I am still wading my way through the pile of Australian Delicious magazines
left by my lovely ex-next door neighbour, after vacating their home of 25 years.
Except for my first cookbook read when I was about 8 years old that was highly instructive, I have mainly cooked by a combination of intuition and inspiration.
This has resulted in some mistakes, occasional disasters but lots of happy times that I can never replicate!
I have really enjoyed immersing myself in the array of recipes & photographs, having so many magazines at my fingertips at once has fed inspiration to this cook’s soul!
Running on this inspiration I decided on this platter for dinner, making the most of what’s fresh and available now.
Early Autumn Dinner Platter 
- 6 whole peaches
- 1/2 kilo tiger prawns
- tub fresh bocconcini
- large handful of walnuts(roasted with honey & balsamic vinegar)
- rocket lettuce & baby spinach leaves
- Dressing – white balsamic vinegar, seeded mustard, apricot jam & lemon juice)
Peel, halve & de-stone peaches. Place on baking paper with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, walnuts & honey and bake in slow oven for 25 mins. Assemble all ingredients together on platter & pour over peach juices & dressing.
Panfried Swordfish
Cut swordfish into large chunks. Season with lemon juice, olive oil, rock salt, black pepper & lemongrass(optional). Pan fry or barbeque until cooked.
What Donna Cooked 
After years of subscribing and my bookshelves buckling under the weight, I’ve had to cull my Delicious cookbooks. It was a heart-wrenching exercise and I found it hard to be brutal. I love the look of your salad and the dressing with the white balsamic and apricot jam sounds amazing xx
Thank you.
You can tell the seriousness of a cook’s soul by the difficulty he/she has in letting go of old recipe books.
You are and always have been what I would call a serious(but lot’s of fun) cook.
I was reading this earlier this evening before dinner and was salivating looking at that salad – it looks amazing. Ditto on the swordfish!
Will have to make it for you. Doing a blog is actually a good reference, for me who often forgets her own recipes!