Hi folks.
I haven't blogged for a while or so it seems. Wondering if you've been like me - full of good daily intentions that just don't materialise. I'm not certain why it's happening; is it due to Coronavirus lockdown inertia? Is that my days seem taken up with practicalities such as queuing at the supermarket, dog walking and doing more regular social media contact with family, or am I just downright lazy? I suspect it's the latter. Now, as I have a big birthday coming up in August I no longer feel guilty about my laziness, thankfully. I fought laziness all my life, all 69 years of it, by being manically busy all the time. Well “bugger that for a game of soldiers”. That's my “go to” expression when I don't care any more and I'm prepared to let something go. Still, I'm looking for excuses that are external to myself and I have picked up in my conversations with family and friends that I'm not alone in this state of general malaise. I guess that subconsciously many of us are experiencing inner stresses during this lockdown and sometimes just sitting there and looking out of the window, just thinking, or not thinking at all, is probably not a bad thing. Maybe we are recharging our internal batteries. I've heard people say that they have difficulty sleeping during the lockdown; well, I'm not one of those, thank goodness. I now seem to need a 40-minute snooze with Dolly around four o'clock most days before we both go out for a daily walk or our slow - very slow - jog which we both enjoy. I've now gone from being the second fastest lady in the 1985 Telford marathon to my jogging pace being the same as my little Jack Russell’s walk! Oh how the mighty has fallen. I can't help but notice the smug look on her tiny little face. (Oh yes, I recognise smug expressions more and more.) I trip her up a few times on our jog and do a fast sprint past her for about 30 or so seconds: this is known as HIIT (high intensity interval training). That's always been part of my exercise regime but much less so now. What does she then do? She does the same, flying almost through the air at 100 miles an hour with that smug look intensified. I guess I've always been a little competitive but this is sad, trying to outsmart my elderly little dog who’ll also be 70 in August, a week before me. She'll be 10 but that's like 70 in a dog’s life.
Referring back to the HIIT technique, I wish I had used that when after three hours and more I approached the finishing line in that 1985 marathon. If I had done so I'd have been the fastest Shropshire lady. No how much better does that sound? And most importantly I'd have received the trophy instead of a china bowl, which I do love and have grown to love more, but the trophy was the ultimate. You may be wondering why I didn't sprint to the finishing line, which I could see ahead of me and which I could easily have done. This is why: nobody had told me beforehand that there was a women's race to the finish in this marathon. I never joined a running club, I just trained and turned up on the day. Had I been a member of a club I would have found out exactly what was happening I guess. Of course we all knew that there was a serious male element that involved a first over the finishing line but hey ho it's a man thing there since the beginning of time to be the best, to outwit the rest and so on and on - all those negative type characteristics that us females don't have. Or so I thought! Well, back to the last few minutes of the marathon. I'm cheerfully jogging along to the finishing line, happy in the knowledge that I'm within my target of just under four hours, when from out of nowhere came this woman running past me at 100 miles an hour with that smug look - just like my little Jack Russell does now. I muttered to myself like “What the bloody hell is her problem?” only to arrive a minute or two after her and to witness her being crowned - yes, you heard it right folks, crowned - the fastest lady in Shropshire. I still haven't gotten over this - the ignominy of it, the lost glory and most of all the lost shiny silver trophy. As I said earlier, I'm not competitive (or did I say I am? I will look back.)
Well, I had no intention of writing about my marathon failings, but that’s what happens with my blog. I start writing with a story or two in mind and it goes in a completely different direction. What I intended writing about was the tremendous excitement just recently on hearing that we could have friends around in our garden during the lockdown, while still maintaining the two-metre social distancing rule. Thank you, Boris! (Did I just say that?) We invited our very good friends Linda and Mike around to the garden on the very first night that we could, which was a Monday. My excitement levels went through the roof that weekend. I spent most of it thinking about and planning the evening. I made that wonderful recipe that I posted in my last blog, the aubergine and date tagine. Linda and Mike are vegetarians so it was a great one-pot recipe to make, easy for bringing into the garden. We had couscous with it which is also so easy to prepare and lashings of natural yogurt and delicious crusty bread and butter. I bought the latest posh gin, elderflower flavour, and an elderflower tonic to go with it. As if that wasn't enough, I also bought four of these trendy type gin glasses, all style over substance.
The recipe that I want to tell you about and post in my blog is our dessert (see photo), the mascarpone and lime torte. But before I do I would just like to say that we had a brilliant evening with our friends, best night in a long time. We reminisced, caught up with the latest news, and laughed until we could hardly see each other any more because of the dark evening. I drank too much; I correct myself, we all drank too much. We munched through most of the cheesecake, me assuming that it was mopping up the alcohol which it didn’t. Felt rather delicate the next day but it was more than worth it. We took Boris’s instructions very seriously, even supplying Linda and Mike with their own personalised toilet roll.
Now I haven't made this for about 25 years, maybe once in that time but I can hardly remember. In my past life I lived near a Sainsbury's supermarket. One day on my weekly shop (I worked full time teaching in those days so the weekly shop happened on a Saturday) I picked up this card.
Now I've got a funny story to tell you about the first time I made this but it will have to wait until my next blog due to my ramblings about the infamous marathon. This is a fabulous dessert and so easy to make. It’s a no-cook recipe; the only tricky bit is the leaves. You make them by dipping rose leaves in melted chocolate. It's a little bit fiddly and here is a tip. Make double the amount of leaves you want for your cheesecake. The reason for this is that some of them break up in your hand but you should manage to get quite a few that are a good shape. Practice makes perfect with these as well so the more leaves you have dipped in the chocolate the better.
It’s a wonderful cheesecake, folks; do give it a try. Just to say also that I increased the ingredients by a half again to make a larger one and to fill my 8-inch round tin; and also I made double the quantity of chocolate leaves as everyone loves chocolate.
Hope you are all well and keeping safe. Talk again soon, Berni X
