He Runs, I Cook

What do these two things have in common?  I always bring them back from America when I go.

As an American expat who’s been living in Australia for well over 20 years, the things I miss most about America have changed. Of course, family and friends will always be number one.  But food will always be close second.  

If you’ve always lived in America, you tend to take American grocery stores for granted.  The number of choices, the plethora of options– you never think twice about it.  If you’ve never lived in America, or been to an American grocery store, they’re quite hard to describe.  And there’s nothing like it that I’ve seen in any of my travels.  Grocery stores in America are huge-  and filled to the brim with choices.  Colourful, sugary, and not always healthy choices.  So if you ask me what I miss about America, I’ll often say the grocery store.  It’s a weird feeling having seemingly endless variety and choice.  It’s overwhelming and unnecessary but also kind of nice.

The place in American grocery stores that is the most overwhelming and needlessly abundant– the American cereal aisle.  Walking down the aisle is at once an assault on your senses and a trip down memory lane.  Everything is bright and colourful.  The boxes and marketing are next level. They’re definitely targeted at kids who don’t really care about the taste, but like the character, the flavour, and the colours of the cereal. None of which are natural and none of which are healthy, but all of which are very tasty.  And most of the cereals exist solely in America.  

As a child, I loved them.  As a parent, I’ve introduced them to Thomas, and he loves them just as much as I do.  We made the mistake of introducing Thomas’s friends to Lucky Charms and Cookie Cris after a sleepover.  Of course now they like them, so whenever they come over, they want a little bowl of American, sugary goodness. Now, when we go home, the number one thing that we bring back is Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, and Frosted Flakes. 

I still bring back toiletries like Crest toothpaste and Secret deodorant because I still haven’t found an Australian brand that I like as much. Don’t ask me why, I just haven’t. 

But the number one thing that we’re packing and bringing back with us: cereal. 

When we go home, we often binge on these little treats because we know that here in Australia they’re very difficult to come across. For a long time, we could get Frosties here, or Frosted Flakes as their American name, but one day they just disappeared off the shelves. We were absolutely heartbroken, and we actually were trying to figure out what had happened to them. We thought they’d been discontinued because they didn’t meet Australian health standards, but it turns out they were just on hiatus.

Recently, on a trip to Coles, Thomas and I found Frosties again. They’re back on the shelves and they’re grrrrrrreeeeeat! 

We were so excited that we bought two boxes and brought them home. This is good news for cookies, and this is relatable to cookies because lots of cookie recipes that I have come across require American cereals like Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Frosties, all of our favourites, but also too precious to waste in cookies.

Now that Frosties are back, I can finally make some cereals that need Frosties in them, and I couldn’t be more excited!  So of course, last week I made Craisin Frosted Flake Chocolate Chip Cookies from Oh Sweet Basil! They were really good– and also a good reminder that a lot of Aussies don’t know what a Craisin is!  They were excellent!  So good in fact that this week I’m continuing the trend with Christina Tosi’s Crunchy Cornflake Chocolate Chip Cookies from her All About Cookies Cookbook.

I also made Sally Baking Addiction’s Soft Andes Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies which will also be known as chocolate mint cookies for people who don’t like mint.  Andes mints are another delicacy that you can’t get in Australia– so I used a mix of Andes mints and After Eights.  The result was divine!  Just a hint of mint but not overwhelming.  Not too minty for mint haters to hate, but minty enough for mint lovers to like.

The other batch I’m baking up this week, Justine Snacks’ Burnt miso brown butter dark chocolate chip cookies. They have a nice, sweet umami smell– kind of peanut buttery.