The air fryer leaves a message on A1’s pork chop.
A2’s bathroom book is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
Category: food
Coq au Vin
Another Sunday, another family meal, followed by pineapple upside down cake and a score of 10 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis. A2 is reading The South by Tash Aw; the opener of a four-volume family saga about a Chinese clan in Malaysia. Aw’s books normally arrive about five years apart so we will see how it goes.
Silver Surfers
It has been 25 years since we tied the knot at Lusaka Civic Centre so we celebrated with a lunch of baked potatoes, cold meats and salad with the family, who brought wonderful presents and an unexpected bottle of champagne. We had cherry cake on galaxy-themed paper plates for afters and scored a disappointing 9 on the GSQ. Must try harder.
When darkness fell, the first noctilucent clouds of the year filled the sky; a special gift for us on our special day.
A2 is rereading Bad Actors by Mick Herron.
Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
The cherries are a small selection from our garden tree. The books are presents for the birthday boy.
On the equal hottest day of the month A2 cooked a dinner of roast pork, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, gravy, carrots, broccoli and garden peas, followed by a leftover carrot cake trifle with garden cherries on top. Enjoy!
A2 is rereading Slough House by Mick Herron.
Happy Solstice
And happy Dad’s Day too! We had spag bol and carrot cake for tea and scored 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is rereading The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. A2 is rereading Joe Country by Mick Herron.
Roast Chicken
For our family dinner today we had A1’s lovely roast chicken with halcyon potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, mixed vegetables, stuffing and gravy, followed by tiramisu ice cream (which took a lot longer than the recipe’s stated 5 minutes to thaw), followed by the quiz at which we scored a sadly deficient 8, bringing our average down below 10.
A1 is rereading The Three by Sarah Lotz. A2 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron.
Rhubarb Crumble and Custard
First home-grown pudding of the year, following a dish of porky vegetables and rice and followed by our worst quiz score of the year: a totally miserable 6.
A2 is rereading Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Always a pleasure.
Dish of the Day: Spag Bol
A pastalicous respast, followed by a fruity trifle hand-sprinkled by the ever-helpful Gez, after which we scored a poor quality 8 on the GSQ.
Despite our hottest May day ever, the month was somewhat cooler and wetter than average, with average solar panel output.
A1 is rereading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.
Happy Birthday Dave
It’s Commonwealth Day and also Dave’s birthday so we ate Swedish meatballs to celebrate his origins and A1 served up a lovely cake with candles, peach slices and sprinkles on top. Afterwards we did the quiz with Ivy as quizmaster and scored a steadying 10.
A1 is reading Death at the Sanatorium* by Ragnar Jonasson. A2 is reading The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.
Dish of the Day: Stew
Our dinner of the day (a belated celebration of Gez and Dave’s silk and linen anniversary) was A1’s succulent stew followed by A2’s Dubai-adjacent chocolate pistachio cake, after which we scored a refreshing 12 on the GSQ. Well done everybody and props to questionmaster Bob.
A2 is reading The Eight by Katherine Neville.
Dinner with the Royals
The first Jersey Royals of the season have arrived in the shops and immediately there is an argument about whether they should be cooked starting with cold water or boiling water. The packets were no help; they gave opposite instructions. But anyway they were delicious, served with salmon and creamy cheesy leeks and followed by A1’s scrumptious pineapple upside-down cake.
Sadly Gez and Bob were absent from our gathering so we only scored 7.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler. A2 is rereading (though I don’t remember reading it the first time, twenty years ago) The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw.
Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake
The afters after our meal of porky vegetables and rice, with an omelette for Bob; and after the afters we scored a very respectable 12 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Uncommon Danger by Eric Ambler.
Healthy Veggie Food
We had brassicas for Africa this week, and Gez is dieting for health, so our food for today was cauliflower cheese with coleslaw and a garden lettuce salad followed by fruit salad, after which we scored 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Edge of Darkness* by Vaseem Khan. A2 is rereading Death at the Sign of the Rook by the ever-enjoyable Kate Atkinson.
