Visit from the Texas Gang

This past weekend, Brett and I were lucky to have my mom, sister and 6 month old nephew come visit us.  It was a whirlwind three day adventure trying to balance rest, work, and family time.  It went by so fast, but we had a lot of fun.  Thanks for coming y'all and we look forward to seeing you again soon.  Here's the short version of the weekend:

The Texas gang drove all through the night Wednesday to arrive in Colorado Thursday mid-morning (it is about a 14 hour drive if you don't stop except for gas!).  This would have been ideal except that Brett and I thought that they were going to show up FRIDAY morning.  So, imagine our surprise when we got a text message from them on Thursday at 9am saying that they were 30 minutes away. Panic attack time (note: we were the ones who had gotten the arrival date wrong, oops!!).  We had worked like crazy for two days straight Tuesday-Wednesday on grading papers and being on campus for teaching, office hours and meetings, so our house was a mess.  We spent those 30 minutes trying to run around and do everything we could to make it more presentable.  Mom insisted that it didn't matter, but we cared plenty! Our new vacuum (bought because my 13-year old one finally died this fall) was still in the box from the store, but we put that together and got the floor clean by evening so the baby could play without "Aunt April" freaking out about him licking the carpet.

Thursday was a rest day for the Texas travelers while we cleaned a bit more.  We had an easy lunch and dinner (since we still hadn't gone to the grocery store yet-we really thought we had another day to get ready!). Friday, my Mom and Brett went grocery shopping and everyone pitched in to make an early Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice, though there was the inevitable question to Brett about Australian Thanksgiving traditions (the answer, for those who are wondering, is that they don't do Thanksgiving outside America, it is an America-only thing!).  Saturday we went and drove around Garden of the Gods and toured the UCCS campus where April works.  Then we came back home for a quiet evening to rest before the Texas gang headed home.  Everyone (well, not Brett) got up about 5am on Sunday for goodbyes before they headed back to Dallas.

We wouldn't have traded the visit for anything (well, perhaps a longer visit that included my step-dad and brother-in-law Brian), and we had a wonderful time.  The rest of the weekend was spent grading more papers (it never ends!!!) and preparing for another week. Luckily we only have a few more weeks of the semester.  And we have a visit from Brett's parents coming up (and we won't mix up their arrival dates!) to look forward to too.

Homemade Chicken Salt

Well, I bought Brett a fryer as an early Xmas present.  So, today he is busy watching college football and wanted to make a proper Aussie burger (with the lot except NO BEETROOT) with those special, work-intensive thrice-cooked chips (fries to us Yanks). Of course, chips aren't the same without chicken salt just like they use in the corner fish and chips shop, so we went on a mission to find some.

Now, some of you know the terrible sad story of our last attempt to acquire Chicken Salt.  Brett packed it in our suitcase on the trip home from visiting his family in Adelaide and (I am sure you can tell where this is going...), the bottles exploded somewhere over the between South Australia and Pennsylvania and we ruined the luggage, but worst, we lost the precious chicken salt.  :-(

So this time, we were going to leave the shipping to professionals.  We tried our trusty new international food store find, World Market, but they don't carry it.  It wasn't on the shelves at the local British Shoppe, and while we could order from a couple online places, it was WAY overpriced for 4-6 oz. of salt and misc. seasonings.

At last, we decided we would just make our own.  This was easier said than done however because it appears that the recipe for chicken salt is practically an Australian national secret.  It isn't listed anywhere! We found two random blogs that had recipes and Brett decided he wanted to try the one based on Aussie KFC's version of chicken salt. Here it is:

Chicken Salt Recipe

6 Tbsps Salt
2 Tbsps MSG (Use Salt if one is averse to this ingredient)
3 tsp Sugar (Superfine, or Castor variety)
3 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cornstarch (i.e. Cornflour: Yellow variety)
1/2 tsp White Pepper
1/4 tsp Citric Acid (Crystals: This creates that zesty flavor!)
1/4 tsp Turmeric (For that "nuclear" yellow color!)
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/8 tsp Celery Seed (Finely Ground)

Mix it all up, use immediately, or allow to meld for a few hours before use...  
THE VERDICT:
 Well, first, I'll note the few issues we had with the recipe listed.  1) We didn't have MSG, but substituted salt as suggested.  2) Celery seed is incredibly hard to actually grind up. 3) We use regular white cornstarch instead of yellow so ours didn't have the typically coloring of Aussie chicken salt.  4) The recipe makes enough to fill an entire spice bottle (we bought a new empty one from the spice store, but you could save an empty one to refill with this new mix).

