FUN WITH FONDUE!

Greetings from the bagels' computer class and we have just been speaking about how much we would give for a pot of fondue right now in the cold wintery afternoon (VB is ready to give up her right arm). As you should know (and if you dont then shame on you) there are many different kinds of fondue. Fondues for dinner and dessert! This week we shall enlighten you on how to make them, how to eat them and why you should totally reward yourselves during the holidays with a steaming hot pot of fondue and share it with a loved one. (If you dont have one, just go lesbian with your girlfriends like us bagels do ;) ) no really.

First of all..... MEAT FONDUE

MEET MEAT FONDUE! (hahahaha) Meat fondue or more formally knows as fondue Bourguignonne is a pot filled with hot oil into which you can dip pieces of meat or chicken. The best part is that it comes with baked potatoes (the big ones) and lots of other stuff too like yummy sauces!

thennnnnnnnnnnn we haveeeeeeeeeeee..... drumroll please

JEEZ! ITS CHEESE FONDUE! (we are so funny) Cheese fondue is originally swiss and is basically a pot full of hot cheeeeeese. Now, you might say that this is not that cool , but MY GOD when you dip bread, broccoli, muchrooms, pepper, tomatoes, potatoes whatever you like in there.. its like god came and cheesed us.. thats not supposed to be perverted!

and last but certainly not least.......

CHOKE ON CHOCOLATE! yes it is white or milk chocolate melted until its all warm and smooth and pwhoooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaar SO GOOD! and you can dip in just about anything from bananas and strawberries to marshmallows and crackers =) perfect!

Now before we end this beautiful and educational blogpost on fondues, we should inform about traditions that come with fondue! In our opinion the best traditions are that if a man drops his food in the fondue pot he buys a round of drinks and if a women drops her food she has to kiss her neighbors! There are also other traditions that include singing and so on but these are what we have been dealing with...

until we meet (meat hahahahha) again

THE BAGELS

ps, we are off to the shop to buy fondue now

The obstacles we face while baking and how to overcome them

You've already read the success story of making the Ultimate Birthday Cake, The cake that shall not be named or whatever u wanna call it. That really showed the positive side of baking and how much fun it is; that is when everything works out well. However, even us bagels dont always get it right. This week we're gonna tell u all about the blunders of baking and how they can possibly be conquered.

Well for one we strongly discourage you guys to use any Finnish ready-to-bake kits. THEY SUCK. For example, a week ago VB arrived at CSB's house to make brownies, and VB had bought a great brownie kit, or so she thought. All you had to do was add water and put the whole thing in the oven. We couldn't have done it wrong. This is what we got as a result. ^
A hard, giant cookie that didn't even taste good. FAIL.

This particular ready-to-bake kit was for dieters, so it had only like 9 % fat in it. And no, we most certainly are not back with the 4 day wonder diet (NEVER are we gonna do that again), but our friends seem to be constantly dieting so we figured that they could eat this. They didnt. Anyway the reduced fat crap never really works. Thats why we, from now on, buy our baking stuff from Stockmann's American Food department. They always work well and are most certainly not for dieters.

Moving on. A few days ago VB got a sudden desire to make gingerbread, so VB decided to go to the grocery store to get some dough (duh it takes like two days to prepare ofc we buy it from the store). VB, however, had not thought this through, because as she soon discovered, she had no baking paper. It was time to be creative. This is what happened.

This actually worked out rather well, tho it does look kinda funny. However, there were more obstacles to come. VB failed to find gingerbread muotteja (no idea what theyre called in English) so, again, creativity (as in CAS) took over.

You dont really need the muotit, its a lot faster this way. You just take a small amount of dough in ur hand, flatten it and VOÍLA!

These were the most recent examples of us bagels failing when cooking or baking. But we learn from our mistakes and move on, for instance from now on, we never buy anything that says reduced fat again, we always go to Stockmann's American food department and we always check that we have everything we need for the recipe in question. We screw up a lot and we make a mess but you gotta be able to see the funny side of it. Thats what makes baking fun for us.

Till we meet again,
BAGELS <3

ps. never try to make cookies in the microwave, it doesnt work.
pps. we are planning on making the ultimate chocolate cake pretty soon so you guys have something to look forward to for sure ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FINLAND!

