Come Dine With Me: Desert

For the final course of the evening, usually the most awaited of them all, I will be serving a baked cheesecake.

This recipe is fairly simple and is a guarunteed winner:

Ingredients for base:

• 200 g digestive biscuits
• 50 g (60 ml) sugar
• 100 g butter, melted

Method for base:

1. Place biscuits and sugar in food processor, and process to crumbs.
2. Add melted butter and mix well. Pour into base of greased spring form cake tin, and press down firmly to coat base and sides (go as far up the sides as you can). Place in fridge for about 1 hour.

Ingredients for filling:

• 1 kg creamed cottage cheese
• 210 g (250 ml) caster sugar
• 45 ml flour
• 5 eggs (at room temperature)
• 125 ml cream
• 15 ml grated lemon zest
• 5 ml vanilla essence

Method for filling:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C.
2. Place cottage cheese, caster sugar and flour in a large bowl and beat well with an electric mixer for about 2 min. Scrape sides.
3. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add cream and beat for 5 minutes. Add lemon zest and vanilla and mix well.
4. Place chilled base on a baking tra. Pour cheesecake mixture onto base, then bake for 15 minutes.
5. Turn temperature down to 120 C, then bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool. To prevent the top from cracking, carefully run a small sharp knife around the sides to prevent the cake from sticking to the sides of the tin. When cool, place in the fridge to cool overnight, for best results.

Tip: Remember to slice the cake with a knife that is dipped in hot water, otherwise it might crumble.

Come Dine With Me: Main Course

For the main course of my Come Dine With Me evening, I will be serving the following receipe to my guests:

Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb (about 2 kg)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a large bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• 125ml olive oil
• 250ml chicken stock
• 400g new potatoes, sliced thickly
• 100g baby fennel, trimmed and cut in half lengthways
• 225g baby carrots, tops trimmed
• 100g baby leeks, trimmed
• 200g courgettes, sliced lengthways
• 250g fine or yellow beans, trimmed
• 150g asparagus, trimmed to 6cm lengths

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

Score the lamb all over and season. Using a pestle and mortar, or in a food processor, pound or blend the mint leaves with the garlic and seasoning until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil to your mixture then brush all over the lamb. Roast in the oven for 1½ hours, , brushing with the seasoned oil regularly until the lamb is cooked.

While the meat is resting, remove the fat from the roasting tin. Add the stock to the tin and make a light, tasty broth by boiling and dissolving all the goodness at the bottom.

Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling, salted water for 5 minutes. Add the fennel and carrots and cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the vegetables and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Carve your lamb then serve the vegetables in a shallow bowl with the lamb on top and a little broth and mint oil drizzled over.

Come Dine With Me: Starter

In one of my previous posts, I introduced the Come Dine With Me competition that my friends and I have decided to implement - over very own version of the hit TV series currently on our screens.  I am not sure when it will be my turn to host them, but I need to start thinking of a few ideas of what to make in order to WOW them!

The first one in the group to host the dinner did an amazing job and really set the mark high for all of us to reach.  No half-hearted or mediocre attempt is going to cut it.  For the starter, I was thinking of making the following dish:

Spinach, ricotta and wild mushroom phyllo parcels with a traditional Greek salad:

Ingredients:

8 sheets filo pastry

50g butter

500g frozen chopped spinach, thawed

4 green onions, trimmed, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

250g fresh ricotta

200g feta, crumbled

1 egg, lightly whisked

2 tbs finely chopped dill

1/2 tsp finely ground nutmeg

1 tsp finely grated lemon rind

1 punnett wild mushrooms

Mixed salad and lemon wedges, to serve

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut filo sheets in half crossways. Cut each filo square into quarters, making 64 small squares. Brush eight pie tins (or large muffin pans) with a little of the butter. Place a small filo square on a clean work surface and brush with a little butter. Top with another small filo square at an angle. Continue layering with 6 more small filo squares and butter. Repeat with remaining filo squares and butter to make 8 individual star-shaped stacks. Line the base and sides of the prepared pie tins with the filo stacks.
 

Use your hands to squeeze the spinach to remove as much liquid as possible. Place in a medium bowl with the green onion, garlic, ricotta, feta, egg, dill, nutmeg and lemon rind and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon spinach filling among pie cases. Gently fold edges of filo pastry over the spinach filling. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is cooked through.
 

Turn the pies out onto serving plates. Serve immediately with mixed salad leaves and lemon wedges, if desired.

 

Music as a form of expression

This year was quite a tough year for me.  I went through a few things that I would have preferred not to have happened, or would have like to change, if I had the opportunity.  Music is a great part of life and often the lyrics of a particular song relates to the situation that you find yourself in.

