The Easter weekend couldn’t come quick enough – feeling
under stress at the moment and the idea of a four day weekend with utterly
nothing planned has kept me going (that and the though of some time with the
Running Club ladies next weekend, eating cake, and possibly more cake).
I seem to have really enjoyed my running over Easter, more
than I expected to for some reason, even though the weather keeps flinging the
odd curve-ball. I really wish that wind
would just go once and for all, mainly because it’s affecting my judgment about
what to wear for my runs, also because I hate battling against a the wind in
general. I braved shorts for the run on
Friday (I graduated from long sleeves to t-shirt the week before) though set
off wearing a jacket over the t-shirt because it did feel cold at the outset.
The jacket ended up coming off before I was even a mile in! Still, did over 8
miles on the road, apart from a small section through the woods at the caravan
park. Saturday looked more promising
with blue skies, sunshine and still that chilly breeze – I knew the sun would
encourage a few folk out into the countryside, so formulated a route which I
was willing to deviate from if there were too many people roaming about. The idea was to go towards the ford at the
entrance to the wildlife reserve at Woodhall Dean, go along through the valley
towards Black Loch to Halls, then on the track which would lead me into the
wildlife reserve and back towards the farm.
As it was, once at the ford, I spotted a number of cars already in the
parking area – a couple having just arrived, with their occupants getting the
walking boots/jacket out of their cars, ready to set off, so decided I would
probably get to Halls and Pathhead (not to be confused with the Pathhead in
Midlothian) and stick to the road through Spott.
I climbed the gate to get off the road and along through the
valley, following a rough road for the shooting groups who go out from time to
time. I came across a closed gate at Black Loch – one not normally closed – so
climbed over to discover the reason for the closed gate at the far end – a
large herd of cattle. As they were
congregating on the flat, near the end gate, I went up a hillock to come down
along the fence line towards the gate – the cattle shifted once they spotted
me, wandering back in the direction of the loch, so I got over the gate, down
to Halls, admiring the extension recently built on one of the houses near the
farm house, then decided, as I had never being up the road to Pathhead, I would
give that a go, knowing that I would be turning at the farmhouse there as the
road goes no further. It was funny how
much smaller the house looks at close quarters – it seems more imposing from further
down the road – still a good sized house though. By this time, I changed my mind about going
right towards Spott at the road end, instead heading over to Pitcox, then to
Little Spott, then Spott. Just after
Little Spott, I saw a car approaching the bend, coming in my direction. I found myself admiring the particular shade
of green as I had entertained going for that colour when I last changed the
car, then the car slowed down as it got closer, so I was thinking “nice driver”
– it was only when there was a blast on the horn, did I realise it was James
and Jen Addie, giving me a smile and a wave, obviously out for a nice drive – I
hadn’t been able to see who was driving the car until they were at my
side. Nice to see some friendly faces!
Yesterday, the weather felt that bit colder and it was
duller, but I still went with the t-shirt, though back to the three-quarter
length skins rather than shorts. I’d
done the Harehead/Bothwell/Crichness route a few weeks ago, doing it the
preferred way round, which is Harehead, then on to Bothwell and Crichness, so
decided to do the loop the other way this time and try to round the nineteen
and a half miles off to twenty by adding a little bit extra somewhere on the
route. I gave myself the usual flatter
three to four miles by way of a warm-up before heading up the climb from
Elmscleuch, then onwards by the woods at Monynut, before the descent downwards
past Crichness. There were loads of
lambs bounding about the field just above Crichness – fawn-coloured fleeces
with white faces and legs. The shepherdess
passed on the quad giving a smile and a wave as she headed along with a sack of
animal feed on the back. The lambs a
little further down the hill had black faces and legs – after seeing a couple
of fairly new wobbly-legged lambs, I spotted a sheep lying down, looking fit to
burst, but decided it was a bit cold in the wind to hang about. Once in the
valley, I went by Bothwell then, eventually, out on the Duns to Gifford road
for about quarter of a mile, turning left to Harehead. Once I passed the barns, a short-haired black
and white dog bounded down past the cottages to greet me and run alongside
me. I suspected it was more used to
herding sheep then runners, but it was giving me a nudge in the legs, as if
encouraging me up the climb, giving my hand a lick as well as we headed round
to sharp bend and up the back of the cottages.
Once we reached the last outhouse, the dog stopped, as if there was an
invisible boundary it couldn’t pass, so I was on my own again.
