Birthday in Lockdown

Maybe it is a good job Jack is as old as he is as if it had happened twenty years ago I don't know how he would have coped with the lockdown and not being able to go to the pub. Coronavirus, he would have said bring it on and I will show it what a fight is, but that was when he was younger. I dont think it would have existed long in all the dirt his landrovers accumulated over the years in those days.

With his birthday today falling on a Sunday today the 3rd May. He was born 68 years ago in Westow Croft  near Malton at 3.20pm .  I had planned a party as I plan a party most year ...any excuse but I would have done a proper Roast beef dinner with hundreds of Yorkshire puddings... dont worry we will have a belated one when we can.
And a big birthday cake,  well really they are just as easy to make as a small one the same sort of mess in the quantity of bowls just bigger bowls and more eggs. I usually use 24 eggs and cook it in my tin I use for cooking the turkey in at Christmas.
My Dad likes a party too and his friend who is well in his 90s too has rung him and mentioned quite a few times since lockdown that he hopes it is lifted by the time it is September in time for my Dads birthday so they can eat on the long table again in the garden. ...And they say parties are for the young ones. Better a party than a funeral tea.
A nice number is 25-28 people to sit round the table. After that it gets a bit harder to seat everyone and then my pans would have to be replaced with jam pans to cook the amount of food in and so like to  keep it simple.
Today Jack had a very quiet birthday and I didn't cook a big cake, but I made him some chocolate biscuity stuff instead.When I was small they called it Scotch Treat due to using Scotbloc baking chocolate I think . This photo is the recipe I wrote down when I guess I would have been about 7 years old. so you can see how as other people say declutter I say re-hoard . It was made once a year for my birthday, as in those days we didn't have treats like children have today. Chocolate was one piece from a bar and that was only when my Granny would treat us to a bar occasionally or if one of her sisters came form Barnard Castle .

To give it a bit more of a luxury 2020 birthday feel I added glace cherries and sultanas to the mixture before I put the top coat of chocolate on . So until the time comes when we can sit round the long table we count our blessings we are safe and well ....

and the extra time did give me chance to get another rows and a half of onions planted