Pass It On - Moroccan Stewed Chicken with Couscous

This week's recipe was a huge success at the Miller-Hage household. Not only is this super easy to make, but you cook it in one pot, so hardly any cleanup! My favourite part was the couscous with the pinenuts, sultanas, and coriander. It was so tasty that I think I'd make it again just on it's own for lunch.

Enjoy the recipe!

Moroccan Stewed Chicken with Couscous (from Women's Health magazine...Aussie version)
    Cook time: 20 minutes

500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large zucchini, cut into cubes
1 can (400g) diced tomatoes
1 can (400g) chickpeas
1 cup chicken stock or water
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tbsp. olive oil

Couscous
1/2 cup couscous
2 tbsp. sultanas
2 tbsp. toasted pinenuts
1/4 cup chopped coriander

1. Place oil in a large saute pan or wide pot over medium-high heat.
2. Season chicken with salt and black pepper and cook in pan until browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add zucchini and continue cooking, stirring often.
3. When zucchini pieces have browned lightly, add chickpeas, tomatoes, chicken stock, cayenne, cumin, and cinnamon. Turn heat to low and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste with more salt and pepper; garnish with chopped coriander.
4. Cook 1/2 cup couscous according to package directions and mix with 2 tbsp. sultanas, 2 tbsp. toasted pinenuts, and 1/4 cup chopped coriander.

Movie World

Photo from...Google!

Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitslice
 

Photo from: http://www.rcdb.com

Chris and I are still recovering from our day spent rollercoastering at Movie World on the Gold Coast. We bought these passes that give us unlimited access to Movie World, Sea World, and Wet 'n Wild World until the end of June 2011. So we thought we'd spend a lovely Saturday by sending our bodies into adrenaline overload. In order to pack light, I left my camera at home, so any pictures you see are courtesy of Google/Movie World.

Neither of us are roller coaster people. In fact, the last time I was on a rollercoaster was when I was in Disneyland when I was 12, and even then the most 'dangerous' one I rode was The Big Thunder Railroad. Not exactly scary. Chris had never been on a real roller coaster as well, so we were pretty excited/terrified/nauseous and wondering if our travel insurance would cover roller coaster accidents.

We decided to get to the park right when it opened as we were told we could probably avoid long line ups for a couple hours. So, at 10am, as soon as the park opened up, we were there ready to go! We decided to do the Superman Ride first since it's one of the most popular. As soon as you walk through the main gates, the monster is there waiting for you. We were really gung ho and one of the first in line, but found out 5 minutes later that they wouldn't be opening the ride on time (I tried not to think of technical failures and impending doom). So, we made our way to the next most terrifying ride: Lethal Weapon. I started to have a mini panic attack as we were waiting in line, but did my best to stay calm and not chicken out. This one was really scary because it did the upside down loops and your feet were hanging out. I'm getting sweaty palms just remembering it. Either way, as soon as I was strapped in I shut my eyes so tight and grasped onto the handles like my life was depending on it, and quite frankly, I felt it was! Off we went. I honestly don't remember much because my eyes were closed the whole time. I have never been more terrified in my life. It was something else. We were tossed and turned, up and down, left and right, and before we knew it, it was over. I'm pretty sure I held my breath the whole time because after we got off I was crying, laughing, and have some difficulties taking a deep breath. I think the adrenaline mixed with my lack of breathing was a bit of an overload. But, after a couple minutes, I was good to go. We were having a mini celebration! We had both just ridden our first 'real' roller coaster! If you would like to see some terrifying footage, here is a Youtube video that someone posted of their experience. They let out a couple profanities during it, so I apologize, but it does give a good representation of the experience.

After we'd recovered from Lethal Weapon, we decided to do something a bit more tame and try the Scoobie Doo roller coaster. I thought that this would be sort of like a train ride through a haunted house, but it actually had some scary turns and dips, including a backwards drop.

