How to make a cheesecake.... (when you're lacking half the ingredients)

Little known fact about me: I'm pretty good at making cheesecakes. It sort of started because...well... I love cheesecake! And I have a huge family. And every holiday we always have to make something to contribute, and undoubtedly at least one holiday a year for one of the sides of our family we get dessert. So... I started making cheesecakes! They aren't really that hard honestly, just takes a little bit of confidence that you know what you're doing.

So my flatmate Paul's birthday was this past Wednesday. Funny enough, he apparently "forgot" this, made other plans with someone who didn't realize it was his birthday so he wasn't around that day and decided we'd postpone the celebration until May. Whatever. If you could do that, I'd postpone mine every year so I don't have to celebrate it the day after Valentine's Day. Either way, I felt we needed to do something to celebrate so I told him I'd make him a cake. Sharon (my other flatmate) quickly chimed in that I should make cheesecake. Funny. It wasn't her birthday! ;-) That's ok. I said I'd make a cheesecake. I do have to say however, this was the most expensive and time-consuming cheesecake I've ever made.

Here's how things went:

I read a few recipes. Decide which ones to merge together, and land on a Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake. Easy peasy.

Then I go to the grocery store to buy ingredients. I quickly learn however that in Britain, they don't carry a good half of the ingredients I need. Nothing major. Just a few things, such as: unsweetened cocoa powder, chocolate chips (apparently some places have these but they are pretty uncommon!?), oreo cookies, graham crackers, pretty much any kind of cookie that I can use to make a crust.

So, I buy something called Digestives instead of graham crackers. (Don't be fooled. They are cookies, despite the fact that they sound somewhat healthy). This is about as good as I'm going to get for a crust, so I go for it.

Here's the rest of my random ingredients. Yes, that's old school instant coffee. The only thing I could find. Oh, and that little satchel of powdered chocolate for chocolate milk?? Yea, that's as close as I could come to cocoa powder. The rest of the chocolate came about from me chopping up a combo of those milk and dark chocolate bars you see there. Sure, ok. Just call me Martha. ;-)

So here's the bubbly mix of chopped up chocolate before baking it. It's safe to say that this endeavor seriously took about 2 hours. Between trying to constantly convert things from cups or ounces to mL or grams, and then trying to find appropriate measuring cups around our house I finally just gave up and started eyeballing things and praying I didn't over-chocolate poison anyone. Ha!

After all that though, here is the finished cake. I iced the cheesecake the next morning to give it time to chill and stupidly forgot to take another totally "finished" picture. Oh well. 

While we weren't all around to be able to celebrate with Paul, I've been told it's pretty good. :) I guess this means I can retain my title of master cheesecake maker despite random ingredients!

What else have I been doing you ask? Ohhh, a lot of studying. And more studying. And finance. And paper-writing. And more studying. Yes, I may have had a couple of breakdowns in the past week. In the midst of these exams I also have to find a new place to live with my flatmates, and plan a trip to Italy that's coming up immediately after exams end with Kyle. Not that I'm complaining about that.... but it's just a lot at once.

My friend Whitney and her British boyfriend Mark (who I've been told are my loyal blog-readers) were also in town last week for Mark's best mate's wedding. Somehow I got lucky enough for them to seriously SKIP the rehearsal dinner and come into the city to meet up with me! It was a gorgeous day outside, and we sat on a patio at a pub in Angel (one of my favorite areas of town), drinking beer and catching up. It was pretty fun to see friends from home! Haven't had a lot of those! Whitney and Mark are also hilarious so it was a good time. (Sorry Whit, I had to post one of the funny pics I took! ;) I do have to say these days turn dangerous around here. 

Please note that HUGE glass in my hand. I just ordered a cider!!! And that's the size of that sucker!

Dan came and met up with us, and then Whitney and Mark had to head back to the countryside, so what did we do instead of going home like one should do after drinking for hours on a patio? Oh, we went and met up with Matt and Jenny Lewandowski - another set of Angel-loving friends. Sigh... summer could be dangerous!

Ok, well I've successfully procrastinated my day-long plan to study NPV, ARR, Break-even and cash budgets long enough. Time to study! 

Spring has sprung!!!

I’ve been slow to post this blog. I know. I’ve been working 2 jobs. Studying for 3 exams, working on a group project and prepping for 2 papers. What do you want from me?? I know though… I’m well overdue…

So I think I feel officially safe saying this. Spring. Has. Arrived. FINALLY!!! After MONTHS of Chicago-like winter conditions... It has been pretty glorious the past 2 weeks. Prior to that it was bordering on depressing given that I was hearing stories from the States about the balmy weather and I was wearing my down puffer jacket still. But last Sunday was the start of a week plus weather shift and I’ve been loving every second of it.  Honestly, look at some of these photos I’ve taken over the past 2 weeks. They are incredible!!!

A run in Hyde Park last week. It was full-on spring there.

Also in Hyde Park

Running path in Hyde Park

Regent Canal through Little Venice

My walk through Regent's Park to Uni yesterday along the Boat Pond

I really love these flowering trees in Regent's Park. This is right down by my university.

