Strawberry cheesecake

My in-laws are coming up to Scotland tomorrow, so we have been tidying up the ‘cottage’ flat and putting our mile high pile of laundry away.

I like it when family come up to stay, it gives me the opportunity to travel and see other parts of Scotland, and do things you don’t often get to do when you stay local, but when family and friends come up – you too can play the tourist or Tour Guide in Ds case. As well as dragging Ds parents over to the allotment, we are also planning to take a drive out to the East Coast this time. We’ve done the West of Scotland trail a number of times, and have even been out to a couple of the Islands: Arran and Mull, so a change of direction is due. Here is a welcoming cheesecake made with Scottish strawberries. I love this picture, it looks quite professional!

Unfortunately this cheesecake is not made with my allotment grown strawberries as they are still in the flowering stage, but these are as good as for now. On cooking I noted that the strawberries in the cheese mix had completely disintegrated, but it did not detract from the taste, just the look. Therefore, I would advise topping the cheese mix with strawberries (see below) as well.

Strawberry cheesecake
Serves 6
Ingredients
200g strawberries, washed and halved
225g cream cheese
80 ml of sour cream
40g caster sugar
2 free range eggs
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon or cornflour
Juice of ½ lemon

First make the cheesecake base
175g digestive biscuits
50g Butter, melted

Crush the biscuits then mix well with melted butter and put into press into cake tin.

Heat the oven to gas mark 6.

Now the cheesecake mix: Blend the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cornflour and lemon juice together.

Pour the cheesecake mix into the pastry case and bake for 40 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

If you can resist it, this cheesecake is best served the following day.

time in the garden with everyone else

After work and a light meal of asparagus and Jersey royal potatoes, I decided to spend an hour in the garden, along with everyone else in the street who are either cutting their grass: or having an ad hoc barbecue with friends and family.

Usually in my 10 by 8 foot garden plot, I sow and raise salad leaves and lettuces, so they are on hand like the herbs in the pots. But this year I decided to plant half with alliums and half with brassicas, including nero di toscana, a black kale which is thriving really well. Unlike the minicole and greyhound spring cabbages, which have been ravaged to shreds by those slimy slugs and snails.
I have also stuck in a few precious cauliflowers romanesco natalino in the ground. Lets see how well they do and whether they survive the greed of the slugs. In a couple of pots, I have some yellow courgettes growing. The courgettes should have gone to the allotment plot, but I thought I would keep a closer eye on them at home too.

The allium family: garlic, red onions and shallot are doing tremendously well. I think I may have made the mistake of planting them too close to each other, meaning the result will be smaller bulbs, but that's no hardship, as long as they grow and taste good. I will be happy.

The herbs are also doing fantastically, especially the rosemary, the chives which have been attracting the bees and fennel (see above) which smells wonderful like aniseed. I decided to transplant some rocket and all year round lettuce in the garden plot too, I am planning to plant the lettuces quite close knit this year and utilise the space. The next lot to go in will be lollo rosso. Whilst planting out the lettuces, I noticed a number of nasturtium and borage seedlings that have self seeded from last year. I will lift and transplant some to these to the allotment plots, where they will do a world of good attracting fly by wildlife.

In two large pots, I also have some blueberry plants, they don’t seem to have done that well, partly because I have been neglecting them and partly the Scottish climate I think. I only managed to harvest about a dozen berries last year. I also have some wild strawberries growing in a pot that I got from my mothers front garden in Wales, they are not doing much better either, but the dainty pink flowers look pretty.

In the border, there are a number of flowers growing including lupins and alliums, the flower not the vegetable (see above), every year they come up 1 - 2 - 3.

I also recently purchased these, mainly for their vivid colour.

The joy of elderflowers

During my lunch break, I sometimes go out for a brisk walk with a work colleague. We should do this more often, as we find ourselves spending our lunch time in the workplace doing more work, and that is no good for our mental well being. Our workplace is located near an industrial estate with a cemetery nearby, which we sometimes tend to cut through. We had not been our walks since I left for Paris, plus the rain over the past few days has been deterring us from leaving the building, until today when the sunshine decided to grace us with its presence.

Upon entering the cemetery we noticed how lush and green the trees were starting to look and the rhododendrons blooming in their many vibrant colours. As we turned the corner, a shimmer of glistening elderflowers caught my eye, and what was more brilliant the branches were within my reach. Yay, how could I resist. With help from my colleague, we managed to gather a bag full of elderflower heads and then walked back to work. I was feeling rather pleased with myself.

Now you know what I've been doing with myself this evening: the hard part was deciding between making elderflower cordial or elderflower champagne? Elderflower champagne it was. If it tuns out to be a success, I will share the recipe, so for now please be patient with me. It takes about three days to fizzle, then it has to be poured into bottles and left alone for two weeks before it can be consumed.
Note: the recipe was an explosive success.  Please follow here for the recipe.

While writing this entry it occurred to me that both my workplace and allotment site are within walking distance of cemetery. What a happy coincidence. I don’t worry about the dead; it’s the living that sometimes frighten me.