We had a family dinner on Wednesday evening – no particular reason other than we haven’t had a get together for a while, I think. Oh, and we really wanted to meet my sister and her hubby’s puppy Paco. Everyone brought a dish to share. Mum and Dad’s friends M and A came along too. Jac’s and my contribution was a big batch of marinated chicken wings, which we baked in the oven.

The marinade consisted of soy sauce, honey, white pepper, a little bit of lemon juice, and the last of my late grandma’s homemade gingery and garlicky chilli sauce. Jac bought about 3 kilos of chicken wings, and we marinated them in two large containers, regularly turning the wings in the marinade so they’d be well coated. Some of the wings were quite large, and to help with even marination and cooking, Jac flattened them out.

We started off with Mum’s pea and ham soup.

My sister-in-law A brought along a crusty loaf of wholemeal New Norcia bakery bread.

Buttered fresh thickly sliced crusty bread dunked in homemade chunky pea and ham soup – yummy.

We also had battered herring fillets. The fish had been caught by friends of my folks and tasted fresh and delicious.

My eldest sister’s hubby made a mixed bean salad, which was really tasty. Mixed beans in a can now includes chickpeas too, which is great as I like chickpeas.

I think I had 5 or 6 chicken wings all up. I really did like that bean salad too. Actually, everything was really good.

For dessert, my mum’s friend M made an amazing dessert – I call it “apple turnover thingy” as I don’t know its official name.

The pastry was dusted generously with icing sugar, and inside was the most delicious thick cream with apples and sultanas. That cream was just gorgeous. I could’ve eaten a dish of it all by itself.