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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Delectable Cheesecake

It's best to use a springform cake tin to ensure easy removal of the cheescake slices.

While enjoying a steaming bowl of oats for breakfast one day last week, I thought about what this grain/seed actually entails. The oat plant (Avena sativa) is a cereal grain which is grown for its seed, known by the same name, usually in plural. One of the most common uses is as feed for livestock. Oats make up a large part of the diet of horses and are regularly fed to cattle as well. Some brands of dog and chicken food also contain oats.

We humans enjoy oats as oatmeal porridge and rolled oats found in granola and muesli cereals.
Oats can be used to thicken soups and stews. Oat cookies as tea biscuits are a firm family favourite in my house.

On the box of my specific brand of oats, I noticed a delicious Cheesecake recipe, so cutting it out; I decided to make it for dessert on Sunday. It is rich, delicious but very easy to make. I didn’t have a spring form cake pan so trying to get the slices out of a pie plate was rather messy, as can be noted by the slice on the photo!

Cheesecake
Crust:
300 ml Jungle Oats
300 ml Marie biscuits
(Crumbled – about 12 biscuits)
75ml butter – melted
15ml brown sugar

Filling:
10 ml gelatine
1 can condensed milk
250 ml cottage cheese
175 ml plain yoghurt
75 ml lemon juice
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 180 ̊ C

Method:
Crust:
Thoroughly mix all the crust ingredients
Press into base of 23cm spring form cake pan
Bake for 10 minutes
Allow to cool

Filling:
Dissolve the gelatine in 50 ml lukewarm water
Allow to cool slightly
Mix all other ingredients and add cooled gelatine. Mix
Spoon the mixture into crust and place in fridge to set
Decorate with berries and drizzle with fruit coulis. (I used warmed strawberry jam)
Serve with freshly whipped cream

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

My mum and dad on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997




Sitting at my desk in my home office today, I have a window open to my left. A gentle breeze blows the net-curtain inwards and with it comes the beautiful fragrance of Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow. (Brunsfelsia Pauciflora, Eximia). The sweet jasmine-like perfume is like the very breath of spring and the previous owner of my house did well to plant this Brazilian shrub close to the house. It is a fascinating plant: when the small flowers open, they are rich purple in colour, the next day they are pale mauve and on the third day they turn pure white. This creates a rare colour combination which gives the shrub a delightfully variegated appearance.

Popular and easy-to-grow, albeit a little old-fashioned, this exotic garden shrub evokes nostalgic memories of my late mum and dad. They always had a bush or two of this in their garden. I often wonder whom I actually inherited my love of gardening from: dad or mum. While I’m in the garden and I make an informed decision about moving a plant or re-planning a section, I know I get my practical know-how from my dad; w
hen I plant a romantic shrub, I realise this comes from my mum !
My mum and dad were married 54 years when my dad passed away. After his death, my mum only lived another sixteen months. I’d heard about people dying of a “broken heart”; with her, I witnessed this phenomenon first hand. She just could not go on without my dad.

Apart from teaching me about the Lord from an early age, I also learnt from them about a Spirit-guided couples relationships, . My mum, although she had a very strong character, always respected my dad, while he loved her in return. I was never told this, I just saw them, as with everything in their lives, living out these Bible principals. "As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything. And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up His life for her." (Ephesians 5: 24, 25)

According to my much-thumbed Readers Digest: Gardening for all Seasons, the shrub Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow can be grown in regions with only light to moderate frost. Here in the Free State, we do experience frost during the winter so my plant looks a little worse for the wear at the moment. Therefore I’ve not photographed it for this post. Instead I’ve added a print of my dear parents taken on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. This is exactly the memory I have of them in my heart.


My post today is a tribute to my parents...




Friday, October 10, 2008

Pudding, Fussy Feline

Breakfast in bed for Madame Pudding!



Pudding's choice!

Every evening as the sun begins to set, all eight cats that own me, come out of their hidey holes, down from the trees and away from under bushes where they stalk the unsuspecting garden birds during the day. They gather on the warm patio and wait in anticipation for the highlight of their day. A little treat of cookies which I tip into their respective feeding bowls.

However, Pudding, the second oldest cat, turns her nose up at whatever I put in front of her. First I present her with the Complete-balanced-nutrition-with- real-fish-nutritionally - complete-dry-cat-food.

Yes?

No!

In the second plate I tip a few grams of Adult – hydrated – cat – food – with -chicken-and-oyster-flavour-and added-oxidants-for -strong-nails-and-teeth. Guess what? Her little pink nose twitches over the bowl, I hold my breath...

Maybe this time?

Nope. Pudding turns her back on both offerings. By the look of her kitty body language, I'm sure she'd fold her arms if she could!

Capitulating completely, I place a third bowl in line for her: complete- and- even- nutrition- dry- cat- food ...

Viola! Pudding dips her head and daintily nibbles the cookies. And believe it or not, she gets up onto the step between the wash machine and the laundry cupboard, (which is the only place where she will eat!) and empties the other two bowls as well!
When my husband is around and sees this, he merely shakes his head and mutters ominously about this house being "five star hotel for cats" !

I’ve just remembered an e-mail I received a few weeks ago. You all know the type: one of those cutsey ones about cats. It said, among other things, that dogs have owners; cats have staff. At least I know where I stand...
Now I need a good night’s rest so that I can face this fastidious feline over breakfast in the morning!