Last week also sort of kicked off a bunch of “firsts” for me: First time in Hampstead Heath (see below for info on what a Heath is), first time going to Ronnie Scott’s (a famous jazz club), first time going to a football game (the Arsenal), and then a lot of time spent outdoors!

It started last Sunday when weather forecasters were talking about the amazing spring weather for days ahead of time. Early enough that the city was literally buzzing with excitement. And it did not disappoint!! For two glorious hours the weather was so amazing that you wondered why everyone in the entire world didn't live in London. It was in the 60s and sunny and everyone was outside and smiling. Babies could be heard giggling from their carriages. (Ok I just said that for effect). Anyway it was lovely.... And then the clouds rolled in...hahaha

HAMPSTEAD HEATH

(Definition of Heath – according to Wikipedia – it's an area of open uncultivated land, esp. in Britain, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse, and coarse grasses.)

So actually our glorious Sunday started off in Hampstead Heath. I think they call it a heath just to throw you off and confuse you when talking. Try using it in a sentence…. It’s a bit strange. (i.e. We're going on a picnic to the heath today.) It’s basically a big park, only a bit less landscaped than some of the other Royal Parks, which I quite like! And it’s in the neighborhood of Hampstead (shocker based on the name, I know), which is a super cute town with some beautiful homes, shops, pubs, etc. Mad props to my flatmate Sharon for suggesting we go spend a few hours up there. We started browsing some of the shops..

Of course we immediately find the most amazing-looking bakery... 

The lovely Sharon walking through one of the narrow hidden streets by the antique market

Then we start walking through these gorgeous neighborhoods 

and see this man sunbathing in his front yard. Not gonna lie, I almost went and joined him.

We kept walking and made our way to a pub with the most amazing outdoor patio. Apparently we weren't the only people with this opinion because it took me (no exaggeration) 40 minutes to get 3 ciders, but it was pretty amazing.

And once I tell Sharon and Dave there is no way in hell I'm waiting in that line again, we start our trek through the Heath. I’m not going to lie, I loved this park. It’s got running trails and biking paths, and just looked like the kind of place that would give awesome respite from the city.

The rest of the day was spent on a different patio where I’m not joking – we friend merged – 5 different groups of people. Even I was pretty proud of myself for that!

RONNIE SCOTTS

Ronnie Scott’s is one of the most well-known Jazz clubs in London. For those of you that know me (don’t say a word Jaymie or Mary), you know I have a thing for jazz. So I make friends with Mini – an Italian woman who works at the fitness club where I’m currently employed basically folding towels and smiling at rich people – and she tells me that every Monday they have an Italian jazz band that plays upstairs in their “less expensive” jazz room. I’m in. It. Was. Awesome. Please see posted videos for more footage. I may become a regular.

FOOTBALL (Not Futbol!)

(These 3 things were all in the matter of 3 days, mind you. I was a busy bee! This is why I wasn’t blogging!)

So Dave took me to an Arsenal football game. 

Many of my friends here are Arsenal fans because they live up in Angel and it’s the closest club. Anyway so I go to meet Dave and am blown away by how serious and controlled everything is. They won't even let you in the bar without showing your ticket for the match. And they won't let the opposing team in period! You get to the game and they serve beer in the stadium but not in the stands so people don't throw bottles! They don't allow the fans to mix in the stands, and the opposing teams section is guarded by security guards every 5 feet! It's really crazy!

You also can bet on just about anything related to the game. 

I decided to bet that the hot French striker who’s name I admittedly no longer remember would be the first to score. Unfortunately for me, no one scored. Lol. But I'm okay with that. Apparently they still both get a point for that in the league. I learned all kinds fancy facts from Dave.  Like that Emirates stadium (which was recently rebuilt) has real grass that's got some fancy heating/suctioning-of-water system built under it so even when it snows, the grass quickly drains off all water and dries? 

Consider me a wealth of football knowledge. ;) I kept desperately trying to capture all the chants they were doing during the game and did a pretty poor job of it...

We also finished our night off with a drink off at the pub The Famous Cock. I mean… I’m sorry grandma (and all of Mommy's friends)….but that’s just about as funny as the sign for “humps”. Who names a pub that?!?!?

LONDON MARATHON

Obviously with everything surrounding the Boston Marathon, this past weekend was pretty intense for everyone. I can only imagine how horrifying that was to be there not only for the actual marathon, but the events following that week in Boston. As a runner, my heart went out to all of the people who trained so hard for that race. So I decided despite some concern, that I was going to go support the London runners for the marathon. I went to the race with Dan, Sharon and Paul. It's worth pointing out that it's much more fun for the spectators here because you can walk around carrying beer or cider (whichever you fancy) in a plastic cup along the route. The route itself is also pretty awesome. Part of the race runs across the Tower Bridge ...

A bunch of people were all camped out with food and drinks enjoying the sun

... and you can actually walk over another bridge right on top of the runners as they ran along the Thames...

..then they run right in front of the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

and ultimately into St. James park finishing right in front of Buckingham Palace. We entertained ourselves a bit for the portions of the race we couldn't see.... 

Ok that’s it for now. Must sleep. Lots of fun studying coming up this next week. Big ‘ole finance exam next Thursday! Eek!