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.
Tag: quiz
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.
Critter of the Day: Tit
A bird on a bush.
A1 is rereading Slow Horses by Mick Herron.
We had stroggers and Aunt Celia’s Lemon Pudding (copyright Thomas M Disch) for our family dinner and scored 10 on the GSQ.
Blackbird in the Rain
A1 is reading We Know You Remember* by Tove Asterdal. A2 is rereading The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier, which is a pleasure to revisit.
We had chicken/veggie pasta and parkin for our family meal and scored 11 on the GSQ.
Jay Peg
Haven’t seen any of these lovely colourful crows for five years but have seen several in the last few days, raiding next-door’s bird feeders in the snow and freezing fog.
A2 is reading Someone to Watch Over Me* by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
We had curry followed by trifle for our family meal and scored 11 on the GSQ
Sky News
A celestial selection box! A backdrop of cirrus, contrails in all directions, a circumzenithal arc at top right, a tiny sundog at bottom leftish and a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave left of centre. Atmospheric Optics used to explain all these things but something has gone horribly wrong.
We had a warming meal of spag bol and apple crumble on another chilly day and scored 10 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Sins of Our Fathers* by Asa Larsson. A2 is rereading Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru.
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.
Diwali
It’s Diwali! The Sikh Temple opened their gigantic box of fireworks and filled the sky with whooshing crackling sparkling sprays of light and colour.
A1 is reading The Creak on the Stairs* by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir. A2 is reading Cold as Hell* (too right it is) by Lilja Sigurdardottir.
We had meltingly tender Italian beef stew and trifle for our family nosh and scored THIRTEEN on the GSQ; thanks everybody.
Guida (Fawkes) Night
Happy birthday, Guida!
We had various pasta bakes for our family meal, followed by parkin and custard. We scored a reasonable 11 on the GSQ, then repaired outside to let off a box of fireworks to celebrate.
A2 is reading The Black Path* by Asa Larsson, which was so complicated she lost the plot.
A Ray of Sunshine
At last (but it didn’t last) a bit of brightness lights up the dark and oppressive skies.
A1 is reading Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver. A2 is rereading Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
We had chicken pie and apfelstrudel for our family dinner and scored a better-than-usual 12 on the GSQ.
A Walk on the Wood
A ladybird ventures forth along the fence.
We had porky vegetables and fruit salad cake for our Sunday dinner and scored 11 on the GSQ with the inestimable Faye as quizmistress.
A1 is reading The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver. A2 is rereading An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris.
Oh No!
A sad stick in the road screaming because it has lost several limbs.
We scored an equally sad 9 on the GSQ after our family meal of stew followed by parkin to warm us up on a day when the temperature dropped to 1.1 °C.
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.