Girls Weekend Away and chicken salad rolls

This weekend my cousin Bron and our dear Kiwi friend Shaz set off on a girls weekend away. We are all keen cooks, so food was not neglected, but seeing as Shaz is an early retiree we asked her to take charge of our tums and of course, we had better food than we would have had from a hotel or B&B; home made muffins, quiches and salads to die for. Saturday’s lunch stands out for me, but I first want to regale one of the funniest moments of my life that happened to us.

After lunch and chatting for ages, we decided to take my sarong which was being used as a table cloth, and all three of us went and lay on it on the beach. Packed like sardines on the sarong, side by side, in our clothes. We cannot answer the question why we did not get into our cozzies…we just didn’t. Anyway, we were lying there laughing at just about everything we said and lapping up the luxury of the warmth of friendship and the sound of the breakers below us. Then Shaz asked the question in her marvellously lilting Kiwi accent, “Ok girls, if you could have any wish granted within the next five minutes what would it be?”

After a minute of thought Bron answered that she would want us to be healthy and happy forever. Bron is my noblest, kindest and most sincere of all relatives and that is a wish so typical of her. Then, Shaz had her turn because she was the middle sardine. I was still grappling with trying to think what I would wish for. Then Shaz piped up that she would want her man to appear there on the spot, immediately like a genie. At that exact moment nature decided to cool us off and sent a breaker way past all the others to douse us in warm Indian Ocean water. We squealed! We were drenched! From top to bottom, and got sand in every crevice of our bodies, including our ears! And all we could do was double up in screeches of laughter. And when we looked at the beach, the only area that had been wet by the sea up til then was the six metres or so around us. Our own personal tsunami. We were a spectacle, but provided laughter for many other beach combers too. Our good deed for the day.

Back to lunch. After a glass of well chilled white wine Shaz asked us if we were ready for chicken rolls. What divine little sarmies these are. She had made a salad of chicken, red onion, avocado and tomato in a dressing of sweet chillie sauce. Then she took sliced wholewheat bread, removed the crusts and buttered the slices. She placed some salad diagonally across the slice and folded it up, making a lovely, delicate, ladylike sized roll. With summore chilled white, they were sublime.