Fruit Mince

A feature of expat life is becoming increasingly clear: the constant flexibility and adaptation involved in adjusting your norms to fit in with the new environment.
Case study: Fruit mince
Problems:
No one had heard of fruit mince. It is definitely a British tradition that was not kept in the new world...
Suet - couldn't find it. Used butter instead.
mixed peel - ie, candied orange and lemon peel - couldn't find it
Raisins - don't exist in the Australian style. There are raisins that are our sultanas, but no raisin raisins. Mixed dried fruit doesn't exist here. On the other hand, dried cranberries are cheap!
Dried apricots appear to be exotic. You can find them, but we shopped around.
Glass jars for storing while it matured - we ended up buying some, as we hadn't thought to accumulate any in the last nine months!

Add to this our unfamiliarity with the recipe, and that is why, it took us two weeks to get to the point of actually mixing it (and even then, we were still phoning around to see if we could find suet or mixed peel!).  Hence, with the three week maturing time, our fruit mince will be just ready in time.
My worry now is that we've promised a taste to so many people that doubling the recipe won't be enough! The good thing was, with the spices and the brandy, it did actually smell like fruit mince. Now all we have to do is work out the making of the little pies!

Reading this you could well get the impression we're just one mean scientific adaptation machine - please don't keep this impression, it would be very wrong. There is plenty of complaining going on, it is just difficult to capture the true essence of that in a blog post.

British baked beans

Apparently it was Heinz that started the whole baked beans thing, but in wartime Britain, with the rationing, the bacon got left out, and the sauce got thinned, until the two different continents had two different products... So here, in the USA, it is all about molasses, and hickory smoked bacon bits, and cajun spices (no, really), while in Britain, it is essentially beans in a tomato sauce.
We found out early on that the local baked beans don't fill that baked beans shaped hole, and just stopped eating baked beans. But hubby had a plan, and the internet is a wonderful place, and last night we had British style baked beans. I'm pretty sure that in Australia I would have poo pooed the whole thing, but here, now, it is lovely, and I enjoyed every mouthful.

Black Friday

Black Friday is used to describe the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I'm guessing this wasn't part of the original Thanksgiving feasts. This is when, maybe because lots of workplaces are shut, there are huge sales in the stores (although, judging from the brochures, there are always huge sales on, so I'm not sure of exactly how big, on a scientific measurable scale, these sales are). I am starting to get the inkling that people even queue up from early morning (like, 2am early morning) to be first in the door of shops. Actually, I have brochures that indicate that you can get into the store at 4pm on Thanksgiving Day, which just seems a complete travesty.
The name Black Friday has its origins in Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s - the police department used the term to describe the chaos surrounding huge crowds going to sales, and also to attend the Army - Navy football game. It is a huge time for retailers, as it is when shoppers fully turn their attention to Christmas. I wonder if it is a bit like the Boxing Day Sales in Australia, but you're not shopping for Christmas presents, but half price Christmas decorations and cheap summer clothing!
It goes without saying that we will not be in the stores on Friday.
PS - Have been told another story about the origins of the name - this is apparently the first weekend in the year that retailers accounts move into the black...

Thanksgiving Dinner

We celebrated our first American Thanksgiving, and we enjoyed it so much. Essentially, it was a day off with dinner at a friends house. The dinner menu has a few traditional set pieces, the obvious being turkey. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, roast sweet potato, cranberry sauce and biscuits (our scones, but not with jam and cream, as a savory accompaniment, instead of buns). We also had asparagus, green salad, stuffing (both with sausage and without sausage) and cranberry bread (this is so yummy) and thai style mango and sticky rice care of another guest. For dessert - PIES!!! This deserves the capital, because there was not one pie but many - Pecan, pumpkin, Kentucky derby, apple and berry pies. I liked the pecan the best. I'm sure I've left out some food, but needless to say, no one was hungry.
Our sons loved it, because there was a collection of Thomas set up in another room and 3 other little boys to play with. (yes, five little boys in total, ages 5, 5, 3, 2.7, and 2.4!). Between courses we went and looked at some Christmas lights nearby - this person has set up so many, they create their own localized glow...
And the nicest thing was, amazing food, and a chance at conversation with adults. An excuse to not stress over what the boys are or aren't eating, and let them run pretty much as they pleased, and the warm glow of having done some much needed bathroom cleaning in the morning.

First Snow!

What a lovely way to remember our wedding anniversary...
It was already practically melted by the time it hit the ground, but at the height of the storm, there was a good cm of snow lying around. So looking forward to the next storm!

Dealing with leaves

Well, Fall grew up and lost those cute puppy eyes, and suddenly we didn't have a cute swirling of colourful leaves, we had leaves everywhere in great drifts, to the knees on the little one. But the other day, we saw how they deal with it here in our community - with a giant vacuum cleaner hitched to the back of a covered truck.

Winter!

I have been explaining to the 5 year old about how the seasons don't start and stop on certain dates, etc etc, but it does feel a touch like the Winter button has been pushed this week. Today it is max 30F(approx -2C), but with the wind chill, it feels like about 18F (about -10C). And that is from a weather site, not just my fevered imagination.
Trees that hadn't yet changed colour are finalising that quick smart, and it seems like then they lose their leaves over night. Pictured above - the sizable chunks of ice I found at 2pm in the sides of the children's picnic table (which has been in full sun for 2 hours).
There is starting to be agreement that it is unseasonably cold. I just need gloves and boots, and then I say, bring it on!