Once up the hill, I could see the line of the forest
stretching into the distance (the reason I prefer the route the other way round
– this bit just feels tougher), plus I noticed to my left that the clouds were
closing in – the wind turbines seemed to be vanishing under the low cloud – and
I caught the rain just a little further along the track. Once I got to the junction in the forest, I
got a little shelter, but soon started to feel quite cold once the wind hit
again. So, cold and wet with around five
miles still to go – not ideal, but nothing else to do except keep going. With about two and a half miles to go, three
vehicles passed in short succession, then a few cyclists. I don’t know if it was the wet, the cold, or
a combination of both with wearing the skins, but I had the sensation of being
naked from the waist down!! That feeling
only passed once I got further downhill towards Elmscleuch, when decency was
restored. The run turned out to be nearly seven minutes quicker than the one a
few weeks ago – maybe the need for a hot shower made me run that bit quicker
(or the sense that I was streaking round the countryside).
I’d done some baking for the clubs 10K a couple of weeks
ago, to then realise we were pretty low on cake ourselves, so I’ve rectified
that situation with a couple of recipes from the Humming Bird “Cake Days” book
– an orange, almond and yoghurt cake (a first try of that one - glad I opted for the bigger tin than the recipe suggested) and a firm
favourite, the coffee and chocolate loaf, to which I added some chunks of
chocolate.
I’ve also made Chetnas Cumin
Loaf again.
It would be rude not to!
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| Orange, Almond and Honey Cake |
We have twice had Stuart’s lovely parents along for their
tea recently – Mother’s Day and George’s birthday last Saturday. On both occasions, the dessert was decided on
first, well before the rest of the meal was thought out.
It was while we were watching Mary Berry on TV, making a
sticky toffee pudding, that Stuart announced that that should be the dessert on
Mother’s Day, so that was the starting point and I eventually settled on some
crispy pancakes to start, an onion tarte tatin (a Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall)
and vanilla ice-cream to go with the sticky toffee pudding – the pudding recipe
itself coming from the first of the Great British Bake-Off books. I just made a
standard pancake batter for the starter and made the pancakes in advance. Once they were cold, I used a side-plate to
trim them all down into a neat shape and made a thick white sauce, adding a
little grated cheese towards the end.
Once this had cooled, I added small cubes of cheese to it, brushed the
edges of the pancakes with beaten egg and put some of the cheese mixture in the
middle, folding the pancake in half, dipping in the egg and coating with
polenta, then frying. As the last time I
did a crispy pancake was sometime in the 90’s, I thought it was about time I
aired that recipe again.
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| A nice bit of balsamic to give that nice little edge. |
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| It's sticky and it's toffee! |
So, with my Father-In-Laws birthday, when prompted, Stuart
came up with the suggestion of cheesecake for dessert. Now, I love cheesecake and have a significant
number of recipes for cheesecakes – actually a whole book dedicated to them,
whether baked, uncooked, frozen, biscuit or pasty based. Years ago Stuart and
I, while holidaying in Blair Atholl, had the urge for cheesecake and though
there was nothing more to do than go to a local shop and getting one. Foolish
people – we finally managed to buy the last two slices of two different
cheesecakes in a small bakery in Braemar, which we shared between us. We still talk about
that grand quest for cheesecake! Anyway,
I digress, the Birthday tea. I was still
undecided by the Friday night – Stuart had suggested lasagne, so I thought I
would run with that one – the starter was dependent on whether I could get ripe
avocadoes on Saturday morning. So, the
starter was a guacamole from “The Vegeterrean: Italian Vegetarian Cooking” by
Malu Simoes and Alberto Musacchio – a few extra ingredients to the basic
guacamole, with a bean salad. I made the pasta for the lasagne – guesswork with
the amount of flour, two eggs, salt – and layered it with a basic tomato sauce,
alternated with some green beans, cubed courgette and asparagus in a béchamel
sauce, a little sprinkle of grated parmesan on the last layer of pasta and some
reserved asparagus dotted over the top, then baked 180C for 25 – 30
minutes. The cheesecake was one with
soft fruits through the mixture and more soft fruits piled on top to serve –
taken from the Hummingbird “Cake Days” book.
It all seemed to go down quite well, as did the remainder of the
cheesecake the following day, with a coffee, after I’d had a pleasant run with
Dr Jones and Harry (sorry Harry, no cheesecake for you).
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| Need to perfect the tomato roses........maybe life's too short! |
I did forget two things with the lasagne – one was a
photograph (and it looked pretty good too), the other was the pesto I’d made to
drizzle over the top!
That’s what
happens when old age is catching up!
It
didn’t get wasted though, I used it in a twisted loaf the next day and tasty it
was too!
