Easy Lemon Cheesecake

I realised on the weekend that not only has the pending new baby stolen my lovely wedding, it is also going to steal my celebration of the Queens Jubilee. I can't believe it. I love the Queen and the thought of the Jubilee has been exciting me for the last few months, but the chances of me being able to go up into town to see any of the celebrations are slim to none. I will either be wandering around at home like a zombie (probably with piles and/or excruciating nipples if rumors are to be believed) if the baby has arrived, glued to the sofa on an absorbent pad waiting for the waters to break or at the hospital suffering all manner of indignities. Like I said, I can't believe it. It's a catastrophe. I'll just have to gather together all my Queen memorabilia, make a shrine to her Majesty and celebrate on my own. God Save The Queen.

I have 2 huge plaques of The Queen rescued from from a Town Hall refurbishment. Sadly they are in storage until we have more wall space, but they are awesome. One even has make up mirror light bulbs  all around the outside. Here is a tiny picture of the largest one, its 3ft high. Awesome.

Framed picture of The Queen bought from an Antique shop in Holt.

Busts of The Queen and Prince Philip from eBay made by the Greenwich House Pottery in New York.

Greenwich House Pottery

My favourite postcard of The Queen, look how happy she is! Even in the rain she is a beaut.

Official Cecil Beaton Portrait. Swoon.

This is not The Queen, this is my late Grandmother, Olive. 

She was beautiful and always reminded me of the Queen.

This is also not The Queen. This is being an idiot at the Museum of London.

As well as the Jubilee I am also unable to go to this exhibition at the National Portrait gallery which my Aunt told me about and begins on Thursday. 

The Queen Art + Image @ The NPG Link

I would LOVE to see this but in my current state of zero bladder control its way too risky. Luckily the exhibition is on until October so hopefully I'll be able to go before it finishes if I make it out of hospital alive. 

So plans for this week include lots of sitting around and waiting. We have 11 days until the due date and I have lots of 'Antiques Roadtrip' to fit in before the world stops revolving around me. We had quite a busy weekend so I'm glad to be winding down now and trying to conserve my energy for hours of squeezing and panting. On Saturday we met friend for lunch, had a friend round for afternoon tea then the Wig's Aunt visited us on Sunday for lunch. Amazingly, the weather was glorious so we sat in the garden to eat for the first time this year. I was so excited about the sun finally making an appearance, I made a Lemon Cheesecake. I've only made this once before, for my nieces 2nd birthday 2 years ago, but its very simple and very delicious.

Harriet Lily and the Lemon Cheesecake. 

Not the most sophisticated birthday candle but it's the thought that counts.

To Make Easy Lemon Cheesecake

Shopping List:

150g Digestive Biscuits, crushed

60g Butter, melted

1 x 397g Can of Condensed Milk

250g Original Philadelphia

Zest of 1 x Unwaxed Lemon

Juice of 3 x Unwaxed Lemons

Fruit of choice for top

* Crush the biscuits in a bag with a rolling pin while melting the butter in a pan on the hob. When the butter has melted, pour the crumbs into the pan, combine and tip into a prepared springform tin. Squash down the mixture with the base of a flat bottomed glass. Place in the fridge for about an hour to harden.

* Once the base has hardened, whisk together the condensed milk, philadelphia, lemon zest and lemon juice in a bowl until the mixture is well mixed. Pour this mixture onto the biscuit base and return to the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

* Once the cheesecake has set, remove from the tin, place on a plate and arrange slices of fruit of choice on top, or leave naked if you prefer.

*Easy. Peasy. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Biscuits

Everyone said this would be a lovely time of the year to be in the final stages of pregnancy. Sadly, everyone lied. I had visions of myself wafting around the garden in the sunshine, drinking homemade lemonade whilst wearing a kaftan. But the reality has been less 70's Earth Mother and more 90's Spinster History Teacher. The weather has been so awful, the heating has been on constantly, I've been smothering myself in anything made of wool and my agoraphobic tendancies have started to creep back. For example, the other day, I needed a lunch pudding. Anything would have done. A chocolate bar, a cake, a biscuit, even a yoghurt would have done, but we didn't have anything in the house. So rather than go outside in the wind and rain to cross the road to the corner shop, I made some biscuits even though I didn't have all the ingredients. I now realise the importance of an egg when baking. It's to bind the  ingredients together, no egg = a biscuit that disintegrates as soon as you touch it. Luckily the lack of egg didn't detract from the taste, it just meant the end product had to be inhaled rather than eaten in a solid form. 

