Happy Australia Day!

We had such a glorious time this morning at an ex-Beijing colleague's house - for their annual and very fabulous Australia Day Breakfast. There was a huge buffet breakfast by the pool - juice and fruit followed by toast and eggs, bacon, tomatoes and sausages, washed down with tea and coffee and followed by Margaret's sensational giant lamington - in the shape of Australia and dotted with birthday candles.

We sang Advance Australia Fair and I Still Call Australia Home and there were goosebumps all round. The kids went bananas in the pool and we all toasted our lucky country with a glass of champagne and a natter in the shade. Perfect.

Thanks, Tom and Margaret!

But breakfast was not the only gift we received. It was such a thrill to meet up with the divine Irene again, who was in town with a delegation (and on a house-hunting mission), and brought us the most fabulous gift - individual hotpots from Beijing that I had totally coveted just before we left post ourselves.

They are just gorgeous - tiny, compact and with a teensy, adjustable burner below... just can't wait til it's cool enough to have an authentic hotpot dinner at our house.

The other gift we received was some glorious bounty from the vegie patch of yet another ex-Beijing family, who now live rurally outside Canberra. Can't wait to get plotting over how I can incorporate these into a dish for the kids. Thanks Maxine and Pete!

My instant thought was ratatouille and I haven't tried this on the kids yet. Maybe if I put the movie on (it's one of their favourites), the Ratatouille rats might encourage them to sample it.

Tonight I'm making home-made gourmet burgers for the BBQ followed by mini pavlovas drenched in floaty cream, bananas and blueberries.

Hope whatever you did, wherever you are in the world, your Australia Day was fun. Happy birthday, Australia!