Independence Day

Rachael and I celebrated Independence Day with our Australian family on Monday.  Here I am in my red, white and blue outfit:

Rachael's parents very sweetly decorated the dinner table with red, white and blue balloons and American flag place mats and put some Bruce Springsteen on the stereo.

I was in charge of grilling up the hot dogs and getting other hot dog supplies ready.

Meanwhile, Rachael's parents prepared red, white and blue cocktails while Rachael marinated some mushrooms and made Waldorf salad (which Rachael's family strongly associates with America because of an episode of Fawlty Towers).

 After dinner Rachael's parents surprised us with an apple pie that they had made.

Here is my sweetie with American flags in her hair:

We also played with sparklers after dinner, but I didn't get any pictures of that.  It was a very sweet celebration and made me feel very welcome in this new country.  I hope the American branch of the family had a lovely Independence Day as well.

trip to the mountains and Kangaroo Fua

Yesterday Rachael and I went on a little road trip to the Blue Mountains, which is a mountain range immediately to the west of Sydney.  The Blue Mountains seem a lot like how I picture Colorado, since there are a lot of cute little towns where hippies live, sell antiques, and drink very good coffee.  I liked it a lot.  One of the major sights of the area is called the Three Sisters--a striking and famous rock formation in the Megalong Valley, which is itself quite a magnificent sight, a lot like the Grand Canyon but with more trees.

The other big piece of news is that today I was in charge of dinner and decided to make Ching Hu Fua with kangaroo instead of beef, a dish that I have christened Kang'Roo Fua.  It worked very well, and came out tasting almost exactly like normal Ching Hu Fua, except that for some reason it was perhaps slightly more bitter.  Here's the Kangaroo:

This was my workspace:

Step one was marinating the meat:

Followed by a lot of stir frying:

Dishing it out:

And finally serving it to hungry Australians:

The victorious chef reviews his achievements with pride and gustatory expectation:

All the best from Down Under,
Throckmorton.