Book in

This was a slightly belated birthday present from a friend who I went out to dinner with tonight. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but obviously, I have a vested interest in Germany, so perhaps it will be interesting and insightful!  

Book 96: Sabriel, Garth Nix (re-read)

Was planning to read the newest book in this series (Goldenhand), and even picked it up to start it, but decided after a few pages, that I really needed to go back and re-read the first three books (I won't re-read the fourth book, Clariel, as I read that fairly recently and it's still quite strongly in my mind...)

Dinner, 23/11/16: Lamb Keema (Good Food community) (Geoff cooking)

A nice lamb mince curry with peas; really fragrant - tastes great and also makes the house smell amazing. Recipe here. 

Dinner, 21/11/16: Chicken Cacciatore, mashed potato, green beans

An easy weeknight supper - lots of sauce leftover, so that's gone in the freezer for sometime when it can be dumped over pasta.

Dinner, 20/11/16: Lasagne

This was actually an easier meal than one might think; the ragu was already made and in the freezer, so it was just a matter of making a white sauce and assembling the lasagne. Yumm. 

Book 95: No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy

Picked this up in a charity shop a while ago, but it took a while to get into the mood for reading it. Cormac McCarthy writes beautifully, but it's not cheery, breezy, lose-yourself-in-fantasy type stuff.  This one was great, though (I haven't seen the film). Perhaps not quite as good as The Road, but then, what is?

Dinner, 19/11/16: Birthday feast

As usual, for my birthday, I had some friends around to dinner. Here's what we ate (above) - and some of the dishes closer up...

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad (Moosewood Cookbook)

Tortilla (Good Food)

Potato Salad with Salsa Verde and Artichokes (no recipe)

Butternut Squash and Lentil Salad (Good Food)

Roasted Cauliflower and Chickepeas with Harissa (familystylefood.com)

Vegan Hotpot (Simon Rimmer)

I forgot to take a closeup of the Stir-Fried Mixed Greens (no recipe) or the dessert (Gin & Tonic Sorbet; Strawberry Daquiri Sorbet)

Books in

Three books among my birthday presents - is it telling that they are all young adult fiction? Paper and Fire is the second in the Great Library Series of which I recently read the first; Library of Souls is the third in the Miss Peregrine books (I need to read the second, Hollow City) and the other is a stand alone. 

Dinner, 18/11/16: Sticky Onion and Sausage Pizza (Good Food)

This was good, though the sweetness of the caramelised onions would have been better balanced with some blue cheese - something salty.

Dinner, 16/11/18 Sticky Chinese Chicken Tray Bake (Good Food Mag) (Olivia cooking)

Dinner, 15/11/16: Leek and Potato Soup

Tuesday night is always problematic for dinner - I am out until quite late but Alex has to eat before Scouts, and Geoff is usually not working at home on Tuesday, so it's harder for him to cook. Consequently, we often make something ahead - this week, I had leftover leeks, so leek and potato soup seemed perfect.

Dinner, 14/11/16: Bacon, Squash & Potato Pasta

A standby. Great for using up a bit of leftover butternut squash or sweet potato.

Dinner, 13/11/16: Paella (Lorraine Pascal)

There are many recipes for paella - I used this one, a little loosely, just for basic proportions and timings. Not everyone likes prawns so I did fewer prawns and more chorizo. Whatever the proportions, it's a tasty dish.

Dinner, 12/11/16: Butternut Squash and Lentil Samb (Mary Berry)

Despite the name, this was not an Indian spiced dish - it was inspired by an Indian dish, but the flavours were more continental, a bit of Dijon mustard, etc. I liked it; it was a nice wintery vegetarian dish.

Book 94: The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

This was a sweet story, I really enjoyed it. Nicely written (and translated) and an interesting idea. 

Dinner, 11/11/6: Stir fried pork with cashew nuts and rice noodles (Keith Floyd)

Haven't had this before - it was a nice stir fry variation. Very simple, but it worked. And luckily, Olivia was out for the evening, so it didn't even matter that it has loads of peppers in it!

