Our first "from scratch" pretzels

Its no secret that I am a little obsessed with pretzels at the moment. Not the crunchy salty pieces of cardboard in a packet, but the large, crisp skinned ones with soft sweet inners.

I have made bread a few times, so was delighted to see that the recipe was s very simple yeast bread; with the addition that the formed pretzel is dipped for 10 seconds into a baking soda boiling broth before laid onto a tray to be baked. 

Below are some photos I took of us making the pretzels. The kids enjoyed kneading it and were amazed at the proving process. 

I like the recipe too, for its simplicity. Flour, yeast, salt and milk. 

Oh there is something quite magical about the smell of fresh bread.. and in the kneading of it.  

The apartment was soon filled with the delicious sweet scent of fresh bread. Our first attempt needs alittle more adjusting, as they turned out like big fat fluffy weird shaped bread rolls, but boy howdy! they were super delicious. 

Suffice to say that the 9 pretzels we made did not survive the evening, and that we must make more soon!! Oh - and that the kids want to make our own bread rolls and pretzels when we get back to Australia. I'm more than happy to put one of them in charge of t hat job and allow them to have the responsibility each week of making our bread - and snacks!

Back to study

I've long thought about doing my PhD, but the memory of the workload from my Masters, while working full time, is still etched deeply in my mind, so much so, that its put me off from looking into it in much depth.

I've been at a real standstill with my writing, paralysed by writers block, fear based and worthiness issues expound the extreme level of stress I've hosted round this. I have pushed myself to get out of my hole by blogging every day and only recently have I been able to write a structured article to submit to the writing sites I use to be involved with.

I'm working on the children's book for the Camino, but its still not flowing as freely that I had wished it to. So I am going right back to basics; and follwing hte golden rule for writing.

To be a successful writer, you need to read widely and often. I've let this slide, other than some very short stories and flash on occasion.

I came across an interesting site which collates online courses offered by major Universities around the world.. for free. Courses are 4 - 12 weeks long. Admittedly, if you want recognition for the work you have completed in the course, you need to pay for certification. ( its under $100 each course - so its really not that much)  I'm not interested in putting these on my resume; as I'm more interested in the information, and the brain practice it will give me.

I've enrolled in two courses to complete before Christmas this year. One is a supporting dyslexic learners; which I am interested in professionally in anycase. Its offered by the University of London and from what I have seen so far, extremely thoughtful and well put together.

The other one,  Fantasy and Science Fiction: The human Mind, Our Modern World, explores classic novels and stories, from Wells, Bradbury and Poe to more current authors. I'm a little apprehensive about the amount of reading required every week, but I guess I need to be up to the challenge if I am thinking of doing a PhD next year. I am blown away already by the lecturer ( Professor Rabkin from University of Michigan. ) as we pulled apart and analysed an Aesthops Fable to an incredibly deep extent - and I can't imagine what we are going to do with a novel like Frankenstein.

There are tests and assignments every week, so I'll be busy... which is good.

Bingin along the Rhein

Our first real venture out was to check out Bingin which is tiny town along the Rhein. Wine grapes have been grown along the banks ( see picture above) for 2 thousand years.. just think about that for a few moments.. thats a very long time to be producing wine. Quite understandably, the Romans settled along the river banks as they conquered more of Europe. The Rhein is an incredibly powerful river and served as a tradeway for all the settlements, linking the Roman empire to its far flung outposts. 

It was a bit of a miserable day - but if you wait for a clear one, especially now its Autumn, you may be waiting till next spring. 

We went for a little walk along the river, discovered some camino signs (wow!! yes here is a camino linking up to the Spanish one that goes past here)

I took some photos of gardens for Michael - I love the flowers still out!