Mark's Practise Walk Day 1 of 3

Jessica here: I'm pleased to announce that Mark is doing a guest blog slot over the next couple of weeks, to fill you all in on how his training has gone and to share the experience of his
Hadrian's Wall Charity Walk.

Over to Mark:

Disclaimer: the opinions and observations of the guest blogger do not in any way reflect those of the owner of this blog. In fact the blog owner is fully entitled to not feed the guest blogger should she deem the contents of this blog obfuscating, untrue, or otherwise poorly expressed. NB: Use of the font 'Comic Sans' by the guest blogger will result in immediate dismissal and a large dose of mockery and public humiliation.

Practise Walk: Day 1

The original, typically idealistic, schedule for the 'practise walk week' was to complete the full 102 miles of the picturesque Cotswold Way. As the first day approached, thoughts more in keeping with my inherent idleness made themselves known, such as "These are my rare and precious annual leave days I'm throwing away in pursuit of something as banal as walking when I could be at home doing something genuinely rewarding. Like nothing."

Fortunately Jess had previously committed to transporting me to the starting point of the Cotswold Way (Chipping Campden) on the first day; so as she was implicit in the scheme on the side of Mark the Idealist, Mark the Idle lost out. Temporarily.

We took two cars. Car A was parked at the finishing point (the side of a busy road with no particular land mark or point of reference) and we went together in Car B to the starting point. The drive from the discarded Car A to Chipping Campden took about 45 minutes, an intimidating measure of how immense the return journey on foot would be.

At 10am (very late for a full day's walking) a strange, mis-shapen silhouette started up the path.

Chipping Campden itself is typical of most of the Cotswolds that I've seen; that is to say it appears to have been painted into existence by a romantic watercolour painter with the words 'quaint, olde, English' squarely mind. Plenty of that to come.

The path itself is well sign-posted and well kept.

Even the farmers are considerate enough to leave gaps in their crops.

The local tradition of individuals staring down large inert flower pots did confuse me a little.

Just as I was warming up to the routine of putting one foot in front of the other - rather than 'squeeze clutch hand briefly, depress left foot, roll back throttle hand,' a more naturalistic set of movements for forward travel - the brutal red and yellow reality of working life appeared, trying to camouflage itself awkwardly in the trees. That ubiquitous logo tracks me everywhere so I shouldn't be surprised.

The first 6-7 miles of day 1 centre on http://www.broadwaytower.co.uk/ At Chipping Campden it is just possible to make it out as a blip on the horizon:

After 4 miles or so it suddenly appears, Monty Python style, over the hill.

Then after around 7 miles it shrinks to be a very large tree again

During the course of the day several other themes emerged with great and unsurprising regularity: gates, animals and walls. The gates were generally of the functional variety with over-elaborate closing mechanisms.

Occasionally the functional would morph into something quite special

Animal encounters consisted of the usual suspects. The ruminatory:

The thoroughbred (notice their 'tiny' home in the valley)

Ninja sheep (on vacation)

The 'scared stiff but can't move because of the darn wall'

The 'scare the walker stiff but he has to commit because there's no other way around'

The elusive and fleet of foot:

Walls, particularly dry stone walls (no cement, no adhesives), were ubiquitous and, despite the brain numbing excitement of the subject, deserve a mention simply because every single stone was placed very skilfully by an individual at some point back in time. The more of these walls I walked along, the more a sense of awe developed.

Initially they just seemed to be a redundant artefact, a bygone labour intensive method of dividing land, but to see them recently repaired, and see an old artisan painstakingly rebuilding a slice of wall (although I didn't get a photo) turned it into much more of a living tradition.

The day moved along. There were freely provided snacks along the way:

Due to the late start though, I didn't get lunch until around 1500 when I hobbled into the town of Winchcombe, about 17 miles in and with another 16 to go. The problem with picturesque ye olde town centres as I found to my cost, is that they don't tend to allow for big gaudy supermarkets that would conflict with the Tudor architecture. Or any kind of store that would offer any kind of food (the pubs had closed at 1400). I did eventually find a newsagent with a sad tuna sandwich being the sole provision on offer. It tasted good.

Olde and quaint are the undisputed themes of the local architecture (the gap in the house below was for the horses and coach to drive through).

With the occasional impressive facade thrown in to make unsuspecting peasants quake in their hobnail boots

There are old buildings, and then there are OLD buildings

And just plain bizarre buildings

The path took me up hills, through woodland, along streams, fields, roads, and up more hills. I kept visualising my peers of just about any part of history before a certain Mr Henry Ford and how feet were their only method of travel.

My shadow got longer and longer, and the sun started sinking over Wales

Eventually, at around 8pm, I found the busy road Jess and I had left Car A at 11 hours previously. The lack of landmarks meant I inevitably traced the road away from the car for a good 10 minutes before realising my mistake and trudging back, headlights screaming past, until the comforting, comfortable sight of the old Honda came into view.

Stats for the day (and reason to eat Burger King with impunity):

58,000 steps

2898 kcal

33.12 miles

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Gail's trusty pedometer for reminding me so regularly how much further I have to go!

