It occurs to me that I never did finish the hints I’d promised for entertaining from the last ABC talkback.

Perhaps a catalyst to my finally remembering is the friends and family gatherings that will no doubt be happening tomorrow with the footie finals.

When we have such a gathering here for whatever occasion, to make sure food stays at a food safe temperature or indeed to cooking a dish in its entirety, is to utilise my slow cookers.

The best I have is this slow cooker station, pictured. It is good in that you can have a main dish (such as pulled pork, curry or a casserole) in the main part and side dishes in the smaller cookers at each side. I tend to cook something like coconut rice in those ad then once ready, switch to the “Keep Warm” setting so that it stops the actual cooking process without going too far, but it remains food safe.

For a barbecue – I’m always concerned about chicken wings or drumsticks not being cooked right through. I therefore cook them for a time (till just tender) in the slow cooker, along with some delicious sauce ingredients and/or herbs and spices. Then when they need to be barbecued, I just lift them out, drain a little on a wire rack, then place on the barbecue plate or grill to finish – these are so delicious, tender as can be and no risk of undercooked chicken.

On the matter of desserts, it’s good to have something prepared beforehand, even the day before. This is when I revert to family faithfuls like lemon mousse cake, a particular granddaughter who visited yesterday. It is simple to make and always very popular indeed.

We are not big fans of cream here so our cake was unadorned, but it looks really special when decorated with swirls of whipped cream and seasonal fruits.

Some people might remember that several weeks ago I purchased a super special of yoghurt (10kg for $5). Research indicated that it would certainly freeze well, so what didn’t go into cakes or was made into Labna immediately was frozen for later use.

Research results were wrong – once thawed it was a watery, curdly mess. I hate to admit defeat so decided to develop a recipe for a yoghurt slice. There was over a kilo of yoghurt I’d thawed, so it made a large baking dish full, with a filling of that also included ricotta, eggs, lemon and Morello cherries. I made a jelly topping from the cherry juice as an extra layer to complete it and enhance the cherry flavour.

I didn’t much like the end result I have to admit when I tasted it (mind you, this was after a very large dinner with family). I didn’t even bring it out to serve the others at table. I figured that old Cilla the pig would be happy to eat it at least.

Earlier today when I was about to toss it out I tentatively tasted it again – not so bad after all, in fact it was really nice – the flavours had developed and the slice settled in most pleasingly. Neighbours dropped in a little while ago, so they test tasted it and pronounced it absolutely delicious, as did the man of the house here.

S0 … the point of this is, that this slice would also be good to have in the fridge for tomorrow or for a dinner party type setting, should anyone want a ready prepared delicious dessert. I’m happy to type up the recipe and share in another post.

(The recipe for the Lemon Mouse Cake is in “Family Favourites” – I will also put the recipe up on this, my blog page, tomorrow)