To make Peanut Butter Biscuits x 14

Shopping List:

50g Crunchy Peanut Butter

50g Butter

50g Caster Sugar

45g Brown Sugar

100g Plain Flour

1 x EGG (beaten)

* Preheat the oven to 180C

* Mix in a bowl the peanut butter, butter and sugars until creamed and well combined.

* Stir in the beaten egg. Mix well.

* Add in the flour and mix well again until it resembles a dough.

* Divide the mixture evenly into small balls (about a walnut size), place them on a lined and greased baking sheet and squash down with your fingers or the back of a fork.

* Bake for 20 - 25 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

(Photo taken with extreme care).

* Snort biscuit with a nice hot drink.

* Fin.

I said to my friend the other day that I was feeling a bit like the Pope or the Queen Mother. Unfortunately if anyone wants to see me, they are having to come to me, or at least my postcode, rather than me to them. It's not a lazy thing, its more a weather + waddle x possibility of slipping over situation. Luckily I have had a couple of visitors this week which has been a nice break from eating extremely crumbly biscuits and deciding whether to wear the black jumper or the grey jumper.

On Wednesday night, our friends Mole and Mrs Mole came East and we went to L'entrepot for wine and food. The wine is still delicious but after 3 visits in month I've decided it's quite a pricey place to go (and I didn't even pay!). Wine is between £5- £6 for a small glass of wine and you have to order a lot of food in order for it to touch the sides. On reflection, on this particular visit, we did get slightly carried away with the food ordering and I'm pretty sure we ended up trying the entire menu which was far too much/greedy. But its either order a few of the side dishes and still feel hungry or order the lot and feel like the famous over stuffed walrus at the Horniman Museum.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicamulley/3167511342/

As well as wine, they also sell beer, this one was very nice and tasted like squash. 

Charcuterie plate and broad bean and parmesan bruschetta.

Cheese plate and baked ham plate.

The photos got worse for some reason at this point, my one glass of Chardonnay obviously had more of an effect than I thought. This is Guinea Fowl Gnocchi and some sort of Cabbage and Caper dish that I can't remember the name of.

Confit Duck Leg. Our table looked like something from Henry VIII's house by the time we had finished. The only thing's missing were a roast Peacock and a beheaded Queen.

On Thursday, I had another visitor who was coming for lunch but had driven from Fulham which ended up taking over 2 hours. I'm surprised she stuck with the journey to be honest but she did and by the time she got to mine it was 2pm and I was ravenous for food. As an ex-boyfriend from the North East used to say, "I was so hungry I would have eaten a scabby hoss" (horse). So we trudged through the rain to The Old Ship on Sylvester Path, E8. 

The Old Ship

I don't know how long this hotel/pub has been open as its a little bit off the beaten path in Hackney but I saw it for the first time a coupe of months ago when I was looking into local hotels for a friend. The place was empty when we arrived, which made me a bit nervous to eat there but I think it had more to do with the fact that it was pissing down rather than the food not being good. The staff were super friendly, the chef even came out of the open kitchen and wished me luck with the baby when we left and the food was pretty good to boot!

Cheeseburger and chips. Very precise pile of chips but were slightly undercooked in my humble opinion. The burger was nice although I didn't eat the top bit of the bun.

Onion rings, very crispy.

Delicious home made chocolate torte with berries.

In conclusion, The Old Ship is definitely somewhere I'd go back to for a nice local pub lunch and I would score it a high 7 crows nests out of a possible 10.

The Kings Head, High Road, North Weald, Epping, CM16 6BU

The March Hare is coming to you today live from the The Hackney Picture House. We have come out for what could be my last visit here for a while. This morning the walk here seemed endless and I think I'm going to have to stay closer to home for the next couple of weeks. The bump has become rather too cumbersome to walk for longer than 10 minutes now and the constant need for a toilet break is proving far too distracting. Along with the lethargy that has hit me during the last day or so, I think I just want to stay indoors, eat cakes and sleep.

My tiredness has definitely not been helped by the busy week we have just had, racing around, looking at houses, but just as we were on the verge of making a very big, possibly insane, decision we have come to our senses and decided to stay put for a while. I don't think it would be fair on a new baby to be born into the upheaval of moving house, so I think we just made our first decision not based on us! Also, sniffing around other peoples houses has made me realise how much room we have where we are and actually for the first few months at least, we will be fine space wise. It feels good to have made that decision and now I can get back to the serious business of relaxing.

As well as looking at houses with kitchens smaller than the one we currently have we also went to Lewes on Saturday for a good old poke around the antiques. Unfortunately we got there a bit late in the day and only had half an hour before the shops closed at 5pm, but that didn't stop me from buying some old things I didn't need. I haven't bought any antiques for such a long time I couldn't help it. I think I've got a condition.

A small dish celebrating the Coronation of George V. I love anything Royal, I'm not ashamed to admit it and couldn't not buy this little fella. Its over 100 years old and was only £5! 

For the Queens Jubilee this summer, I could fill it peanuts. Or one mini sausage roll. Its only little.

This is a lovely copper picture frame on a chain.

It cost £6 and at some point I'll change the picture. Maybe I'll put a picture of the Queen in it. Or my beloved Judge Judy.

This was by far the most exciting purchase. Its an old wooden sledge. I've been looking for one for ages so that at Christmas I can put it under the tree with presents on. They are quite hard to find and the ones I have seen have been between £60 - £80. This one however, was £25 and is still in really good condition considering it must be at least 60 years old. Until we can put it into storage later on this week we can use it as a handy coffee table.

Yesterday we took a trip out to my beloved Essex for a Sunday Roast. We didn't really know if it would be any good but our gamble paid off. Not only did we get to drive through some lovely countryside and Epping Forest, we also saw a fox and were served by possibly the friendliest waiter I've ever met in my life. He was even more friendly than the cafe owner we met last week on our house hunt, who took me to his house so I could use the loo as there wasn't one in his cafe! What a nice guy.

Oil seed rape fields. Beautiful. These always remind me of growing up in Essex. Lovely.

Usually I can't stand foxes but this one looked so healthy! Not like our ratty old urban foxes which usually have an ear missing or a bald arse.

The extremely wonky Kings Head.

The Kings Head North Weald

The Kings Head is one of the oldest pubs in Essex with parts of the building dating back 450 years. It was originally built using ships timbers! Totes amazeballs!

Woodwormy timbers.

The Wigs Calamari.

My prawn cocktail. 

I love prawns. A prawn cocktail is my starter of choice for a deathrow dinner (followed by Spaghetti Bolognese and Tiramisu), however I have been a bit confused about the 'prawn rule' during this pregnancy and not had any for months. Can you eat them at all? Are they ok as long as they are cooked? Anyway, I took my chances and they were delicious.

Roast Beef. 

The only table we could reserve was one at 2:30pm so by the time we got there most of the roast dinners had sold out (turkey, lamb, chicken) so it was either this or the pork belly.

They had also run out of roast potatoes but I think that shows how popular this place is. 

It wasn't the best roast I've had but it definitely wasn't the worst. That doesn't really sound like a compliment but is it.

Yep, we went for it. 3 courses! 

I haven't done that in a while but since we don't know when we'll be able to do it again I thought it was worth giving myself stomach ache for.  Apple pie and vanilla ice cream. The pastry was more cakey than pastry but very nice nonetheless. 

Lovely old features. 

So, in conclusion I am going to score The Kings Head in North Weald, 9 prawns out of a possible 10. Danny the waiter was faultless, the building was lovely, we weren't rushed and the food was good. It's a great place to go if you need to take your folks somewhere for a family lunch at a reasonable price and somewhere out of London. You would definitely need to book but can do so via their website. For 3 courses each and 3 drinks, the bill came to £46 not including a tip so very reasonably priced I think and well worth it. Get yourself down there babes!

