Iconic American Foods Everyone Should Try

So yesterday I went to America. Well kind of. Sort of. Okay not really. 

I actually went to a super store called USA Foods. It is basically a supermarket stocked with exclusively American items, which you can't really find anywhere else in Australia. It's heaven for homesick American expatriates, tourists, those wanting to throw a mega Halloween party, and just anyone vaguely Americurious. I personally just wanted to see how many variations of weird sweet foods I could get my hands on! 

I went with my boyfriend as practice for our America trip next year. I purchased some of the top iconic American foods one should taste to truly experience America in all it's sweet fantastic glory.

So this is what I bought and what I thought of each item...

Reese's Puffs cereal

What the cereal looks like

This was the thing I was most excited about! A cereal with my favourite Reese's peanut butter cups in it? What could better! 

Looked cool, smelt like the peanut butter cups, was very hyped... all good so far. Then I had my first bite...

I really, really wanted to love it, but something was off. After much consideration I've put it down to the Hershey's cocoa used. It's weird and fake tasting. And it tastes like floury low quality powder is coating every puff. I thought about it and realised I find the chocolate on Hershey's kisses average, so maybe it's that? I don't know... it's just underwhelming and fake tasting. A let down :(

Verdict: C

Lucky Charms cereal

What the cereal looks like

Yum!

I wasn't even going to purchase this, but I'd heard good things and it looked so pretty! It's the most amazing looking cereal I've ever seen, with cereal in the shape of different little charms and big colorful marshmallows in lucky charm shapes. 

And it's not just the appearance that's amazing, it's also incredible tasting! Maybe because it's not coated in horrible fake tasting cocoa powder like the other two cereals I bought! Also the marshmallows don't really taste like marshmallows and are kind of crunchy, but trust me that's a good thing. They are so sweet and yummy!

Verdict: What an A+ cereal in every department! Well perhaps not in health and well, perhaps not in being very breakfasty at all (should be a dessert). But hey, what do you expect from American breakfasts!

Kellogg's Smorz cereal

What the cereal looks like

So here I wanted a bowl of s'mores in all their gooey, melty chocolatey marshmallowed glory. But what I got was a bowl of freeze dried marshmallows mixed in amongst gross cocoa powdered little crunchy biscuits. I really feel like this disgusting cocoa powder should have been identified as a bad thing and eliminated from all American cereal by now! Disappointing.

Verdict: C

Toast 'Em Pop Ups - Frosted S'mores flavour

My desired s'mores experience was much better created in my toaster than in my bowl thank goodness. This was a yummy biscuity tasting rectangle filled inside with a melty gooey mix of chocolate and marshmallow. Very warm and comforting. Pretty impressed with this, and it tastes better than the competing Pop Tarts offering. 

Verdict: A-

Wrigley's Dessert Delights Mint Chocolate Chip Gum

Dessert in a gum. Tastes like mint chocolate ice cream. Has like 5 calories total, thus guilt free. Looks like Essie's Mint Candy Apple colour. Amazing. Yum. 

Verdict: A+

Wrigley's Dessert Delights Strawberry Shortcake Gum

Alright but not better than normal strawberry gum by Wrigley's. Just okay tasting, but a novelty. 

Verdict: B-

Big Red gum

A spicy hot cinnamon gum that burns your mouth and nose a bit. Pretty interesting flavour but I think I prefer sweet tasting gums. And it doesn't do that stick to your head burn and sear a red mark on your face thing anymore! Probably for the best, but less fun :p

Verdict: B-

To find out more about USA Foods and where you can find it in Melbourne check out this website.

Have you tried any of these foods? What do you think? What are some other American things I should try, keeping in mind I'm travelling there soon! I need your help and guidance guys! :P

P.S. I have decided to only do Survey Sunday's every second Sunday from now on in case you were wondering. This will allow me to write more posts of substance and will also help me think of new, exciting questions! Turns out it isn't easy to think of an infinite number of questions! Doing it every fortnight will keep it fresh and fun :D So they'll be back next week! xx

Marie Antoinette Style Feasting At The Hopetoun Tea Rooms

I can't believe it took me this long to discover one of Melbourne's greatest treasures. Hidden away in the Block Arcade, with one of the finest window displays I have ever seen in the world, lies the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.

