Aussie day!

We decided it would be fun to celebrate Australia day with our Aussie rellies this year. Kinda like fourth of July for us it seems like.......
Our Aussie tutors, Jessie and Terry, said we had to have grilled lamb chops, sausages, and pavlova and lamingtons for dessert. Wear thongs, hang Australia flags, and splash in a paddle pool in the back yard. It seemed like a good excuse for a party to us!!

For Aussie day Alaska style we had: Grilled lamb chops, marinated lamb kabobs, rosemary roasted potatoes, fruit slaw, damper bread, grilled Italian sausage, little smoky sausages, and a few hot dogs just in case the kids were feeling too picky. Everything was really good, Kyle was the grill master again and did an excellent job. Abbie and Liam both chowed down on some lamb and bread. Us adults had to have some beer (Henipen we have been liking), the kiddos had sparkling cider to go along with the celebratory theme. We even wore thongs (flip-flops) and hung Australia flags! Not quite brave enough to have pool time in the pouring down snow, we were going to try the bath tub, but it just didn't seem to have enough room!
I made pavlovas and Mom made lamingtons for dessert, the kids loved the pavs with cream and already want them again. The lamingtons are rolled in coconut and so weren't as much of a hit, but I think they are really addictive. It was a good party and we all had lots of fun trying out Aussie stuff. Next on my schedule is to try a British food night. More on that later..........

Aebleskiver

Since Kyle is finally on days, we can have fancy (time consuming) breakfasts on the weekends! Kyle got me an Aebleskiver, or Dutch pancake pan for Christmas. It is a little strange looking but we all like breakfast and I have never made them before so it was definitely on my wish list. I used the recipe on the package, it is kind of a cross between pancake batter and waffle batter. You have to beat the egg whites before mixing them into the rest of the batter. There is no butter in the batter so you have to butter the mold really well. Then you scoop in a little batter then some kind of filling lastly a little more batter to cover that. After cooking for a second you use a toothpick to turn it over in the round mold to cook the other side. We had chocolate, apple butter and blueberry. They disappeared quickly! I will try some other kinds of fruit next time. I am already dreaming of taking this camping to make fresh blueberry filled ones!

Liquid List

We are always talking about what we like to drink with dinner in a general sense. These are the specifics. At least the current favorites that is.

Beer:
La Chouffe - everything I have had from here so far is great. My current favorite is the La Chouffe Houblon Chouffe at ~$13.00 a bottle.

Ommegang Hennepin - Mmmm good, a good value to at <$10.00 a bottle.

Wine:
Bogle - We really like the Phantom, but also enjoy the Old Vine Zinfandel and the Merlot.

Columbia Crest H3 - The Merlot.

Tilla Malbec - No link to this one, it needs to breath for quite a bit but is full of flavor.

Beringer - Again it is the Old Vine Zinfandel that we look for, but we also enjoy the Merlot.

We also like Frontier Red, Villa Pozzi Nero D'Avola, and Night Harvest Merlot.

In the Beginning...

In the beginning we drank wine at parties, rather cheap wine. We progressed to more expensive "vintages". Then came David....

Last night we had much fun at Cindy's Spanish feast. The evening began with wine and cheese, special crackers and wine biscuits. As everyone arrived and we got more serious we moved on to a "Fagor" of paella, ciabatta bread, Caesar salad and more wine.

After dinner we had Beer, only the good stuff, and rock band till midnight. (The siblings played much later. )

All in all a good night was had.

Hmmmmmm, it has been a while! Kyle started this blog but have you seen him on here much? So we have had some pretty good culinary adventures arround here recently but none with good pictures. We had some sourdough Belgian waffles to celebrate Stan coming home and a baby sheep feast with friends last week. All good times, but no pictures! I finally remembered Friday night during family night.
We had lunch late and decided to rent some movies and Wii games and have popcorn for dinner. Anybody who knows us, knows we eat a lot of popcorn but mostly with salt and butter. Unless it is kettle corn, but that is mostly a summertime treat. Our BIL David (the guru of all things beer) told me about "hippie corn". Of course we had to try some! David says to dust the poped corn with nutritional yeast and tamari. I couldn't find the tamari, but the yeast was very good! Even the kids liked it. I think I put a little too much but we just mixed it with the regular corn. No fancy beer to go with this one we were saving it for burgers tonight. Maybe more on that later if I remember to take pictures.

This last one is of the kiddos playing Wii music. It got bad reviews but we think it is lots of fun and has some great classical music.

Power Tools

For Christmas this year, Stan and Lorna got me a professional Belgian waffle iron (thanks again!). I have the kids' cold from before Christmas and Kyle is recovering from mids shift and the weather outside is frightful!! It seemed like the perfect time to try out my new toy for dinner.

I tried out the recipe for Classic Belgian Waffles that came with the iron. It is leavened with yeast instead of baking powder. It also has a stick of butter in the batter, I may have to find a lower fat recipe if I plan on making these too often!

The iron worked very well, it gets hot really quickly and bakes the waffles perfectly. Most definitely a step up from my 12 year old model! The deep grids make for a very bready waffle with lots of flavor. Liam thinks they are the best things he has eaten! Abbie was not as enthusiastic, but she had fun decorating hers with powdered sugar and blackberries.

The recipe says these waffles are often served as part of a celebration, I think I agree. They are very good and it was great fun picking out your favorite toppings. Having a high speed iron makes it possible to serve these for a crowd, thanks again Stan and Lorna!