Australia Day with Florence

Sharing some of Florence's favorites with you!

Hi everybody! Remember me? Semester two has been off to a good, but busy start, and certain goings on in the world has sort of made things feel like a garbage fire, but I am still around!

Sort of. One of the other reasons why I've been so busy is that my girlfriend has been visiting from Australia for the month! It's been a lot of fun, but it's meant I haven't had a lot of time to do any cooking or blogging. I've got a ton of posts I've been sitting on, I really should just take a weekend to get them all finished and queued up for posting!

But Jessi surprised me this Thursday by treating me to some Australian favorites for Australia Day! Florence, the Florrie Girl I picked up on our trip to Melbourne, was happy to show them off for all of you!

Australia Day - January 26th - commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet, meaning the first Europeans to settle the continent, which happened in 1788. It's since become a celebration of Australian history, culture, families and diversity, and has come under criticism by Aborigines the same way Native Americans critique Thanksgiving and Columbus Day.

Jessi made lamb chops, broccolini and potatoes for dinner. Lamb is a very popular protein in Australia because convicts could work off their sentences and then become land owners. The plots they received were not big enough to raise cattle, but sheep require less resources, so sheep products like lamb and mutton were and still are very popular in Australia. It's one of the country's largest food exports, and the meat she picked up at the grocery store is actually from Australia!

For dessert, she made lamingtons, which are delightful. You might remember the one I had at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra! It's essentially a sponge cake with chocolate sauce and shredded coconut over the top. Our shredded coconut is a little too big to look like a traditional lamington, but I don't have a food processor, so we had to make do. Believe me, they were still tasty!

And that is how we spent Australia Day! Hopefully next year I can do something a little more intense for you guys. Maybe I'll try my hand at making my own lamingtons... they are really tasty, after all.

Hope you had a happy Australia Day!