Sourdough Breadmaking

Yesterday Lloyd and I went on a course to learn a lot about sourdough bread baking.
We are lucky enough to have an AMAZING place called FlourFlower in Kerikeri. It's custom built for lots of things, but for us, the exciting bit is that they have a brand spanking new commercial kitchen, where they hold courses, or you can hire it out to use for cooking your own things, or anything really. You think of a reason you might need it and you can use it.

We heard they were holding a Sourdough course so we booked in for it.

It was brilliant.

And we learned LOADS

There were 6 'pupils' and we pretty much worked all day from about 8.15am right through till 4pm. But at the end of the day we had made foccacia, a traditional loaf, a wholemeal loaf, a lot of naan breads and doughnuts. AND we left clutching our sourdough starters that we were given by Keith  - our tutor.
( it's over 10 years old!)

I've tried bread making quite a lot, but have never really mastered it and know that I am totally terrible at kneeding! Lloyd got the hang of it really quickly. I didn't! But I did improve.

We came home completely inspired to make more bread - after we've managed to get through the load that we came home with - and also to go on any more courses they're holding.

And, to join Kerikeri Cooking Club. Which sounds like a lot of fun.

Our spoils!

I think we were most inspired by the foccacia and the round, traditional loaves. These will be first on our agenda.

Roland's Wood

We kept hearing good things about this place. Roland's wood is an area of land that was donated to Kerikeri, years ago, by a lovely man, who was a dog lover. When he passed away he left it as a place where people could walk their dogs, freely. Anyone can go there!

The Rotary Club took it on and have done wonderful things with it. There's been a lot of planting and path making and maintenance.

Up until recently we've always taken our dogs to the beach. They adore the beach, but with Bob Dog having arthritis now it's not the best place for him. He forgets he has a sore hip and gets so excited, running into the water, doing sort of dolphin leaps! He always ends up coming home limping and suffers for a few days.

We thought we'd give Rolands Wood a go. And oh how I wish we'd gone yonks ago! It is an amazing place, and the dogs adored it.  It looks particularly lovely just now, as all the magnolias are flowering. In a few more weeks the bluebells will be out.

This is sort of the area of the wood  - it doesn't go back as far as the photo though!!

Shall we go this way?

Or this way?  Brodie and Lulah were on a mission to explore every inch of the woods!

Brodie is one very happy boy.

 Lulah smelling the daffodils as she runs by.

She's pretty well camouflaged in all the leaves. 

Swimming! She is SUCH a waterbaby.

Bob belted around the place having a total ball. Hard to believe he'll be 10 in a couple of weeks.

Poor Lloyd was on Poo Bag duty!

See, stunning!

Super delighted dogs.

There's an amazing amount of flowers out just now

Tired but happy, doodles. Except Lulah, who looks very sad to be leaving.

My favourite pic of the day - Bob in the magnolias.

The Kerikeri Half Marathon

Last year Lloyd decided that he would run the Kerikeri half marathon. I thought this was kind of brave as even though Lloyd is pretty fit, he likes walking and is a brilliant skier he's never ran. In fact I would go so far as to say he hates the idea of running.
However he started training and after the first couple of short runs came home smiling and saying that it was oddly enjoyable.
He got new proper running trainers and some kit and kept at it. Then we got terribly busy and it went by the wayside a little bit, but he did keep at it every so often.
He entered a 10km run along the coast a couple of months ago and enjoyed it a lot more than he expected.

However, on the run up to the half marathon he was not a happy chappy. The idea of it was messing with his head big time - which I can totally relate to as I was exactly the same with the ocean swim series.

Anyway, yesterday was the day. It was very dull with showers turning to rain later, forecast.
We got up early and I took him to the start. There were 2,500 people doing it. It was actually oversubscribed for the first time. Somehow he managed to meet up with Sara who was also doing it.
And off they set!

Mum and I timed it to get into town for the finish. We met up with Nick and were there just in time to see Sara finish. She beat her previous time by 20 minutes!! That's amazing.
Then we waited for Lloyd. He had thought it would take him around 3 hours as he was sure he wouldn't be able to run all of it.
Well, he was way off!
( I had every faith he'd do it quicker!)
He ran home, with a huge smile on his face in 2 hours 34. Blooming spectacular.
The first thing he said was "I'm not doing that again"

I am so proud of him!
Today, he can still walk!

And here he is - finishing his first ( and maybe last!) half marathon. Look at that grin.

And Sara, fresh as a daisy!

Kerikeri Basin

We had a nice, calm day yesterday. We all wandered around the Sunday Farmers Market in Kerikeri then went down to the Basin to go to the Stone Store - which is lovely, and Kemp House.

 

There's also a great art installation down in the inlet - a giant plug!

It's been done by a local artist called Helen Jean and we think it's totally brilliant!

The Culinary Institute ~ Kerikeri

Last night the Culinary Institute held a dinner for their student chefs to showcase what they have learned and we were lucky enough to go along to it. We've never been to anything like this before, so didn't really know what to expect, but it was the most wonderful night.

This was the menu

I forgot to take a photo of the first course, but from then on in I remembered - and I'm so glad, because it all looked so beautiful - and the taste was amazing.

 There are some very talented chefs in the making, here.

It's funny because, as it was a tasting menu, the courses are fairly small and it's very deceptive! You think after the first three courses you're not that full but by the end of the meal I think we were all ready to explode! We got several dishes of beautiful petit fours with coffee and we could barely manage to taste one! I noticed we weren't the only table unable to eat anymore, because there was a lot of surreptitious and not so surreptitious wrapping of truffely delights in napkins to be smuggled home for later - wish I'd thought of that!

Little Vineyards

Where we live there are a lot of boutique vineyards and for the last couple of years there has been a festival/party where a few of them get together and celebrate their new vintage. There is a band and various food stalls and obviously lots of wine. We arranged to go with some of our friends - who were incredibly happy to have me along as I don't drink which meant they had a sober driver all organised and could enjoy the wine tasting.

As has been the way recently, the day dawned with pure blue skies and a lot of heat!

It was beautiful.

I have to say this was one of the nicest days. I think the band had a lot to do with that as they were amazing and played a lot of great stuff that just got everyone up dancing and having a great time.

 This was our table - under the shade of an avocado tree. Spot the vines in the background. By the end of the afternoon there were people dancing in there!

Look at the colour of that sky!

A wee selection of the wines on offer. 

 this was the band having a well earned rest.

 Some of the wineries that were there.

Dancing!

Christmas Parade

Just home from the Christmas parade and it was brilliant. for a small town Kerikeri sure knows how to put on a great show. The streets were absolutely packed with people out enjoying the sun and the atmosphere. There were lots of floats again this year. Here's a selection of everyone taking part. Not a flake of snow to be seen!