Book 93: Faery Tales by Carol Ann Duffy

A lot of people retell faery tales; I picked up this book in a charity shop and enjoyed reading through some tales I knew well and some I knew not-so-well. I think there were a few originals in there as well.  A pleasant way to spend some time.

Dinner, 7/11/16: Paper Potato Pizza (Ainsley Harriott), salad

Another pretty quick one. I put the pizza dough in the bread machine before I went to do my tutoring, so when I got back it was very quick to assemble and cook. Called paper potato pizza because you slice  the potatoes very, very thinly, so you don't have to pre-cook them. 

Dinner, 2/11/16: Mexican Bake with Salads (Waitrose magazine)

We have this a lot. We like it, it's easy, and it's very quick.

Book 92: A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

I counted this among my October reading, though technically I didn't finish it until today. It's a YA, fantasy story, set in a strange underground land where people are born with expressionless faces and have to learn how to show their emotions. The main character is from Above, from the world where your face shows what you are feeling and thinking all the time and is found as a small child by a master cheesemaker. For various reasons, he raises her and hides her away from the underground people. When, some years later, she breaks out into the underground world, all kinds of havoc gets wreaked. It's quite an interesting construct, which I enjoyed. Hardinge is a good writer, with some really unusual ideas.

Ocotber Round Up

WHAT WAS FOR  DINNER, OCTOBER 2016

• 31st: Green pesto tagliatelle with courgettes & pancetta
• 30th: Potato & Celeriac Rosti
• 29th: K & G birthday dinner out
• 28th: Creamy Ham, Chicken and Leek Pie
• 27th: Ham, Potatoes, Green Beans
• 26th: Smoked Haddock, Fennel, Sweet Potato
• 25th: Lunch out in Brighton
• 24th: Make your own pizzas
• 23rd: Cauliflower Cheese, etc
• 22nd: Toad in the hole, vegetables
• 21st: Pork Curry
• 20th: Everyone fend for yourself
• 19th: Spicy Parsnip Soup, Cheese Scones
• 18th: Leftover cold pork, fried potatoes, etc
• 17th: One Pan Spicy Rice
• 16th: Roast Pork, roast potatoes, cabbage
• 15th: Stromboli, Potato & Bean Salad, Asparagus
• 14th: Everyone out
• 13th: Everyone fend for yourself
• 12th: Courgette and Refried Bean Quesadillas
• 11th: Chicken and Cauliflower Curry (leftovers from freezer)
• 10th: Meatball and Ravioli bake
• 9th: Sweet potato gumbo
• 8th: Chicken Fajitas
• 7th: Pea, Courgette and Feta Fritters
• 6th: Everyone fend for yourself
• 5th: Broccoli and stilton soup
• 4th: Leftover lasagne
• 3rd: Rosemary Chicken with tomato sauce & mash
• 2nd: Roasted sausage and apple with sauerkraut
• 1st: Lasagne with pesto

Book 91: Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L Sayers

Having reached the point of Gaudy Night, I then of course had to also read Busman's Honeymoon as well. That takes me to the end of the Sayers stories, though there are still the Jill Paton Walsh continuations to read, which are not bad, though not quite the same. I still have some short stories as well, but they again, aren't quite the same. Still, I might very well read them if I still need a fix!

