Bagels: Perhaps third time will be the charm???

I absolutely LOVE bagels! I was going through my cookbook that was given to me by my lovely sister-in-law, Martha Jane, and I found a recipe in there from her for making bagels. Now baking has never been a friend of mine. I remember in high school trying to make breadsticks that came out hard as rocks. I'm sure yeast was the culprit...I just can't manage to use that stuff correctly! Anyway, it made me nervous to attempt any baking project but I decided to be brave.

I started my baking adventure with homemade choc chip cookies also using one of MJ's recipes...they turned out DELICIOUS and gave me confidenct...but as making cookies is the most basic of baking accomplishments I didn't even bother to take a picture haha

So after my cookie success I started making the bagel dough. Warm water....yeast in....okay...looking right (I think)...smelling right (again..I think)....

When the dough was done it looked good to me...now the test....to let it rise!

So I waited for a bit (recipe said just 20 mins) but didn't see any difference. Rats! Let it go a bit longer...Okay, maybe a little different. Decided to give up and keep going. When all was said and done I had bagels that came out of the oven looking like this:
White and weird looking...UGH! I tried them to see how they taste and though it didn't taste bad it didn't taste good either...it didn't really taste like much of anything. *sigh*

I did have a little dough leftover but by this time it was after midnight so I stuck that dough in a container in the fridge not sure if I could try to make something edible with it the next day.

Well now its the next day. I pulled out the dough a few hours ago and it had actually risen really well! YAY! So at least I got the yeast part right. I formed bagels and let them rise some more. They did and looked better than yesterday so I felt encouraged. I cooked them as directed only this time I also brushed them with egg whites to help them brown nice and pretty and sprinkled a little salt, pepper, garlic and parmesan on them to hopefully give it some flavor this time around. Wasn't much I could do about the shape of them....bagel makers must be masters cause I can't figure out how to make them look nice and properly round!

Into the oven.....wait wait wait.....and.....

Ta da! Okay so still don't look great but at least this time they look cooked! Already a vast improvement! See the difference? Lets make a closer comparison....

Yes indeed....MUCH better! Now to taste...I cut the bagel open and made a tuna salad sandwich. I'm eatting it right now as I type this blog entry. It tastes alright. Nothing monumental unfortunately but definitely better than last nights batch.

But still I think my bagel making has a long way to go before I'd let anyone else have one. Anyone out there make bagels (Martha help me!) that have some tips for me? How do I get them shaped right? The ones I've made don't seem to puff up when baked like I would think they should, any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!