We enjoyed Australia Days very much, thank you.
Yes, there were two this year. The day officially falls on January 26, of course; but the faceless bureaucrats who decide these kinds of things (and what a great career that would be - plenty of time for morning tea) realised that there would be no time to celebrate on January 26, because being a Saturday, everyone would be playing cricket, and cricket is a game that takes all day, frequently without a result.
So they declared that, while Australia Day would officially occur on Saturday, we would all have a holiday on Monday to celebrate it. So we did.
Prawns in white wine on angel-hair pasta.
I had picked up a bag of fresh cleaned raw prawns - Crystal Bay - from the fishmonger. About half a kilogram.
I chopped five cloves of garlic finely and placed this in a heavy pan along with a cup of white wine. No oil necessary. Meanwhile I had the pasta cooking.
I brought the white wine and garlic to a simmer and then added the prawns complete with their tails, cooked them until they were almost white, three or four minutes. Then I added some chopped parsley, a cloud of pepper and three tablespoons of pure cream - the real thing, not the gelatinised version - and swirled it around. I ladled the prawns onto plates over the curled pasta, turned up the heat under the pan, reduced the cream, wine and garlic sauce and tipped it into a serving jug which I placed on the table. It was nice to have extra sauce to pour over the prawns and pasta as desired, and there was sliced crusty bread to mop up the sauce.
William and Thomas tried some pasta and liked it. They even enjoyed small pieces of prawn.
Now children, time to sing the national anthem.
'Toot, toot, chugga, chugga, big red car ...'
Ah, no boys; that is not the national anthem, I'm afraid. You just think it is.
(To misphrase Nick Lowe, I knew the Wiggles when they used to rock and roll. They were called the Cockroaches then. Kids hate it when I tell them that.)
Yes, there were two this year. The day officially falls on January 26, of course; but the faceless bureaucrats who decide these kinds of things (and what a great career that would be - plenty of time for morning tea) realised that there would be no time to celebrate on January 26, because being a Saturday, everyone would be playing cricket, and cricket is a game that takes all day, frequently without a result.
So they declared that, while Australia Day would officially occur on Saturday, we would all have a holiday on Monday to celebrate it. So we did.
Prawns in white wine on angel-hair pasta.
I had picked up a bag of fresh cleaned raw prawns - Crystal Bay - from the fishmonger. About half a kilogram.
I chopped five cloves of garlic finely and placed this in a heavy pan along with a cup of white wine. No oil necessary. Meanwhile I had the pasta cooking.
I brought the white wine and garlic to a simmer and then added the prawns complete with their tails, cooked them until they were almost white, three or four minutes. Then I added some chopped parsley, a cloud of pepper and three tablespoons of pure cream - the real thing, not the gelatinised version - and swirled it around. I ladled the prawns onto plates over the curled pasta, turned up the heat under the pan, reduced the cream, wine and garlic sauce and tipped it into a serving jug which I placed on the table. It was nice to have extra sauce to pour over the prawns and pasta as desired, and there was sliced crusty bread to mop up the sauce.
William and Thomas tried some pasta and liked it. They even enjoyed small pieces of prawn.
Now children, time to sing the national anthem.
'Toot, toot, chugga, chugga, big red car ...'
Ah, no boys; that is not the national anthem, I'm afraid. You just think it is.
(To misphrase Nick Lowe, I knew the Wiggles when they used to rock and roll. They were called the Cockroaches then. Kids hate it when I tell them that.)
I remember when my best friend got to go to Springsteen concert. We were in 9th grade, it was 1976, and the next day she assured me she'd seen the future of rock & roll. Even now she likes to remind me how she's always right. I do love Radio Nowhere. And I sometimes crank it plenty loud with kids in the car--thinking of it as inoculating them against badly-brought-up pop stars ... sometimes I miss the Wiggles.
ReplyDeleteAnne, my kids fall alseep in the car with loud music - it seems to mesmerise them. Just today William fell asleep in the car for his afternoon nap (on the way home from lunch in Lygon Street) to Unguarded Moment by The Church, a fantastic track from 1981.
ReplyDeleteYou miss The Wiggles? I'll send them over.