December comes in Australia with the heat of summer. Generally, Christmas is celebrated along traditional lines and families often travel great distances to be together. Church is attended in great mass on Christmas Day. Services are often held very early in the morning. Christmas dinner may be a picnic in the woods or on the beach. Australians also sing carols by candlelight and decorate their homes with flowers and other plants. They also have Christmas Trees, Father Christmas, and gifts which are a familiar Christmas scenario to all of us. Since Christmas coincides with summer holidays the families often celebrate Christmas away from home. Popular places include beaches and the bush (what we call the woods but you better not make that mistake there). Imagine that, no snow but no hurry to get back home from Grandma and Grandpa’s to be back at school with the kids out of school six weeks.
Due to the cultural pluralism in Australia food can vary. But meals mainly center around the traditional Hams, Turkeys and Plum Pudding or Pavlova. However there is a movement toward seafood, just throw that shrimp on the grill, please. Often these dishes are cooked earlier and served cold. Salads and other summer foods are also very much common. So are food items from other cultures. But guess what no thank you for the eggnog they prefer their Champagne. Most towns have a concert or Christmas Eve wouldn’t be the same without Carols by Candlelight. Carols by Candlelight are outside concerts in the warm summer evening’s where people sit on blankets light candles and join together to sing Christmas Carols. The two biggest ones include Carols by Candlelight Concert, on Christmas Eve, held at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne which started in 1937 and Carols in the Domain, Australia’s largest annual community Christmas celebration. The event, which is free to attend is held in Sydney’s Domain Gardens, a short walk from the Sydney Opera House and is always held on the last Saturday before Christmas. These events are aired live on television and radio throughout the country and seen through Southeast Asia and New Zealand.
Some special but unusual receipes to me and I thought I would share that I found include:

:: PAVLOVA ::
A traditional Australian dessert and popular at Christmas
as it is a real Summer dessert.

Ingredients:-
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 egg whites (room temperature)
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 1/4 cups thick cream

Decoration on top:-

Fresh Fruit such as sliced bananas, strawberries, passion fruit etc
Another popular decoration is grated Peppermint Crisp which is a
chocolate bar with a crunchy peppermint filling. You could also make
up your own topping. Limit is your imagination.

1. preheat over to 250 Fahrenheit (150 celsius).
2. Brush large baking sheet with melted butter or oil. Line base with wax paper
3. Dust lightly with sifted cornstarch, shake off excess.
4. Using a 7-8 inch (approx) round baking pan or lid as a guide, mark a circle in the centre of the prepared baking sheet.
5. Place egg whites in a small dry mixing bowl. Using an electric beater, beat for 1 minute or until soft peaks form.
6. Add the sugar gradually, 3 teaspoons at a time, beating constantly until mixture is thick and glossy and all the sugar has dissolved. Add vanilla extract and vinegar, beat until combined.
7. Spread meringue onto the marked circle on the prepared baking sheet.Bake 1 and 1/4 hours or until pale and crisp. Cool completely on the tray in the oven, with door slightly ajar.
8. When the pavlova shell is cooled slide a flat bladed knife underneath and carefully ease pavlova onto a serving plate
9. Place cream in a mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Spread over the top of cooled pavlova shell.
10. Decorate

Another recipe is by our own blogger friend Peter who lives in Australia who was so kind and
served as my consultant in this article.

Ingredients

1 kilo mixed dried fruit.
2 cups of orange juice
2 cups of self raising flour

Method
Soak dried fruit in orange juice overnight.
Mix in the self raising flour
Put mixture into 2 greased slice trays (approx 12×8)
Preheat oven
Cook for 1 hour at 160 degrees
Slice into suitable size
Eat
Enjoy

By the way, Peter has invited us all to stop by and visit him so come on over here. He is a nice guy for someone who talks funny and after a time or two you just might get a real invitation to visit the Down Under….I’m still waiting. However I have best friends who I stood up for them when they said their vows in Las Vagas a few years ago that live there so I have my invite.
Tomorrow we will travel on if you will return to set a spell with Ms. Vickie the Southern Belle.