ANOTHER CHEESECAKE!

So looking forward to dinner at Julia's with the Naults and the Lyons, my course was dessert, just for a change! I had planned to do the cover recipe on the current 'Bon Appetit', it looks so great and is bit of a challenge so would be fun. Luckily, a couple of nights before embarking on this I read through the recipe to figure out my game plan and generate a shopping list. I had a pretty busy weekend, and thought I had it figured out BUT luckily, noticed that you had to refrigerate the cake for 6 hours after making it! This was not going to work for me - I panicked and looked through the rest of the magazine to find something that would fit in with my schedule. There it was, a Maple with Cranberry Compote Cheesecake, looked pretty good, and I have made enough cheesecakes to evaluate the recipe and know it would be good. Anyway, it was very well received and I was pretty pleased with it, will make it again.

DESSERT FOR ELIZABETH

Elizabeth is visiting from Argentina for a week. Julia hosted a dinner, mostly girls but of course Alan was invited! Such a fun evening, the Wilton crowd with some international friends who Elizabeth added into the mix. She is a great collector of interesting people! Julia did a delicious Fish pie and I did a Normandy Apple tart for dessert. This is something I have been cooking for years. The recipe comes from the Observer, a Sunday newspaper in London. There was a section every week to collect - we are talking late 1970s here! I usually do this with pears, it is delicious and it looks so wonderful. However, Joseph and I had been apple picking a few weeks ago, I had a fridge full of apples so had to do the traditional way this time! I actually was not that happy with it - the apples were a bit big so the 'spokes' were not that even but it did taste pretty good - really! I wish the pictures were better but I was distracted...... I really think this is easier to do than it looks and it gets rave reviews, go on, try it!