Keller Family Blog

We are excited to shop at the new Costco in Australia. It will be the first one built in Australia though it will be a half hour drive from our house. Anyway they are now taking membership applications and the Grand Opening will be in July I think.  Hope we can make it. This is one of our favorite stores in the USA. Has saved us a lot of money over the years.

You can see pictures of the construction (until they go live with shopping on their website) at http://www.costco.com.au/.

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens today with Rachael and Nate and her parents.  As we were re-entering the park after a bit of morning tea, Rachel noted a little boy crying as he came out of the park. As he was walking through the crowd, Rachael wondered if he was lost. We kept an eye as he passed several families that could have been his. Rachael and Karlissa then took off toward him as he was getting to the road. I headed into the edge of the park with Jaden looking to see if we saw anyone frantically looking for a child.

Crystal and the girls followed as they crossed the street and headed to the memorial monument. The boy looked to be about 5 and they didn’t know how his english skills were when they tried to ask him about his family and stuff. (He was of Asian descent). They found some guards that the monument and a park employee who had a radio.

Meanwhile Jaden and I watched the park. I prayed that we could find his family. Crystal and Shay did too. I approached one Asian lady who told me that she wasn’t looking for anyone. I spotted a lady talking on a mobile phone walk toward me and then then look back and walk away. I spotted her a few minutes later talking to some older ladies and one walked away saying something over her shoulder in . I approached the lady and asked her if she was looking for a little boy. She said “YES” and confirmed he was wearing a blue shirt. I said he was with a friend and my family. Since we saw him leave the park alone. I called Crystal to let her know I had the mum and to ask where they were.

Rachel said as he was walking to the memorial that he kept saying “Mum here” something so she assumes that they were at the war memorial earlier in the day.  They with the park employees started walking toward us and we walked toward them. We were probably about 500m apart when we started toward each other. Needless to say there was quite a joyful reunion for the mum. The boy looked scared still. (Probably wondering if he was in trouble) We let them hug and we left. I had hoped for more conversation but knew that we had fulfilled the part God wanted us to in the reunion bit.

This season in Australia as far as food is concerned seems to be all about Chocolate  with the occasional hot cross buns. The stores are loaded with lots and lots of Chocolate. And NONE of it is safe for Jaden. The only one that attempts to be Allergy Friendly has Soy in it. Anyway the girls went to Church yesterday and made Hot Cross Buns and Chocolate molds. Well we did the Jaden-safe Hot Cross Buns yesterday. Today I attempted to make some Jaden-safe Allergy Friendly “milk” Chocolate.  Unfortunately I don’t have a full recipe as I didn’t measure pretty much anything, but here is what I did.

I started out with an Artisse Dark Chocolate bar. I melted it in a double boiler (Pryex bowl over a sauce pan with water in it). I added about 3 Tablespoons of Prepared Darifree and at least 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar and another 1/2 tablespoon of Darifree powder and stirred with a small wisk. I had added a little Olive Oil but it needed something that would be solid at room temp in it like Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, or Lard. We had the Lard in the house so I added it after the first pour turned out to be a failure.  We also dipped some gluten-free marshmallows in the chocolate to use it up. I did swipe a little Olive Oil on a paper towel and lightly swiped the oil in the mold before the successful pours. So the first pour needed more solid fat and some Olive Oil on the molds. The first pour is the “failure” pic below. Pour is a strong word, I actually spooned it in then tapped them on the counter. I would have made different shapes, but this was the only mold we had and we had borrowed it from someone else. I am considering wrapping the eggs in aluminium foil for presentation to Jaden so it looks more “normal”.

Successful Eggs

Failed to set well. Used spoon to remove which ruined the shape.

Hot Cross Buns cooling

Jaden and I baked Hot Cross Buns….We used Gluten-Free Flour and more or less followed the recipe at http://www.everydaywithallergies.com/2009/03/hot-cross-buns.html. We substituted 1/4 tsp Nutmeg for the 1 tsp Cinnamon. Best thing is that Jaden likes it.