Thanks to Jess's taxi service, stretching advice, and 'Mexican Week' culinary wonders to inspire me and keep me simultaneously supple and well nourished (schucks).

Thanks also to Jess for the temporary loan of her personal blogosphere

Many, many thanks to the generosity of all Horns and associated international sponsors! (And to Grandpa Huber – I hope the offer of the loan of your walker is for real – I'm going to need it!)

If you have any friends who would be willing to sponsor the good cause, here's a reminder of the links and the charities:

http://www.justgiving.com/dhltsa

http://www.justgiving.com/dhlgosh

(Mark heads off tomorrow. The walk itself is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, with Mark returning on Sunday. The rest of his practice walk blog posts will continue while he's away - so stay tuned! -Ed.)

Adventures in Preserving 4 and 5: Plum Jam and Gingered Courgette/Zucchini Jam

The next two jams I tried (a couple of weeks ago) I had full recipes for - from the preserving course.

The first is a plum jam recipe. I used three types of plums:


And then did the usual boiling and sugaring and boiling:



And it ended up as jam!



The other recipe I wanted to try was demonstrated at the preserving workshop day. It's called "Gingered Courgette Jam" which for some reason does sound better than "Gingered Zucchini Jam." For some reason, it feels like it would be normal to make a jam out of courgettes, but not out of zucchinis, even though they're exactly the same vegetable.

Anyway, we got to taste some on the workshop day, and it was pretty good - almost like candy, actually, because of the ginger. And I had a couple of courgettes that I had grown (yay!) that were getting a bit too big to eat normally, so I thought it was worth a try, especially since it was enough to make half a recipe - not a whole one, which I thought might be too much.

So you start out by peeling and grating the zucchini/courgettes and ginger - which is what turned out to be the most time-consuming part, since I don't have a food processor (poor me):



And then you do the normal boiling and sugaring and boiling:



And it also ends up as jam.

We haven't tried the courgette one yet, but I have been eating the plum jam, and it's pretty good. I tried the variation that uses orange juice and some nutmeg, which gives it a nice flavor.

Here they all are, plus two bottles of the previously mentioned shrub. I'm now up to four bottles total of shrub, having finished off my second batch this last weekend.


So not a bad output, considering I'm brand new to it, and not taking it too seriously. And it's not just about jam, as you'll soon see...

Adventures in Preserving 2 and 3: Raspberry and Blueberry Jam and Red Currant Shrub.

After my preserving course, I'm now trying my hand at jam and other preserve making. Here are the first two experiments of the last couple months:

After the failed marmalade attempt, I thought I need to try jam. I had some raspberries and blueberries available, so I thought I'd just try to put them together. I didn't have a recipe for that mix - so I just winged it.

I forgot to take a picture of the process, but here's the end result:


And here it is, in action:


It ended up being a bit too strong. I'm not sure what I did wrong - not enough sugar, or not the right flavors together, but it just wasn't all that great. I'm glad I only ended up with two jars of it! I guess I'm not quite experienced enough to go off recipe. But the consistency was really good, at least, so I got something right.

One thing that they let us taste, but didn't demonstrate, on the preserving course, was an old-fashioned drink called "Currant Shrub." It's like Sloe Gin or any other fruit flavored alcoholic drink. In this case, it's red currants and brandy. I liked the taste of it on the day, though I don't go in for those kinds of drinks normally. It tasted just like Christmas, and the longer it sits the better it is, so I thought I'd make some for this holiday season.

You start by getting the juice from the red currants:



Then you need to strain the juice out. I don't have a jelly bag stand, so I rigged one up using two potato mashers, and some other kitchen objects, including a jam jar filled with water, acting as a weight to press the red currant juice out:


Then you mix the juice with the alcohol, plus some lemon juice and nutmeg and let it sit.

Like this:


After a week or two (or three - as I accidentally did the second time I made it), you add sugar and raise its temperature to around 60 degrees Celsius. Then you strain it through a jelly bag and bottle it up. Then you let it sit for a few months. Hopefully it will be just about right by the time Christmas rolls around.

BBQ Adventures 3: Pork ribs.

Last weekend I tried making pork ribs. This time I used the Memphis Ribs recipe from Steve Raichlen. It uses a rub and then a vinegar-mustard mop.

Again, I had to go with what was in the store, and they only had individual ribs, not a rib rack, but all that seemed to mean is that they probably cooked a bit faster than if they had been all joined up.

I used mesquite wood this time, so the smoke flavor was definitely stronger.

I forgot to take a picture of the set up, so all the pictures we have are of the finished article.



(By the way, those tomatoes are ones that came off of our own tomato plants. That was pretty exciting.)



I think they turned out pretty well. So far I think the ribs have been my favorite (though I tend to like ribs best, anyway). They weren't completely fall of the bone tender, but I do like to have a little bit of "chew" to them.

The potato salad was a bit too salty.

