Kate Phiz

I persuaded a friend to sign up to Squidoo. She liked my Greatest Sax Solo lens so she has created one in a similar vein – she has gone for the top ten sad songs. Hopefully she will get lots of traffic to her first lens. Yes, I know there are three others in her profile: they were ones I donated so that she can see lenses from the inside.

Top ten is always a good idea. Sad songs are suprisingly popular so putting them together seems a good idea and it makes quite an interesting lens because she has a wide knowledge of music. She even included a Suzanne Vega in the list.

The crocuses in the garden are in fulll bloom and the sun was out so I took the camera outside and phorographed them for a new lens about spring flowers. Hopefully my spring flower pictures will prove just as popular as my “beautiful purple orchids lens”. Since that is now getting traffic, I have taken the opportunity to refresh it as well.

As we move through spring I will take more pictures of flowers as they come into bloom and grow out the lens further. At the moment I have had to use some creative commons photographs but I would prefer to use more of my own.

I have been busy and had little time to spend at Squidoo other than occasionally re-publishing lenses to keep the lens rank up – and I haven’t been doing that as often as I should. There have been some surprises. Somebody offered to by my lens on purple orchid photos

It was something of a surprise because it wasn’t a top performer by any means. But the traffic has suddenly taken off. Some of the photos are now included in the Google search which is the source of the extra interest I am sure.

I have to say I am please. I took the pictures of the orchids myself and it is nice that my photographs are of interest to visitors. And the purple orchids really are very pretty. The crocuses are out at present – maybe I will take some photographs of those and create my first new lens in over a year. A flower photographs mini series maybe?

My first new lens for some time is about Tutankhamun’s mummy.  It is a split out of a former multi-page lens about Tutankhamun himself and joins my set of lenses about Tutankhamun, his tomb, treasures, family and now his mummy.  I intend adding another about the trumpets found in his tomb.

Today Zahi Hawass has indicated that he may be close to finding the fabled sixty-fourth tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.  Dubbed tomb KV64, Hawass also suggests that early indications are of a tomb for Queen Ankhesenamun, the wife of Tutankhamun.

The story of KV64 is tortuous.  Supposedly it has been found abouy half a dozen time over the past decade or so, but the reports keep petering out.  Hopefully this time it is genuine.  Hawass also suggested that it might be intact.  If an intact tomb for Ankhesenamun was found, then then KV21A mummy linked by the DNA stiudies as a putative mother of the stillborn foetuses found in Tutankhamun’s own Valley of the Kings Tomb, can’t be Ankhesenamun.  Again, it’s wait and see.

As I indicated on News from the Valley of the Kings, a firmly attributed mummy for any of Nefertiti’s daughters could transform our understanding of the DNA and relationsips of the late 18th Dynasty.

As I have said before, fresh bread and casseroles make a really great combination.  Dip that bread into the sauce you have made to soak up the taste.  It means you can make a casserole with lots of sauce 0f which is exactly how I like them.

So you need a great casserole recipe to partner the bread recipes I have been giving you over recent weeks.  So her is my collection of the best casserole recipes.

With all my bread and cake lenses, I obviously have spent some time looking at flour.  The choice of flour is critical when baking bread or pizza dough or when baking cakes.

One of the best regarded flours is semolina flour made from durum wheat.  It’s a particularly fine flour – ie not course – which is best-suited for pasta, couscous or puddings, but is sometimes used in other recipes alongside a more robust flour.

As my readers will be aware, I have published dozens of bread recipes.  I have just added another to the collection with a <a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/simple-bread-recipe”>simple bread recipe</a>, which is something many of us need when we are in an hurry.

It is a simple white bread recipe.  You will need:

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted

The lens has the instructions on how to bake this simple white bread.

I’ve takena break from writing about bread recipes to update my lenses about King Tutankhamun and his wife, Queen Ankhesenamun.   I modesty think that my lens about Ankhesenamun is pretty much the best on the web.  It covers the latsest DNA results.

There is much more though that I wish to write about Tutankhamun.  The changes I have made this time are to add a picture to the section about Tutankhamun’s mummy but we now know so much it is hard to know when to stop writing about King Tut.

Pumpkin nut bread is an easy bread that is great for Halloween and the fall months.  It has a lovely aroma that fills the kitchen and makes you want to try it straight from the over, but it also keeps well over night and is still delicious the next day.    You can ever serve it nude or add your favourite topping such as Philadelphia cheese.  It is a glorious sweet bread.