Overall, the recipe as listed wasn't too bad.  The onion powder and garlic powder were overpowering though, so we would definitely reduce the amounts to 2tsp and 1/2tsp the next time we make it.  Because we already had the mix, to fix it, we added 1 1/2 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt to counteract the onion/garlic and it immensely improved it. 

I don't see myself using chicken salt all that much (to me, it has limited applications), but Brett assures me that he is going to be using it plenty.  Makes me happy that we went the extra mile...

P.S.-->  In case Lyn reads this, know that I am probably never going to attempt trying to recreate Brett's favorite tomato paste from scratch.  He'll have to go home (Aus) for that.

First Snow!!

Well, we have had our first bit of snow here in Colorado Springs.  It was the best snow experience I think we've ever had-MUCH better than out in Pennsylvania.  While it was cold (in the low 30s--that's in F...sorry, I still can't convert temperature to C in my head for my aussie readers!), and there was a nice snow-covered effect over the cars, yard, roofs, etc., there was NO snow on the driveway or roads. Today we're getting the sprinkler company to come and winterize the in-ground sprinkler system, getting Brett's car fixed, and we're enjoying a nice fire in the fireplace. 

We've been sick and taking care of one another and also slowly putting together the final little things around the house.  April's mom and sister (with not-so-little nephew Andrew) are visiting us in November and Brett's parents are coming to see us for Christmas. We are so excited for both families to see how our new life is coming together and excited to introduce so many people to the wonders of Colorado.

Gotta Love Ginger Beer

Brett loves ginger beer.  In particular, Bundaberg ginger beer.  It is an Aussie product that we've been trying to find in the States for months.  We finally found it at a local store called World Market and he let me buy him a whole case of it!!!  I love spoiling my husband! 

Bathurst

I am so excited that Brett was able to find the Bathurst race on TV today.  He worked so hard all day on his job application stuff and so this is a well-deserved break for him.  Time to get him another beer and learn something about Aussie car racing.

Aussie/Kiwi club

So, last week, Brett and I went with some friends (a couple of physicists from Perth-the wife teaches at the same university as me) to the Aussie/Kiwi club dinner.  It is a really interesting group of people, a lot of older war brides and couples who have been in the States for decades plus a few younger people in their 30s. There are more Kiwis than Aussies. Apparently the club is trying to become a bit more diverse in the variety of members. 

The food (which is prepared by the pair of hosts so it varies each month) was not as good as we had hoped, but our friends also said that it was usually better.  So, we have high hopes for next month (it will be hosted by a professor at the Air Force Academy who is part of the "young crowd" in the group).

I think I liked it a bit more than Brett did...something about it feeling like a family reunion with old people sorta turned him off.  But, it is at least worth going again.  It costs $10 per person per year with the obligation to host the party once a year (with another member, apparently to reduce the cooking workload and costs).  I think we'll try again before paying/committing-at the very least we've made a couple new friends and talked a lot about things like where to get Aussie-like foods and stuff (still no progress on trying to find out where we can buy a cricket bat though!).

Home alone

Well, just when I was adjusting to the Aussie invasion (er, I mean Evan visiting), the boys left for a long two-week tour of the Southwestern US.  I wish I had made Brett post their itinerary (or at least send me a copy) prior to their leaving since I can barely remember where they are supposed to be everyday.  I know in the first week, they're hitting 4 corners, the grand canyon, and Las Vegas. Week 2 has them in northern California and Yosemite National Park prior to driving back over the Rocky Mountains on their way home.

I miss Brett like crazy, but I am so glad that he's taking this opportunity to have fun with his best friend.  Plus, he's figuring out the best places to go for when he and I (and his family from Australia) can get to have a fabulous vacation too.