Postcards from the Trail

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fifth bake.

Jerry at Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants! selected this week's bake - Lemon Semolina Cookies. After reviewing the recipe, I realized these are a lot like a ginger molasses cookie that I make except the focus is on lemon - lemon juice, lemon zest and Lemoncello!

First task was to buy some lemoncello. Another run to the State Liquor Store. Fortunately, they had several in stock. Semolina was easy to find. Central Market had it in bulk so I could buy just what I needed.

First you combine the flour, semolina, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Next cream together the butter, olive oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs.

Zest and juice a lemon. Add to mixture with vanilla and lemoncello. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients.

The dough is much moister than the typical cookie. Chill for an hour first. I went out for a run. Then roll about a teaspoon into a ball and roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I put the dough into the freezer after the first batch to get it firmer to make it easier to roll the second batch.

Bake in 325 degrees for 15 minutes. My oven is cool so I baked them an additional five minutes. They were very light but cooked. Lemon aroma wafted thoughout the kitchen. I could not wait and bite into one. Yummmmm...

Africa Dreaming - Etosha

We could feel a light coat of dust settle on our skin. A slight bead of sweat tickled down the side of my face while I tried to focus my camera lens on the eye of an elephant. The parking area was empty and it was totally quiet but for the snorting, clomping of hooves and occasional splash. It was high noon at the Kalkheuwel waterhole in Etosha National Park in Namibia.

We had been searching all morning for elephants. Driving from waterhole to waterhole, we only saw the occasional springbok or zebra. Our excitement grew as our trusty Toyota Corolla drove up the white dirt road to the waterhole and we saw the large grey elephant bathing at the waterhole.

The Etosha pan is a large dry lakebed which makes up part of Etosha National Park in Namibia. The rains temporarily fill natural water holes and attract thousands of animals. Man made waterholes supplement the natural waterholes providing viewing spots throughout the year. We spent three days in September 2005 driving the white roads and I dream of returning some day.

I would like to share this photo with the members of Photohunt - Enjoy and live your dreams!

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our fourth bake.

This week's selection is Grappa-soaked Mini Sponge Cakes from Dolce Italiano by Gina de Palma. This recipe had a couple of different challenges. First, I didn't have a mini-bundt cakes pan. I don't even have a bundt cake pan. I thought I would use a regular tube pan and then I remembered that I have a savarin ring pan. I thought that might be better than a regular tube pan.

Next challenge was to find grappa. I had found some locally produced grappa from Clear Creek in Oregon. But no luck today. So I ended up with some grape brandy from Bulgaria! Next time I'll remember to use the State Liquor Board's web search page.

The recipe went together smoothly. I have not had too good of luck making sponge cakes. First you create a simple syrup of water, grappa and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients.

Next separate 8 eggs. Beat the eggs yolks with sugar and honey until double in size. Add the flavoring (more grappa!) and melted butter.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites until soft folds. Pour into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool cake for 5 minutes and then remove from pan. Brush with the grappa syrup.

Serve with berries and whipped cream.

Sundials are ancient timepieces used before mechanical clocks. They marks time by the position of the sun.This lovely sundial is from the side of a church in Gourdon France. Sundials are popular in Provence. I saw them in many villages.

If you look closely at this sundial, you'll noticed something strange. The roman numerials do not go back to 1 after 12. Have they redone this sundial for European time? XIII, XIV, XV?

This is my first week playing PhotoHunt. I first saw it over on Leslie's Kaleidoscope blog. I've also seen Girasoli and Maria playing along. It looks like a lot of fun. If you are interested, just click on the PhotoHunt link and hunt along with us.

It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our third bake.

This week's selectionis a savory item - Babbo's Breadsticks. I had my doubts about it since I've only had the hard cellophane-wrapped breadsticks. Would it be worth the effort? G had a company party to go to Saturday and signed us up for cheese and crackers. The breadsticks would be great to take along with the cheese so I decided to do them on Saturday.

I tried to find 00 flour but no luck in my area. I tried Trader Joe's and Central Market and neither store carried it. But I did find an locally grown and milled flour by Stone Buhr. The flour comes from Shepard's Grain , an alliance of family farms who have been certified as "environmentally and socially responsible" by Food Alliance. I think that is so cool that I can find socially responsible local flour here in my grocery store.

The recipe went together easily. I was surprised by the recipe including a 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. These may have a little spiciness. I don't have a standing mixer to knead the dough so I blended the ingredients and then turned them out onto a floured sheet and hand kneaded them for 5 minutes. The dough handled similar to pizza dough.

Our house is cool so for good measure I warmed a bit of water in a large soup pot and laid a cake rack on top to warm the dough. I placed the towel covered bowl on top the warm pan and left it to raise.

After the dough doubled in size, I punched it down and cut the dough into 1 inch pieces. It took a little bit for me to get the hang of hand rolling the dough into foot long pencil thin strands of dough. I'd always end up with one section really narrow. But the dough is really forgiving and you can push it back together and re-roll it out.

The instructions were to bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. I had to bake for almost 20 minutes to get them lightly golden in my oven.

They were golden and crispy. The tangy salt with the peppery bite was addictive. G and I ate several right out of the oven. I placed them in a large pint glass and took them to the party. They were definitely attention grabbers and were gobbled up.

Here are a few of the other bloggers results:

• Destination Anywhere
• In and Out of the Gardens
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants!
• Old Shoes - New Trip
• Palmabella's Passions
• Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Next week: Grappa-soaked mini sponge cakes