The Last of The Cheesecake

You may remember Dear Reader, that we very recently visited The Hanlon Adventurers while they were having a few days “up country” during the school holidays. I made some citrus curd tarts to take with us, amongst other things that the two of us prepared. This week I used the remaining curd (about a jar and a half) to make a cheesecake. This was served for dessert on Thursday evening for another gathering of the residents of Riparian Villas. Jacqui had provided entrées which included soft cheese with a chilli coating, and fresh salmon. They worked very well together. Mark and Elaine added another cheesecake (baked) for dessert, and in-between we had pulled pork. I got a 2kg shoulder joint for $14, applied a rub of brown sugar and Moroccan seasoning, put it in a casserole dish with a couple of bottles of Pilsner, and left it in the oven on regulo 2½-ish for 5 hours. It went well with some spuds and veg, and I think a pleasant evening was had by all. The not-having-to-drive-home also helped with the emptying of some wine bottles. Our glass recycling bin is now full (not all wine bottles I hasten to add).

Nicky’s iPad had suffered some blunt force trauma over the last few months, and then on Thursday evening it had a major contretemps with gravity resulting in an utterly shattered screen. As a result, on Friday morning I had a chat with our insurance company. Their nationwide repair agent contact us soon afterwards, and a virtual assessment of the iPad was undertaken. A little later on, about lunchtime I think, the insurance company phoned to say that the iPad was deemed uneconomic to repair, and that we could go and collect a new one from our local Noel Leeming store that afternoon. This we did, after nipping into the library and the Post Shop. I had the new iPad up and running for my Senior Management before Bradley returned from the streets near the ITV Studios with four strangers who had never met before, to take part in The Chase.

The beginning of the week was quite damp. While delivering some muffins to Frances (our favourite nursery lady), Nicky bought some flax and grass for the haha. We also ordered some weed-suppressing matting from a company in Palmerston North which arrived on Friday. The plan is to use this in the haha trench and plant with flax and grasses. I sprayed the trench with weedkiller in order to make the remaining clearing work a little easier.

As the week has progressed we both feel we have recovered from the lurgy of last week, and the weather has got drier and sunnier. After breakfast yesterday I cleaned the splashback in the kitchen (also known as the window) and decided that outside could do with a bit of a wipe too. The bedroom windows also looked a little in need, so they got done outside, so I thought I might was well do the inside too. By the time I had finished all the ranch sliders had been done too. It’s good being able to do the majority of the windows without needing a step ladder.

While I was cleaning the glazing, Nicky was hard at work in the kitchen making 4 seed bread for tea (we didn’t have enough seeds to do 5 seed). I later made pumpkin soup using the remainder of a pumpkin I had bought, and the left over roasted pumpkin, carrot and kumera from Thursday night. To this I added a litre of veg stock and the rest of the packet of mascarpone. Both soup and bread turned out well and provided a most enjoyable tea. The day ended with a gorgeous sunset:

Today, along with church, there has been much reading about, an inevitable consequence of visiting the library on Friday. Nicky is reading “Dark Fire”, the second in CJ Sansom’s Shardlake series, and I am gripped by Claire Askew’s “All the hidden truths”. Nicky recently finished “What you pay for”, the author’s second book, and enjoyed it so much that we reserved the first. Tea will be cheese and 4 seed bread, followed by the last of the cheesecake. It will be missed.

Take care, Rick