Then it was onto the Batman Ride which was pretty tame, but a nice break from the ups and downs. After we came out of that, we noticed that the Superman Ride was up and running. We had thought we would take a break and walk around the park for a bit, but the line was short so we thought it would be a good time to go. From the beginning we should have realized that we were about to strap ourselves onto something absolutely terrifying, but I think we were both in denial. Besides, we had survived Lethal Weapon, how bad could the Superman Ride be? Well, waiting in the line, there were numerous announcements that you could not have anything (emphasis on the ANYTHING) in your pockets. It didn't matter if your pockets zipped, buttoned, velcroed, you couldn't have a single thing on your being other than your clothes. That included no hats or sunglasses. Okay, now we were getting a bit serious, but we could handle it. Then there was a little video that told us we were about to experience 0-100 km/h in 2 seconds, 760 metres of total vertical climb, 4.2 positive G-force, and 1.0 negative G-force. I just took all of that to mean...AGH!! Could I escape? We were pretty far up in the line, so to back out now would be pretty embarrassing. Plus, Chris seemed really excited and I didn't want to make him go alone. So, I started some intense breathing and tried to think of calm beaches. It didn't really work.

Once we were up to the front, we got strapped into our car and once again I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed on for dear life. Chris kept laughing at me for closing my eyes, but to be honest, I'd rather not see if we were about to crash into the earth below.

The ride starts off with a slow intro where you are in the dark going through the 'subway'. There weren't any turns or loops or ups and downs at this point, but I knew it was coming. Then, you stop for a second and all of a sudden you are shot into the daylight at 100 km/h. Again, I had my eyes closed, but the memory is all too clear. The feeling of being shot into the air, then basically floating for a second, and then plummeting downwards was TERRIFYING. There were a couple more turns and loops after that. This time I remembered to breath though. Eek. I can't believe we did that! And we survived! Here is a video of the Superman ride. The beginning is all dark because it's supposedly in the subway, but you'll see the scary part if you stick with it. I'm not quite sure how they got the camera past the 'nothing in your pockets' policy, but it does make for a good video.

We spent most of the time after that on the 'easy' rides and walking around. We had just packed in a morning full of fear and adrenaline and I think we were both a bit exhausted. But, we survived Movie World. And it might sound silly, but I'm really proud of us that we went on those terrifying rides.

I think tomorrow we'll spend our day at the park, kicking around the footy and reading our books under the trees. We've had enough excitement for this weekend.

Pass It On - Chocolate Banana Bread

Ok, I admit this isn't the healthiest of recipes, but at least it's homemade! I've been wanting to make banana bread for a long time, but since Chris gobbles up bananas before they even have a chance to go brown, I haven't had any ripe bananas to use. Not today though! I was able to get ripe bananas at the fruit market for a bargain.

I probably left this in the oven a bit too long. I had checked it with a skewer, and it wasn't quite done, so I put it back in the oven for 5 minutes. Except I forgot to set the timer, so my 5 minutes was probably more like 10 minutes. The loaf is still moist and tasty, but the top is a bit browner than I would like it to be. Oh well! At least it didn't catch on fire. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Bread (adapted from Joy of Baking)
    Makes 1 -23 x 13 x 8 cm loaf

1/2 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar (I use less)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup white or dark chocolate chips
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe bananas, mashed well
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F) and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 23 x 13 x 8 cm loaf pan. 

2. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely.  

3. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

4. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. 
5. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. 
6. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.  

7. Scrape batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top of the bread with coarse brown sugar (optional). Bake until bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes.

8. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Queenslanders

Homes in Queensland have a very unique type of architecture that takes into consideration the climate in order to create a practical and stylish home. These types of houses are appropriately called 'Queenslanders'. Now that technology has changed, and air-conditioning is readily available, new home construction is moving towards more modern styles. However, there are still many examples all throughout Brisbane (and Queensland) of the old style architecture.

I love the Queeslander style homes. I think they are so beautiful and unique. It's especially nice to see so many people keeping these houses in tip top shape, as I'm sure it takes a lot of work. The typical design is to have the house basically on stilts, so that the air can flow under the house in order to keep it cool during the hot summers. Usually, the underneath isn't developed and is just dirt or a concrete slab. Recently, when people have been renovating their Queenslanders, they close off the bottom and develop it into more living area, since it's relatively easy to add air-conditioning to the house and therefore don't need the airflow.

