my snapshot weekend

This was my snapshot weekend. Ascension Day (last Thursday) is a bank holiday here and makes for a very welcome long weekend. I had dreams of putting my feet up, reading a good book, watching a film and enjoying one or two good meals, but of course this is the spring.

This is the moment to really get things up to speed in the garden. Young plants can be brought out of the greenhouse and given new homes. In the potager, we had to put up the canes that will support the tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and peas this summer.

Throw into this agenda an unexpected lunch here with friends, and very heavy rain throughout the weekend made for a fun and productive, although not entirely restful few days.

For lunch we prepared a spring vegetable ‘jardiniere’ with osso bucco, then my favourite lemon cheesecake for dessert. Here are a few shots snapped as I went, and I’m throwing in my recipe for good luck.

Hope that your week is getting off to a good start, thank you for reading me.

Lemon cheesecake recipe

To make eight individual cheesecakes, I use those small cylinder moulds, lined up on a flat baking tin, preferable lined with wax paper. Crumble two Speculos (Belgian spiced cookies) biscuits into the base of each mould.

This recipe could not be more simple. Beat 30ml of cream until slightly thick. Take 400g St Moret cheese and soften in a bowl. Add the cream and mix well, adding about 50g of sugar.

Grate the rind of 2 large lemons and add to the cheese mix, then squeeze the juice and add also. At this point the mix will appear fairly liquid, but will quickly begin to set. Using a ladle, fill each mold almost to the brim, tap the tin to settle the mix and put everything into the fridge until you are ready to serve.

These little desserts can be made the day before, and should be made at least a couple of hours before eating.

I like to serve this dessert with fresh red fruit, here I used strawberries and raspberries.