the Friday that was

Yesterday was a lovely day. It was akin to a Christmas lunch, only without the stress and pressure that Christmas celebrations seem to bring. I didn't get to church because it was raining and mum had the car and I was in charge of preparing lunch.

Meet our lunch. This is the 2kg snapper that mum bought from DJs, and he was massive. I've never really cooked fish before, let alone a whole fish, but armed with Stephanie Alexander's the cook's companion (my all-time favourite cookbook) and my trusty sharp knife, I set to preparing the fish for baking.

Nic and Linda came round at about 1.30, armed with delicious cheeses (including the most incredible soft cheese, Delice de Bourgogne - Linda knows I love it!) and Valhrona chocolates from Simon Johnson, and Nic's Wii. They were really excited to be over, as they rarely have time off to just hang out. Linda and her brother are opening a restaurant in Pyrmont soon so I don't think we're going to have a huge amount of time to spend together this year.

We did the fish with lemon, coriander, white wine and copious amounts of salt and pepper, and roasted a bunch of kipfler potatoes to go with it. Mum made a delicious salad of avocado, tomato, rocket, beans and zucchini (the last three from our garden). Nic filletted the fish for us so it actually fit on the platter, and then it was time to eat! It tasted wonderful, and was a success all round.

We pretty much just stayed at the table for the next few hours, eating, chatting, laughing. We didn't really have dinner, just slow-grazed on the cheese, chocolate and grapes. Nic and I repaired to the other room a couple of times to play Wii Sports, and I kicked his butt in every single one, except bowling I think. Hee! It was so much fun. Mum and Linda got to have some good in-depth chats while Nic and I shouted and carried on in the other room. This is what Nic and I look like in Mii/Wii form:

They left around 10.30, after looking at some old photo albums and mucking around with the cat. So it was a lovely family sort of day, with no pressure to be anywhere or do anything, and the promise of a sleep in the next day!

The end.