22nd July 2023

Nicky and Jack came over today and continuing with the theme of ‘there really are a lot of cherries in the fridge’, I thought I would make a chocolate panna cotta with cherry sauce for pud.  I went through the recipe, which I have made loads of times before the mixture was smooth and silky and looked beautiful. I put them in the fridge, so far so perfect. I started to have my doubts when 2 hours later it was set. My panna cotta never ever sets that quickly - largely because I push it with the gelatine adding as little as possible for that much desired wobble. At this point I just thought I had added too much gelatine and was genuinely confused. When I plated up however it was just like a mousse. It was soft and smooth and creamy and chocolatey and to be honest, beautiful - at least it would have been beautiful if I had made a mousse but, it was meant to be a panna cotta and a panna cotta it was not. So now tomorrow I have to work out why my recipe did not work when it has worked before.

Despite the panna cotta drama (which everybody loved the taste of), we had macaroni cheese which I really love, jack's sausages, wings and coke ribs, all but the macaroni were requested by Jack.  We played games, and laughed and talked about the terrible weather a lot because it was POURING all day and all night, and just had a really lovely afternoon/evening.

I know it is a very British thing but I really am sick of this weather and just want some sunshine, is that really too much to ask for?