The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
So I’ve reached the point where I’m the one cooking stacks of pancakes for Ben and his friends in the morning post-sleepover. No hangovers, yet, though.
The sad thing though is that we’re down to our last tin of proper maple syrup ?. We did however realize that Aldi sells Canadian Grade A (dark), which should be acceptable until we can get some more of the good stuff.
Colin and I are trying to make knives by material removal from plate stock of pre-hardened steel that I managed to source from a super nice, highly enthusiastic Franco-Swiss metallurgist and knifemaker. I spent a couple of hours last night with an angle grinder and it was fun (but hella noisy!)
I’m working on a tanto, Colin is making a santoku. Watch this space.
115g Oreo biscuit crumbs
60g butter
1150g cream cheese
115g butter
230g sour cream
350g sugar
5 eggs + 2 yolks
1 tsp vanilla paste
Preheat oven to 375F / 190C / 170C Fan degrees with rack in lower third of oven.
Butter bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Line sides of pan with 4-inch-high strips of parchment and butter parchment.
In a food processor, pulse biscuit to a fine crumb. Add butter and pulse until fully incorporated. Press evenly into bottom of prepared springform pan and bake until crust is set, 15 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool 10 minutes.
In a large stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, butter, and sour cream with sugar until light and smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Beat in remaining egg yolks and vanilla extract.
Crisscross two long pieces of foil and place a piece of parchment on top. Place springform in center of foil and wrap foil tightly around bottom and sides of pan. Transfer to a roasting pan, pour filling into springform pan, and smooth the top.
Pour boiling water into roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan and carefully transfer to oven. Bake for 1-1.5h hour until top of cheesecake is golden brown, edges are set, and center jiggles slightly. Turn oven off and let cool in the oven. Lift cheesecake from water bath, remove foil and parchment from outside of springform, and chill cheesecake in refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
(for the picture above, I went off-piste and split my mix into 1/3 – 2/3 and mixed in some cocoa powder into the smaller portion to create a swirly pattern)
Human! Human! Give me cheese, human! Oy! Stop ignoring me!
In vague parallel with the cadbury Easter bunny, Tolstoy is trying to hatch a clutch of rubber ducks.
Start from the top and work your way through the board. Ask your wine merchant for properly representative bottles of each, and aim for mid-range, affordable options.
OK. So any reasons why the Czech Republic and Hungary are so much above the rest of Europe, in terms of pornstars density?
Of all of those, I’ve had 30. How about you?
Katy has been dropping less and less subtle hints about wanting a new TV. Our old one still worked, was perfectly fine, but was older than Ben. So we used the “opportunity” of Ben getting a PS4 for his birthday to give him the old TV and getting a new one as a present to us. The price was very right, the size fits in our old TV unit and it’s a hell of a lot lighter!
We got another wall mounting bracket to put the TV in Ben’s room. I spent a solid hour swearing at Ben’s wall. These are rebar-reinforced contrete. I had my full body-weight against the drill, praying the bit wouldn’t shatter, and the damn thing was barely moving. As it stands, the building will fall down before that f’n bracket does. Except that now according to the ungrateful child, the TV is too high. Screw that, it’s not moving now…