ABOUT ME

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Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom
In the mornings I’m a Nursery Cook, the rest of the time a Writer. Been writing for decades: short stories, plays, poems, a sitcom and more recently flash fiction, Creative Writing MA at Lancaster Uni and now several novels. Been placed in competitions (Woman’s Own, Greenacre Writers and flashtagmanchester) and shortlisted in others (Fish, Calderdale, Short Fiction Journal). I won the Calderdale Prize 2011, was runner-up in the Ink Tears Flash Fiction Comp & won the Greenacre Writer Short Story Comp 2013. I have stories in Jawbreakers, Eating My Words, Flash Dogs Anthologies 1-3, 100 RPM and the Stories for Homes anthology. My work’s often described as ‘sweet’ but there’s usually something darker and more sinister beneath the sweetness. I love magical realism and a comedy-tragedy combination. My first novel, Queen of the World, is about a woman who believes she can influence the weather. I’m currently working on a 3rd: Priscilla Parker Reluctant Celebrity Chef. Originally from West Midlands, I love living by the sea in Morecambe, swimming, cycling, theatre, books, food, weather, sitcoms and LBBNML … SQUEEZE!

Friday, 6 September 2013

Lemon Cheesecake

I’m in the process of creating a cookbook for work and getting a bit bored of writing recipes in the normal fashion. This is my attempt at writing one in an unconventional way. Hope it makes some kind of sense.

Lemon Cheesecake? It’s easy. Just get twelve digestive biscuits. There’ll be some in the tin if you’re lucky. Ten or eleven would do. Crush ‘em and add to the bigger half of a half-pound pack of butter that you’ve melted. Tip this lot into a six, seven or eight inch tin of any shape. Whatever you’ve got. I’m not in the business of sending you to a kitchen shop with a ruler. Compact the crumbs mixture down like you’ve just planted some seeds in it. Stick in the fridge while you whip up the filling.
Dump the contents of a small tub of cream cheese (lower fat if you want but never ever ever onion and chive flavour) and a small carton of double cream into a bowl and whisk together with a blender or any sort of whisk until good and thick and dollopy. Before (or during if you’re particularly dextrous) the last few whiskings, add a couple of heaped teaspoons of icing sugar and half of the finely grated rind of one largish lemon, having previously selected the lemoniest looking lemon in the shop. Load this mixture onto the biscuity bit and spread out. Stick in the fridge while you cook up your lemon topping.
Put the rest of lemon’s rind in a small jug and squeeze in the juice. Add another three teaspoons of icing sugar and one of corn flour and a splash of water. Whisk up and heat in the microwave, whisking occasionally, until thickened. Now just confidently splatter, flick or drizzle the lemony sauce all over the top of the cheesecake in a sort-of Jackson Pollacky style. Chill in the fridge for anything between an hour-or-so or a day. Spend some of that time chilling on the sofa. You, not the cheesecake. Could serve eight. Or six. Whatever. Serve a slice with a few strawberries or raspberries chucked at it. Add some chocolate if you like. Or cream. Or ice cream. Eat within three days. Why wouldn’t you?


(If you must know, the butter is 125g, the cream cheese 200g & the double cream 150 ml.)

Serve on one of your Nan's old plates
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1 comment:

  1. Lindsay6 September 2013 at 13:17

    Pity I didn't have this recipe 25 years ago so then I wouldn't have needed to throw a cheesecake at my husband. (You can track the story down on my blog!)

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