A good breakfast puts fuel in your tank for a full day of cycle touring. Oatmeal has been my standby for years, both on the road and in the backcountry, but I sometimes want a change, and that’s when I cook up a small pot of stewed fruit and dumplings. It’s the perfect way to start the day, filling you up without slowing you down. It also helps keep things moving along “below the belt,” an important consideration when you’re relying heavily on highly processed foods. Dumpling compote is easy to make, too—so easy that I can summarize the procedure in a few words:

• • Chop fresh or dried fruit into a pot, then…
• • Cover with water to a depth of one inch or so
• • Put the pot on the fire or stove, while you…
• • Stir water into biscuit mix in a second pot, making a soft dough
• • Now add some sugar to the stewing fruit when the water boils…
• • And drop spoonfuls of the prepared dough into the steaming liquid…
• • Before covering and and simmering for about 10 minutes
• • Serve!

I figure on using a cup of dried fruit (twice this amount of fresh fruit) for two servings. Adjust as needed to accommodate different numbers or appetites. (The photo below shows the fruit—including a couple of wild apples harvested from alongside the road—before I chopped it up.)

One cup of a biscuit mix (e.g., Bisquick or Jiffy) will make enough dumplings for two moderately hungry cyclists. Mix and match fruits as you wish, and add as much sugar as you like. (Use none at all if that suits.) I usually add two tablespoons for two servings.

When the dumplings are done—peel back a flap on one to check—ladle them into bowls and top with fruit and broth from the pot. Good food for the road, and not bad at home, too. Give ‘em a try and see if you don’t agree.

 
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Roof racks have come a long way from the auto-supply store contraptions and bracket-and-two-by-four improvisations that were once the norm. Now they’re hi-tech confections, with price tags to match. But the new racks’ convenience and cool lines carry another, hidden, premium. Some unscrupulous folks have found them tempting targets…Read more…

 
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When I first went looking for a digital camera, I was determined to get one that got its power from AA cells, rather than a proprietary battery. I figured this would give me the best of both worlds. When I was on the road, I could buy replacement cells in almost any store, no matter how out of the way, but I could still use rechargeable batteries when working from home.

It didn’t pan out quite the way I’d planned. Though I found two excellent cameras that filled the bill—a Canon PowerShot A590 IS point-and-shoot model for documentary photography, and a Pentax K200D digital SLR for more demanding work—neither performed quite as expected. The Canon gobbled up alkaline cells with appalling gusto, while garden-variety NiMH rechargeables quickly bonked and died. And the Pentax made an even poorer showing, burning through four alkaline cells in a single shoot. (It wouldn’t even wake up to acknowledge being fed a meal of rechargables.) In desperation, I turned to the Pentax users forum, hoping against hope that I’d find someone there who had the answer to my problem. And in short order I did.

Here’s what I learned: Alkaline cells are starvation fare for digital cameras. They’re better than nothing, but only just. Lithium cells, on the other hand, can be relied on to keep going for thousands of shots. They’re not cheap, but the cost per shot is negligible. And what about rechargeables? Well, I regret to report that they’re not all created equal. One brand of NiMH cells stands head and shoulders above the rest—Sanyo Eneloops. Their advertised claim to fame is their long shelf life. They’ll hold a full charge for more than a year in storage. But they also seem to have more oomph than other brands. I’m neither an engineer nor a chemist, so I can’t offer a good explanation (you’ll find one here, if you’re interested). I can attest to their reliability, however. I typically get at least a month’s service out of a set of four before they need to be recharged, and it’s a rare month indeed when I don’t shoot at least a thousand shots.

So I’ve finally sorted out my battery problems. On the road and in the backcountry, I rely on Energizer Ultimate Lithium cells. At home, I use Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables. And neither one has let me down.

What about you? If you’ve had bad luck with alkaline cells and garden-variety NiMH rechargeables, consider making the switch to lithiums and Eneloops. It may be all your camera needs to bring it back from the dead.

 
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