The Bluestocking Women's Pub, in which Gosie returns to the trail

[Magpiecomplex]

Next thread!

DD and her friend have been and gone. They’d asked for Greek yog and fruit for breakfast; DH got croissants as well but no jam. I can therefore confirm that a split croissant stuffed with sliced strawberries and a spoonful of Greek yogurt is highly recommended.

My GC is having a very long lie in, wish he would get up for a play !!!

I was thinking about getting up & then Kitty came to tell me she’d pooed in her litter tray, so that clinched it.

Off for a walk by the Thames a bit later, home via the pet shop to stock up on cat grass.

Excellent hosting! We've been full on doing that ourselves.

MsPasta and pals arrived yesterday lunchtime for smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels. Scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam (memade shortbread for the one who doesn't like scones) with coffee or tea mid afternoon, BBQ and mezze for dinner, plus cocktails and board games.

They're off to explore the city shortly, with a lunch reservation at my favourite tiny sushi restaurant that's an absolute bargain.

It's great to be young, isn't it?

And to have a young person's metabolism!

They can definitely eat!

Tabbouleh, tzatziki, hummus, labneh, marinated olives, greek salad, chargrilled onion salad (absolutely lush, incidentally), grilled halloumi, prawn skewers, lamb kebabs, assorted flatbreads... It all disappeared faster than I thought feasible!

Are today’s young people hungrier than we were? I don’t remember my brothers being voracious eaters.

Tell me more about this chargrilled onion salad of which you speak...

I remember as a mid-teen being hungrier than my mother's portion sizes assumed, but having no opportunity for seconds and no snacks available, I was just underweight. With the junior Magpies their appetites have varied depending on activity levels and growth spurts.

My brother and his mates had hollow legs. Middle son can happily have 6 Weetabix for breakfast. MsPasta vacillates wildly between 'ate two strawberries and am bloated' and scavenging the cupboards like she's not been fed in a month.

My experience of 13 to 25 (ish) en masse is akin to locusts.

Top and tail a couple of onions and cut into wedges - 6 to 8 per onion depending on size.
Carefully thread the wedges onto metal skewers. Lightly oil them and put on the barbeque until the outsides are properly charred.

The dressing is pomegranate molasses, vinegar (ideally from a jar of pickles but red wine vinegar will do at a push), olive oil, chopped parsley, sumac, chilli flakes and salt.

Slide the onions off the skewers and mix with the dressing. The flesh of the onions goes wonderfully sweet while the black edges have a touch of bitterness. It's really delicious.

I forgot the other onion dish on the table - pink onions. That's just a quick pickle: very finely sliced red onions with a generous pinch of salt and healthy slosh of lemon juice or white wine vinegar. Leave for an hour or so and they go a lovely vivid pink while the harshness of raw onion is softened.

They are great in a pitta with kebab/felafel/halloumi and assorted fixings.

Also great in tacos or burritos, but use lime rather than lemon juice.

Ooh, that does sound nice, Pasta! Thank you!

Your catering skills sound amazing, Pasta!

Have you ever thought of teaching the gerbils a few recipes?

My daughter seems to have developed the ability to adjust eating according to activity levels pretty well, fortunately. They’ll be walking about 20km in the lakes including at least one Big Hill, and then more tomorrow after which she’ll be driving 5-6 hours home.

where we are is a convenient staging post not far from the M6 to reach on a Friday evening before a short weekend hillwalking - she’s brought larger numbers of pals before but they arrive late just needing drinks and then just brekkie in the morning.
DH had to go back to bed - age and meds take it out of him. So I’ve been for a shortish but brisk walk - the clouds clearing as I went, lovely morning here now.

Time for some more tea. Anyone need a brew?

I've taught amateur evening classes to kids and adults, done workshops at a WI, was the activity at a hen party teaching them to make and ice cupcakes, and I was a regular ringer for a woman from my old book group who hosted dinner parties.

She paid me to make courses that she passed off as cooked by her own fair hand. She provided her serving platters etc, I gave her a cheat sheet in case anyone asked about it ("it's not as hard as it looks - the trick is to leave it in to oven after it's turned off for at least an hour" etc etc.)

She paid me really rather well, and it made me laugh. It started by her needing a last minute dessert for a work event that she pretended she'd made, but everyone loved it and it escalated to the point she felt she couldn't fess up until she retired.

No training or owt, I'm just a very greedy soul who learned to cook in self defence.

Any chance of a coffee, Errol? My knees are shot today after yesterday's endeavours.

Lovely day so far.

After a pub brunch I walked along the river for a bit, then saw a ferry I hadn’t known about & caught it. It was run by a woman, her DD & DS & they told me a bit about the history of the area as we crossed.

Three mile walk on the other side passing dogs & kids having a great time splashing in the water & ducklings practising their diving with Mum.

Beautiful weather, Empress! I won't post a picture of my view, which consists of a large number of pants drying on the line in similar weather. I could do with Gubbins to help, if she's at a loose end again?

The char grilled onion salad sounds absolutely delicious, @PastaAllaNorma!

Cogidubnus, eh? never heard of him, but that name looks Celtic. A wild guess based on modern Irish: Cogi = war [cogadh in Mod Ir] and dubnus = black or dark, 'black' in Mod Ir is an intensive not a negative, so it could mean 'great warrior'.

Poor little Gubbins, I'm concerned for her emotional wellbeing - but she looked so happy in that image of her wearing a Cornetto 😀
but then again, associating happiness with high-sugar/fat/salt foods isn't good, is it?🙁

Listening to magpies earlier & even walking past a Magpie pub obviously reminded me of the Bluey, and seeing children & dogs playing in the water made me wonder if the young gerbils would enjoy similar? Is there anyone who’d be up for giving them swimming lessons over their holiday?

I think @FuzzyPuffling has the right idea, and Rosie should adopt Gubbins.

Has to be the capybara, surely?

Poorly eldest son is moping around like a ghoul at the feast, full of a heavy summer cold.

I've packed him off to bed with sustenance, including a vanilla milkshake enriched with egg to get some protein in him. As long as you're happy about the quality of your eggs, a raw egg added to milkshake makes it frothier, richer in flavour and means at least SOMETHING about it is healthy.

I am hoping he'll steer clear of everyone else until he's less contagious.

Second batch of shortbreads cooling on a rack.

I've got a batch of spiced nuts in the oven as bar snacks for tonight's cocktails - dash of olive oil, 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp brown sugar, cumin seeds and mild chilli powder simmered on the hob, nuts of choice stirred in then roasted at 180-190⁰ for 12-14 minutes. They are quite moreish!

Email some of those nuts over to me please @PastaAllaNorma - they sound delicious!