Australia Day in the USA

Australia Day (January 26th) is an Australian national holiday which commemorates the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet from Britain to what would later be named Sydney Harbour.

Much like US Independence Day, Australia Day is celebrated with fireworks, sporting events, citizenship swearing in ceremonies, barbecues and general summertime shenanigans.

This morning I stumbled upon a Hive post by Hive account@galenkp from his “Weekend Experiences” community. In the post he asks:

If you were pretending to be an Australian for a day and celebrating Australia Day in your own country how would you do it and who would you invite and why?

Well… I am sort of Australian. I’m legally a permanent resident through marriage, though I haven’t lived there since late 2006. My husband (Aussie born and bred) was seeming particularly homesick this Australia Day. So I decided to surprise him with a little Aussie celebration here in the USA.

I had Friday off of work, so set about Australia-fying the house!

^{I love a holiday tablescape! Any holiday.}

First, I did a little Australian set up in our dining room - Blue tablecloth, eucalyptus runner, placements with native Australian birds (kookaburras and galahs). The “centerpiece” consisted of a ceramic koala and cockatoo with a green and gold flower arrangement (the official colors of Australia).

^{Aussie flag, koala cookie jar, ceramic cockatoo and “Aussie gold” flowers.}

Next it was time to think about food. There are three or four spots in the greater Seattle area to buy Aussie style meat pies and sausage rolls. Sadly, none of them are near our house. However, I was feeling ambitious (and desperate) so decided to make my own from scratch.

I have never made either a meat pie or a sausage roll before, but I found two promising recipes online.

After setting up the table, I popped out to the store to buy ingredients. I also hoped to find some Tim Tams, “Australia’s favorite biscuit” (cookie) to have for dessert. The store did not have Tim Tams, but I did get all of my pie and sausage ingredients.

I didn’t take any photos of the process, but here are snaps of the finished meal!

We had salad, potato wedges, a meat pie and sausage roll each for the main course. The pie needed to be saucier, but it tasted OK. The sausage roll flavor was great. Dessert was just my last desperate effort to have something Australian. It’s called fairy bread. Fairy bread is a staple at kid parties and is just buttered bread with sprinkles. Not very tasty, but without Tim Tams I just wanted a little something extra to round out the meal.

I topped off the Aussie vibes by pumping my Australia Spotify playlist. A little Men at Work, some Powder Finger, Hunters and Collectors. I timed things so Waltzing Matilda was playing as my husband came through the door after work. He seemed surprised and pleased. So much so he shared it on the gram!

^{Photo credit Mr Hive account@dfinney. 😄}

Being 8000 miles and a hemisphere away from Australia, I was happy to bring some Aussie summer celebration to our wintry American life. Hoping we can get down under again soon.