Here’s my plate: salt and pepper squid, salad and a dish of chilli jam.

The squid came out of a box – it was Signature brand frozen salt and pepper squid, bought from Woolworths supermarket. Jac simply followed the instructions and cooked the squid in the oven. The rolls of squid were soft, silky, tender bites and simply a pleasure to eat. The seasoning was more pepper than salt – extremely peppery, but we like that.

The chilli jam was one of our Christmas gifts. It was sweet with a nice chilli flavour without being too spicy. This was a good thing, as the peppery squid was hot enough on its own without help from condiments!

Jac used the broccolini stalks left over from dinner the other night in the salad. She blanched them so they were nice and tender. We’re really trying to use everything up and minimise wastage. :)

For dessert, we cracked open a tin of Golden Circle old-fashioned fruit salad in syrup, which we ate with fresh seedless green grapes. The “old-fashioned” fruit salad is quite mushy; if you want to have chunks of discernible fruit, you have to buy the “chunky” fruit salad. Both are good. This was a welcome dessert after that spicy squid. Jac garnished my fruit salad with a sprig of mint from our garden.