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Bushfires, carrot seeds, ants, cravings, grammar, trees ...

For a blog entitled What I Cooked Last Night, I sure haven't been writing much about last night's dinner lately.

So: here's what I cooked last night.

Spaghetti Marinara.

You can buy 'Marinara Mix' at supermarkets and even at the fresh food markets. At some places it's good and at others it's dreadful.

Usually I prefer to make up my own.

I bought a nice thick piece of swordfish, some fat prawns, some calamari and some scallops.

Set the pasta to boil in salted, oiled water. Slice the swordfish into cubes, peel the prawns, slice the calamari into rings.

Cook an onion in some olive oil, score two cloves of garlic and throw them in (don't burn). Then add half a glass of dry white wine and a grind or three of black pepper. Then add some chopped very ripe tomatoes or a can of diced ones. When it's simmering away nicely add the seafood - fish and calamari first, then prawns, then scallops.

By the time you check and drain the spaghetti, the sauce should be ready, it doesn't take long for the fish to cook through, maybe five minutes depending on your pan, the heat and the size of the pieces. Don't overcook. The swordfish cubes will be particularly succulent and delicious.

Top with chopped parsley and a mere squeeze of lemon. And more pepper.

(I don't always use swordfish. Swordfish makes it a particularly rich dish - any other fish is fine.)

A nice big buttery Chardonnay to accompany.

Sometimes I vary my marinara recipe - by adding some juicy black olives and a chopped chile; using less tomato and a dash of cream; or by using different seafood.

And that's what I cooked last night.

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Now, did I mention that my monster Cypress has been taken down? Now I'm wondering what to put in along the fence. I'm thinking Plumbago hedge ...

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