Book plan update - October

Continuing in 2016 to make inroads on the books I own (un-read) and not buy too many new ones. Progress to date:

1. January: books removed from list: 7,  books added: 2; net result -5
2. February: books removed from list: 4, books added: 0; net result -4 (total YTD: -9)
3. March: books removed from list: 8, books added:8; net result 0 (total YTD: -9)
4. April: books removed from list: 6, books added: 0; net result -6 (total YTD: -15)
5. May: books removed from list: 6, books added: 4; net result -2 (total YTD: -17)
6. June: books removed from list: 3, books added: 0; net result -3 (total YTD: -20)
7. July: books removed from list: 4; books added: 8; net result +4 (total YTD: -16)
8. August: books removed from list: 2; books added: 0; net result -2 (total YTD: -18)
9. September: books removed fromlist: 3; books added: 0; net result -3 (total YTD: -21)

In October:

• I re-read one book from a charity shop, which I didn't bother to add to my reading list (Naked in Death, J D Robb)
• I re-read one book we had in the house, which I have since thrown away as it was completely falling apart. (Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon), three books which we own which I'm keeping with my collection (The Nine Tailors,  Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L Sayers), and one book which I re-read in readiness for reading the subsequent books, and because Sarah wanted to read it after having seen the film (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs)
• I read four books from my list (Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, Winter by Marissa Meyer, Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine, A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge)
• I read one book from the library (Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans)
• I bought one book from Abe books in a series I'm reading (Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo)
• I bought two books from Waterstones to go with something I ordered as a birthday present to hit the free shipping (Winter by Marissa Meyer, Slade House by David Mitchell)
• I bought one book in the pound shop (Little Gods by Anna Richards)
• I went totally crazy in charity shops with Sarah during her reading week holiday and bought a ton of books (All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild, A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman, The Little Old Lady Who Broke all the Rules by Caterina Ingleman Sanders, Ingo (& two other titles in the series) by Helen Dunmore, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, The Humans by Matt Haig and a couple more which don't go on my reading list for various reasons - titles I've read but which are filling gaps in my collection or better copies of books I own).

October's tally is therefore...

books read: 11

books removed from list:  4 books added: 13 ; net result +9
[Goal (no more than 1 book added to the list for every two books removed)  failed spectacularly this month.]

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2016.  There were 55 books at the beginning of January, and now there are 42 - of those, only 4 are left from before 2015. [Books with an asterisk]. 

1. Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (charity shop, October 2016)
2. Susan Barker, The Incantations (charity shop, July 2016)
3. Leigh Bardugo, Seige and Storm (Abe Books, October 2016)
4. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
5. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (AbeBooks, October 2015)
6. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
7. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
8. Jean-Paul Didierlaurente, The Reader on the 6.27 (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
9. Anthony Doerr, About Grace (Waterstones Piccadilly, July 2016)
10. Carol Ann Duffy, Faery Tales (charity shop, July 2016)
11. Helen Dunmore, Ingo (charity shop, October 2016)
12. Helen Dunmore, Stormswept (charity shop, October 2016)
13. Helen Dunmore, Tide's Knot (charity shop, October 2016)
14. Ford Maddox Ford, Parade's End (Nov 2012 - birthday present - bought after the BBC adaptation - but I knew I wouldn't read it straight away as I wanted to let time pass from the adaptation.  Enough time has probably passed now...) *
15. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (would be a re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it and I didn't seem to own a copy - think my old one fell apart, probably...) *
16. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
17. Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (charity shop, December 2015)
18. Matt Haig, The Humans (charity shop, October 2016)
19. Melissa Harrison, At Hawthorn Time (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
20. Antonia Hodgkin, The Devil in the Marshalsea (charity shop, May 2016)
21. Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
22. Jennifer Johnston, Two Moons (charity table at Sainsbury's, July 2016)
23. Maria McCain, The Wilding (charity shop, December 2015)
24. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
25. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (charity shop, December 2015)
26. John McGregor, This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You (Waterstones Piccadilly, July 2016)
27. Darragh McKeon, All That is Solid Melts into Air (Waterstones Kingston, May 2016)
28. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
29. David Mitchell, Slade House (Waterstones online, October 2016)
30. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
31. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
32. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
33. Ransom Riggs, Hollow City (Waterstones Piccadilly, July 2016)
34. Hannah Rothschild, The Improbability of Love (charity shop, October 2016)
35. Gregory David Roberts, Shataram (Abe Books, July 2016)
36. Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways  (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
37. Caterina Ingleman Sanders, The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (charity shop, October 2016)
38. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
39. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
40. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)
41. Sarah Winman, A Year of Marvellous Ways (charity shop, October 2016)
42. Gabrielle Zevin, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (charity shop, October 2016)

Dinner, 31/10/16: Green pesto tagliatelle with courgette and pancetta

Needed something quick and easy tonight between it being a school night anyway, and Hallowe'en - a night full of having to get up to answer the door. This fit the bill well. We had it with bread and a salad.