This was the first time I tried sugarsnap peas on the grill (I put them all together on a skewer) - they were really good. I would definitely do that again. I also tried putting all like vegetables on the same skewer together, rather than intermingling different vegetables. I think it did work better, because then you could control how they cooked more easily. It doesn't look as nice, and rather than just handing a skewer to a person, you have to divvy up each of the vegetables, but it's worth it to avoid overcooking some and undercooking others.

So far Mark liked the pulled pork best, then the ribs, then the brisket. I think I liked the ribs, then it's kind of a tie between the pulled pork and brisket.

Not sure what I'm going to try next. I really want to eat sausage, like at Spring Creek or Dickey's (by the way, just discovered that there's a Dickey's in Taylors, on the other side of Greenville, SC), but the problem there, of course, is sourcing the sausage. I don't know if I can get my hands on the kind of sausage that they use. I might try brisket again, or try something completely new out of the cookbook. Or maybe ham. At some point I'll try a whole turkey - but I think I need to get a stand first. Unless I try beer can chicken, which seems to have achieved cult status. I'll see where our appetites take us next.

Man Booker Prize 2010.

It's that time of year again - the Man Booker Prize longlist was announced today.

Here it is:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)

Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan - Picador)

Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin - Fig Tree)

Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)

Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)

Andrea Levy The Long Song
(Headline Publishing Group - Headline Review)

Tom McCarthy C (Random House - Jonathan Cape)

David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)

Lisa Moore February (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)

Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)

Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky
(Random House - Jonathan Cape)

This year the judging panel is made up entirely of individuals who are authors themselves - in some capacity or another, either as poet, journalist, or critic. No mathematicians, no actors; I'm hoping that it means that this year the panel will have a slightly different approach. We'll see. The list looks pretty good so far - no Ian McEwan - ha! But a Booker winner that I'm not disappointed with isn't really a Booker winner to me, it seems, so perhaps this year will be like all the others.

We saw Inception tonight (loved it - everyone should see it - can't go on enough about it), so since we were at the mall already, I ran into the bookstore there and picked up two of the books at random - David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (it is a very lovely looking book) and Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (it was sitting right next to the cash register, though not, oddly, because of the Booker list; I had to tell them that the longlist was out - they didn't know). I also definitely want to do the same as I did last year, and get one or two of the books in audio format to listen to in the car. I'm planning also to get some from the library again this year, but I currently have such a huge outstanding fine to pay (long story, not very interesting, and no, I'm not going to tell you how much I owe) that they won't let me reserve any books online until I pay it off. So that will have to wait until I get a chance to go into the library. Or, rather, once I have the courage to face up to the very disappointed and disproving look that the librarian will no doubt give me when she sees how much I owe.

But, anyway, two books in hand are better than eleven in the bush, uh, I mean library, so here I go!

BBQ Adventures 2: Pulled pork.

So. I've now got two grills, and, in terms of barbecue (not grilling, which we've done loads), one piece of brisket under my belt (literally and figuratively). I also bought my first BBQ cook book, Steve Raichlen's The Barbecue! Bible.

For the next barbecue attempt, we decided to try pulled pork. I've made it before in a crock pot, but I wanted to try smoking it. Plus, it's easy to get hold of pork shoulder. I haven't yet started exploring the various butchers in our area, and until I do, I can only use the cuts of meat I can find in a supermarket over here (and a lot of the cuts go by different names over here than in the States, so sometimes I'm not sure what I'm looking at in the meat section. I keep meaning to bring in my cow and pork "maps" from Joy of Cooking so I can ask the in-store butcher to translate for me.)

I followed the Carolina Pulled Pork recipe. I used pecan wood chips, because I didn't have any hickory (traditional for Carolina pulled pork, apparently); Mr. Raichlen says that pecan wood tastes like hickory, but is milder.

I set everything up as I did with the brisket, but this time had a better idea of how to manage the heat using the vents (you can see my chimney starter sitting on the ground to the right. Plus my sort of sad looking tomato plants in the background).


The thing that I didn't work out is that when you're adding charcoal, especially briquettes, you really need to light them first separately, before adding them to the fire. Since I had to cook the pork for a few hours, the fire did start to die down, and I tried to add the briquettes without lighting them first. It kind of worked, kind of didn't. I ended up finishing the pork off in the gas grill for an hour. I tried to use a wood chip smoking box in the gas grill, but it didn't really work. Fortunately, there was enough smoky taste from when it was on the charcoal, that I only needed the gas grill to finish cooking the pork, not flavor it.

It tasted pretty good! We had it on buns with 'Carolina style' coleslaw (no mayo, no carrots or anything, just cabbage and a vinegary, watery BBQ sauce). I didn't quite get it to the temperature it needed to be to be really fall-apart tender - so it would be more accurate to call it Partially Pulled Partially Chopped Pork. But we both still liked it. I forgot to take a picture before we ate, here's one with the remains:



Mark took a close up so you can see the pink ring at the edge of the meat - which is what everyone goes for (it shows your smoking has been successful). I was pretty pleased with that. I don't know what the pink ring is really meant to look like, but to me, I definitely have some pink in my pork:



And here's Mark looking full:


It was also really good a couple of days later when we had it as leftovers.

Next up is ribs.