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The Blessing of Bagels...

Eat thy bread with joy... Ecclesiastes 9:7

Atlanta Bread's Asiago Cheese Bagel

Atlanta Bread's Asiago Cheese Bagel toasted with Bacon Pimento and Cheese and Whipped Cream Cheese

Larry and I love bagels! Unfortunately, fresh bagels weren’t available in our immediate area for a long time! As always, even though I'm sure I never had the good sense to ask Him, God provided! When we went to Memphis, we’d go by The Bagel Company on Poplar and load up. Leigh and Brendan often bring us a nice package of these wonderful treats from Beagle Bagel, when they come home. And, Lula, a kind, former co-worker of Larry’s, fellow foodie and terrific cook, would bring us bagels from New York, when she went to visit her family there.

Then a few months back, an Atlanta Bread Company opened in Tupelo! Oh, happy day!! Fresh bagels without traveling to extremes, or "mis-putting" our friends and family! It really is the small things in life that often bring us the greatest pleasure!

I am going to give a shout out to my favorite Atlanta Bread Company bagel variety - Asiago Cheese! If you haven’t tried one of these, you must!! It is wonderful!!

There were enough leftovers from our Saturday night veggie buffet to make Sunday lunches for Dude, Aunt Jean and Larry. The kids wanted sandwiches, and I had an Asiago Cheese bagel, that I had picked up at Atlanta Bread over the weekend. I like mine toasted. I usually top it with a small amount of cream cheese. Or, if I’m having a low-willpower day, a lot of cream cheese! Yesterday, I decided to branch out a bit. I put cream cheese on half - the top portion with the melted asiago cheese, to be specific. On the bottom half, I spread some of the Bacon Pimento and Cheese, that I made on Saturday. I believe the spread is even better after sitting a while! It made for a great lunch, but I had one tiny dilemma. My friend, Julie, taught me long ago that you should always save a bite of the favorite thing on your plate for your last bite. This way, your meals always end of a good note! Do any of you do this, too? Anyway, it was a hard call as to which bite to have last. In the end, the cream cheese won out!

Thanks to all the folks at Atlanta Bread for providing fresh bagels for us Southern bagel lovers. Now, if they’d only add sun-dried tomato bagels to their menu!! (Hint, hint ;) - Leigh and Brendan!)

Tip: Bagels freeze really well. The best way I have found to do this, is to have them slice the bagels at the bagel shop. Wrap each bagel in plastic wrap, and put theses into a large plastic zippered bag. Don’t mix varieties in the zippered bag, though. The flavors will mingle and transfer. Once, I ruined a big bag of my precious bagels by putting blueberry bagels and everything bagels in the same Ziploc. Unlike the pleasant taste of getting some chocolate on your peanut butter, or some peanut butter on your chocolate, the combination of blueberries and garlic wasn’t a pleasant thing!

Many Blessings and Happy Cookin' ~ Connie

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