One Year

Today is the one year anniversary of me moving to Australia! I can't believe it's been a year already! There are all sorts of new and interesting things I've done and places I've been to and I've definitely done more entertainment related things in the last year than I did in the whole 6.5 years I lived in the Arctic.

I've enjoyed going to events that I've only seen on TV (The Australian Open), seeing birds I've only read about in books (yellow-tailed black cockatoo) and going to concerts for bands I've only listened to on the radio (ok or CD, but that doesn't sound as good - Pearl Jam).

We've done grown-up things like buying a car, a new bed and a new tv as well as apartment hunting and going on mini-vacations.

I'm enjoying my time here so much and can't wait to see what we get up to in the next year!

A collage of pictures from the last year: Christmas in the summer time, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, papaya, football, apricots from Glen's parent's tree, interesting flora, red rumped parrot, rainbow lorikeets, venus fly trap, emu and kangaroo sign, football, homemade apricot jam, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, emu in the wild, starfish, kookaburra, feeding a sulfur crested cockatoo in the backyard, Woofer the Bulldogs mascot, homemade pumpkin pie, football, Great Ocean Road/Twelve Apostles, our car, football, us at squeaky beach, koala and baby, quilt for Glen's nephew, the Australian Open, Cape Otway lighthouse, our livingroom, Great Ocean Road, koala.

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 6:10am
Sunset: 6:16pm

Remembering

Glen's grandpa passed away back in December and because of how things work over here, his parents are just now able to get into the house to properly go through things (I know that sounds weird - basically Glen's family had a certain amount of time after Grandpa passed way to get out anything the family wanted to keep and after that, everything in the house got valued. If there was anything else you wanted you have to pay for it unless it had been deemed to have no value. It's been a really complicated, drawn-out process compounded by the fact that all my stuff was still taking up room at Glen's parent's when they were trying to get stuff out before the valuation started).

So, Glen's parents have been going through things lately and found two old ice cream pails full of shells and they asked if I wanted them and I -of course- said yes. I had no idea what sort of shells would be in these pails or even what sizes there would be but since I love shells, I couldn't resist.

I already have a few small jars of shells on the bookcase and was trying to think what I should do with these. I thought about picking out some of the interesting ones and just putting them on the shelf but then thought they might get broken easily. I also thought of some sort of craft but then I thought the shells might just sit around forever before that happened. I really wanted to do something with them right away so they wouldn't just gather dust. I decided to look for a vase/jar or two and figure out how to display them that way. When we were out yesterday we found two really great vases (I think they're meant for candles actually) at a bargain type store - so they were cheap. I bought some glass pebbles and some marbles then set to work trying to divide the shells evenly and have them displayed nicely (sure you want it to look random but you don't want it to look like the shells were just dumped in).

It took me a few tries to get the arrangement right and after filling both of them once, I dumped them out and tried it again since there was quite a bit of a gap at the top (there's cardboard in the middle!). There is still a bit of a gap but I'm happy with it for now. We also bought a circular metal candle holder thing (the kind that has the spike on it for you to put a larger candle on) and put that at the top and five tealights fit on it. I might adjust the cardboard tubes in the middle and have it so the shells go right to the top without the candles, we'll see.

I really love these and it will be something nice to keep around and to be able to say that all the shells in the two jars are Glen's grandpa's. I really wanted to make sure we only used his shells especially since there are some unusual ones in there (basically ones I've only ever seen in mixes you buy at craft stores). I really love these vases (they have such a great shape!) and I'm thinking we should go back and buy more of them for all sorts of things!


Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: 7:35am
Sunset: 5:16pm

A Little Taste of Home

There's something great about figuring out how to make a favourite food when the way you usually make it isn't available. Now I can't claim that I worked it out all by myself, I got some help from a friend back home who's parents have moved back to Australia after spending 20ish years in Canada.

Pumpkin pie, mmm! It's not homemade pumpkin pie unless it has stab marks in the middle!

Now, normally most people would buy a can of pumpkin pie mix, frozen pie shells and call it a day (despite the suggestions on the can of pumpkin I ALWAYS added spices, eggs and condensed milk). First of all, canned pumpkin doesn't even exist here. Pumpkin (or what we would call squash in Canada) here is mainly a dinner food that is either roasted, steamed or made into soup. It's generally not made into dessert. Secondly, big orange sugar pumpkins (the kind we make into jack-o-lanterns) don't exist here either. There's all sorts of different varieties beyond butternut, spaghetti and acorn (which I haven't seen here). There's Queensland Blue, Jarrahdale and Kent just to name three (I think those are the three major ones). To top all of that off, frozen pie shells don't exist either (and neither does tenderflake). Frozen pastry comes in sheets. I had to use two sheets for each pie and then fiddle with them and cut them so they fit. Another thing to make this even more interesting, it seems traditional pie pans are hard to find and people have tart pans instead (sloping sides vs straight sides).

