9. January 2014 11:16
by Rene Pallesen
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25. December 2013 05:12
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden got a new bike and helmet for Christmas. He was very proud as it was the biggest present under the tree.

The helmet is a combined bicycle and climbing helmet (cost more than the bike) so will see if I can also find an opportunity to take him climbing in the new year.
25. December 2013 05:09
by Rene Pallesen
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As usual we celebrated Christmas Day with the whole family.
There was a lot of Christmas presents this year, so the kids must have been good.

Even Father Christmas paid us a visit...

It was a big group this year.
24. December 2013 05:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Every year I do a family photo. This year we decided to use the gingerbread village and the tree as a backdrop.
Merry Christmas.


23. December 2013 05:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Over the Christmas period Aiden and I have been building a Gingerbread village.

It has been good fun for me to put the houses together and for Aiden to help with sticking on the kandy.
16. December 2013 12:56
by Rene Pallesen
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16. December 2013 05:01
by Rene Pallesen
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At the moment I am going through a phase where I Loooveee baking bread.
There is something really satisfying about working with something that is so diverse and alive. And there is nothing like eating a freshly baked bread with a nice crust.
So far I have found a couple of recipes I really like...one of them is this walnut and fig bread.

On the weekend I made it for the family dinner and they wanted the recipe.
- 400g white flour into a bowl
- Add 100g of wholemeal flour
- Add 10g of sea salt flakes
- Add 5g of dry yeast into the bowl
- Add 335ml of water
- Mix it all together using your hand
- Kneed it by stretching it out on a table and then roll it up...do this 3-6 times
- flatten the bread to a thickness of about 15mm and then place walnuts and chopped figs on top. Roll up the bread with the walnuts and figs inside.
- Stretch the bread another couple of time and roll it up until the walnuts and figs are mixed into the bread.
- Put the bread in a bowl and cover it with glad wrap (or better yet, just leave it on the table and cover it with the bowl) for one hour...knock back the bread every 20 minutes (3 times in total).
- Leave the bread for another one hour (without knocking it back). After 30 minutes (30 minutes prior to baking) start preheating the oven with a baking/pizza stone at 250 degrees. Also put a small metal tray in the oven (for the ice cubes)
- Add a bit of semolina (or flour) to the baking stone and to the top of the bread to avoid it sticking.
- Place the bread on the baking stone and make a couple of cuts to the top of the dough.
- Add 3-4 ice cubes to the metal tray
- Close the oven and turn down the temperature to 200 degrees immediately.
- Bake for 30 minutes and remove from the oven.
23. January 2014 12:39
by Rene Pallesen
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