The tea room has been operating in some form or another for over a century - it first opened in 1891 (for you overseas readers, in Australia this counts as positively ancient). As a result of it's long history, the Hopetoun Tea Rooms are steeped in tradition, charm and decadence.

This is the sight that you feast your eyes upon as you approach the tea rooms. The window is so extravagant that you have to jostle for a space amongst the ever present crowd of people gazing in awe at all of the mountains of sweets. 

This is as close to Marie Antoinette style sweet feasting as you will ever get...

After what can sometimes be a little bit of a wait, you get seated inside the quaint little dining room. It feels opulent to dine in, with its rich emerald walls, grand mirrors and chandeliers.

I've been lucky enough to dine here twice. The first time I ordered a strawberry milkshake and some scones. The scones were delicious, light and fluffy. Although they were served with this weird Rosewater Quince which was oddly chunky. I'd have preferred simple raspberry or strawberry jam thanks! The milkshake was lovely, but just tasted as normal milkshakes do.

The second time I went I had salmon and cucumber petite sandwiches which were amazing and so delicate. Quite a small serve though. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo sorry! 

I then followed this up with a slice of the most incredible lemon meringue I have ever tasted...

Words cannot describe how amazing this lemon meringue was. It has to be tried to be believed.

Some other notable items on my list of must go back and try are the following...

Red Velvet Swiss Roll:

Strawberry Sponge Cake:

Macaroons:

Spiced Strawberry Sponge:

All in all a meal here is a must do if you live in or ever visit Melbourne. My only complaints were that you can often get some quite rude and unhelpful staff, but this is probably just due to the fact they are run off their feet. Still no excuse in a place like this. Also it is fairly expensive. Everything I ate and mentioned above was priced between $8 - $15 per item. They don't take bookings which is annoying, and often you can be waiting a little while to get a table. Try to avoid the peak lunch rush if you can.

If you want to read more check out the pretty antiquated looking website (fitting I suppose) for the Hopetoun Tea Rooms here.

Have any of you ever been here? What is your favourite place to go for high tea and sweet type feasting? Any places you fellow Melbournites can recommend that I must check out?

A Spot of Nail Design

I am a big fan of Nail art as you have probably guessed by now, and particularly have a soft spot for spot patterns.

The first nail art creation I have to show you is quite out there. And was created by my clever little sister:

I just love the rainbow look of it, and the white spots stand out so brilliantly against the colourful backdrop. So simple to do too! We just use a tooth pick to blob the spots on.

Here are the polishes she used for this design:

Thumb: Essie's Mint Candy Apple

Pointer: OPI's I Eat Mainely Lobster

Middle: OPI's The 'IT' Color

Ring: OPI's Did It On 'Em

Pinkie: OPI's Do you Lilac It

White dots: OPI's Alpine Snow

Secondly, here is a simpler nail design I did recently. It shows that even really simple spots can make your nails look that little bit more fun and special than just using plain polish. I also used Essie's Mint Candy Apple as a base and OPI's Alpine Snow for the dots.

To finish off I thought I would leave you with some more spots! Have you ever tried Dippin' Dots? It's known as the 'Ice Cream of the Future' and it is created by flash freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogen. 

The ice cream is really satisfying to eat, as you can kind of chomp it. I know that sounds weird but it's probably the best explanation. It's creamy and has the most amazing flavour. The best flavour of all of them is Fairy Floss (pictured below). It's just so fun and yummy to eat. 

Clearly this 'Ice Cream of the Future' (it was thus named around a decade ago!) hasn't really taken off as planned in Australia. I thought the only place you could buy it anymore was at the Melbourne Show and that it was just a distant childhood dream. 

But then I recently discovered by googling Dippin' Dots stockists, that there are quite a few shops that supply it! My dream has come true!

Have you ever tried this ice cream? What's your favourite nail art design that you do often? 

Sisters, Baking, Nail Art and Rainbow Dinners

Hello everybody! 

