Ingredients Available

So, while I am in the process of finally uploading the pictures, here is an update on the ingredients available in Australia!

Available:

• chillis (all colors)
• bell peppers (all colors)
• jalapenos - I think. They don't call it that, but it looks the same.
• cayenne pepper
• oven ready noodles
• hoisen sauce
• watercress - kinda. I can only find it in a mixed leaf salad bag, so I can buy that and then separate it out (oh, so much work!)
  

Not Available:

• corn meal - is corn flour the same thing?
• chili flavor packet - but I do have mexican chili powder. Does anyone know if I can use that instead?
• jack-o-lanteern pumpkins - but I do have kent pumpkin or butternut pumpkin.

So . . . .. don't forget to add your recipe to the mix! I am going to the store to grab some ingredients to try some of them now, and I can't wait! Please oh please oh please submit a recipe (see 2 posts below) so that I can send you a fun gift from Australia!

Watch for pictures soon!

Misbehaving Gadgets

I promise I haven't forgotten about this blog or all my wonderfully amazing friends and family back home, I just (for some strange reason unknown to me) can't get my pictures off my camera. It also didn't help that the only person in this house who knows how to speak to feisty little misbehaving gadgets was gallivanting around Australia for the past week! But Jer is home now and will spend every dang night this week coming to some sort of agreement with my rebel camera until it is fixed - or else! Hehehehe.

Anyway, look forward to amazingly wonderful pictures soon and an update on all of our Australia fun! Oh . . . and don't forget to add a recipe to the contest below! Please oh please oh please!

MUAH!

Mission Impossible: Could You be the Winner?

First Ever Kasie and Jer Reciepe Challenge
*Winner will get a prize mailed to them from Australia!

There are several foods that I miss from back home and I would love to be able to home make them, but I have no idea how! I hate randomly trying recipes from online because I never know if they are going to be yummy or not. So, this competition is to find the very best recipes that remind me of home.

This challenge has two categories, so two winners! (and yes, you can enter and win both!)

Challenge 1: Mexican Food
I LOVE mexican food, but can't find it over here, so I am looking for the yummiest recipes you have.

• Unavailable ingredients: cilantro (sad!), corn tortilla chips, canned salsas, canned peppers and jalapenos, etc. Basically everything will need to come from scratch.
• Anything goes, but I am really looking for salsas, guacamole, and things like that.
• Would love something I could share with people from Jer's work and our ward.
  
• I like medium on the hot scale.
  
• Extra points will go to healthy recipes.

Challenge 2: Pumpkin Cookies/Pie
They don't eat pumpkin pie and have never heard of pumpkin cookies! Oh, the travesty!

• Unavailable ingredients: pumpkin filling, pumpkin in a can.
• Our friends here are very interested in tasting these, so either pie or cookies are fine (although I tend to prefer cookies!)
• Extra points go to healthy recipes.

Additional Info:

• Currently I do not have a blender, hand mixer, bread maker, crock pot, casserole dishes or a lot of other kitchen goods. I am not against buying some supplies, but the less the better!
• I'm on a health kick so the healthier, the better! (Although some times you just gotta suffer through the fat :)
  
• Jer and I will try all of the recipes that look yummy and then decide on a winner together!

Yay! Don't forget that the winner will get a gift from Australia! I love you all and can't wait to hear some yummy recipes from you! Ummm, let's say the deadline is the end of March?

*For those of you who may not know how to leave a comment, follow these easy instructions:

• Underneath this post, click on "Comments" right next to the time. This will open up a new window.
• Write in your comment in the "Leave a Comment Box."
• Under "Choose an Identity," click the circle next to "Name/URL."
• Write your name in the "Name" box.
• Click "Publish Your Comment"
  

Melt down in aisle 3!

Usually when I go grocery shopping over here in Australia (which consists of wandering around aimlessly until I get some idea for dinner), I don't notice too much of a difference. They have different brands and measure calories in energy, but other than that I have been pretty pleased with my local grocery store and have felt right at home among its aisles. Not today.

Someone from Jer's work invited us to a BBQ this weekend and Jer signed us up to bring desserts. Well, since I don't have any baking dishes, or hand mixers, or spatulas, or cookie sheets, or anything that I need to make a dessert, I decided to go with some yummy no-bake cookies. I haven't seen any since I have been here, so I am hoping they may be sort of a novelty.

Anyway, I look up a recipe and head to the store, confident and sure. Some things are straight off - I have already found out where the sugar, oats, peanut butter, and such is. Check. Wax paper takes a little longer, but once I figure out that it is actually called baking paper, I am good to go. So I roam around, gathering my needed ingredients, and even grab my milk and butter. I reach the end of the store, look down at my list, and notice that I am still missing several ingredients - two being the all important Vanilla and Cocoa. Uh oh.

So, I go back to the places I would expect to find them . . . next to the sugar? Nope. By the flour (which is in a different aisle)? Notta. Herbs, spices and oils (another aisle). Nothing. Desserts? Toppings? Still nothing.

I began searching through the store, pouring over every single aisle, desperately searching for my missing ingredients. What if they don't have them here? I already have all of the other ingredients. How long until my milk goes bad? I continue searching and searching, thinking of how terrible it will be if I can't find the ingredients and how much I wish that I could call my grandma or my mom or my sister or any of my fabulous friends and ask if they know of a substitute . . .

And that's when it hit me. The magnitude of exactly how far away I am from everyone that I love. My chest got tighter, my throat clenched, and I could feel the tears surfacing. I was 2 seconds away from ditching my cart and running away. I know it sounds silly, but those dang two ingredients almost brought me to tears in the middle of the super market.

Luckily, I began thinking about everything I've learned about Australia since I've been here. Let's see, cocoa is kinda like hot chocolate, which is a hot drink . . .

That's right, I find my cocoa in the middle of the coffee aisle, surrounded by cappuccinos and teas. After the help of a nice man, I also found my vanilla (it was next to the baking chocolates and such, I just hadn't seen it because it is in a different bottle than back home and looks more like soy sauce). I actually managed to make it out of the store with everything except for graham crackers, which I haven't used in these cookies before anyway, so no big worries.

All I have to say is that these better be some dang good cookies.