The last of our Aussie culinary adventures

Two days before we left Oz we finally fried up some kangaroo steak.  It's a red meat and it's really lean.  We decided to buy the pre-marinated meat since we had no idea how to season it.  But Clark thinks he's an expert seasoner, so he seasoned the meat in addition to the marinade.  

I'm a meat lover, but I even have to admit that it looks disgusting.

Clark taking his first bite...

And the verdict is: good.  Clark claims it tasted like chicken.  I didn't think so.  It tasted like a cute, cuddly baby kangaroo to me.  

Then, the day before we left we decided to try a pie from the Cronulla Pie Shop.  Meat pies are mega popular in Oz, and Clark and I would often buy the frozen packages of pies at the store.  But we had never been to an actual pie shop for a real fresh pie.

We decided to eat our shared pie down at water, to soak up our last day on Cronulla Beach.  The pies look similar to the American chicken or beef pot pies, but they have more of a pastry crust.  Also, they just seem to taste better than the American frozen pies. It's got to be that pastry crust.

Though I didn't like the kangaroo steak, I am glad we gave it a try because I will never have to wonder what it tasted like.  If you ever have the opportunity to try kangaroo, give it a go.  I would love to hear how it goes for you.

BITTERSWEET

Boy gang, what an adventure!  I feel like I've said this before in a post, but I'm just not sure when.

After 5 extremely short months, we are back from our working holiday in Australia.  It has been bittersweet, to say the least.  Hence the picture of bittersweet chocolate.  Whenever I think of the word 'bittersweet' I think of chocolate.   

Anywho, we are sad to have left our friends, the beach, wombats, marsupials, Tim Tams, and ginger beer, but we do look forward to what the future holds.  Philly, here we come.  Grad school, I guess I'm ready for you.  I don't really have a choice now, do I?

Man, I need to update my blog with our last couple of weeks in Oz.  I will get on that as soon as we get organized here in the U.S. of A.

Can't wait to see many of you soon!  We look forward to the reunions that we have scheduled thus far!

Time Out for Women

Last weekend I joined several ladies from our church to attend the Time Out for Women tour presented by the Deseret Book Company here in Sydney.

Now, I'm typically not the type of person who wants to go to these events but somehow I found myself telling a lady at church that I would be glad to buy an extra ticket from her.   And so it happened that I invested money in an event that I wasn't really interested in attending.

But I am so glad I did.  

It was so uplifting and such a breath of fresh air.  Waking up at 6 am to travel to the Olympic Park for the event was definitely worth it!  All of the presenters were so earnest and personal, and they made me realize that I have great potential as a person, and especially as a woman.  The speakers were Laurel Christensen, Virginia Pearce, Brad Wilcox and Sheri Dew.  Hilary Weeks also introduced each speaker and performed many songs that I'm sad to admit I'm not familiar with.  Each of these five individuals had fantastic messages to share.  If Time Out For Women stops by your city, I would definitely suggest checking it out.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Love me some free stuff!  I'm lame, I only took three pictures the entire day and didn't even bring the DSLR.  

Location of the event, at the Sydney Olympic Park.

Inside the venue.

AUSSIE grocery post!

Get excited, y'all!  

True to my word, here she is! My official grocery post in OZ!  Now, Clark was embarrassed to be seen with me taking photos of various items in the grocery store, drawing attention to ourselves and whatnot, so my friend Joanne kindly accompanied on my photo quest.  Joanne has no shame.  She is awesome and I can always count on her.  I did, however, use our point and shoot in my small effort to be discreet.  So I apologize for the flash dots in many of the pictures.  May the Gods of cameras shine upon us in the future and grant us a new point and shoot.  Or maybe Clark will just give in and let us replace his mission point and shoot (yes, it's that old) with a much more advanced one in the near future.  They are so handy to have when you want to, say, take a photo of something at the grocery store.

The cost of bananas is OUTRAGEOUS!  I haven't had one since we left the states in February.  The floods in Queensland damaged much of the banana crops, hence the steep price.  To make it easy on you--since the price of bananas is in kilograms-- a pound of bananas would cost roughly $6.50-$7.00 a pound.  I can't believe people still buy them, but thankfully they do.  At least there are people out there who like bananas enough to support the farmers who had a lousy year.  

Proof that eggs don't need to be refrigerated.  We now leave ours out, too.

Kangaroo steak.  I know I mentioned in previous posts how excited I was to try kangaroo. But after seeing them and petting them, I am now hesitant to eat them.  They are such cute marsupials!  But we must. I know we must.  Our Australian adventure would not be complete without trying some kangaroo steak.  This week...

Cordials are super popular here.  In case you don't know, cordials are drink mixes, simple as that.  Lemon Lime and Bitters is outstanding, by the way.  America needs to learn.

Also known as Sun chips.  Australia needs to learn.

Ginger beer.  AMAZING.  America needs to learn this also.  Has America learned this?  I've never seen it before in the states, but then again, I never even knew it existed.  Love us some Ginger beer.

I would be so cool rockin' a 40 oz bottle of some Ginger Beer.  Totally in with the barely 21 college crowd still.  Totally.

