These are a few of my favorite things

These are a few of my favorite things here in Australia. It's funny how when we were preparing to come over here, I couldn't wait to eat the food again. Now that I'm here, nothing tastes quite as good as I remembered-- and now all that I think about is good ol' American food!

I still boil our drinking water because for some reason, if I don't, my throat gets itchy and I cough. So this electric kettle is very used, and very handy. I use it about 2-3 times a day. Australians love their 'cuppa'. Jason has an Ecco every morning-- it's a hot drink, I suppose it's similar to hot cocoa. I myself think it tastes like hot water: I don't care how much sugar you put in it, I don't like it.

We all love custard. It's probably similar to vanilla pudding-- but better. The kids just like it plain. I like it with ice cream and cream, with cake or pie, or with fruit and cream. Yummy!

I know that they have cream in America, but it's so much cheaper here (which is very rare). This container cost a dollar or two. We use it for desserts, or I use it a lot in cooking. I make good soups or scallop potatoes with it. Yes, cream is fattening, but it seems to even out here because all the rest of the food here has a lot less preservatives in them. (I swear in Texas that I could keep bread in my cupboard 2 months past it's use by date {I didn't eat it, I was just keeping it around for a 'just in case'...wink wink}. Here, I have to use my bread in 2 or 3 days so it won't go off.)

I love crumpets! I've seen them in Fry's (a.k.a. Kroger) or Safeway, but I've always been dissapointed with them. Here they're nice and soft and just delicious. Jason only likes butter on them, but I put jelly on as well. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I wouldn't get sick of them. They're delish!

Now for my all time favorite: Tim Tams! Holy cow, words can't describe how good they are. They have a bunch of different flavors and variety, but my favorite is the chocolate double coat. I have seen Tim Tams (not double coat, but still good) at an Asian Market called Lee Lee's in Tempe (I think). They are so good.

So it wouldn't be very 'Allison' if I didn't complain a bit. See on the wall behind my favorites? Notice the switches? There are switches above the outlets, so even though something is plugged in, it won't go on unless you remember to flip the switch. That's not a big deal to me. But see the other switch? That's for the oven. I have to have that on in order for the oven to work. Sometimes I'll have the oven preheating, or so I think-- just to find out that I forgot to flip the dadgum switch! And, it's not just that. See the oven below? (Don't you wish you could have had some of those double whammy brownies?....but check out the size of the oven: Jason calls it my Easy Bake oven.) See the three dials for the oven? Not only do I have to flip the switch on the wall, but I also have to turn all three dials! Okay, sit there and think to yourself, 'Big deal, get over it', but it's just so frustrating sometimes. The dial on the left is for the temperature, the one on the right says how it will heat, and the middle one is for the timer. Yes, I have to have the timer on for the oven to work. One time I was outside and the timer ran out-- although it wasn't done cooking, but it shut the oven off! So there I go-- that's the little bit of Allison you've all come to expect.