A Bonnetful of Bees

Alice asked me to let people know that she has posted a new addition to her blog.  You can read it at http://wudhi.com/schnauzer%2007.htm.

http://wudhi.com/albums/norfolk%20november%2009/norfolk%202009%2001.htm

For those who enjoyed her earlier work, Alice has resumed blogging.

Check out http://wudhi.com/schnauzer%2006.htm

Just back from a week staying with Bonny at Norfolk Island. For a look at some of the walking tracks, check out http://wudhi.com/mrwalker/norfolk%20island/norfolk%20island%2001.htm for the first instalment.

One of my favourite breads, the Barbecue Bread, employs yoghurt and milk but no water at all.

A couple of days or so back, I experimented with my Dutch Oven Bread by substituting kefir for the water in the recipe.  I had to add a little extra to get the dough looking and feeling about right, and I set it to rise in the usual way.  It took about half as long again as the regular water-based version to rise properly, and I baked it at the regulation 210C.

The resulting loaf was a little more dense and a little softer in texture, with an excellent flavour.  The most significant change however was that three days after being baked, it was still “fresh” and palatable, where the water based version is beginning to dry a little by the end of the second day.

It’s a little more expensive to make than the usual recipe, but I’ll certainly come back to this when I’m baking for a trip away in the van.

The Duchess of Portland has arrived for her annual visit.

If you’re in Wanganui and looking for a bit of a stretch, this will do nicely.  Especially if you have a dog, as many of the other local attractions like Bushy Park are closed to dogs. This is a circuit of just over 2 hours fatman time, including photos. Peter, Alice and I started at the southern side of the Dublin St bridge, crossed the bridge and walked west as far as the City bridge, crossed again, and headed back down to the van on the south bank.

In Sepember 2007, Mayor Michael Laws officially opened the walkway project, and it is ongoing

Who exactly are we sharing it with?

We park the van and hitch Alice to a lead, something she is not all that keen on with so much to explore that is new. Would we like to go tramping on a lead. Not really. (more…)

Kefir is a fermented milk product, a little like yoghurt, but not as thick, or as sharply acid, a little like like a dairy version of sourdough bread.  It’s relatively unknown in New Zealand except among health food people, and even then not widely.  It deserves a lot more recognition.

According to enthusiasts, it’s simply chock full of probiotics, which aid your digestion, lower your blood pressure and your bad cholesterol, and enable dairy-sensitive persons to eat it in quantity and more easily absorb its calcium. These little fellows may also help you to win lotteries or change governments.  Even if it does none of those things or only some, it will still have a place in my fridge from now on in.  I’m a convert.  (more…)

For a variety of perfectly good reasons, I neglected to put the Dutch Oven bread on to rise last night and breakfast saw the last of my bread disappear as toast.

I thought about my Beer Bread recipe, an hour from thinking about it to eating it, but my memory of it was not quite what I wanted.  I have been enjoying the taste and texture of the Dutch Oven Bread so much I wasn’t ready to settle for less.  Out of the inner tantrum came a thought.  What would happen if I mixed up a batch of Beer Bread, and cooked it the way I do the Dutch Oven Bread?

(more…)

OK, back to walking again.  With the possibility of a walk along the St James (NZ, not Spain) in November being dangled in front of me, I’ve been putting some kilometres behind me down at Rimmers.  The main problem is that right now, I weigh as much without a pack as I did with a pack when I last walked the St James, and I still recall the demands the up and down first day en route to Cannibal Gorge Hut made on my legs.  (See “Duke of York Territory”

It’s been said that a fit fat man is in better health than an unfit man of average weight, and while I believe there’s an element of truth in that, we are here talking about the kind of loads that an 18-20kg pack are going to place on knees and ankles over 5 days, in addition to what’s already there.

Anyway….  The Coast Rd down at Rimmers is a useful starting place to get into training.  It’s flat, and straight, and even if you think pine trees are boring — I do — there’s lots to observe besides.  To get there, turn west at Rimmers Rd, about a couple of km south of Helensville, and follow the tarseal until you reach the forest turnoff, then through the forest until you reach the Rimmers Rd parking lot.  About 13 km from Helensville all up.

(more…)