Another family meal, another creamy pudding. Since the Co-op shop was hacked there have been shortages on many shelves but a vast oversupply of sell-by-date cream. A1 served up a delicious beef stew and A2 concocted a creamy courgette gratin for the vegetarians. We enjoyed it all and scored our usual substandard 9 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison.
Category: food
Sunday Lunch
We had chicken and/or vegetable creamy pasta for lunch, followed by this strawberry sponge cake which was snapped up before it could be snapped, and scored an improved 10 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading The Cuckoo* by Camilla Lackberg.
Dejeuner en Famille
Dinner with the family in their lovely new house: salmon, salad and cherry cake for afters. What a treat!
Faye was our quizmistress and kindly gave us a score of 9.
A1 is reading The Vinyl Detective: Underscore by Andrew Cartmel. No proper recipes this time, but more on Vinyl Detective Macaroni Cheese, which is now credited to Sam Wong’s article How to Hack Your Macaroni Cheese in the 23 Nov 2022 issue of New Scientist (behind a paywall, but free to Leeds libraries members).
A2 is reading The Girl in the Woods* by Camilla Lackberg; child killers and child-killers, with 17th century witch trials added in.
Family dinner
Another Sunday dinner of spaghetti followed by a trifle decorated with leftover Easter eggs, at which we scored a sorely disappointing 8 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard.
Easter Monday
We had chicken bacon broccoli and cheesecake for our family meal and did the last two weeks’ quizzes, scoring 13 on one and 10 on the other. Here’s the cake:
A1 is reading The Alaska Sanders Affair* by Joel Dicker. A2 is reading Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard. Another book about a Writer.
Blueberry Lemon Cake
Our pudding after our family meal of roast pork, stuffing, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, broccoli, sprouts, carrots and gravy, after which we generously allowed ourselves to score 10 on the GSQ.
A2 is rereading Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre.
Mother’s Eid
It’s Eid-al-Fitr, Mother’s Day and Gez birthday eve and A1 has made a delicious strawberry sponge to round off our meal of stroggers and pasta, after which we scored 11.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Trap* by Ava Glass (don’t mind if I do), which was a tediously cliched spy thriller — ChatGPT could do better. A2 is rereading Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre.
Sad Kiwi Fruit
No wonder; it’s no fun being chopped up and mixed with a load of common fruits.
We had porky vegetables and cheesy courgettes for our family dinner, followed by parkin with custard, and scored 10.5 on the GSQ.
A2 is rereading Boiling a Frog by Christopher Brookmyre.
Like the Circles that You Find
Another day, another circular object. Today it’s the trifle completing our family meal of spaghetti and sauce, surrounded by tabletop clutter. We scored 10 on the GSQ, better than the last few.
A1 is rereading The Cut and A2 is rereading Not the End of the World, both by Chris aka Christopher Brookmyre.
Pie Day
It’s Pie Day! We had a sell-by-date supermarket quiche with a ham pi on top. And here is the moon balanced on a branch. We got up before dawn to watch an eclipse but all we saw were clouds.
Cheese on Toast
Tomatoes and onions like jewels embedded in the golden cheese.
A2, encouraged by A1’s fest, is rereading Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre.
Critters of the Day: Women
Yes, it’s International Women’s Day. We had a family lunch of kedgeree (with boiled eggs for the fish refusers), ate a blueberry cake and scored a substandard 9 on the GSQ.
A1 is rereading When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre. A2 is reading The Fourteenth Letter* by Claire Evans, which was weird and unbelievable.
Pancake Day
A1’s delicious pancakes with lemon, cream, raisins, bananas, caramel sauce (which didn’t half stick to the spoon) and lots and lots of toppings.
A1 is rereading Where the Bodies Are Buried by Chris Brookmyre.
Feeding Time
We had meat and vegetable cottage pies and broccoli for our family dinner, followed by Aunt Celia’s lemon pudding, did this week’s and last week’s quizzes and scored a disappointing 9 on one and a disgraceful 7 on the other.
