Annette Yates

This is a great little book, inexpensive but full of good advice about baking bread with a breadmaking machine. There are explanations about the types of ingredients used, plus possible additions, and a well-organised selection of recipes: basic bread, flavoured breads, and doughs which can be made in the breadmaker and then shaped and cooked conventionally. At the end is a useful trouble-shooting guide.

Recommended to anyone struggling with the recipes guides that come with breadmakers. They often recommend too much sugar, or too much yeast, and don't explain how to adapt your own recipes. My only slight reservation with this book is that it suggested 1 teaspoon yeast with every 500g flour, and I fuond that one-and-a-half teaspoons worked much better. But at least the troubleshooting guide helped me to realise that was the problem.
… (altro)

Rambling is the number one outdoor activity in Britain, with more fans even than football, claims the chairman of the Outdoor Writers' Guild in the introduction to the AA Book of Britain's Walks. And this isn't surprising when you consider Britain's scenery. Within one day you can walk "from airy coastal cliffs, sand dunes, through lovely riverside meadows and woods to towering crag-bound lakes and mountains". With such majestic surroundings at our fingertips, it may seem odd to stay in and read a book. But this isn't that sort of book. While its colour photographs of patchwork fields, crumbling castles and wind-whipped trees inspire you to get up out of that armchair, illustrated maps point the way. And you needn't worry that this hefty hardback is too big to carry: each of the 120 maps is reproduced in a rucksack-friendly pocket book.

Each themed walk is accompanied by a coloured panel giving information about distance, terrain, gradients and where to park a vehicle, together with a grading system represented by symbols (three boots indicate mountainous or difficult terrain). Numbered instructions surround each map, offering cryptic tips such as: "At a panorama dial, bear right off the path for a steep short-cut to the summit", ensuring that even losing your way can be fun.

An illustrated collection of 120 themed walks with easy to follow directions and accurate route maps.… (altro)