A lot of the time, these homes have beautiful stained glass windows and wrought iron lace work that just add to the uniqueness and beauty of these homes. Most of them also have beautiful verandas that wrap all the way around the house. I can just imagine sitting out there in the summer, protected from the sun, enjoying a glass of wine or a stubby of beer.

I recently took a walk through our neighbourhood (Clayfield) and snapped some pictures of my favourite Queenslanders. Maybe one day, when Chris and I are old and wrinkled and have saved up enough money, we can buy one of these homes and live out our days sitting on the veranda drinking wine and eating mangoes off the tree in our front yard...ahhh...what a life that would be!

Election Day

Today is the national election in Australia, and I have to vote. Australia has mandatory voting, so if I don't go, I get a whopping $20 fine. I don't want to get into too much trouble with the Aussies, so I figure I'll just do my Australian duty and cast my vote. Though, the system here is a bit different because you cast a vote for the House of Representative and a vote for the Senate. And, you can't just mark your box with an 'X' for your House of Representatives vote, you have to mark your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice and so on until all the boxes have been filled out. If you don't, your ballot is void. I actually had to do a bit of voting research so I don't mess it up!

The two main contenders running for Prime Minister are Julia Gillard of the Labor Party and Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party. Currently, Ms. Gillard is the Prime Minister. Back in 2007, when they had their last national election, Ms. Gillard became the Deputy Prime Minister, but took over as PM back in June of this year when then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's popularity took a nose dive. So, even though Ms. Gillard is Australia's first female PM, she hasn't been elected by the people...just yet. We'll find out tonight if she wins.

Either way, it's pretty exciting that I get to vote in Australia. Yay democracy! (Please enjoy the picture of me after casting my vote...my first time voting in Australia!)

A Beautiful Day in Oz

It's 28°C in Brisbane today. It's sunny, with a bit of a breeze, and hot. Chris and I are both sweating. I am a bit worried as to how we are going to survive come December, but for now, we are just enjoying this lovely day!

Pass It On-Quesadillas with Guacamole

In Australia, there is a really popular monthly women's magazine called The Australian Women's Weekly. The magazine initially started out as a weekly publication in 1933, but is now a once a month magazine. Probably one of the most popular parts of the AWW are the recipes that can be found in the magazine. And they are so popular that The Australian Women's Weekly has published cookbooks that can be found in bookstores around the world. My mom has a few of these cookbooks at home, and they always have such tasty and interesting recipes in them.

When Chris and I first arrived here, we didn't have any recipe books, so we found most of our recipes on the internet. Then one day I was in a clearance bookstore where they had bunches of AWW cookbooks on sale. So, I picked up three of them and now we refer to the books all the time. They aren't big cookbooks (about 120 pages each), but they are packed with great recipes. I also was able to find the AWW Cooking School cookbook at the library, which is a more in depth cookbook (almost like the Joy of Cooking) that has some amazing recipes in it.

Either way, these cookbooks are great and we've tried a lot of the recipes from them. For this weeks Pass It On, I'm using one of the recipes from my AWW Chicken cookbook. It's a Chicken quesadillas with guacamole. We've tried this recipe a couple time and really enjoy it. Plus, it makes plenty of leftovers for lunches the next day. In my opinion, the best part is the homemade guacamole, which Chris makes each time. It's a great guacamole recipe that not only goes well with the quesadillas, but great with nacho chips.

I hope you enjoy this week's recipe!

Quesadillas with Guacamole (from The Australian Women's Weekly Chicken cookbook) -serves 4 Prep: 15 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes

1 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red onion, chopped finely
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (more if you like spicy food)
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 medium red capsicum, chopped finely
1 medium green capsicum, chopped finely
3 cups shredded barbecued chicken
8 large flour tortillas
2 cups coarsely grated cheddar

*Note: You need to purchase a large barbecued chicken weighing approximately 900g to get the amount of shredded meat required for this recipe.