A2 is reading The Foot on the Crown by Christopher Fowler; an origin myth for London in a Dark Ages Game of Thrones setting.
Trout for Dinner
Our family dinner was rainbow trout with almonds, fried potatoes, leeks and courgettes, with parkin and custard for pudding.
We scored a reasonable 10 on the Guardian Quiz.
A2 is reading Picks and Shovels* by Cory Doctorow, a crime novel where the crimes are financial but a few people get beaten up nonetheless.
恭喜发财
Happy New Year Everybody! May the snake of fortune wriggle through your world bringing you happiness and better quiz scores than the 7.7 we achieved tonight.
The food: egg fried rice, veggie noodles, jellified belly pork, rainbow chicken, sweet and sour pork, har gow, siew mai, jiaozi, fish egg balls, stewed eggs in various substances and of course the snake cake. Would have had spring rolls but A2 absent-mindedly steamed them.
A2 is rereading The Secret Life of Mr Roos by Hakan Nesser.
Cake of the Snake
It’s Lunar New Year soon and A1 has made a cherry and almond cake for our family banquet tomorrow and A2 has made a snake out of butter icing, blueberries and squashed marshmallows dipped in food colouring.
A1 is rereading Boiling a Frog by Christopher Brookmyre. A2 is reading The Bezzle* by Cory Doctorow.
Mellow Yellow
First supermarket daffodils of spring, as a decoration for our family dinner of spag bol followed by peach cobbler, at which we strained our brains to the point of pain and still only scored 8 on the GSQ. Damn you, Thomas Eaton!
A1 s rereading Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre. A2 is rereading The Inspector and Silence by Hakan Nesser.
Considered Trifle
A post-birthday pudding after our family lunch of curry, rice and naans which has left us bursting out of our trousers. We scored 10 on the GSQ, later upgraded to 11 when we checked that the four Chinese gentlemen flowers were also the four flowers in mah jong like we said.
A2 is reading Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin. Third book in a row in which the hero hangs out in a library.
So This Is Christmas
The tree is lit and the presents are unwrapped. Lots of books and art stuff for A2, even more books and a computer (Pi500) for A1, coffee, a new wok and films to watch for us all. And here is our traditional Christmas dinner: potatoes, sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, gravy and enough roast pork to last us into the New Year.
A2 is about to read Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer (thx A1). We are watching Slow Horses Season 4.
Carrot Cake
Carrots and other festive veg are 8p/kg at loss-leading supermarkets near us so we had this nice cake and a lovely stew containing various underpriced vegetables for our family dinner, caught up on last week’s quiz (saving this week’s for next time) and scored a creditable 10.
What’s the Point…
.
.. of alcohol-free gin? And it’s not much cheaper than ordinary gin.
A1 is rereading The Mercy Chair by MW Craven.
A2 is reading The Red Notebook* by Michel Bussi; malfeasance to and from migrants in Marseilles, with a terrific twist.
Fish Egg
A poached egg on a piece of ham that looks a bit like a fish.
A1 is reading The Last Devil to Die* by Richard Osman. A2 is rereading The Accordionist* by Fred Vargas.
Brioche, Banana, Blueberry and Booze Bread and Butter Bake Again
Another iteration of this cheap, simple and tasty pudding which followed our family dinner of pork in cider with carrots and peas with pizza, salad and chips for the youngsters. We were ill last week so we had 2 quizzes to do and scored 9.5 on one and 13 on the other.
November was below averagely rainy and sunny and our second coldest November of all time.
A1 is rereading The Readymade Thief* by Augustus Rose. A2 is rereading Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas.
Raspberry Bakewell Cake
The finale to our delicious dinner of beef stew and sprouts at which we scored a disappointing 8 on the GSQ. Still averaging over 10 though.
A1 is reading Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand by Fred Vargas.