Long neck or stubby, it's all good.  Yum yum yum yum yum.

Tim Tams, our chocolate cookie of choice.  I wish we could show some fellow Americans the Tim Tam Slam.  But no one came to visit us.  I'm not bitter at all.  Ok, just a little.   American friends and family of ours, you totally missed out.  

Our other cookie of choice?  Orange Slices.  I do believe that Americans have a very different acquired taste than Australians.  We haven't met any Aussies who like these.  Whenever someone brings an assortment pack of Arnott's cookies in to work, Orange Slice cookies are always the last ones left.  I'm always the one to finish them off.  And I am more than happy to do so. 

Anzac cookies, aka oatmeal cookies.  Aussie patriotic cookie of choice.

Weet-Bix, an Australian staple for sure.  The cheapest cereal by far.  Load on the sugar, they have no taste.  We happen to fancy Weet-Bix and it keeps us regular.  Just sayin'.

Sultana Bran, aka raisin Bran.  Apparently the Aussie version is made with white grapes while the American version is made with red grapes. 

Chocolate bar of choice.

Muesli bars, aka granola bars.  Muesli is just too hard to say.  Granola may have more syllables, but it is easier to pronounce.

Vegemite.  Tastes like bouillon.  Definitely an Australian acquired taste.  

Teach 'em while they're young.
The children in our Sunbeam class at church bring snacks each week.  Two of the children always bring Vegemite sandwiches.

Ice cream is sort of expensive. Two boxes for $13??  But they do have the awesome Magnum bars that are all over Europe! Yesssssssssssssss!

Cute Cadbury chocolates with Australian animals.

Don't worry, the alcohol has been removed (fine print at the bottom of the label).  Australia has not driven me to drink.  I just couldn't help but try this.    

  I really wanted to take some pictures of the Confectionary sign in the candy aisle.  But I chickened out as a few employees were restocking shelves.  And capsicums.  Green/red/yellow peppers = capsicums.  The sign was too small to see with our antiquated camera.

I hope you feel as if you were strolling the grocery aisles with me, looking at foreign foods with strange names.

Thanks for joining me.

Fail.

In our attempt to be righteous, we did not succeed.  Clark and I had it all planned out.  We would leave our apartment at a specified time and take three different trains to Carlingford, the closest train station to the Sydney Temple, and walk another 15 minutes to arrive at the Temple doors.  A total travel time of about 2 hours one way (meaning over 4 hours both ways).  Only when we got to the doors they were locked.  They didn't want none of our Americana-ness inside the House of the Lord.  

Actually, it turns out that the Temple is only opened in the morning and in the evenings, not during the middle of the day when we decided to go.  Guess I didn't check the schedule properly on the website.  A total fail.  And a lot of train riding for not a whole lot of action.

Maybe next time?  

If there is a next time...time is running out!

Yum Cha, Watamolla, and gorging.

Last weekend we had a day-o-fun with our friends Joanne and Ivan.  We started out the day with Yum Cha at an extremely overpriced and mediocre Chinese restaurant.  We still love you, Joanne, for your noble effort to introduce us to the wonderful world that is Yum Cha.  May Clark and I learn to appreciate it in the future at a less expensive mediocre restaurant that doesn't charge each individual for that damn tiny tea cup.  

Aren't they cute? Our dear friends, Joanne and Ivan.

I was hoping Joanne would capture the ambiance, but she seemed just to focus on our faces.

After our Yum Cha experience, we drove into the Royal National Park for a little hiking action.  We did the Watamolla hike to Marley Beach, only we didn't quite make it to the beach.  Clark and I were limited on time. We overbooked our day and had to meet up with a Russian couple from church for dinner.  Dang, we are just so popular.

The first part of the walk we trekked through bush.  I. Don't. Like. Bush.  Luckily, this part of the hike only lasted about 10 minutes. 

Ohhhh, such clear water!

Clark and Ivan...posing.

Ahhhh, that gosh darn rugged Australian coastline I love so much!

Photo-bombing what would have been a really nice picture of Clark and Ivan.

Gorgeous.

Enjoying the view from the edge of the cliff.

Don't let her face fool you.  Joanne also liked enjoying the views from the cliff edge.  

Unbelievable colors.

The closest we came to Marley Beach.  I don't feel too bad about having to turn back so soon.  It was pretty chilly.

Rachel + Clarkman

Some more of the gosh darn coastline.

I'm not quite sure what Clark is doing, but look at those colors!  

So bright and so vivid!

Mid air showing off what appears to be a semi-graceful leap.  Thank goodness I didn't break anything.  After working in the public hospital system, I know I never want to be a patient here!

Sadly, we had to leave this wonderful part of the Royal National Park.  Good-bye coastline.

Hope to see you again really soon!

Oh, and our Russian meal with our Russian friends was amazing.  And then afterwards we bought a couple of pizzas and went over to Ivan and Joanne's for a movie.  (We may or may not gorge ourselves quite often in this country.  Healthy habits to begin in Philly, in August, TBA. )  

What an awesome day.