Time to Pie
A1 cooked a delicious chicken, leek and mushroom pie for our family dinner, followed by A2’s very filling strawberry almond cake. And we scored 12.5 on the GSQ. Best this year.
Rice Twice Is Nice
Following our family dinner of chicken bacon broccoli with rice, we had this lovely rice pudding with nutmeg, strawberry sauce and crystallised mint leaves and scored 10.5 on the GSQ.
Happy Easter Everybody
Here are the younger generations enjoying their meal of roast beef, potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, Yorkshire puddings and gravy without posing, smirking or gurning. And here is the festive cheesecake and their Easter gifts of fake bakes.
Sadly we only scored 7 on the GSQ. Worst this year.
Ivy at the Dinner
Faye’s boyfriend Ivy joined us for Gez’s pre-birthday dinner of stroggers (unfortunately Ivy doesn’t eat beef; sorry Ivy) and A1’s sumptuous carrot cake at which we scored 10 for the third week in a row on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks.
Bread Head
There’s a man with a naan at the head of the table at our curry and crumble dinner at which we scored a contested 10 (some say 11) on the GSQ.
A2 is reading The Bookseller* by Tim Sullivan.
Pie Day II and Mother’s Day Too
Dave was unable to join us due to an overdose of beer but the other mothers and children enjoyed this hearty vegetarian pie followed by a chocolate orange cake. Sadly without the Davester we only managed to scrape 10 on the GSQ.
Meanwhile, A1 has been on a Galaxy Quest…
…and found Bode’s galaxy in the Great Bear constellation. More images here, on our other blog.
A2 is reading The Four by Ellie Keel which was unmitigated tripe.
Pie Day
It’s π Day so we had shepherd’s pie for tea.
A2 has been reading Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman; a book that is currently in the news on its twentieth anniversary as an iconic example of racial role reversal.
Happy International Women’s Day, Ladies!
Here’s a delicious cherry bakewell cake to celebrate, after the main dish of pork in cider and before we scored 12 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Quantum of Menace* by Vaseem Khan, who should stick with Indian detectives rather than pseudo-American thrillers and (as here) feeble James Bond tie-ins.
A2 is reading The Bells of Westminster* by Leonora Nattrass.
A Nice Coq
Dish of the day was coq au vin with mash, spring greens and garlic puff pastry spirals, followed by apfelstrudel with runny custard and the GSQ at which we scored an OK 11.
February 2026 was the third coldest, second wettest, and all-time least sunny February on our records.
Happy Pancake Day, Ramadan, Chinese New Year and Birthday Bob!
So much to celebrate! We had more food than you can shake a chopstick at, followed by A1’s sublime chocolate cake with 10 candles and 10 Lego minifigures sunk knee-deep in ganache.
A1 is reading HHhH by Laurent Binet. A2 is rereading Valis by Philip K Dick. We scored a most excellent 11 on the GSQ.
Chicken Tonight
Another family dinner. A1 roasted a delicious chicken with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots and broccoli and A2 made a wobbly trifle. We did this week’s and last week’s GSQs and scored 10 on the first and 10.5 on the second.
A1 is reading It’s Not a Cult by Joey Batey, a debut horror/fantasy novel about an alt-folk band in northern England who manage to conjure up a legion of Solkats — small gods of trivial things like empty glasses and bruises. JB (day job: actor) claims to have been writing for years without getting published, and you can perhaps see why: it’s horribly over-written. Some interesting ideas and touches of humour, but he’s clearly been paying obeisance to the Solkat of purple prose.
A2 is reading Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds.
Quiz Time
Game on for the quiz after our Sunday dinner of stroggers followed by parkin with custard, cream and chocolate sauce. We scored a dismal 8, bringing our average back to exactly 10. All to play for, folks!