Birthdays, scrub bags & Cheesecake

Hello you lovely lot. Welcome to my sewing room that also just so happens to double up as my kitchen. My lovely boys have been very patient with me taking over the kitchen in order make lots of scrubs bags. There seems to be bits of fabric everywhere today and housework whats that??  I do keep looking around seeing all the things that need attending too like the cobweb that seems to be dangling from the ceiling but you never see the little creature that created it.  I must confess I am not a lover of the eight legged creature and one rather large one did appear above the kitchen door the other evening whilst I was sewing away but D very kindly released it back into the wild saying obviously nobody told the wild life about the lock down.


Thank you for all your kind words regarding my making of scrub bags. The first batch of 25 have now been distributed to colleagues around the hospital. And even though they are all so busy looking after patients they are all coming to the call of promises of sorting through their cupboards to bring me their old no longer needed duvet covers in order for me to continue to make more for other colleagues around the hospital.

And if I run out of takers there is also For the love of scrubs  with local hubs For the love of scrubs - Nottingham and  For the love of scrubs - Lincolnshire who are looking for sewers of whatever ability to either make scrubs, headbands or scrubs bags.  

And of course the lovely John Scott of  John Scotts Sewing World is coordinating the receipt of scrubs bags, headbands and scrubs hats in conjunction with his friend Dulcie Scott (no relation) who is the coordinator of Helping dress medics who are making scrubs, but would love bags to put their scrubs in and any head bands or hats would be an added bonus. 

As a newbie to sewing it has certainly made me push myself this last week or two and I have to say that my sugar bag bottom or box bottoms depending which you prefer are all lined up and sit beautifully and my french seams are coming on a treat. Isn't this fabric gorgeous


  

This week was D's birthday, another year older not necessarily any the wiser as he still puts up with me. We don't go big on birthdays anymore which is just as well with the current situation.  We are fans of the program Porridge which was on our screens in the 1970's.  There is one episode aptly named 'A Night In' when Fletcher  (Ronnie Barker) tells Godber (Richard Beckinsale) the best way to cope with his time in Slade prison , is to see it as just a "quiet night in"  even after these years it still is one of our favourite episodes and it definitely sprung to mind on D's birthday when I asked him what he like to do his reply straight back was I think we'll stay at home and just have a quiet night in.  So until we are able to go out as a family again we had a nice meal at home just D, me and the teenager made three.  There was cake albeit just a Victoria sponge home made of course luckily I still had self raising flour but don't tell anyone. He did get to pick his favourite desert of baked cheesecake. Its very creamy and delicious and extremely calorific but if you can't have a treat on your birthday when can you. If you would like to have a go as a special treat either during or after lock down then this is how you do it. 

Ingredients 

Base

200g of digestive or ginger nut biscuits. Personally I prefer the ginger nuts they go gooey when it bakes in the oven.
100g butter 
2 tablespoons of caster sugar

Filling

500g full fat cream cheese
200g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
2 tablespoons of cornflour
300mls double cream or creme fraiche 
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice

• Butter a 20cm clip sided tin and base line with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas Mark 2
• Melt the butter in a pan.

• Crush the the biscuits into crumbs. Now I still have my mini processor when the teenager was small and this does the job brilliantly. Some of you may have a bigger version but if you have neither you can put the biscuits in a plastic bag and take out all your frustrations by hitting it with a rolling pin until the biscuits are crushed and then put your crushed biscuits into a small bowl.

• Add the butter and caster sugar and mix well. Tip the crushed biscuit mixture into your greased tin and press onto the base with the back of spoon until level. I then put mine in the fridge to settle whilst I make the filling. 

• For the filling ass the cream cheese and sugar to a bowl and beat together until smooth. 
• Add the eggs one a time and beat together between each addition
• Add the cornflour, lemon cream or creme fraiche, lemon zest and juice and mix together. If you can't get hold of a lemon but you have lemon juice leftover from pancake day that will work just as well. 
• Pour the mixture onto the base and bake in the oven on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven for approximately 50 minutes. then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside to go cold. 

NB

Sometimes the cheesecake will crack along the top no idea why it does this. I've tried leaving the door shut, the door open and even taken it out altogether and still the odd time it will do it. Just the same as sometimes its a light creamy colour when cooked and other times it's more golden. Either way it still tastes delicious. 

If you have any raspberries you could serve with Raspberry Coulis or Caramel Sauce or just with extra cream,  or like me just on its own, which ever you go for I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. You can always do another lap around the garden to work off all those calories but it will have been worth it. 

Stay Safe

Mx