Dinner, 30/10/16: Potato and Celeriac Pancakes with Bacon & Cheese

This tasted nice, but it was a bit of a pain to cook - not counting the fact that my food processor decided to go to food processor heaven right before we grated all the potatoes. Some of it, I had to cook more like hash browns (which was fine) because one of my pans wasn't non-stick enough. 

Book 90: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers (re-read)

Still re-reading this series - and this is my favourite of the lot. So it was hard to resist reading it straight away when I got to it. As I've been a bit under the weather and doing a lot of sitting around reading on this holiday, I have managed to read quite a few books. Which is good, though it feels strange as I usually spend half term holidays doing a lot of stuff out and about...

Dinner, 28/10/16: Creamy Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie (Hairy Bikers), Mashed Potato

Mmm... and enough leftover for a weekday supper when it's hard to cook.

Book 89: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (re-read)

Prompted to re-read this, first because I have the second in the series waiting to be read and second because Sarah, having seen the film, now wants to read the book. A nice quick re-read and glad I did so as I had forgotten some of the detail. It will be interesting to see where the next book goes.

Dinner, 27/10/16: Ham, Potatoes, Green Beans

Books in

Sarah is home for a few days during her reading week, and I have the week off for half term. I haven't been 100 per cent well, but yesterday I really needed to get out of the house, so we headed to Wimbledon (Olivia had her last orthodontist retainer check anyway) and hit all the charity shops. In addition to a nice jumper for Geoff, I did find a load of books. Quite a few of them are children's (the Helen Dunmore) or young adult titles (Gabrielle Zevin), a few are ones I've read but don't have a copy (the Douglas Copeland) of or are better copies of books I have (Northanger Abbey) or by authors whose works I have most of (Coraline). But there are still a good handful of titles for my reading list!

Book 88: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers (re-read)

Still re-reading my way through the Peter Wimsey series - an annoying virus (worse than a cold, not as bad as flu) has had me mostly curled on the sofa reading - which is not an entirely bad thing, mind you - so I got through this very quickly.

Dinner, 26/10/16: Smoked Haddock, Caramelised Fennel, Baked Sweet Potato

With no children being home, for one reason or another, Geoff and I went for something the kids don't like - smoked fish, fennel. Strange cooking for only two!

Hunting Snowdogs

As it's half-term and we have the week off, we took a day to go down to Brighton and visit Sarah. As it happens, she's having a reading week, so we spent a slightly drizzly afternoon wandering around Brighton with a snowdog map, having a look at the artistic creations. We also had some lunch (of course), and played the 2p machines on the pier. A regular seaside mini break!  Alex and I left Olivia there to have another day with Sarah and both of them will come home Wednesday night on the train - Sarah will spend a few days at home and then go back to uni on the Saturday...

Book 87: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

A promising start to this series, set in a world where the library at Alexandria never burned down, it's illegal for private citizens to own books and The Library controls the world. I may just confine myself to YA titles, there are so many good ones out there waiting to be read...

Dinner, 24/10/16: Make your own Pizzas

Good choice for  a birthday meal with lots of extra folks around, even if we do have to cook in shifts...

Book 86: Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Recommended by a friend, this was a fun homefront era read, great characters and a peek into a slightly different world than often offered up with war stories. 

Dinner, 23/10/16: Cauliflower Cheese, etc

Dinner, 22/10/16: Mini toad in the holes, assorted veg