So, I had been brainstorming pumpkin pie methods for a few days and finally posted on Facebook that I had been craving pumpkin pie and wasn't sure how to go about making it from scratch. Turns out it was a good idea for me to do that since my friend chimed in with a wealth of information from her mum. Made my search for ingredients a billion times easier and saved me a bit of heartache because I was planning on using butternut squash when a Queensland Blue or Jarrahdale pumpkin is better suited.

So, I sourced all my ingredients and set to work. I baked my giant chunks of pumpkin in the oven on a cookie sheet. I put a loaf pan of water in between the two chunks and covered the whole thing in foil and just baked the pumpkin till it was soft.
Queensland blue pumpkin is a great, dense pumpkin and isn't stringy or watery. Definitely perfect for pies. So after I scooped it all out of the shell, I let it cool and then blended it up with the rest of the ingredients. Simple as that, there was nothing complicated or scary with doing it that way - sure it took longer than just cracking open a can but you don't miss canned pumpkin at all (I mean, if anything the pie tastes better).

The pastry was a little fiddly and if I had more counter space and a rolling pin I would have made my own pastry. I'm not too thrilled with the frozen sheets and they turn out a little hard when they're baked (also, they're not as sweet as ones from home which is typical for a lot of things - Australian's don't like things as sweet as we do).

After letting the pie sit in the fridge overnight (pumpkin pie is 200% improved by sitting overnight in the fridge), I had the first piece this morning and it was the perfect breakfast mmm! I'm pretty well known for eating "weird" things for breakfast (ie: non breakfast foods) but really, there's nothing better (especially after thanksgiving) than a piece of leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast mmmm!

I'm so happy I was able to recreate this little piece of home. I'm taking one of the pies to our regular Sunday family dinner tonight. We'll see what everyone else thinks!


Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 7:36am
Sunset: 5:13pm

Cold Weather & Comfort Food

As much as I love summer, I think all the time in the Arctic has made me appreciate the more temperate days where the sun is out yet there's still a bit of a chill in the air. It's probably because days like that - especially in the autumn - were few and far between. In the Arctic we transitioned rapidly from summer to cold and rainy then most years we were quickly thrust into winter with only a day or two of real autumn weather. Those sunny, cool, autumn days in the Arctic were fabulous.
Light quality is something I think about a lot and something that brings back memories of being in certain places. I had an appointment this morning and while walking to the tram at 8:15am I was struck with how much I was reminded of living in Victoria the autumn after I graduated from high school and walking to work in the early morning. The light quality, the coolness in the air, all those sorts of things. It was kind of comforting and familiar. So, it's April and feels very much like September. Weird.
Most evenings when we leave work there's one or two people that immediately comment on how cold it is and I'm always thinking "yeah, it's cold but it's NICE!". The air is fresh and it feels like you can finally breathe again after the stifling heat of the summer.

One of the quirky things about our apartment (and a lot of Australian homes) is that furnaces/ducted heating is a bit of a rare thing. A lot of places have a gas fireplace type thing in the livingroom and then people get by with space heaters in other rooms. The one positive about this is the fact that your gas/electricity bills would be a fraction of what they are in North America (ignoring that you counteract a bit of that if you have A/C). One of the negatives about this is the fact that if it's cold outside you can be reasonably assured that it's cold inside too.
Thankfully, despite my love of all things summer, I love tea, soup, stews and warm, comforting food. Those also happen to be some of my favourite foods to cook.
Glen happens to not really enjoy hot drinks or soup (unless it's of the 2-minute noodle or cup-a-soup variety) so when I'm really craving soup I either have to make two meals or we have to compromise. I generally don't mind cooking something else but I love when I can find something warm and comforting that we both enjoy.

We seem to have hit a winner with risotto. I made it a few times before we came to Australia despite not being able to get arborio rice and knew it was something I could make without a lot of fuss. I've been thinking of making it for a while now and then last weekend I had an amazing risotto at a hotel/pub in the city. I've been craving it since! Risotto has been my go-to menu food here in Australia if there's nothing else I can see on the menu (especially when I want warm food). I've had some pretty terrible ones and then there's been some pretty awesome ones. The worst one had some weird tangy tomato/pasta sauce mixed in. It was so disappointing.

I decided to make a mushroom risotto (swiss brown/cremini and white button) because Glen loves all things mushroom and I've been slowly transitioning into eating more of them (loved them as a kid then suddenly decided I hated them for most of my life and now I've started enjoying them again).
Glen loved the risotto so much yesterday that he eagerly agreed to have it again tonight. I made a few minor adjustments and I have to say that it turned out pretty darn awesome. I'm happy that this is a dish that will likely be in heavy rotation this winter.


Temperature: +15C
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 5:37pm