Last of the garden cucumbers; tiny and a funny shape but fabulously tasty.
Admin1 is reading The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Rennie Airth. Admin2 is reading The Girls Beneath by Ross Armstrong
We scored 10 on the GSQ; reverted to Zoom thanks to the Worst Ever Cold.
Category: food
A Tomato that Looks a Bit like Ernie from Sesame Street
But not a lot.
Admin2 is reading Mr Cadmus by Peter Ackroyd.
Dish of the Day: Apricot Tart
Yums!
Admin1 is reading The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas and Admin2 is reading The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry.
We scored oh dear 8 on the GWQ.
Sunday Tea
A (mostly) cold meal this evening: salad, cold meats, pigs in blankets, jacket potatoes, tuna, boiled eggs, freshly baked rolls and fruit salad with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries from our garden. We scored 10 on the GWQ thanks to Dave and thanks also for his heroic gardening efforts.
July gifted us 126mm of rain but was otherwise a pretty average month all things considered.
Admin1 is reading The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury. Admin2 is rereading One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.
Disenchanted Onion
Admin1 is reading An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas. Admin2 is reading The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor.
Nice Melon
This pretty fruit is called Matisse.
We’ve had more rain in the last two days than in the whole of June.
Admin1 is reading The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox. Admin2 is reading The Hidden Man by Charles Cumming. He ain’t no Mick Herron or even John le Carre.
We scored 10 on the GWQ.
Saturday Lager
Beers and a delicious veggie supper at a new pub table in the evning sunshine. Thx Gez and Dave, and props for scoring 13 on the GWQ.
Admin1 is reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman — readable, but amusing rather than funny and somewhat twee. Admin2 is reading This Night’s Foul Work by Fred Vargas, which was marvellously convoluted.
Flute/Cake
Sunshine at last! We had a family afternoon tea (salad, sandwich fillings, cake, trifle, lemonade, beer, gin and tonic) in the garden with a wonderful musical accompaniment. And we scored 13 on the GWQ!
Admin1 is reading Ruin Beach by Kate Rhodes and Admin2 is reading Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey.
The Cat’s Dinner
The cat serves itself a meal to its liking. We had a tasty meal too; chicken pie followed by the first home-grown rhubarb crumble of 2021.
Admin1 is reading Silent as the Grave by Paul Gitsham, which was readable but humdrum.
We are rewatching Line of Duty starting with series 1.
We scored 11 on the GWQ.
Patio Supper
Another family gathering for Greek lamb and macaroni bake and zombie brains with boils. It was so cold that Admin2’s fingers turned white and her feet turned blue, but apart from that it was a lovely occasion. We scored 12 on the GWQ and booked a weekend in Scarborough (thx Gez).
Admin2 is rereading The Tottenham Outrage by MH Baylis.
Tuna Pasta
‘I have avoided the dreaded tuna pasta bake, because we are not all students and we can aim a little higher than that,’ says The Guardian, just as we are tucking in to this tasty and educational dish. Well, tough!
Admin2 enjoyed the Ishiguro novel about the naive robot so much that she is rereading an even better unreliable robot novel: Roderick by John Sladek.
Pancake Day
Some very filling pancakes with all the fillings. Remember the days when disinfectant and hand sanitiser did not feature on the dinner table among the condiments?
Admin1 is reading The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch.
Two Turtle Doves
Well OK, collared doves, and in a cherry, not pear, tree.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Here’s our frugal dinner for 2 [update: we’ve been eating leftover pork every day and finally finished it on 3rd January 2021]
Admin2 is reading Death Delivered by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger (thx Admin1). We are watching Lethal White (thx again).
Pie
Delicious chicken, leek, mushroom and cream pie, with home-grown apple strudel for pudding; thx Admin1. Admin2 is reading The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe.
Admin1 is reading The Strangler’s Honeymoon by Hakan Nesser.
Dish of the Day: Coq au Vin
Sell-by-date chicken in the shop today which was very tasty cooked in wine and brandy with a fruit salad soaked in buckets of cointreau for afters.
Admin1 is reading A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.
Cobblers
Venison cobbler, made with Bambi and beer.
Admin1 is reading Want You Gone by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin 2 is reading Quick by Lauren Owen, an unholy mess.
And we scored 10 on the GWQ, mainly by guesswork.
Happy Birthday Lee
Pizza, pigs in blankets, eggs, salad and a pink fruity cake. And the family to enjoy it with at a distance.
Admin1 is reading Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler and Admin2 is finishing reading The Russian Interpreter by Michael Frayn.
We scored 10.5 on the GWQ.
Like the Circles That You Find
Pizza followed by trifle!
Admin2 is rereading My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by Liz Jensen.
We scored FOURTEEN on the GWQ.
Will You Love Me to Marrow?
We have been keeping an eye on our tiny courgettes, hoping that they would eventually grow big enough to be worth eating. Yesterday we found this long-as-your-arm monster hiding under a leaf.
And here it is baked and stuffed. Yums!
Admin1 is reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. Admin2 is reading The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths which was implausible and stupid.
Boiled Beef and Carrots
Carrots from our victory garden.
Admin1 is rereading The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin. Admin2 is rereading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
Raspberry Pie
A damn fine pie made with raspberries from our garden. Admin1 is rereading Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin and admin2 is reading Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler; a damn fine book.
We scored 11.5 on the GWQ.
Last of the Cherries
There were a fair number of cherries on the tree until yesterday when they were suddenly snatched away by wind/squirrels/birds. Here are the last two survivors on Admin1’s lovely cake incorporating multicoloured glace cherries from Gez.
Admin1 is reading The Falls by Ian Rankin. Admin2 is reading Ten-Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler.
Alien Onions
Strange faces staring up.
Admin1 is reading White Corridor by Christopher Fowler. Admin2 is reading Black Alice by Thomas M Disch.
Hey Nineteen
It is 19 years since Admins 1 and 2 got married and today we ate the first of our homegrown cauliflowers with our homegrown peas. They were the tenderest tastiest peas and cauliflowers ever.
After the meal we zoomed in on the GWQ and scored THIRTEEN points. Props to Audrey who knew all about Mary Anning!
Happy Birthday Chris
A coffee cake with Tia Maria icing and lots of presents. Today is the hottest day of the year: 33.3 °C with plenty of sunshine: 12.5kWh. Admin1 is reading Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler.