Last week we were musing on the existence of gin and tonic cheesecake and the next day there was a recipe in the newspaper. So here it is. It was not bad and nor were the excellent pork chops in cider with garden beans and broccoli that began the meal (with cheese omelettes for the veggies). We did the 30-question summer quiz and scored an average of 10.75/15 and then scored 9 on this week’s quiz. Average still under 10 — just.
A1 is reading Banquet of Beggars* by Chris Lloyd, the latest of his Paris Occupation crime novels. Really well written, with an absorbing plot based on the black market scams under the Nazi rule. And the detective protagonist is so well-drawn you imagine him upbraiding the author — in his usual sarcastic manner — for piling so many troubles on him.
A2 is reading Fourteen Days* by 36 different writers; a Decameron for the time of covid.
August was the third coolest, second driest and fifth cloudiest on our records.
Tag: quiz
Tangled Up in Blue
A common candy-striped spider watches her children hatching in the lid of the garden waste wheelie bin.
The family turned up unexpectedly so we had emergency pasta and fruit salad for tea and scored 10 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Dead of Winter* by Anders de la Motte. A2 is reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
Dessert du Jour: Strawberry Cheesecake
A delicious and extremely filling pudding which we enjoyed with both our morning coffee and our evening meal of macaroni cheese, cheesy biscuits and salad, accompanied by delicious Swedish gin (tak Lena) We had two quizzes to catch up on and scored 8 on one and 9 on the other, dragging our average back below 10.
A1 is reading The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards, an unlikely and confusingly overpopulated crime novel. A2 is reading House of Silence* by Patricia Marques; a disappointingly dull story about a telepathic Portuguese detective.
Pineapple Upside-down Cake
This cake suffered a bit from the cook forgetting the eggs and the accompanying mushroom stroggers was started far too early and came out somewhat overcooked. Luckily they were both edible. We had 2 quizzes to catch up on and scored 8.5 on one and 9 on the other. Oh dear.
A1 is reading The Unwanted Dead* by Chris Lloyd, French noir (appropriately), set in the immediate aftermath of the Nazis entering Paris in 1940. CL has an astonishing new take on the detective protagonist: he has inner demons, a failed marriage, drink and drug problems and an estranged child. How do they come up with these ideas? (OK, I’m being a bit unfair here — it’s actually rather good, well-written and involving, even though our hero does get battered a lot. Certainly worth seeking out the next two books.)
A2 is reading Resolution* by Irvine Welsh. The ex-detective protagonist has a serious drink problem , shedloads of inner demons and wreaks apocalyptic vengance on three men who assaulted him in childhood even though in the course of his revenge he gets stabbed, thrown from a height and buried in quick-setting concrete.
Monopoly Money
City centre publicity for a school holidays event.
We had chicken bacon and broccoli (with our garden broccoli which has all ripened at once) for our family dinner, with Manchester pudding for afters and scored a sad 8 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Missing Family by Tim Weaver. A2 is reading The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre, which disappeared up its own arse.
Garden Raspberry Cake
Gez was cavorting at a festival in France this weekend so we were not sure if the family dinner was on the cards, but she arrived home in time and we slapped together a dinner of pasta followed by this slapdash cake and managed to score 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Gallows Rock* by Yrsa Sigurdasdottir. A2 is reading The Silver Collar* by Antonia Hodgson.
Olive Blossom
A rain drop dangles from the tiny flowers, containing an image of a trellis and a piece of a tomato plant. We had roast pork and a reprise of the lovely strawberry cream rice pudding for our family dinner and scored a disappointing 8.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading City of Sinners by AA Dhand, who still has it in for Bradford. A2 is reading Hunted by Abir Mukherjee.
Dads’ Day
Happy Fathers’ Day, daddies! And a nice day at last with 11kWh of sunshine.
We had cottage pie and Aunt Celia’s lemon pudding for our family dinner, did this week’s and last week’s quizzes and scored 12 on each. Yay!
A1 is rereading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. A2 is rereading Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. “It’s not like anyone asks you for your passport at the polling booth,” it says. Yeah right!
Starling…
Cute baby starlings at feeding time. They fared better than the dead bird we found under the table wearing a ring that had been put on one day ago and 4km away. And the one that got away from the cat and spent hours flapping behind the sofa before A1 finally ushered it out. Same two things happened almost exactly two years ago.
We had three sorts of delicious burgers (meat, fish and pizza) with many accompaniments followed by fruit salad for our family dinner (thank you A1) and scored a below-par 8 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Scatter Her Ashes* by Heine Bakkeid; another grindingly miserable book: divorced deposed detective on trail of missing children and serial killers.
Celebrations
A post-birthday dinner for Dave: stroggers followed by the remains of the strawberry cake in a fruity trifle. We drank various tinned drinks and scored 10.5 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Blue Ruin* by Hari Kunzru; art in the time of covid.
Pictures of Lily Beetles
Two scarlet garden pests in love; their antennae trembling with passion.
We had spag bol and fruit salad for our family meal and scored 11 on the GSQ.
Fried Alaska
Our attempt at making individual baked Alaskas in the air fryer as a coda to our family lunch of porky veg and rice. It worked very well so here is the recipe:
Cut a shop-bought Swiss roll into 6 pieces and put each piece in an empty Gü pot.
Fill pots to top with shop-bought ice cream.
Beat 2 egg whites with 40g of caster sugar until stiff and spoon on top of each pot.
Put pots in freezer until after dinner, then air fry at 200° for 3 minutes.
Caramba!
We did 2 weeks’ worth of quizzes and scored 12 in one and 10.5 in the other so still in double figures.
A1 is reading Strindberg’s Star* by Jan Wallentin, a kind of halfhearted attempt at a Swedish version of Katherine Neville’s The Eight: a conspiracy involving ancient artefacts with many real-life characters and events dragged in (the titular Strindberg and his brother, Himmler, Fritz Haber, Nobel, Swedenborg, etc etc). But unlike KN’s splendidly enjoyable effort, JW gives us an incoherent plot and a useless and uninvolving protagonist, and poor writing (not helped by a US translation). Rubbish — but not entertaining rubbish, sadly.
A2 is reading Hazards of Time Travel* by Joyce Carol Oates; a boring and pointless novel in which a bolshy teenager from an ultra-authoritarian USA is punished by being transported to the 1950s.
What We Missed
Last night was one of the best aurora displays of the past 500 years, easily visible from here. But we slept through it.
Flower Power + Brain Power
A bunch of garden flowers on the table for our family meal of spag bol followed by blood orange possets at which we scored FOURTEEN on the GSQ. Still need another 11 to take our average above 10.
A1 is rereading White Hot Silence* by Henry Porter.
Phew!
A very large 2000-piece jigsaw, which took us two weeks to finish and required the whole table to do. Why is there always one piece missing?
We had toad in the hole with garden broccoli and rhubarb crumble with garden rhubarb for our family meal with garden flowers on the table and scored an absolutely appalling 6 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Cut Short by Leigh Russell. A2 is rereading PopCo by Scarlett Thomas.
Happy Easter Birthday Gez
We had stroggers, cocktails in tins and chocolate orange cake for lunch, followed by a shower of chocolate from the piñata in the background and scored 11.5 on the GSQ.
Night
After our family dinner of roast chicken and pannettone pudding, at which we scored a pathetic 7.5 on the GSQ, we went out to look for comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and with faint hopes of an aurora. Sadly we saw neither.
A1 is reading Brandenburg by Henry Porter.
We are watching 3 Body Problem.
Mother’s Day
A1 cooked a curry and baked this delicious coffee pecan cake for the mummies at our family meal, missed last week due to illness. So we had two quizzes to catch up on and scored 9 on one and 11.5 on the other.
A1 is reading Fearless by MW Craven. A2 is reading Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Doctor Catherine Green, which gives the inside dope on the AstraZeneca jab. Who knew that chimpanzee diseases and human embryo kidneys featured in its manufacture? Don’t worry though, it’s all gone by the time it reaches your arm.
Hot Cross Buns
Seasonal bread and butter pudding after our family meal of tuna pasta bake (but curses; forgot the tomatoes) at which we scored 10 on the GSQ, thanks to Dave.
It’s Gray Day! so A2 is rereading 1982 Janine.
Birthday
A trifle with 8 candles for the cherubic Bob and the end of a week of feasting.
We ate spag bol in carnivorous and vegetarian versions, played Escape from Atlantis and scored a substandard 9 on the GSQ.
Here he is, with a blow-out:
Brioche, Banana, Blueberry and Booze Bread and Butter Bake
A sell-by-date chocolate brioche loaf and a pile of sold-off-cheap bananas was converted to a tasty pudding to finish off our family dinner of baked potatoes and assorted trimmings.
A1 is reading Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds. A2 is rereading The Last Voice You Hear by Mick Herron.
We scored 10.5 on the GSQ.
What the Dickens
A1 brought home this Dickens themed jigsaw from the library and just managed to finish in time to clear it away for our family dinner of chicken, bacon and broccoli followed by a reprise of Monday’s chocolate orange cake. Spot the missing piece…
We scored 11.5 on the GSQ, bringing our average back over 10.
A1 is rereading Reconstruction by Mick Herron. A2 is reading Killing Moon* by Jo Nesbo. We are watching Mare of Easttown.
Appley Days
We had pork in apple cider and this apple and almond tart for our family dinner at which we slipped even lower, scoring 9.5 on the quiz, even with generous marking. Down, down, deeper and down.
A1, who is devoting himself to sorting out his collection of Incredible String Band paraphernalia, including the works of Mike Heron, is also rereading the complete works of Mick Herron; Down Cemetery Road today.
Pie January
Our family dinner at which we scored 9 on the GSQ, bringing our average to 10.
A1 is reading Night Shadows* by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir. A2 is reading The Night Man by Jorn Lier Horst. Night Night.
A Very Merry (Coptic) Christmas
The family came round for the first time this year so we treated them to stew with lots of wine and Christmas Pudding Ice Cream Bombe with lots of brandy, followed by cheese and biscuits. We absolutely applied our brains and scored 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Night Man by Jorn Lier Horst (thanks A2) in a disturbingly bloodstained copy. It’s a grim tale of refugees being abused and forced into criminal behaviour, with distressing results.
A2 is reading The Murder Box* by Olivia Kiernan which was implausible but an easy read.
Eyes Down
Our Boxing Day family meal featured a reprise of yesterday’s spread plus mushroom wellington for the meat-refusers and a delicious walnut panettone tiramisu assembled by A1. We played bingo for our presents and scored 9.5 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Airside by Christopher Priest (thx A1): descriptions of real airports interspersed with reviews of real films featuring airports, loosely linked with the disappearance of a fictional Hollywood actress. Not bad though.