So, yesterday it was independance day here in finland so let all of us finns stand up and say: "PERKELE!" Us bagels are Finnish and BLOODY PROUD OF IT so this blog entry will be all about finnish independance and how the finns celebrate it foodwise =)

sorry, not very appetising is it..

OKAY SO ANYWAY FOOD:

The finnish families usually spend their independance day with eachother eating nice food and watching tarja halonen (OUR BEAUTIFUL PRESIDENT) dress badly.. So what foods go together with Tarja's clothes? Well heres some examples of appetizers:

no its not nemos egg baby HAHAHHAHA its roe!!! again!!! our favourite food!!! AND WE GOT IT YESTERDAY!

salmonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn =) no explanations needed we hope

HAHAHAHHA no really, we eat liver.. but not human liver.. i think?

YES OKAY SO MOVING ON TO OTHER THING US FINNISH BAGELS EAT

It is what we call karjalan paisti, and in english it shall be: KARELIAN HOT POT!!

salmon babyyyy

AND FOR DESSET THERE IS A RANGE OR EVERYTHING =)=)

thats us bagels reporting for duty :)

FINLAND ;) be afraid of us

be scared!

xoxo

FINNISH AND PROUD

bagels

Dining in the trenches of World War One (this is the real IB stuff)

Hello our dear readers, hope youre all doing well and enjoying life, just like us bagels are since we have an HL+SL history test tomorrow. YAY. (sense the sarcasm) Anyway, World War One is pretty much all we can think about right now, so we decided to include it to our blog as well. We're gonna be talking about the foods that the soldiers ate and the demands WW1 placed on the home front. So unless youre an IB History student (and maybe even then), this is gonna be really boring for you and we suggest you leave. Tho we ought to be studying so this isnt gonna be long.

Often food wasnt even available for the soldiers. The catering service wasnt exactly functioning if angry Germans were killing the French on the Western Front or the Russians on the Eastern Front. They didnt get a lunch break. Theoretically a British soldier would get this on a daily basis:

560 grams of bread OR 448 grams of flour OR 112 grams of oatmeal

84 grams of cheese

18 ounces of tea

112 grams of jam OR 112 grams of dried fruit

14 grams of salt

0,8 grams of pepper

1,4 grams of mustard

224 grams of vegetables

0,05 liters or rum OR 1 pint of porter

560 grams of tobacco

1/3 chocolate

112 grams of butter

56 grams of dried vegetables 

Now that might sound rather modest, when you take into consideration the fact that these people are fighting a war (imagine how much energy it takes to kill just one person and multiply that with 10438052. These people really need food. Or actually the better solution would be if people would stop killing each other just to expand their territory. I mean come on would you get over your problems and stop killing other living organisms for no good reason. Every living organism is a biological miracle, just imagine what a single cell can do, alone. Ok MOVING ON). However, when you compare it to this theoretical daily ration of a German soldier, the British are gonna start to seem fortunate. 

742 grams of bread OR 490 grams of biscuits

392 grams of egg biscuit

1484 grams = 1,484 kilograms of potatoes

126 grams of vegetables

56 grams of dried vegetables

Looks like the British blockades on Germany were working, huh. At least there was a bit more variation in their menu. Poor Germans. And they didnt even win.

USA used strong propaganda to appeal to their citizens, and that way save supplies for the Allied forces. Take a look.

 

These kinda posters obviously raised morale and the feeling of unity. And as you probably understood people were strongly encouraged to keep in mind the vast need of supplies on the front. And to eat corn.

Thats it for today, we bagels have to get back to studying. Hope you enjoyed this rare, never-ever-gonna-happen-again educational piece and learned something. Like every IB student knows, learning and education is a never ending process; one which you will never cease to enjoy. Learning is the road to happiness, indeed. And in case youre wondering, bagels became increasingly popular only after the WW1. But we'll tell you all about the history of bagels some other time. 

BYE and wish us luck. We're gonna need it.

xoxo,
Hitler and Stalin ;) (and dont think we dont know these guys werent around yet during WW1, we're not THAT bad in history..)

Because the french are so damn annoying.. but they make good food.

In honour of us bagels having a french test on wednesday, we have decided to be la crèative (yes we know thats not french and that were gonna fail) and write a blog entry on la cuisine de francais! Thats probably wrong too.. But yeah so french food is our topic of the week ;)

SNAILS! yes the french are insane or as us bagels would say: c'est très bizarre! okay so when theyre done the right way they look like this...

.. and believe it or not, theyre actually pretty daaaaaaaaaamn good!

Crème Brûlée is a very traditional french desert and tastes très delicieux! Its made of cream and.. brule? okay we dont know what its made of but its gooooooood...

This might be the greatest food known to frenchkind, the chocolate croissant (or as the french call it pain au chocolat ;)) Its got the same texture as normal croissants, not including the shape, except it has chocolate inside.. mmmm.. best when its fresh and warm so the chocolates all melted and yummy!

Now seriously, what else could you possibly need than wine and cheese. Cheese and wine. Weese and Chine. Its how the french do it and how everynone should do it!! And if you cant afford it just go to your local supermarket and wait for the free samples :) not that we would ever do that, we just hear that its possible..

Eclairs :) Full of whipped cream and with chocolate icing on top. Oh mon dieu !

Okay FRENCH fries. So did you guys know that FRENCH fries are not actually FRENCH but they are.. swiss or something? Why would the french want to take the glory and pride of making up this kind of food? BECAUSE FRENCH FRIES ARE TRES BIEN, thats why! And thats also why we added it to our list, even though its only wannabe french.

Thankyou for reading once again, it has been tres amusant!

xoxo

Des Bagels

wish us luck on our french test!

GISELA WE FOUND YOU ON THE INTERNET! (Gisela is our friend who walks like a penguin and loves france)

"New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of"

Oh yes. If you've been there, you know exactly what we're talking about. If you haven't been there, you dream of it every night. New York. Not only does it give us the hottest stores, the spectacular lights, the amazing people and an atmosphere beyond imagination, it also is one of the leading capitals of the world when it comes to food. USA is known for its oh so delicious and oh so unhealthy food, and all this can be found in New York. Luckily, VB had the privilege to visit New York just last week, and therefore we have a fresh inside peek on what's going on in the Big Apple. This is the New York Special !

In New York, you wanna start the morning with a GRAND breakfast. This means pancakes (and none of that whole wheat crap..) with maple syrup, an omelette or scrambled eggs, fresh orange juice, a bagel with cream cheese and jam OR a bagel with peanut butter and jam and some coffee. This will keep you up and going for a long time, especially since the breakfast portions are most often NOT tiny and pretentious like in some fancy super expensive restaurants (which naturally can also be found in NYC). They really are big. And dont expect anything to be nonfat. Anyway, we bagels ofc LOVE le breakfast à la New York, and honestly pancakes or bagels just dont taste the same outside the USA. They're unique. Especially the bagels. ;) 

Ok so your grand breakfast is gonna keep you happy and satisfied for a long time, yes, but that doesnt mean forever. This is where Starbucks comes along. You can find Starbucks literally anywhere in NYC, and it can be a real life saviour, for example if your super uncomfortable shoes are killing you or your multiple shopping bags start to feel heavy in your hands, and you just REALLY need something to pick you up. CSB's favorite is the frappucino, whereas VB adores the pumpkin spice latte. Their regular black coffee is also really good, when you dont feel like having anything sweet. Starbucks makes PHENOMENAL soft baked chocolate chip cookies; no lies, they are far better than the ones you can find from the grocery stores, which also, fyi, are miraculous. Naturellement, you wanna include Starbucks to your daily schedule in NYC, tho they are often rather crowded so we suggest you take your cookies and drinks to go. 

Some of the best and the fanciest restaurants in the whole wide world can be found in Manhattan. In some of these fine places, however, you have to reserve a table months in advance, and sometimes there is some kind of a dress code. There are numerous jazz clubs where you can also enjoy dinner, you can eat at a  diner if you wish, you can order in. You can spend 500 dollars or 5. New York City is packed with immigrants and therefore food is also available from every corner of the world. You can have a casual Italian pasta, a traditional American burger, modern Japanese or hot Mexican food. The choice is yours. Also, since NYC is so super modern and hip, you can find numerous organic or vegan places, even vegan fast food is available.

