Monday night’s dinner included ma po tofu, made using firm tofu (that’s all we had, next time will get softer tofu), chicken mince and a Japanese boxed ma po tofu flavour mix. So quick and easy. Jac cooked it up in the big wok.

I commandeered the small wok and stir-fried green beans with garlic and oyster sauce.

With freshly cooked jasmine rice, a tasty meal.

On Tuesday night, Jac assembled a salad, making a crown of our very own homegrown cos lettuce. Just so you don’t get the false impression that I am any sort of gardener, it’s Jac who has the green fingers/green thumb. I do help water the plants when Jac is away, such as when she went to Sydney a couple of years ago, but that’s it.

Jac had also made a pasta bake in the oven, with wholemeal penne, bolognaise sauce, spinach and mushrooms, all topped with cheese.

The salad and pasta bake were delicious, but the best part of the meal was the garlic bread Jac made, to use up a loaf of Turkish bread we’d bought last week but hadn’t eaten. She baked it in the oven wrapped in silver foil. Fresh and hot, the bread was crisp on the outside yet so satisfyingly chewy, and as you can see, Jac had made it extremely garlicky and buttery. This may have been the tastiest garlic bread I’ve ever eaten! I think Jac’s secret was to use loads and loads of butter.

Jac also made me a quick dessert of sliced bananas and strawberries, topped with a little cream and garnished with a little sprig of mint.