Just felt like doing a bit of a random creativity post! I have a few things I wanted to share with you, and particularly wanted to showcase some of my sister Sarah's recent creative works.

It's a good thing my sis and I have going. She likes to bake sweets, and I like to eat said sweets. 

So on the baking front, due to the fact it was the AFL Grand Final (Aussie football!) last weekend, my sister once again proved her baking prowess. About an hour before I had to leave to go to a grand final BBQ (everyone in Melbourne virtually goes to a BBQ on Final day!), I said "hey Sarah you don't want to bake something footy related for me to take do you?"

She looked at me and I thought she was about to utter "Kate you are crazy there is no time/I don't like footy/I'm not even attending this BBQ so why would I?". Instead, she glanced at the clock and said "Challenge Accepted". This is what she whipped up in record time:

Football Cupcakes!

She used green frosting for the field, piped white boundary lines and goal circle and the stitching on the footballs. The footballs were made of an almond that Sarah dyed red.

How cute are they?! They went down a treat at the BBQ. It's always fun to bring themed sweet food to parties and events, it really helps add to the atmosphere.

Now we move onto another of Sarah's recent creative creations...

Nail Art!

The other day Sarah painted her nails and this is the masterpiece she created:

They look like little Spring Japanese blossoms! 

She used Essie's Mint Candy Apple as the base. Then she used a tooth pick to draw the flower stems/twigs with a brown polish. After that where the stems ended she dotted on five dots with white polish in a ring to form the flower petals, and then drew a brown dot in the centre to be the middle of the flower. 

Sarah said it wasn't hard and that she was able to do it quite quickly. She also stresses the importance of a great top coat to prevent chips in the beautiful design.

So there are a couple of creative ideas from my clever little sis!

To leave you with something healthier after all that gorging on cupcakes pics, here is my very healthy and colourful dinner tonight kindly prepared by my lovely Mum:

A Rainbow Dinner!

Fruit and Salmon!

Today was a lovely warm 30 degree day filled with sunshine. You can really feel Summer approaching, and a meal like this just feels so Summery and delicious :)

Hope you are all very well and happy, and you all get through your Fridays quickly and have an incredible start to the weekend! 

xx

Harry Potter Themed Party!

This is a post that is very close to my heart. I've been wanting to write this for ages but wanted to do it justice. My blood, sweat and tears were put into this (or something less dramatic, you get the gist!). 

Last year for my younger sister's birthday, I came up with the idea (and was kindly assisted by my lovely Mum) to throw her a surprise Harry Potter birthday party. 

Now I've been a fan of the books ever since they came out. I was one of those kids that read it before it was popular, when it was just a book with some odd looking kid on the front looking at a train. My first and second books are from the first ever print run, and I'm proud to say I was into Harry Potter before it was cool. 

So it's been my dream to bring the books to life in party form! So if like me, you're also a big fan of Harry Potter, I'll put up everything I did and perhaps you can recreate it sometime! Or just enjoy the pictures and my hard work from your couch :P

I really wanted to create a fun party reminiscent of our kid party days. I wanted there to be dress ups, prizes, a little competition and team activities and games. So this was my take on it...

The main parts of the party were the Decorations, the Food, and the Games/Story for the evening. So I'll structure this post accordingly.

The Invitation

First of all I sent out this invitation to all 10 party goers: 

HOGWARTS SCHOOL
 of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY 



Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)




Dear Chosen Guests,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary equipment. Term begins on August 20.

Thank you for sending prompt acceptance confirmation via owl. As we are privileged to have a surprise guest for the first evening’s festivities, please ensure you arrive no later than 7pm. Please park your brooms and flying cars down the road/around the corner from the castle to ensure they are not visible to any curious Muggles (or the surprise guest!). Or if coming by Hogwarts Express please ensure you catch an early one so you don't interrupt the evenings festivities by a tardy arrival.

Also please ensure you come adequately decked out in appropriate wizarding attire- Muggle clothes will not be accepted. Bring any wizarding related paraphernalia if you have it, and of course don't forget your wands!

First years, we look forward to meeting all of you and introducing you to the magic of Hogwarts! And I'd advise against eating too many sweets on the train, a great welcome feast awaits you upon completion of the Sorting Ceremony.