This year, the song "Shake it Out" by Florence and the Machine really hit home for me, as the lyrics are so powerful and meaningful.  My interpretation is that if something is bad or negative or bringing you down in life, then shake it out and let it go, because it is not worth your time.  You should only surround yourself with positive things, things that you love, and things that make you happy.  Cut out the negativity and if you need to listen to a certain song over and over to realise that, then so be it...

 

Regrets collect like old friendsHere to relive your darkest moments

I can see no way, I can see no way

And all of the ghouls come out to play

And every demon wants his pound of flesh

But I like to keep some things to myself

I like to keep my issues drawn

It's always darkest before the dawn

And I've been a fool and I've been blind

I can never leave the past behind

I can see no way, I can see no way

I'm always dragging that horse around

And our love is pastured such a mournful sound

Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground

So I like to keep my issues drawn

But it's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back

So shake him off, oh woah

I am done with my graceless heart

So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart

Cause I like to keep my issues drawn

It's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back

So shake him off, oh woah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back so shake him off
And given half the chance would I take any of it back

It's a fine romance but its left me so undone

It's always darkest before the dawn
Oh woah, oh woah...

And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't

So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road

And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope

It's a shot in the dark and right at my throat

Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me

Looking for heaven, found the devil in me

Well what the hell I'm gonna let it happen to me

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back

So shake him off, oh woah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back

So shake him off, oh woah

Will this day matter in five years?

The answer to this very simple question: No.

In my view, especially when things are bad or not going in your favour, it always seems like an obstacle you will never overcome.  Something that seems so significant to you at a particular moment in time, will not matter in five years time.

When something embarrassing happens, or I'm having an extremely bad day, or I even feel despondent, unmotivated or at my lowest, I think about it over and over and it plays on my mind constantly.  It seems like the biggest deal in the whole world and I sit there wondering how I will ever get over it.

But this relates to one of my favourite sayings that I constantly need to remind myself about: "this too shall pass."

 

Something that seems like the end of the world today will not matter in five years time.  Thinking of today in particular, I went about my normal tasks.  I did have to wake up extra early to hand an assignment in, and then go to work where I was very busy and thought I would not get all my work done.  Then I realised I would have to come home and do university work.  It all seemed too much for me at one stage and I found myself asking, what if I can't do it all?

Thinking about it now, this day will not matter in five years time.  There may be certain aspects of the day that may have some significance on my future, but overall, it was just another day.  So don't sweat the small stuff.  Something may seem impossible or overwhelming sometimes, but it will not matter in five years time.  It, just as with everything else in life, shall pass.

If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?

If I could do it all over again, there are definitely many things I would want to change.  I always think about what could have happened if I had just done something a little differently.  What would my life be like now?  Where would I be?  Would I be working where I am working now?  Would I be living where I am living now?  Would I still have the same group of friends?

There are many things in my life that I would not change for the world.  My friends have been instrumental in shaping who I am today and have been such a support to me.  My mother has taken care of me and provided me with all the necessities I required to get me where I am today.  Those things I would never change, even if I had the chance.

But, what if?  I always try to live life to the fullest and not think back on "could have, should have or would have," but it is inevitable.  You will always think 'what if?' and cannot help but wonder if you life could have been better if you had just made that one different choice.

There are two choices I have made in my life that I would give anything to change.  I know that if I had made different choices back then, that my life would now be significantly different and would be better than it currently is.  It is not a nice feeling to live with regrets, but unfortunately it is a part of life.

After knowing the results of those decisions that I made, if I could do it all over again, there are definitely things I would change.  I do, however, believe that everything happens for a reason and the decisions you make are the ones that are supposed to be made.  If something is meant to be one day, then it will be.

There are beautiful lyrics from one of my favourite artists, John Mayer, who writes:

Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing their mind from
The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time

Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they're not going easily

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you're trying for

Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon
For the war that's raging on inside

Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no one's going quietly

When it's all said and done, will you have said more than you've done?

I absolutely love the title of this blog post as it always raises so many questions in my head.  I always think back to many different scenarios throughout my life and try to relate this very relevant question.

When it's all said and done, will you have said more than you've done?

 

 

It is never a good thing to be a hypocrite - to say more than what you do.  Remember, actions always speak louder than words.  It is very easy to simply say something, but the hard part arises when it comes to the actual "doing."

 

People often say something just for the sake of saying it, but never follow through with the action.  And we learn the hard way to eventually stop trusting these people.  As individuals, we can only take so much before we completely crack.  After someone saying the same thing over and over to you, but never implementing the action they say they will, we eventually give up and learn that it is easier said than it is done.

 

I hope and try to not be one of those people.  I would like to consider myself as someone who does what they say they will do.  So when the time comes for me to ask myself 'when it's all said and done, will you have said more than you've done,' I can say 'No, I have done more than I have said.'