Homemade Sourdough

After 8 and a bit months of being probably the most relaxed, calm (and healthy) I have ever been in my life, I am slowly getting rather stressed out. It has nothing to do with the impending birth or the fact that the NCT girls are dropping like flies, but the whole 'moving' situation. I suppose its always good to have something to worry about to keep the brain ticking, over but I usually prefer to be worrying about something thats within my control. Moving house is not.

If I was a millionaire things would be a lot easier, but I'm not. Although I'm sure I could drum up some money if I put the baby on eBay but I don't think The Wig would be too happy about that. Of course I won't put the baby on eBay, you get a much quicker sale on Gumtree.

Anyway, I think this moving home episode is going to be a long and bumpy roller coaster ride of a ride that I'm not particularly looking forward to. I'd forgotten how irritating it can be and we've only been looking for 4 days . . .

The first house I bought with my Ex-boyfriend was lovely. If I could have picked it up and moved it to a different location, I would have done, but unfortunately my special powers don't stretch to lifting houses. The house was in Clapton, which had terrible transport links, zero things to do and awful neighbours. We also got beaten up here one Sunday which was pretty much the icing on the doughnut. I know these things have given me a tainted opinion of the place and I'm sure lots of people like living there, it just wasn't for me. If things between the Ex and I weren't strained enough after buying the place then realising that after 5 years we were complete opposites, the strain of living here definitely tipped us over the edge. I did think it was a lovely little house though . . .

Entrance

Front room.

Hallway.

Hallway again.

Study.

Kitchen.

Kitchen to little dining room.

Kitchen to garden.

Garden. This was lovely. It had been a wedding present to the couple who lived there before us. While they were away on honeymoon, their parents had sorted it out for them with bay trees, clematis, fig trees and passion flowers. It was beautiful by the time we moved in.

Spare room.

Bathroom.

I ended up living here for about 18 months before we split up, sold it and moved. It's funny looking back at these old photos now, it seems like a whole other lifetime. I don't look back at this time with any regrets though since it enabled me to buy the place where I live now and got my juices going regarding decorating, furniture and plants. There is always a silver lining to every cloud, you just might have to have a real root around for it.

And luckily,  yesterday I found a new pastime that is going to enable me to release my 'moving' frustrations legally until the baby appears, then I'm sure I will be too knackered to even think about moving. Homemade Sourdough. 

Saying it's 'homemade' is stretching the truth somewhat as the dry ingredients came out of a packet but I did make it in my home. My recent discovery is that fancy bread is very expensive to buy, for example, round these parts, a loaf of sourdough costs between £3-£4 per loaf. However, Lakeland, my new favorite place, sell 5 x packs of sourdough mix for £6. Or the equivalent of £1.20 per loaf.

To make 1 x Loaf of Wright's Simple Sourdough

1 x pack of Wright's Simple Sourdough Mix

310ml of luke warm water

4 Tablespoons of Sunflower or Vegetable Oil

* Open the packet . . . 

* Tip the packet into a bowl and add the water and oil.

* With your hands, mix everything together for a few minutes, then put on a floured surface and leave for 5 minutes.

* After 5 minutes, punch it, stretch it and slap it around for 5 minutes.

* When your arms hurt, leave it again for 5 minutes.

* When your arms have recovered, repeat abusive process.

* After a good pummeling, place the mixture in a loaf tin, cover with cling film or a damp cloth and put in a warm place for 30-40 minutes or until the mixture has doubled in size.

* Meanwhile preheat the oven to 210C (Fan).

* Once the mixture has risen, remove the cling film / cloth, score the surface of the bread and put in the oven.

* Check loaf after 30 minutes to see if its cooked. The top should be hard and the underside should sound hollow when you tap it.

* Overall this was a very therapeutic thing to do but I did find the loaf had a slightly peculiar taste. Not totally offensive (and actually the Wig said he thought it tasted fine), but considering what good value it is (and the fact that I have 4 packs left) I will definitely be making this again.