Guacamole
1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh coriander
1 large tomato, seeded, chopped finely
1/2 small red onion, chopped finely
2 large avocados, chopped coarsely
2 tbsp. lime juice

1. Heat oil in large frying pan; cook garlic and onion, stirring, until onion softens. Add spices and capsicums; cook, stirring, until capsicums soften. Remove from heat; stir in chicken.
2. Place one tortilla on board; top with 1/4 cup of the cheese. Top with a second tortilla. Repeat with remaining tortillas, cheese and chicken mixture.
3. Cook quesadillas, one at a time, uncovered, in same large lightly oiled frying pan, over medium heat, until golden brown. Turn quesadilla, browned-side up, onto large plate then carefully slide back into pan, uncooked-side down. Remove from pan when golden brown both sides; cover to keep warm while cooking remaining quesadillas.
4. Meanwhile, place guacamole ingredients in medium bowl; mash with fork to combine.
5. Serve quesadillas, cut into quarters, with guacamole and, if desired, a dollop of sour cream and a little shredded iceberg lettuce.

Australian Rules Football

On Sunday, Chris and I spent the afternoon at The Gabba watching our first ever match of Australian Rules Football. Sunday's game saw the Brisbane Lions taking on the Adelaide Crows. We were really excited to go to the game, and it was a bit of a last minute decision as we bought our tickets late on Saturday night. In Australia, Aussie Rules competes with rugby as two of the main sporting events. Chris and I like Aussie Rules better than rugby, probably because it's a fast and physical game...much like hockey.

After a rip roaring start to the season, the Lions have gone downhill and stayed there. The final score on Sunday was 97-104, in favour of the Crows. So far this season, the Lions have 6 wins and 14 losses and only 2 more games left in the season. Even though it's been a rough year for the Lions, Chris and I have really enjoyed watching a brand new sport.

I will attempt to provide a brief idea of how the game works. The game is played on an oval shaped field that is about 150m long and 135m wide. At each end there are 4 posts. The two end posts are short and known as the behind posts. The two middle posts are high and known as the goal posts. If the ball is kicked between the goal posts, a team gets 6 points. If they get the ball between a goal post and a behind post, they get 1 point. The ball can only be kicked in, not carried.

There are 18 players from each team on the field at one time. They can kick the ball to each other as well as punch it with their hand. They cannot throw the ball. Also, the players cannot hold onto the ball. If they get tackled, they have to throw the ball away or else they risk a penalty. There are many more rules, but I won't go into too many details. If you want to know more, Wikipedia has a good summary of the rules and the game in general.

The season runs from March to August and then the Grand Final take place in September. The Grand Final is always played in Melbourne, regardless of where the teams are from. The stadium where the finals take place is called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and holds just over 100 000 people, so it must be quite a place to have a sporting final!

Aussie Rules is a fast and physical game and is a lot of fun to watch. I'm so glad that we went on Sunday and I hope that we'll have a chance to see a game next year before we go back home.

Oh, one more thing! After the game is done, they open up the field to the crowd and everyone brings their own AFL ball and kicks it around. It's really neat, but a bit of a hazard as you probably have a few thousand people on the field kicking and tossing footballs...I got hit in the head once by a rogue ball. Despite that, it was lots of fun to be on the field!

Pass it On

When I was at the library a couple weeks ago, I picked up Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food DVD. I love watching cooking shows, but I've never watched Jamie Oliver. I don't have anything against him, I just never took the time to tune in to one of his episodes. So when I spotted the DVD at the library, I thought I'd give it a fair go (as the Aussies say).

It's essentially a 4 part series where Jamie goes to this town in England called Rotherham and tries to get people to start cooking again. His goal is to teach eight non-cooks how to cook nutritious, easy meals and in turn get them to 'Pass it On' to the rest of the town. It's obvious from the start of the program that Jamie is really passionate about getting people to cook healthy meals everyday. He wants people to get off of fast food and processed food and to start cooking with fresh ingredients.

Well, the other day, Chris and I caught an episode of his latest tv show called "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution". In this show he's in the United States, specifically Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington was named among the most unhealthy cities in the USA by the Centre for Disease Control, so Jamie thought it would be a good place to bring his Food Revolution. He takes on the school lunch program and attempts to get rid of the processed foods and hoards of french fries being served to kids everyday, and introduce fresh and healthy lunches. It's a really interesting show and sheds some light as to why more and more kids are becoming obese. Either way, I recommend watching it.

