3.14: it’s π day! We just had a little apple strudel with a pastry π on top, cooked in a hurry because we forgot until it was almost too late. It was cold in the middle like a baked Alaska.
A1 is reading The Great Deceiver* by Elly Griffiths.
Tag: cake
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:
Pancake Day
Another feast! This time our evening meal was all pudding: pancakes, lemons, cherries, blueberries, sultanas, cream and a free shop chocolate brownie for afters. Full up!
A2 is reading Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds.
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.
Tea and Cake in the Library
The library’s birthday cake.
January 2024 was our second coldest, third wettest and most averagely sunny January of all time.
A1 is rereading The Last Voice You Hear by Mick Herron. A2 is rereading Down Cemetery Road, also by Mick Herron.
Cake Again
A1 made this lovely chocolate orange cake to celebrate the library’s 120th birthday.
A2 is reading Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney.
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.
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.
Pies for Yorkshire
We had a substantial meal of shepherd’s pie/cheese and tomato pasta bake followed by this apple tart (which underwent a rapid unscheduled disassembly when taken out of the tin) and scored a substantial 12 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading White as Snow* by Lilja Sigurdardottir.
Carrot Cake
Something everybody could eat, unlike A2’s kedgeree for which the vegetarian and fish-refuser had to have substitutes of cauliflower cheese.
We did this week’s and last week’s GSQs and scored 11.5 on one and 8.5 on t’other, keeping our average a bit over 10.
A1 is rereading Mr Mercedes by Stephen King. A2 is reading Reykjavik* by Ragnar Jonasson and Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, which is more like an Agatha Christie, to whom this book is dedicated, than Ragnar’s usual helping of doom and gloom. Not bad though.
Two Little Ducks
Our anniversary sultana/amaretto cheesecake for our family dinner. The garden raspberries were sublime and we scored legs eleven on the GSQ. Probably would have got twelve dig and delve if Bob hadn’t kept derailing our trains of thought (nought).
Admin2 is reading The Square of Sevens (49 = PC49 = copper; v appropriate) by Laura Shepherd-Robinson.
Happy Fathers’ Day C & D
A G&T cake and love from us all.
We also had a cheese and onion quiche and salads for our family dinner and scored 12.333 on the GSQ, bringing our average to >10 at last.
It rained today and yesterday, bringing an end to our longest ever recorded dry spell
Admin2 is reading Westwind by Ian Rankin, which was jejune and implausible but rattled along at a great pace.
Carrot Cake
For our family dinner today we had Jack Monroe’s Cheapo Cheapo Coronation Quiche and loads of salads cos we got a big box of spinach, lettuce, peppers, carrots and salad from Lidl for £1.50, and finished off with a carrot cake (see pic)
We did the GSQ a day early and scored 10, mostly with lucky guesses because we were unsure of all but 3.
45 Questions
Good Friday everybody.
At last it is safe for people to come to our house and we have 3 weeks of quiz questions to work through to go with our 45th birthday trifle. We scored 10 on the first, a disgraceful 5 on the second and 10 on the third, so 25 out of 45.
Admin1 is rereading The Puppet Show by MW Craven. Admin2 is reading Company of Liars by Karen Maitland; a mismatched band of keepers of dark secrets go on the road to escape the Black Death, but other fates await. Mesmerising.
Pancake Day
Pancakes with sultanas, blueberries, cherries, lemons and cream. It turns out that cherries go damn fine with pancakes.
Admin1 is reading At Death’s Window (so it will be a paneful death, he quips) and Admin2 is reading The Skeleton Man, both by Jim Kelly.
Trifling Matters
Took an awful lot of photos of this pudding because Bob was talking loudly about cheese which triggered the phone camera every time.
Admin1 is rereading Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson. Admin2 is reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. War breaks everything.
We scored 10.5 on the GSQ.
Plat du Jour: Squidgy Chocolate Pear Pudding
We had this rich and tasty pud after our perfect fishcakes.
Admin1 is reading The Lost Future of Pepperharrow and Admin2 is reading The Bedlam Stacks, both by the marvellous Natasha Pulley.
21 Tomorrow
Happy anniversary eve, admins 1 & 2! We were gifted fizzy wine, ate solstice cake trifle and scored 11 on the GSQ.
Admin1 is reading The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading Bad Actors by Mick Herron.
Happy Birthday
Admin1 celebrated his miscellaneous birthday today and was treated accordionly. What a surprise! He also got a load of books, a t-shirt, coffee for (and from) Africa and cups to drink it from. We ate emergency sandwiches (not expecting dinner guests) and yummy carrot cake.
Admin1 is now reading Bad Actors by Mick Herron. Enjoy! [Admin1: And I certainly did! Many thanks, also to GDA&B for the wonderful presents and a terrific birthday. I’ve just realised you could base a tune on their names…perhaps I could play it on an accordion 🙂 ]
Admin2 is reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel.
Solstice Cake
Happy longest day everybody.
Admin2 is reading The Mash House by Alan Gillespie, a crowdfunded debut which was beautifully written and horribly shocking.
Considered Trifle
Our concession to the Platinum Jubilee: a sort-of Union Flag in raspberries and blueberries on a fruity trifle based on Admin1’s marble cake (also visible on the right). A splendid meal was enjoyed by all and we scored 9 on the GSQ.
Admin1 is reading The Killing Song by Lesley McEvoy. Admin2 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron.
Feed Us All!
Here’s our attempt at the Platinum Jubilee Pudding which we consumed after a very filling and delicious meal of roast lamb,new potatoes, yorkshire puddings, gravy and veg. [The pudding itself was OK in its citrussy way, but not a patch on our usual fruity cakey trifles and we’ll probably never make one again but we had most of the ingredients already and didn’t have to use the recipe which would have taken hours, cost a fortune and left us with a bucketful of superfluous egg whites.] We were too full to think and scored only 7 on the GSQ. Shame!
Easter Eggs
Magpies have built a fine nest next to our house (apparently magpies nest next to humans to keep away their crow kin) and today Admin1 sent up the drone to look for blue eggs or fluffy chicks, but they had built a roof and the tree was in leaf so no luck.
Meanwhile Admin1 had his first stab at making a Battenburg cake which turned out extremely well. A lovely meal was had by all and we scored 11 on the GSQ.
Admin1 is reading The Stone Chamber by Kate Ellis and Admin2 is reading Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard, which was extremely implausible.