Yours sincerely, 



Minerva McGonagall
 

Deputy Headmistress

The Decorations

Our whole downstairs was used and split into various Hogwarts locations. When people walked in the first Harry Potter film soundtrack was playing loudly to set the scene.

Here is the intro to our house. As you can see we stuck pictures of Harry Potter and movie posters on the walls everywhere (collected from magazines over the years/the internet). 

We stuck signs up everywhere to show what each room/area was supposed to be. Here are some examples of signs and their locations:

Toilet: 'To the Floo Network'
Door to outside: 'Care of Magical Creatures'
Stair cupboard: 'Harry's Cupboard under the Stairs'
Front door: Platform 9 3/4 - Hogwarts Express
Dining room: The Great Hall
Mirror: The Mirror of Erised
Study: Dumbledore's Office

This was a little table we had at the entrance, with a 'Welcome to Hogwarts' sign over it. The castle comes from a gorgeous Harry Potter pop up book. The Harry Potter cards all came from a Quidditch card game we had lying around. We placed little magical soft toys everywhere, the one on the right is a Hedwig toy. I also purchased little trophies for the house winners to take home (I'll explain later).

Below is a picture of our dining room which we labelled 'The Great Hall'. We used a tablecloth with stars all over it, lots of candles, lots of gold to give it a grand feel and little magical sequins of bats and stars (left over from halloween). 

The huge Hermione poster was kindly lent to us from our local newsagent, as they had lots around the time of the final film release. They also gave us a Harry and a Ron. They really helped to create ambience.

Below you can see the Ron poster, and a big spider web with 'Aragog' in it and lots of little spiders (very realistic and VERY SCARY for me to go near!). This was just purchased from a cheap discount store around Halloween time. 

Below is a Quidditch pitch made from a green tablecloth and masking tape. We used this in a game which I'll explain later.

We called this area of the room shown below 'The Library'. On this table we had every book JK Rowling has ever published and all of the films.

Below is our Lounge room, which we made into the Gryffindor Common Room. We threw blankets and pillows over all of the couches, and put beanbags over the floor. Also you can see the Harry poster we borrowed. On the ground below him is the Harry Potter version of Cluedo we own. On the TV we played the movies throughout the night. You can see some more Hogwarts related soft toys placed around the room.

The below photo is of our Divination section of the room. We put tea cups with tea leaves in them, tarot cards, incense, goblets, a magic 8 ball, a book of quotes, and more soft toys. 

The below picture of our kitchen leads on to the food section...

The Food

Here is our take on 'Honeydukes' sweet shop in Hogsmeade. This is what we created and the magical names we assigned everything (look closely at everything in the picture):

Butterbeer Jar - We made this with Creamy Soda and I discovered if I put some Werther's Original Butterscotch flavoured lollies into it it frothed up a lot and got creamier. You could always add alcohol to it, or Butterscotch liquor but we wanted an alcohol free version.

Quaffles, Bludgers and Snitches - We used Red (milk), Black (dark) and Gold (white) Lindt balls for this.

Acid Pops - Sherbet Lollipops

Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans - Jelly Bellys in various flavours

Basilisks - Snakes and Sour Worms

Rainbow Pop Rocks - Nerds of every colour

Fizzing Sherbets - Flying Saucer sweets with sherbet centres

Spiders in Spiderweb - We made chocolate spiders and placed them on colourful fairy floss

Comet Cakes - Made from a special Harry Potter cake mix pack. They had blue icing with little stars and patterns on them.

Gringotts Bank: Galleons, Sickles and Knuts - Gold chocolate coins all placed in an open wooden treasure chest

Magic Wands - Chocolate wafer sticks

For the sit down dinner we served:

Gillyweed Quiche - Spinich and Ricotta Quiche

Merpeople Cuisine - Bacon and Cheese Quiche

Herbology Plants - Salads

Frozen Potions - The ice cream cake we served

We also called all soft drinks served one of these names: Polyjuice Potion or Liquid Luck.



Games/Storyline for the evening:

When everyone arrived for the party, and after surprising/scaring my sister, I got everyone to sit down and begin the first game...

