St Patricks Day

First I must apologise for the lack of postings recently - I had a rather nasty bout of man flu last week and it left me feeling rather lethargic and sorry for myself - all back to normal now though I'm happy to report.

I'd not been to the gym for over a week due to my dibilitating runny nose, so heading back there on Saturday morning I was feeling a bit aprehensive. Thankfully it all went well and I managed to run off nearly 800 calories which I was very pleased with. Subsequently I have been on Monday, Tuesday and Weds nights this week, managing to do gradually less each night as the tiredness kicks in. I've decided to take a break from it tonight, just to allow my batteries to recharge - I might try to have a go on the bike at home instead.

Yet again I'm on annual leave from work next week, and seeing as the weather is getting better, I'd like to think that I could get some bits done in the garden. I need to replace a couple of sections of trellis which broke during the recent snow we had, but I was shocked at the prices - I'm not mean but fifteen quid for some badly nailed together bits of wood - thats taking the biscuit !

In other news, my friend Sara lent me her bread maker on my last visit.
I'd said to her previously that I fancied trying to make my own bread and had been looking at getting a cheap bread machine.

So, to take a break from baking cakes I've started dabbling with bread.
I'm currently on my third loaf - my first attempt was a plain white loaf which I added some wheatgerm to, just to zhuzh it up a bit. It looked really good and the taste was ok, but there seemed to be something missung.

My second loaf was another white loaf, but this time I added some chopped walnuts and pecans into the mix, and gave it a liberal squirt of maple syrup. Again it rose like a dream and smelt fabulous whilst cooking, but the taste just seemed not to be right.

My third loaf which I baked earlier this week was a wholemeal one - I figured it might be the flour that I'd been using that wasn't giving me the right taste. This time I threw in a handful of chopped walnuts and sunflower seeds to give it some texture.

I didn't take a picture of this one as they all look very much the same - next week I might use it just to knock up the dough, and I'll shape and bake the loaf in the oven - that might be more fun.

I gave a couple of slices to Baked by Brian last night for him to give me his verdict - hes been emailing me today so it obviously didn't kill him !