Tuesday

What a change this morning.  Instead of opening the curtains onto bright and sparkling sunshine, today is dull and dismal with rain forecast for much of the day.  While I'm sure the garden will benefit from a good downpour, why did the Great Weather Man choose today?

Today I had planned to go to Hyde Hall with my friend, Pippa, to see the spring bulbs.  Hyde Hall is lovely but it's all outdoors.  Contrary to its name, it is not a stately manor house, it is gardens, wonderful gardens.  Hyde Hall in the rain is miserable.  neither of us want to make the journey and pay the not inconsiderable fee, only to find that we cut it short because of unpleasant weather.  As a result, we have rescheduled to the May Bank Holiday in the hopes that the weather will be better.  And if it isn't and I don't get to see the Spring flowers this year, they won't go away before next Spring so it will be something to look forward to!

Taken from the Hyde Hall website: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Hyde-Hall

I know it's very boring that each day I day something like 'yesterday was lovely' or words to that effect, but yesterday WAS lovely.  A gentle, pottering day followed by a friend round in the evening for a meal and a chat.  The white chocolate cheesecake did NOT go well and did not see the table, but that really was my fault, overbeating it so it lost its smooth texture.  I will have another go and adapt the method to reflect what I have learnt.  I will also cut down on the sugar - in fact, I doubt it needs much extra sugar with all the melted chocolate.  A lot of Thermione recipes come from Oz at the moment, that being where more people own them, and I think they must prefer very sweet desserts because it is something I have found each time I have a go at an Oz dessert.  Just that bit too sweet for my taste!  So, no report on that recipe in TsRs at the moment and some wasted money.  Oh, dear!

However, the rest of the meal was scrummy.  The lasagne was just right, the garlic bread was a bit too crunchy for perfection (OK- so we were talking and I forgot it was in the oven), but was edible and it was nice to have a salad after so many months of winter warming food.  We had a great natter, agreed that doing it this way was much better than going out (and a lot more frugal, despite the wasted dessert) and we will be doing it again at some point soon.

I think I need to start a dairy of what I cooked each time!  When my children were young and we lived in London, I had a friend who did a lot of entertaining.  She had a meal diary, a book where she entered every meal she had cooked for every group of friends.  Extremely efficient and sensible, I though, but I didn't entertain enough to make it worth doing myself.  However, if I am going to have my two young teacher friends around on a regular basis, I ought to start this myself.  After all, it's a lot easier with modern technology.

Well, I have a gift of a day and I need to decide what to do in it.  I am definitely going to make some bread, wholemeal this time, to see if Mr Hollywood's recipe works as well with wholemeal as with white.  Apart from that, who knows?  Not me!  A gift of a day!