Elsja Down Under

101 Countdown December 25, 2010

Only a few more days until my 101 in 1001 comes to a close. I can’t believe it’s been nearly 1001 days since I first created the list. While I may not have achieved them all, there are definitely many that I am really proud of. To wrap up a few of the remaining items, I’m posting my 101 Christmas edition. To be fair, these hardly have much to do with Christmas but since I’m posting on Christmas eve, I have decided it will be a Christmas edition.

#86 - Try 20 new restaurants and blog about them. Well, technically I tried many more than 20 since 2008, but this blog will include my 20th actual review so I can finally cross this item off the list!!

North Bondi Italian (RSL)

We went to this little gem for our work Christmas lunch the other day and I was really pleased. Rather than posting my normal type of review, I’m just going to post the things I liked about this place.

Its got a great indoor/outdoor/bar/restaurant vibe so you can really go there for any occasion. We got there early but since they don’t take bookings, we had to wait about an hour for a table but we just hung out on the patio with some champagne, peanuts and appetizers overlooking the ocean. We ordered refreshing vodka lemon lime and bitters and they went down WAY too easily. We had these amazing deep fried risotto balls and a ricotta basket to start and they were so tasty; TOTALLY overpriced but the risotto balls were to die for. For mains I ordered a ricotta, basil and tomato pasta. It was definitely good but a few of my coworkers had the lasagna and I was having a bit of order envy. Great food, great wine, great views and great company made for a fun afternoon by the beach. It was a perfect way to start the holiday break.

#81 -Learn to make Swedish pancakes from my mom. My mom has been making Swedish pancakes my entire life and never have I taken the opportunity to learn how to make them myself. Well today is the day. I just flew in on Christmas eve and it’s tradition for my mom to make the pancakes today so we can wake up and eat them for breakfast on Chrsistmas morning. She’s just out buying flour but when she returns, Pancakes 101 shall begin.

#28- Donate blood- two weeks ago on the way to work I stopped off at a blood bank to donate. I was a bit scared because the first and only time I ever donated blood was back in college and I had a horrible experience. My blood pressure dropped and I almost passed out and threw up. Luckily, this time I was ok even though they could only get 1/2 of a donation. So I suppose I might save 1.5 lives instead of 3. Still better than nothing!

#29 – Donate to 3 charities per yer. Here are some of the charities I’ve donated to since 2008

• Pancan (2008, 2009, 2010)
• Movember (2008, 2010)
• American Cancer Society (2008, 2009)
• Humane Society (2009)
• Caringbridge (2010)
• Susan Komen (2010)
• Jimmy Walk Fund (2010)

My mom is back with the flour so I’m off to learn techniques in making Swedish pancakes. I wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas!!

A New Tradition December 7, 2010

As my 101 goal time comes to a close, I’m in a mad dash to finish as many of them as I possibly can. So I was very pleased that Saturday night I was able to cross off lots of items! Andrew and I had our first annual Christmas party at our place and it was a big success. Andrew was never too fond of the idea of a party at our place because we don’t have the greatest entertaining layout here. It’s small and there’s no decent outdoor area. Andrew really preferred to wait until we had a bigger place to start having parties but it meant a lot to me to start now. When I thought about starting a tradition together (#24 on my list), having a yearly Christmas party was a natural idea. My parents had one every year when I was growing up and so I wanted to do the same. I figured now that we are married, this was a perfect time to start our annual event. So on Saturday we had a few friends over (unfortunately with a small place you can’t invite everyone) and we ate, drank and were merry! Here’s a few things I got to cross off my list this weekend:

101. Decorate for Christmas all 3 years… here we are on year 3 of my list and our house is festive once again!

24. Start a tradition with Andrew – hence, the “1st annual” Christmas party

77.  Bake and decorate fancy cupcakes – ok so they weren’t cupcakes, but the pumpkin spice frosty cake balls dipped in white chocolate were quite fancy, and quite delicious! Plus I was up ’til midnight on Thursday making them so I think they should count.

66. Make a mix-tape (CD) with some of my favorite songs and give to friends – I absolutely love making Christmas playlists (I have over 6 hours of Christmas music alone on my ipod), so I thought it would be a great idea to make a “Merry Mixtape” for the guests of our party. The CD includes roughly 15 of my favourite modern Christmas tunes.

107. Host a cocktail party. We finally got to put some of our booze to good use and I made a few fun cocktails and festive drinks for everyone to enjoy. We had a pomegranate, cranberry and vodka cocktail as well as my version of mulled wine (recipe to come soon) and homemade eggnog. Bez played bartender later in the night and made some delicious peachy concoctions.

70. Buy a fancy digital camera. Yes, we did buy this awhile back but Saturday was the first time we actually used it. I still should read the instruction manual because I have no idea what I’m doing yet- but at least it allowed us to take some nice photos of the party.

For more photos… click here.

Not only was Saturday night fun, it was also a great way to cross off lots of items before my December 31st deadline. How many more can I knock out in the next few weeks? We shall see!