$10 Pumpkin Puree

As I've said before I'm not a huge fan of cooking...but I kind of like baking. Every once in awhile I'll make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from scratch or some other ridiculously tedious homemade goody...just for kicks.

Two days ago I decided I wanted to make some sort of delicious treat with pumpkin. Now, I know it's not Thanksgiving time and thus pumpkin pie time, but it honestly never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to find pumpkin puree just because it wasn't holiday season.

Boy was I wrong.

I went to 6, yes 6! different grocery stores to find one stupid can of pumpkin puree. I apparently also didn't take into account the fact that perhaps Aussies don't covet the pumpkin pie the was Americans do...because I found the pumpkin puree in the "American" section of a fancy grocery store. Do they not make pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas? (And guess what else was in this section, Pop Tarts and Baconnaise, I've never seen a bottle of Baconnaise in my life, how is that American?)

Anyway, once I finally found my pumpkin puree after 2 days of searching I then discovered that it was $10! Ten Dollars for 1 goddamn can of pumpkin puree! ...but I paid it anyway and left with my pumpkin puree, after 2 days of searching I was going to make these cookies no matter the cost!

And just because I'm thinking of these right now, one

day I will do a proper linguistics post, but these are relevant Aussie speak:

I say can, they say TIN

I say cookie, they say BISCUIT

In the end, my cookies turned out absolutely delicious, i used this recipe with a few added spices because the review said they were a bit bland.

Yum! Don't they look like little nuggets of deliciousness? Yeah, I thought so.

And just because this amused me when I was in the grocery store. Rice Krispies are Rice Bubbles! Heehee

Are You From New York?

In general no one here seems to notice that I'm American. As far as I can tell my accent distinguishes me as an American IMMEDIATELY, but apparently that is not the case... or maybe no one cares enough to comment. I don't know. Dom on the other hand, EVERYONE notices that he's English right away and comments on it. I find this funny because to Americans Dom and the Aussies have a very similar accent, sometimes people think he's an Australian when we're in America, but apparently to the Aussies they find his accent more distinguishable as English than mine is as American. I don't get it. And in fact sometimes I get lumped into being English as well, just because I'm with him i guess? Seriously, what? I do not sound English.

Anyway...

Last night was the first time since I've been here that someone actually said something about me being American, except they didn't ask me if I was American, they asked me, "hey, are you from New York?" Weird right? Dom and I were just coming back from our dinner cruise, not talking about New York, in fact I don't know what we were talking about, but it definitely wasn't NYC. Anyway, isn't that a strange question to ask someone? Was it our outfits? Honestly I have no idea, but I was like, um...yeah, I guess I am. And then they proceeded to tell us about how they went to New York once, except they stayed in JERSEY! And we had to go and be all New York snobs on them and tell them that Jersey is not New York, LOL. They probably thought we were rude...and you know what? We probably were.

We're still such New Yorkers sometimes.

Things I Don't Eat with a Knife Because I'm American

I am American, my husband is British. This means 2 things. One, we speak completely different languages ;-) and two, he ALWAYS uses his knife when eating a meal (or wants to anyway, if I don't give him a knife at dinner because I think it's unnecessary sometimes he can be convinced to eat with no knife...but not always)

Sometimes I find his knife skills admirable, sometimes I find it amusing and completely unnecessary. To quote my precious husband he can "dine with royalty" and amusing or not MY CHILDREN WILL HAVE HIS KNIFE SKILLS. They WILL learn proper rules for silverware and will eat their eggs with a knife...I make no promises that I won't make fun of them just like I make fun of Dom, but they will KNOW, they will have the skill set from the moment they pop out of the womb. Ok, maybe not THAT soon, but you know, right away.

Here's the thing, in America it's completely acceptable to not use your knife unless you're cutting a steak or something, and even then it is completely acceptable to switch hands after cutting and put the fork back in your dominant hand. It's like we've evolved the knife OUT of necessity. I THINK THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE and do not like that I had to learn how to use a knife in my 20's. I also do not like that when visiting other countries your Americanness is so blatant because you don't know how to use a goddamn knife! Anyway, since meeting Dom I've become better with my knife and for the most part I am completely comfortable using it. But, the topic for this post came about the other night at dinner, I'd ordered rack of lamb and almost immediately I discovered I COULD NOT EAT IT WITH A KNIFE AND FORK, I had to pick it up...for shame! Anyway, I wasn't actually embarrassed, I'll own my Americanness when necessary, but honestly whether I used the skill or not it would be nice to know how to scrape those bones clean without resorting to picking them up.

That being said, here are some things that DO NOT NEED A KNIFE, just because you have the knife does not mean you have to use it:

EGGS, eggs are soft no matter how you cook them, fork is sufficient to cut them, no knife.

BACON, bacon is to be eaten with your fingers not a knife and fork. Unless it's English bacon, but that's completely different.

BREAD of any sort, ie toast, biscuits (American biscuits not English biscuits which are cookies!), etc. I hate watching people cut up their toast at breakfast, just pick it up!

RICE, Indian and Chinese food served with rice do not need a knife.

MEAT ON THE BONE, this is where Dom's knife skills are admirable, he can get ALL the meat off the bone with his knife and fork, and like I said it would be nice to know how to do this, but I stand by my no knife declaration on meat on the bone, it's finger food.

CORN, both on the cob and off, no knife.

PIZZA, under no circumstances does pizza need a knife!

FRENCH FRIES, so cleverly designed to be eaten with your fingers, I cringe when people use a fork for fries.

Am I missing any other good ones? Anyone else have a non American spouse who makes you realize just how American you are when eating?