Fair!

I managed to pick up some kind of stomach illness today, so I missed out on the fair. Chloe met Simon, Vanessa and the girls in St. Egreve, and a few hours later a very excited Zoe came running up the stairs with a green bag. After surmounting the final step of the staircase, I realized that she was beyond the normal states of Zoe excitement, and in the hyperexcited mode which only key words are expressed. In this case: "FISH!" "MY CAUGHT IT!" "DINNER" and "DESSERT"! It soon came out that there was also a donkey ride. I was of course, very jealous.







(photos by Simon and Vanessa)
Here is Zoe at home, right before the gutting and cooking of the fish. Zoe asked why the fish wasn't bouging (moving) anymore, but was perfectly happy to eat it. It was not the best fish I have eaten, and even Zoe soon gave up in favor of the excellent Salmon from the fish guy at the Fontanil market.

Chloe's race, energy bars

Chloe ran a ~half marathon with 1100 vertical meters of elevation gain today. Woo!

I was at home, getting tortured by the kids and decided to try to make energy bars again. I did this a few weeks ago from a recipe in Outside magazine, and they turned out pretty well. Full of energy bar hubris, I decided to try to make my own recipe. I wanted to achieve the following characteristics:

1)A good mix of high and low glycemic index components
2)Not too sticky or flaky: suitable for a cycling jersey pocket
3)Reasonable shelf life, or the ability to freeze the bars
4)Not be totally disgusting

High GI components are easy:
brown sugar
maple syrup (Actually, GI of only 55)
Lavender honey

Low GI components:
A big scoop of peanut butter (GI 23)
Dried apple
Dried Banana
Rolled oats (GI 50)

The bar relies heavily on the low GI rolled oats and high GI brown sugar, which are the major ingredients. I just added things to taste for the first try, but if anyone is interested I could weight out portions next time.

I mixed all the dry components in a bowl, with a little salt and cinnamon to taste, then heated up the brown sugar, honey and maple syrup until they formed a uniform syrup, then added the peanut butter. I then poured this mixture onto the dry mix, stirred, and put it all into a baking pan that I had lined with wax paper and dusted with more rolled oats. Next came more rolled oats to dust (the idea of the dusting is to make the outside faces of the bar less sticky and thus more easily stored in a jersey pocket without creating a giant mess) and a second piece of wax paper. Then I pressed it into as dense of a sheet as I could, let it cool and cut it into bars. They taste pretty good. We'll see about longevity, ease of handling etc.