Game 1: The Sorting Ceremony

I made everyone a little loot bag with the Harry Potter emblem and their name on the front. I also made some little Harry Potter house badges (printed and laminated) and placed them in an upside down witches hat. I got everyone to pull a badge out of the hat, and whatever they received was the house they were sorted into. I also made laminated bookmarks with each house description on them to give to everyone once they had been sorted into their house.

After the sorting there were about 3 people in each house, and these formed the teams for the night. Each game would give the players the opportunity to win house points. I drew up this House Points board to keep track throughout the night.

Prize: Badge, bookmark and loot bags (everyone gets them).

Game 2: Golden Snitch Seek

We purchased some lemon lollies that looked like snitches, and hid them around the house. Everyone goes on a hunt to find them, and then at the end the amount each person collected for their house is summed. The house with the most wins. We gave points to 2nd, 3rd etc, just lesser amounts.

Prize: Lollies found (everyone gets some).

Game 3: Bertie Bott's Bingo

From a game Mum created for us as kids, we had laminated cards with a list of crazy Bertie Bott flavours on them. Flavours were called out until a team had a complete card and they won. We paired up with someone from a different house for this game.

Prize: A choice of wands for the winners.

Game 4: Wizard Chess Trivia

We used a Twister mat (it's the house colours!), and used some postcards of Harry Potter film scenes (free with a newspaper promotion) and got the teams to guess which film number they were from. The correct film was listed on the back of the card. If you were correct you got to move forward a circle. The game was done in house teams, and the aim was to be the first house to make their way up and back again along the Twister mat (they started at the circles on the ends length wise).

Prize: Choose one thing from selection in treasure chest (see Other Points section below).

Game 5: Magical Chocolate Frogs

Essentially Pass the Parcel to Harry Potter music with wrapped chocolate frogs in each layer. From the Quidditch card game I mentioned earlier, there were Chaser, Bludger and Seeker Cards. We hid these in the layers. We assigned the 5 Chasers with 10 points, the 3 Bludgers with -10 points, and the 2 Seekers with 20 points. So house points were awarded for the overall house team based on what cards the individual team members received.

Prize: The chocolate frogs

Game 6: Quidditch Pong

Using this table:

We played this in conjoined house teams (2 houses in a team vs the other team of 2). The aim was to stand on each end and try to get a ping pong ball (the quaffle) into any of the three coloured cups (goals) at each end. You get three chances each round, and recieve 10 points if you get a ball in (need 60 to win game). After each team member has had a chance to throw the ping pong ball, they elect a Seeker who stands 3m away and tries to throw the snitch into the big vase in the middle. You receive 50 points if you get the snitch in, and the game ends.

Prize: Winning team gets Lindt Balls (mentioned above in sweets section)

Game 7: Spell Sort

From another game Mum made for us as kids, we had a list of spells and what they do all jumbled up. Everyone paired up with someone from a different house. You had two minutes to place the correct spell with what it achieves. The team with the most correct wins.

Prize: Choose one thing from selection in treasure chest (see Other Points section below)

After all of the games, we then added up all the house points and determined a winner! The winning team all received a little trophy with the words 'Hogwarts House Champion'.

Other points

- We used party poppers to add to the surprise element when my sister arrived
- Everyone was dressed as a character. For my sister I bought her a Harry Potter t-shirt and Liquid Luck necklace, and laid out an outfit for her to put on when she arrived.
- I tried to buy the Harry Potter Scene It DVD game but didn't have time. I think it would make a great addition to a party like this.
- The prize selection in treasure chest included such prizes as Harry Potter wands, pencils, notepads, stickers, magical items and lollies.
- Op shops, discount shops, novelty party stores and the internet are the best places to find all of the things I've used for this party.
- I found it fun to paint my nails Harry Potter colours! I painted all of the different house colours on different fingers (but for the life of me can't find a picture of my creation!)


So there you have it! This ended up being an enormously long post! Well done to those who read it all, or even if you skimmed parts of it :)

Have you ever thrown a Harry Potter party or wanted to? What are some other themed parties you've thrown?

Hope you enjoyed this post!