In watching these two programs, it's hard not to get drawn in by Jamie's enthusiasm and passion for healthy food. And whether you like Jamie Oliver or not, you can't deny that he's trying to do a great thing by getting people to eat healthier. If you think about it, where did you learn to cook? I think most of us would answer "from watching my mum". I never had formal cooking lessons (unless you count my Foods Course in high school). But, I would always sit in the kitchen and watch my mum cook and help her out. And this is how I learned to cook. But, if the newest generation of parents aren't cooking healthy foods for their children, and the kids don't have a chance to watch their parents cook, how are the next generation of kids going to learn to cook and eat healthy? Food for thought.

Chris and I both love to cook and try new recipes. But, we don't really share our cooking experiences with anyone else. So, in the spirit of Jamie's 'Pass it On', I thought we could try and dedicate a blog post each week to cooking and healthy food. Maybe it will inspire someone to try something new.

Healthy cooking everyone!

Thai Red Curry with Seafood (from Uncle Errik...I don't know where he got the recipe from)
-serves 4-6

800g salmon, tuna, or prawns (or all 3)
60g red curry paste
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 L coconut cream
1/2 red onion (large dice)
1 red capsicum (large dice)
1 medium carrot (peeled and thinly sliced)
100g green beans (stalks removed and cut in thirds)
1 tomato (large dice)
8 Kaffir lime leaves
100mL fish sauce
100g brown sugar
1 bunch coriander (leaves picked)
1 fresh lime (cut in quarters)

• Add 50g of curry paste and 20mL of veg oil into a wok on low heat and slowly fry for 5 minutes
  
• Take remaining curry paste and rub into prawns and fish. Cover and refrigerate until needed
• Pour coconut cream into wok and stir with wooden spoon to mix into fried curry paste and continue to cook on medium to low heat
• Allow sauce to simmer and reduce. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables as described and keep ready
• Once curry sauce has reduced by third in volume and thickened (about 20 min.), add the Kaffir lime leaves, brown sugar, and fish sauce
• At this point, turn the heat up to high and add the veggies to the sauce and cook for 3 min.
  
• In separate pan heat a drizzle of oil at medium to high heat and fry the prawns/fish on both sides for 2 minutes or until cooked
• Spoon curry sauce with veggies over rice and top with seafood. Garnish with coriander and lime. Enjoy!

We had a lot of fun making this dish. I'm a bit of a curry light weight, but I found this to be fine on my taste buds. If you're not a big curry fan, maybe cut the amount of curry paste in the sauce. I halved the recipe and we still had loads of leftovers for Chris' lunch tomorrow.

I hope that you have some time to give this recipe a try. It was really tasty and pretty easy to make. Let us know how it turned out if you give it a try.

The Ekka

On Saturday, Chris and I spent the day at the Ekka. We had a really fun day experinecing one of Australia's oldest exhibitions. We started our day at 10am and didn't finish until about 12 hours later. We were tired and cold (yes, cold), but we had a great day!

We started everything off by visiting the agricultural part of the exhibition. It was fun to see all of the cows, horses, sheep and fair dinkum Aussie farmers. It sort of reminded us of home! Of course I loved the baby cows the most. One of the events I really wanted to take in was the sheep dog trials. I've never seen sheep dogs working before, so I thought it would be interesting to watch. The event was held in the main arena and it was a sight to see. It's amazing how those dogs work the sheep through the course. They are so patient and eager to get the job done.

After watching the sheep dog trials for a bit, we decided to head to the showbag pavillion. At Australian exhibitions, you can pay anywhere from $5 to $50 for these bags that are essentially what we would consider goodie bags. You can have a Nestle showbag where you get a stack of Nestle chocolates and candies, you could have a Marie Claire showbag where you'd get a couple magazines, perfume samples, coupons etc., you could even have a Winnie the Pooh showbag filled with little toys. They had showbags for everyone. Chris and I splurged and spent $3 on our Bertie Beetle showbag. It was filled with chocolate and lollies and were were told that it was the showbag to get. It was a bit disturbing though to see kids loaded up with these goodie bags. Sugar high, anyone?

Another highlight of our Ekka experience was the Strawberry Sundae cone. My mum even remembered these from when she was a little girl going to the Ekka, so I definitely wanted to get one a take a picture for her. Enjoy mum! It was a strawberry ice cream cone, but the bottom of the cone was filled with fresh strawberries. Yummy!

