Happy Australia Day!
The Snook and I celebrated the holiday by hosting a small barbecue at our place. We cooked some beautiful barbecued lamb, garlic chicken, and damper on the grill. Tia, Daniel and Rohan brought potato salad. Steph and Eva brought some amazing Australian-themed bento boxes, including one designed to look like a jar of Vegemite. (No Vegemite was actually IN the bento, thank goodness.) Rachel – who still persists in not having a blog – brought a gorgeous panzanella salad. And for dessert, I whipped up a “Lamingtonmisu” from Not Quite Nigella’s recipe. (I used storebought lamingtons, cut them in half, and just wedged them in the pan as best I could.) Everyone scoffed when they saw me making it, but it really did turn out awesome! Clean plates all around. Other than that, we availed ourselves of the Snook’s homebrew and tried not to move too much. It really was stinkin’ hot today.

It made me a little sad to see comments on Twitter and Facebook from Australians who choose not to celebrate the day. I can understand their position, but not all national pride is misplaced. Many of us chose to come here, and we are proud to call ourselves citizens of this country. It’s nice to have a day where I’m reminded of it.