VALENTINE'S CRUNCHYNUT CHEESECAKE

Yo. So it's 2.19am and I can't sleep.

It's been a kinda long weekend. On Saturday night I returned to the world of functions waitressing, for the big wigs at the NRL. This gig was hard yakka. I used to do this type of thing all the time back in my undergrad days, and i suspect that's why I was a good 5kg's lighter. Owie owie owie my poor arms carrying all those heavy plates! My poor feet, standing for six hours straight, bolting round fetching things all afternoon for boozy football people.

It was a fun atmosphere, actually, with a direct view over the field, getting swept up in all the hoo-har (spelling? who cares) on the field. Before I left for work Lindsay gave me instructions: "No giving your number out to football players". Course not - not to Dragons players, silly.

I saw Mario Fenech. All I could think of was that sing-song bit from the Footy Show, "Mario's a wanker! [clap clap clap clap clap!]". Fun times. Then Wendell Sailor, bless his cotton socks, asked me for a plastic cup so he could drink his little beer outside. I didn't write my number on the cup, because I'm a great girlfriend, and also, St George. Towards the drunker portion of the evening one of the older patrons waved me over to his table so I showed up and I asked what I could get for him, but he was like, "No, no, just saying hello, how's your afternoon Alexandra, do you like your job?" ... So then I had to lie and pretend like waitressing was my dream vocation? Yeah it's just GREAT! I love being the servant and this is precisely where I hoped my studies would lead me.

Hmmm... yes so that was Saturday. Today I spent most of the day putting material caps and labels and bows on two jam orders for Little Bow Thief. I had a cup of tea around 4pm so maybe that's why I can't sleep. Off the rails, caffeine junkie.

I came here to tell you about this fake cheesecake recipe...

Bit slow, but last Friday was Valentine's Day in case you didn't notice. If you didn't notice you probably didn't want me to remind you, hey? Cool. So last Friday was Valentines and Lindsay and I decided to go on an early evening picnic on the grassy knoll by the ocean. I packed us a Ploughman's 'lunch' and a few beers and made these cheesecakes from Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar book. The texture of the base was a little too coconutty for me, but the filling was quite nice. Maybe I'd make it again but just leave the coconut out. The recipe called for Rice Bran Oil as its sugar substitute; unfortunately I couldn't find any at Woolworths but apparently they stock it at Coles. I used glucose syrup instead.

You can find the recipe here.

Now I have to gloat about my V day present! At the end of the year I posted a fairly hinty blog about a certain Flower Drum shirt that I had my eyes on and the smart cookie got it for me for the 14th! So I have my very own PEONY baseball shirt yaaaaaaaaaaay. And: confetti!