sandwich
• Dip the one with cheese in warm marinara sauce