That rather dour message is one that sticks in my mind from my teen years as the government promotion of Australia Day, which is celebrated today, January 26th. I see that these days they have gone with a far more upbeat message:



Australia Day is celebrated as our national day. It commemorates the landing of the First Fleet on January 26, 1788 at Botany Bay (in Sydney). Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales on the behalf of the British and European settlement began.

As you can imagine, it is a controversial choice of event to celebrate. Many of the indigenous population see the first day of European settlement as the beginning of the end for their way of life and it is seen by some as a national day of mourning. It is a day to remember their loss and suffering and the continued inequalities in lifestyle they face. There are moves to try and reconcile the differences, but the bitterness runs deeply.

Others feel that the day the country was unified as a federation (January 1st 1901) is a better choice - but then we already have a New Year's Eve holiday. Still others want to see ANZAC Day in April 25th as a national day. But January 26th it remains.




Celebrations in Australia usually involve friends and family meeting together for a barbeque, picnic, beach party and an evening of public fireworks displays. One of the dishes sure to be served is the famous Aussie pavlova.

This is a recipe I got from my friend Faye and it has proved to be a very popular family treat here in Sweden.

4 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar for each egg white
1 dessertspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Pinch of salt

Beat egg whites stiff with a pinch of salt. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Check that no sugar is left on bottom of bowl. Add corn flour, vanilla and vinegar.

Put on a buttered oven tray sprinkled with equal corn flour and icing sugar, in the shape and approximate height desired. Bake in a slow oven 120ºC for 1½ hours. Turn off the oven leaving the Pavlova to cool slowly with it. (I leave it overnight)

Place on plate and cover with whipped cream and decorate.

Hints
• Use the freshest eggs you can get.
• Use eggs at room temperature, having left them out of the fridge for an hour or so means the white beat up easier and better.
• Increase the cake size with the eggs, I often to a 6-8 egg Pavlova for parties, I usually increase the other ingredients in proportion but most important is to keep the sugar to egg proportions.
• When placing on oven tray, consider the plate shape and size you plan to put the Pavlova on (a piece of wood or tray covered in foil works well). I usually dump the mix into a round shape about 6 cm high. Then I smooth off the top to give an approximate flat surface. Often higher pavs will cave in and can be just filled with cream.
• I use baking paper, which I butter and corn flour on my oven tray.nThis helps in turning the pav over later. I don’t have to carefully lift it off the tray the paper usually just peels off, allowing me to put the pav on its serving plate.
• I like to bake a pav at night and leave it in the oven overnight to cool, thus avoiding (mostly) drastic cave ins from cooling too quickly.
• A Pavlova can keep in a dry place for up to a week before decorated.
• I use heaps of whipped cream usually at least 5 dl (500ml) or more on an 8 egg pav, then like to use fresh Swedish strawberries in summer here. Other decoration ideas include fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries (they are thawed by eating time) sliced banana (put on last second), kiwi fruit, peaches (canned), mandarins (canned), passion fruit (self imported can), shaved or grated chocolate or combinations of some or all of the above!
• With cream on keep the pav in a fridge, and it will only keep as long as the cream keeps. But don't worry, there is rarely leftovers.

In Sweden, a beach party is not possible at this time of the year. This morning, after several days of gentle snow, the view outside looks like this:



Still, it hasn't stopped the Dancin' Dingo in Stockholm from holding a beach party, that begins later tonight. If last year's is anything to go by, it will be a fun evening.

On Sunday, a group of us are getting together at Koppartälten in Stockholm for a barbeque on Sunday afternoon. For any Aussies in town on that day, head on over to Hagaparken and join in the fun from 12 noon to 3pm. I imagine as in previous years, we will be the recipients of a few stares from puzzled Swedes wondering why we are having a barbie in the snow. Still, it's not as bad as the day the cricket team decided to stage a match on the ice of Lake Mälaren outside if parliament house.



Now that was a sight to stop the traffic dead.

To all Aussies, wherever in the world you are - enjoy your Australia Day celebrations.