Tag: cake

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.

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.

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 Dinner

For our family meal tonight we had tomato chicken, baked potatoes and creamy cheesy leeks, followed by A1’s magnificent marble cake with cream, custard and chocolate sauce, and generously scored ourselves 9.5 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading We Solve Murders by Richard Osman,in which a different bunch of (mostly) agreeable (mostly) old buffers turn their backs on village life to form an international crime-fighting syndicate. Thanks Gemma’s!

Roasted

Roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, sprouts, broccoli, stuffing balls, gravy … but A1 forgot to serve the carrots. But never mind, Gez scoffed the lot anyway. Plus A2’s delicious afters of Squidgy Chocolate Pear Pudding and cream, after which we scored 13 on the GSQ with Bob as quizmaster.
A1 is rereading The Stand by Stephen King. A2 is reading Desolation Road by Ian McDonald.

Parkin Space

A cold-weather cake after our warming lunch of pasta bakes at which we scored another substandard 9 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths, featuring a time-travelling detective. EG has no idea how to write skiffy (which she sort of admits), so she keeps the science and wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff off-page, sensibly. A more worrying feature is the similarity of her protagonists — here Ali is indistinguishable from her previous archaeologist protagonist Ruth Galloway, and is pretty unbelievable in her reactions for a DS. Still, readable and entertaining enough.
A2 is rereading Buried by Jussi Adler Olsen.

Sunday Lunch

Yesterday was one of our rainiest days of all time: 39.3mm, making this month our wettest this year and our rainiest September ever. Today was bright and sunny, the washed-clean solar panels served up 6kWh and the family came round for lunch. We had roast chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, cabbage, cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire puddings, followed by Swedish applekaka, and scored a miserable 9 on the GSQ.
A1 is rereading The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. A2 is reading The Art of a Lie, also by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, which was very entertaining. Thank you A1.

After the Birthday

Transit of Bob. It was A2’s birthday yesterday so she got a lot of lovely presents of things to drink, read and wear to the gym. Our family dinner was chicken, bacon and broccoli with A1’s cherry cake and perfect garden apple charlotte for afters. We scored 9 on the GSQ. Could have been worse. And we could have seen the lunar eclipse if it hadn’t been cloudy, and then raining. But it was clear in Lusaka (see right) — thanks, Guida!
A1 is reading The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith, the latest biceps-straining volume in the Strike/Ellacott saga. Expensive, too — probably the first £30 mass-market novel (although it’s been heavily discounted).
It’s nominally a fiendishly complicated crime novel (and it is complicated — you may want to take notes), but RG is having great fun with the on-off relationship between the protagonists, which fortunately errs on the right side of soapiness; you can imagine her smirking at the readers’ reactions. The targets this time include Freemasonry and another stab at an evil Boris Johnson analogue, who really seems to appeal to writers (cf Mick Herron, MW Craven etc). Can’t imagine why… Criticism? There’s a bit too much phonetic transcription of accents, and the subplot about human trafficking gets somewhat lost in all the fol-de-rol. But a thoroughly enjoyable read nonetheless.
A2 is reading The Predicament by William Boyd, which was absolutely delightful. Thank you A1.

Burger Meister

A1 cooked succulent burgers, chips and salad for our family dinner and A2 made courgette, halloumi and chickpea fritters for the veggies. We had a chocolate, cherry and cream cake from yesterday’s paper for afters……and managed to score 12 on yesterday’s paper’s quiz. We’re on a roll!
A1 is rereading Bryant & May: The Running Man by Christopher Fowler. A2 is reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki, which was tasty and fattening.

24 (Wonderful) Years Later


It’s A1&2’s wedding anniversary and a delicious cherry cake was baked to celebrate.

A1 gave A2 a bunch of flowers and our number 6 coffee maker; a handy little gadget for making one cup of espresso, and A2 gave A1 The Red Shore by William Shaw in advance of publication.

It was our opal wedding so A2 got a packet of [redacted], previously known as Opal Fruits, and A1 got an opal (see below).

A2 is rereading Disgrace by Jussi Adler Olsen. 

Strawberry Cheesecake

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.
A1 started The Girl in the Woods* and The Cuckoo*, both by Camilla Lackberg, but couldn’t get into either of them.
A2 is reading The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison; a miserable book about horrible people with a specially ghastly protagonist.