Lamingtons

Hello!  I've tried to be more faithful about posting, but this week I had a two-roller cold.  In case you don't know, a two-roller cold is a virus that gets in the sinuses and causes lots of sneezing, wheezing and mucus.  It's only a two-roller if you're a person like me, who won't spend money on tissues, and blow your nose with toilet paper.

This cold lasted five days and consumed two rolls of toilet paper.  The fat, Costco rolls.  Thank the Lord that's over.

This post contains a recipe for Lamingtons, which is a dessert favored by Australians. (All except for Elizabeth, the darling teenage girl I met on Waikiki beach, who said, "I don't like them.")

I made Lamingtons because this year, my oldest son did the fifth grade Nation Notebook.  At his school, every fifth grader researches a different country (rule: must be in the eastern hemisphere) and completes a seventy-page workbook on the place.  The book is packed with folklore, facts, figures, photographs (pasted in by student) and essays.

R's teacher assigned him Australia.  The Spouse and I were thrilled, especially when our son had to write a page on Australian music.  We basically took over at that point.  "Olivia Newton-John!" cried the Spouse.  "Midnight Oil," said I. "THE BEE GEES!!" We yelled in unison.  Of course we learned Waltzing Matilda on the guitar, in case you thought we stuck exclusively to pop, and we listened to Tie me Kangaroo Down, and My Boomerang Won't Come Back online.

After finishing the book and presenting to the class, the fifth graders held a cultural feast.  Each student brought a homemade dish typical to their country, and parents were invited.  I tried Ghanian fritters, Swedish meatballs, Filipino adobo, Chinese dumplings, etc.
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We contributed Lamingtons, which you can find in most bakeries in Australia.  Lamingtons are jam-filled sponge cakes cut into squares, covered with chocolate icing and rolled in coconut.

I looked online and settled on a Martha Stuart recipe.  I think my fifth-grader was actually supposed to do the baking, but I chose a quiet afternoon when the boys were at school...and besides, by that point none of us parents had any illusions about our role in this Nation Notebook.  ("I have my life back!" said one mom when the final due date arrived.)

First, if you follow the Martha recipe, you sift absolutely everything because Martha is a sifting Nazi:

 

Then you make the cakes, spread one with jam, and stack them.

 



Sorry that photo is a little over-exposed.  I actually had to make four cakes because there are fifty fifth-graders.  You needn't do that.  The next step is to cut the cakes into squares, make chocolate icing on the double-boiler, dip the cakes in, and roll them in coconut.

You might be able to see in the photo that the coconut isn't the usual shredded coconut.  The recipe calls for desiccated coconut.  I found it at Winco.

When you finish, your kitchen will be splattered in chocolate, as if a sweet bomb exploded.  This is why I did this project when the boys were at school, because I'm that sort of mom.  (Making Lamingtons would be a fun afternoon project with a couple nice, sedate daughters.  Or, if you're rich and have a maid to clean up, go ahead and try it with your sons.)

The Lamingtons tasted delicious, especially with a glass of cold milk.  They were a hit at the fifth-grade feast.

Since we're talking about Australia, I'll finish with a little story.  Years ago, as the Spouse and I were driving along a particularly sad section of Mill Plain Boulevard, he noticed a tanning parlor with an Australian marketing theme.  "Tan Down Under..." he read the sign.  "NOT a good name."

Click here for Martha Stuart's Lamingtons recipe.

Enough Hawaii already

One more post and we're finished with Hawaii!

Since returning to the real world, we've mown the lawn umpteen times, I've swept countless piles of dog hair out of the house, the boys have taken about eight spelling tests between them and the Spouse had three business trips (Nashville, Northbrook, Northbrook).

But back in Honolulu, we visited Pearl Harbor.  We didn't get onto the U.S.S Missouri or look down through the water at the Arizona (sequestration!!) but we toured the excellent museum and poked around the U.S.S. Bowfin, a submarine they call the "Pearl Harbor avenger" because it sank so many enemy ships during WWII.

 

"Look, Mom, it's the dinner bell!"

 

Speaking of food, the submarine galley fascinated me.  While the Spouse studied the torpedo tubes and all the zillion gauges, levers and dials in the sub, I looked at the kitchen and imagined trying to cook in there.  They posted a copy of the menu:

 

Being underwater in a sub would be bad enough, but to smell that cooking?  And then to have to eat it?  At least there was apple pie to wash it down.

A couple days later while the Spouse worked, the boys and I walked to the Honolulu Zoo.  I failed to read my guidebook beforehand, which said the zoo is only "so-so," and warns against visiting at mid-day due to heat.  Well, we stomped around there in the middle of the day.  I felt hot and awful, and I suspect one of the zoo animals had escaped earlier and gone doo-doo near the hippo display. It might've even been the hippo.  The stench did nothing to alleviate my suffering.

I would say the Honolulu Zoo is worse than so-so.  The animal pens are full of weeds, and the animals look annoyed.  Besides, I forgot my camera.  I did get one picture with my phone.

 

"You get away from me NOW!"

 

We liked the Waikiki Aquarium better.  Besides, most of the displays were indoors, out of the sun.

This little yellow fish was only about an inch long.

"You get away from me now!" 

 

Just kidding!  With that I'll end my spring break posts. We feel grateful and blessed to have gone; the boys have several pleasant memories to enjoy.  It was a great trip.