There really is nothing you CANT find from the City that never sleeps, foodwise. Most places are open 24/7 so if you want a donut (which are unbelievably good in the states) in the middle of the night, you got it. Ben & Jerry's? Not a problem. You want pizza or chinese, you got it. Delivered to your door. And out of all the people VB and CSB know how miserable it is when its 3 AM and you'd do just about anything for that one pizza, but in Finland its not possible. And then you just cant help but wonder (and occasionally scream it to the 020202-people as well) MY GOD WHY DO I NOT LIVE IN NEW YORK?

love, bagels

ps. we <3 hershey's cookies n cream

Youre gonna read this and realize youve been living a lie...

Oh you amateurs.. you hear something about food and you just accept it. Us bagels (yes were not pumpkins anymore, someone made a pie HAHAHAH) are going to make sure you know your stuff about foods and DONT BELIEVE THE CRAZY MYTHS PEOPLE TELL YOU! Or then some of it is true and we are gonna research to make sure if it really is.

So here are a few things youve probably heard about food:

1) If you eat after 18.00 you will gain more calories then if you ate the same meal earlier... MYTH! It does not matter when you heat your food, you will always gain the same amount of weight. So eat whenever and wherever and dont listen to stupid 6 PM rules.. Watching tv in the evening is nothing without snacks!

2) Throw your spaghetti at the wall and if it sticks, its done (CSB does this every time and lives by it)... MYTH! Truth is, the spaghetti will stick to the wall if its sticky, not if its done. You'll just end up with a sticky wall and pasta which is not so al dente. So even a bagel can be wrong..

3) Chocolate can mend a broken heart... FACT! Okay so it might not really go inside your chest with a hammer and nails and mend it but my god does it help. And its actually proven that when eating chocolate, it triggers the endorphins in your body and make you happy. But the reality is if you eat 3 kilos of chocolate a day.. the result aint pretty. But yeah, chocolate for a broken heart!

4) It's essential to drink 8 glasses of water a day... MYTH! You do not need to drink 8 glasses a day, my god. Some athletes should drink more than others but there is no magical number of glasses you should be drinking, and remember that most foods contain water!

5) Decaf coffee has no caffeine... MYTH! International standards only require decaf coffee to be 95% decaf. So for people who are allergic to caffeine, drinking decaf coffee is not going to help. Us bagels go for normal coffee though, how would we survive IB without it..

6) Fast food is good for you... FACT! Can you believe it? One fastfood meal a week is supposed to be good for you!! HURRAH our lives have a meaning again! As long as you dont eat them everyday.. Thats never good.

So we hope you found the truth about food myths in this post, and we have once again made your days a bit brighter with our tips and facts!

Until we meet again

xoxo

BAGELSSSS!

Trick or treat!

Oh yes. Once again it is October 31st, which means that greedy fat kids all around the world are putting on a hat or something and going around the neighbours' houses screaming TRICK OR TREAT! And if youre a bit older its a perfect excuse for dressing slutty and getting crunk WHAT? Yeah so in honour of this beautiful tradition us pumpkins (were bagels pretending to be pumpkins because its halloween HAHA FUNNY RIGHT) are going to go through a few great halloween food ideas for parties or just for eating by yourself if you have no friends :)

So first of all, traditional PUMPKIN PIE (A huuuge favourite with us pumpkins ;) )

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

And heres a picture just so it doesnt look so boring

Next, which is a must at every halloween party: dundundunnn CANDY CORN!

Something CSP (CS pumpkin, try to keep up) remembers was a big hit in Britain was TOFFEE APPLES! They areeee delish and kinda spooky? okay theyre not spooky but they ARE delish!
Theyre easy to make too! Just push a stick through the apples and dip them in hoooot hot hot caramel :) mm yes it is an orgasm for your tongue people (not in the way you perverts are thinking about it´.. or is that just us pumpkins..?)

ANYWAY HERES A PICTURE COS A PICTURE TELLS YOU MORE THAN 1000 WORDS

Now because were so creative, we can practically think of any food and make it halloweeny (yes halloweeny is a word just like helly HAHAHAHAH okay that was an inside you wouldnt understand) Think cupcakes, cookies, lollipops, punch and normal drinks but in a more spooooooky way ;) heres a few examples:

(of course the punch and shots are only meant for our adult readers) but we hope you enjoyed our halloween special and remember not to eat too much candy ;)

til we meet again

- pumpkins!