12/4/2008 – Jac made a stew using a tin of cream of chicken soup, chicken stock, chicken thigh pieces, potatoes, carrots, celery and onions. She baked it in the oven in a casserole dish. It smelled and looked absolutely fantastic.

She served me up a big bowl of the chicken stew with steamed broccoli and a buttered bread roll (not pictured).

14/4/2008 – Jac made a fish and vegetable curry using a jar of Dimkum Oriental curry fish sauce. She used two large frozen basa fillets, an onion, frozen peas and whatever was in the vegetable crisper in the fridge – cabbage, which she cut into big square pieces, the carrots that hadn’t gone rubbery yet, and most of a punnet of baby roma tomatoes we’d forgotten about. The baby roma tomatoes were so beautifully sweet in the fragrant curry. I know it doesn’t sound like a very authentic style of curry, but boy, was it tasty. I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. And again the following morning.

15/4/2008 – Jac went to Woolworths after work and picked up groceries and ingredients for dinner. She baked Woolies chicken patties, which had a chunky crumbed coating, in the oven until they were crispy on the outside (they were seriously satisfyingly, audibly crunchy!) and meaty and juicy on the inside. On another tray in the oven she baked up a batch of pommes noisettes. She also made two salads – a basic garden salad with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and red capsicum, and coleslaw, made with red and white cabbage.

The potato balls were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I ate them dipped in tomato sauce. They were utterly moreish, as golden-brown savoury finger foody items tend to be.

The patties were succulent and delicious, with a rubbery meaty texture typical of rissoles, dotted with pieces of pea and carrot.