Baked Lemon Cheesecake

I can’t remember where I sourced this recipe from, but it is a good one!  It is great for a dessert, served with fresh berries.

What you need

250g packet of Marie Biscuits

150g melted butter

500g cream cheese (softened)

¾ cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons grated lemon rind (about 3 large lemons)

3 eggs (at room temperature)

¼ cup lemon juice (use the lemons you have used for the rind)

How to make it

Pre-heat your oven to 160° and Grease and line a 20cm spring form cake tin.

Process the biscuits until finely chopped.

Add melted butter to biscuits and combine well.  

Pour the biscuit mixture into your cake tin and use a flat-bottomed glass or jar to press the mixture evenly over the bottom of the tin and up the sides of the tin.  Be patient with this part (and don’t worry if it not perfect, we like rustic things!).  When you have finished, place your tin in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the mixture (or for at least 15 minutes).

In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind until smooth.  

Add eggs one at a time and combine each one.  Add lemon juice.  Beat the mixture for one minute until it is smooth.

Pour mixture into the cake tin.  Bake in oven for approximately 40 – 50 minutes, or until just set.  (You will notice that mine is a little brown on one side because of the oven – if you have this issue, turn your cake around once at about the 30 minute mark).  When cooked, turn off oven and leave cake to rest in oven with door ajar.

Put cake in fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.  I would leave it in the cake tin until you serve too.

Serve as it is or with berries.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with peanut butter option)

These cookies are from the good ol’ Women’s Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook.  They are very good, very easy and don’t tend to last too long!  If you want to vary them, try adding a couple of tablespoons of organic peanut butter!

What you need:

• 125grams butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cups self raising flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 125grams chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons organic peanut butter (optional or you can do what I do and add it after you have used half the mixture preparing the balls)

How to make them

Cream butter, vanilla and sugars in a bowl (mixture should be pale when creamed).

Add lightly beaten egg, combine.

Add flour and salt – sift these into the mixture.

Add chocolate chips (and peanut butter if you wish).

Combine everything.

Make dessert-size balls and place on a lined baking tray.  Make sure you space them or they will turn into one giant cookie (this has happened to me before…).  If you want half peanut butter flavour, when you have used half of the mixture, add a tablespoon spoon of peanut butter and combine before continuing to make the balls.

Bake in a moderate oven (180°) for about 10 – 15 minutes.  If you like chewy cookies like I do, keep a close eye on them so they don’t go too brown!

Allow to cool.  Serve.  Enjoy!  They won't last long!

MONET’S GARDEN – AN EXHIBITION

Running until 8 SEPTEMBER 2013 at the National Gallery of Victoria

180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/monets-garden

Tickets from $26.00 per adult (children, family, seniors, concession, groups and member prices available).  Click “buy tickets” to pre-purchase.

I knew very little of Monet when I walked through the of the NGV to see the exhibition.  All I really knew was that Monet was a very famous French painter.  I was familiar with some of his work, but not his story. 

This exhibition was, I thought, a pretty special opportunity to see some of the very famous artworks of Monet (the famous French artist who I didn’t really know much about).  And I have to say, it was.

 

The exhibition was beautiful.  There is a lot of great information posted around the many rooms (I think there are five?) and I would encourage you to read as much as you can, to really understand what the paintings are about and also understand Monet’s influences, his life story, his challenges and his tribulations.  Knowing these things really helps you understand the artwork and connect with it. 

As you move through the phases of Monet’s life, the art changes quite significantly.  An example that becomes quite apparent is that, as Monet grew older, he began to lose his eyesight.  This resulted in his paintings being more disordered or messy and more vibrant colours were used (he had to label the paints in a special way so he knew which one was which).

Something that stood out for me was that Monet experimented with how the weather can change an image.  He painted many of the same images (the Thames, villages he lived near, spots in his garden) but varied them with the impact the weather was having.  I particularly loved his painting called Vétheuil in the Fog from 1879 (pictured below right).  It is something that you really have to see in person to appreciate the depth of it.  The village is barely visible through the fog, yet it has such vibrancy and life. 

I also loved the Round Water lilies from 1907.  Monet painted many water lily paintings and he destroyed many in his quest to truly capture his impression.

In his quest to paint “the immediate experience of nature” (rather than an interpretation of it), and the slow uptake from society on this type of art, Monet certainly worked through what would have been some pretty challenging times to achieve the recognition he finally received (he lost his wife and his son to illness, he was quite poor and his preferred form or art - Impressionism - was not popular for many years).

The finale of the exhibition is where I thought everything all fell into place - a moving and stunning 180° digital installation in the final room (see below right).  

If you have read the information and taken the time to understand Monet through the rooms before this one, if you love gardening, appreciate art, enjoy a good story or even if you are into interior design, this part of the exhibition will resonate with you in some way.

To me, Monet’s story is one of commitment, passion, hard work, strength, persistence and self-belief.  There is something in that for all of us.

Tips: 

• I think you need at least an hour and a half at this exhibition, so either catch a train in to the city (get off at Flinders Street), or grab a flat rate park in the city (weekend rates are around $10 for the full day – I parked at the bottom of the Galleria Building on the corner of Little Collins and Elizabeth Streets).  If you are going in during the week, I recommend parking at the Botanical Gardens (it is about $1.50 per hour and some parks are up to 4 hours). 
• Pre-booking your tickets will definitely save time – click “buy tickets”.

• If you are not into reading a lot of material at exhibitions, there are listening devices available.  However, these were all gone when we went…
• You can pre-read or print the material off beforehand if you are keen.  Click here.
• Go for lunch or breakfast before of afterwards in Degraves Street, grab a cupcake from Little Cupcakes, a coffee at The Journal and maybe have a bit of a sneaky shop in Flinders Lane (Aesop, Green with Envy, Santini, Quick Brown Fox, Zomp, and more!).

** All pictures excluding last one, sourced from the internet.