Pizzelle

Zara and I bought a pizelle maker for Christmas, but never got around to using it. We decided after Christmas cookies could be just as good :) Pizzelles are like a thin crisp waffle, you normally fill or top them with something. We made flavored whipped cream (and cool whip!) but also tried jam, caramel, and pie filling. All were tasty, but the whipped cream is my favorite. The soft and fluffy with the crunchy cookie is so good! These were very popular and we will be making them more often. Maybe even savory as snacks!

Aussie day 2011

January 26th we celebrated Australia Day!! Abbie Rose tried to convince me she should get a day off school because it is a holiday for our family. I don't think we can go that far, but it has become a tradition! We had a good time, Mom made some great Aussie nibbles: shrimp and avocado, egg salad and crackers, and meat pies with tomato sauce. We had lamb chops, lamb 'pops', snags (sausages) on the grill, some damper bread, green salad, and cheese and vegemite scrolls for dinner.

A magic egg pavlova for dessert, we also got to try some Aussie chocolates and new varieties of tim-tams from our goodie box. If you can find tim-tams from Peperidge farm here in the states you should give them a try, they are so good if you slurp your hot coffee through them and then eat it in one munch!

Also some AC/DC rock band to cap off our night! Too much fun and great authentic decorations, even some extra tough tattoos:

Proud Parents

On Thursday we attended yet another Honor roll assembly for Liam. This time his GPA came in at 3.8571! This is a trend I could love!

Girl Scout Cookies

Presenting Abbie Rose with a short advertisement:

This is our first year with Girl Scouts and this is their big fund raiser, we are taking pre-orders now for delivery sometime in February. If you new year's resolutions don't include cookies in a box we would be happy to donate them to a local charity. For you locals who read this, I am sure AR will be hitting you up in person for orders, but I thought this video was too cute not to share!

Thai food on ice

I keep forgetting to post about the lettuce wraps we had...J&J sent some packets of sauce in our goodie box to make up lettuce cups. I cooked up some garlic and onion them browned some minced chicken with some carrot and water chestnut. Next you stir in the sauce and you eat it with sliced scallion in a butter lettuce leaf, very tasty! I looked around at the local Asian import store for some more packets like this but had no luck...I will have to make up some sauce of my own to have on hand. I also made some yellow curry for the kids (they have an aversion to lettuce!) this is on of their favorite meals. Nice and easy too, you sauté the curry paste with oil add some coconut milk and bring to a boil, add sliced chicken and more coconut milk and boil again, last add onion and potato and a little water and cook till done, finishing with a little sugar and a squeeze of lime. The curry paste was found at a tiny Asian market and we like it so much I decided to buy some Masman paste the last time I was there, we will have to try it soon! I also made some veggie/chicken stir fry for Kyle as he can't eat coconut milk. Then we invited Mom and Dad and Chris over to help us eat up the feast :) I also tried something labeled pappadams (also from the box), they are pressed lentil disks that you deep fry like a chip. I like them and they go really well with curry, but they were not universally popular...maybe too much bean flavor? After all that food talk I am hungry! I am having leftover miso soup from last night for my lunch so I will leave you with some cute kid pics of ice skating with Auntie Lily over Christmas break:

Check out Liam's cool hoodie, it has washable headphones attached!

I have to tell you that AR dressed up 'like a figure skater' for this, notice the color coordination, mini skirt and leggings, and her favorite fashion accessory right now, fingerless gloves...too cute, I love when she does that!

P.S. I wanted to ask you Aussies out there, are water chestnuts different over there? I have never seen them any way but canned...I like them for the texture but they mostly just taste like a can.

Pie Irons

ADZ sent us pie irons for Christmas this year (thanks guys!!) we decided to take advantage of the warm weather to initiate them through a traditional fire rite (Kyle's own words).

Baking in the fire pit.

It is a three person job to load them up without a good table...next time I might make up the sanwiches in the house and take them outside to bake.

Our last treat, we made some cornbread with pie filling (lemon here) they were very good! Next time I will try some biscuit dough with filling also. A great gift and a fun dinner!

Aussie Burger with the lot

My lovely Aussie rellies sent us some fun foodies for Christmas....Thanks again guys!!! We had to try some of them out for dinner last night.

I hear Justin eats this chicken flavored salt on everything, we decided to try it on roasted potatoes. When we tried the salt just plain, it does taste like chicken, but it mostly tasted salty on the potatoes. They were still yummy though...some from Stan and Lorna's garden!

We also got a can of beet slices for Aussie burgers, from what I read on this website, A burger with the lot should include: a bun, mayo, beef patty, cheddar cheese, fried egg, bacon, tomato slice, lettuce, onion, and tomato sauce! A mouthful! I like the beet pickles on it very much, but an egg is just a little too much....the runny yolk was very nice to dip in though, maybe once in a while :) Fun to try something a little different, on todays menu a little bit healthier lettuce cups!