There were also a bunch of pavillions you could check out that had travel information, cooking ideas, merchandise, food...the list goes on! We spent a lot of time just walking around checking out the pavillions and spent even more time at the Queensland Tourism booth picking up travel pamphlets and getting ideas on places we want to visit.

There was of course your typical rides and games you would see at an exhibition, but we opted for a nausea free day and just watched people getting tossed and turned. Besides, the roller coaster looked a bit rusty and unstable.

At around 6:00pm we decided to head back to the main arena where we could watch the evening entertainment program. There was horse jumping, wood chopping, a jousting demonstration, a monster truck, freestyle dirt bikes, and fast cars. But of course, it all ended with a lovely fireworks display. After sitting for about 3 hours, Chris and I were cold, tired, and ready to head home. I would say our first Ekka experience was a success!

I took a stack of pictures, so if you want to see more, just click here.

Catching Up

Sorry folks, we've been slacking on the blogging! Our last post was at the beginning of July and it's already August!

Quick announcement: Sadly, Benny the basil plant did not survive the aphids. But, all the other herbs are looking great!

Life has been really good the past month. Chris was offered a paid 3 month contract with his department at the government, so that was a huge relief for both of us. We were hoping his 3 month internship would pay off and it did! There might be the possibility to extend his position until the end of the year, but right now we have to figure out if 3 months of unpaid government work counts as a job. Chris' visa only allows him to work for the same employer for a maximum of 6 months. So, if his internship is considered work, he can only stay on as a paid employee for 3 more months. We're hoping it won't count, but it's up to the immigration department.

What else? The weather here is getting absolutely lovely! It was a bit rainy and overcast in the middle of July, but it sure has turned around. This past weekend was supposed to be hot and sunny, so we decided we'd get an early train down to the Gold Coast and spend Saturday at the beach. It was beautiful and warm when we left at 8:30am, but by the time we parked our behinds on the sand at Surfer's Paradise 2 hours later, it was windy, cloudy, and threatening to rain. Boo!!! So, we toughed it out for a couple of hours and then decided to catch the train back. We would have been more upset, but considering it's only getting warmer from this point on, we know there are many more beach days ahead of us. Luckily, it was nothing but sunshine and blue sky on Sunday, so we headed to Southbank (a parkland area in Brisbane, located on the river) to enjoy some sun, reading, and people watching. It was such a lovely way to spend a Sunday.

Last week it was Uncle Errik's birthday, so we had him and Larissa over for a birthday dinner. I got three really wonderful Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks a few weeks ago and I found this recipe for goat cheese and smoked salmon stuffed chicken breasts. YUMMY! I gave them a trial run for Chris and I about a week before the birthday dinner and they turned out great. Easy to make and so delicious. So, for Errik's birthday we made those, scalloped potatoes, and a spinach and rocket salad with caper dressing. Larissa brought these absolutely decadent chocolate and hazelnut cakes for dessert. It was a really fun night! I even decorated our apartment with balloons, and birthday banners...I love a good party!

Starting this week, it's the Ekka, Queensland's annual exhibition put on by the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland. It's actually a state holiday on August 11th to kick off the event. And, it's the last public holiday before Christmas, so the Ekka is considered the "unofficial end to winter". The exhibition runs from Aug 5-14. I guess you could compare it to Klondike Days/Capital-Ex. There are free concerts, fireworks, and of course rides and plenty of unhealthy food.

At the beginning of September comes the Brisbane Festival which Chris and I are super excited for because of Riverfire. It's a huge pyrotechnics, fireworks extravaganza that is held along the river. The most exciting part...a dump and burn by a F-11 fighter jet!!! Last year was supposed to be the last year for Riverfire, but they must have heard Chris and I were coming to town because they brought it back for one last time!! Here is a Youtube video of Riverfire. Please note that this is only part one of three videos if you are interested in watching the whole thing. This is a video of the dump and burn. Needless to say, we are super excited for fireworks and potentially dangerous fighter jets with fire shooting out of them.

Anyway, time for me to go help Chris with dinner. BBQ salmon tonight!

P.S. This picture isn't recent. It's from our first days in Australia, but I had a complaint there weren't enough pictures of Chris and I together, so I hope this works :)