SUSHI! (all caps means I love it)

Marty and I comparing our beer 'shots'

I don't know what it is about sushi that has me hooked, my guess is the combination of salty soy, fresh sweet fish and perfectly cooked rice. The only thing I am certain of, is that I will always always be one of sushi's biggest fans.

Living in a village, it's not as easy as one would hope to come by "good" sushi but there just so happens to be a small (and I do mean small) Japanese restaurant in Oxford called Edamame. They only serve sushi on a Thursday evening, they don't take reservations and the fish runs out fast. I've braved various weather conditions from the pouring rain to scattered snow standing outside in a 'queue' waiting for my turn to enter and order my fill of delicious raw fish.

This place is what makes Thursdays a good day!

Feelin' granola

Every time I'm in the kitchen I try to add a twist to a new recipe, tweak an old recipe or just make things up as I see fit!

This granola started off on a whim after reading (thanks Googlreader!) a post for a tried-and-true recipe courtesy of granola entrepreneur and contributing blogger for The Kitchn, Megan Gordon. 

The recipe/process is a lot easier than I expected and the results were more than worth it. Think I might be making different batches every week. NOM.

Punting - wait, what's that?

For the BF's birthday at the end of last month, we decided to gather the troops and go punting along the river Cherwell.

I must admit, I didn't even know what punting was until I googled it (think boat taxis in Venice). It was absolutely brilliant! Everyone brought picnic food and bevvies for the journey down the river. The actual punting bit is a bit tricky, I let the boys handle things because I was afraid I was going to drop the pole in the water or worse, fall in! Once we finally made it to a nearby pub's waterfront, we pulled the punts up onto the bank and set down the blankets and laid out the spread.

I highly recommend trying it!

Happy belated Independence Day America!

At first I pretended like I didn't need to do anything "special" to celebrate July 4th, but after chatting on the day of with my long-time American pal who lives in Germany, my heart started to ache a bit. Her and her BF had planned a party with friends (all German, but still), were going to grill out, eat apple pie and drink some good old American lager. 

So last minute, I got my hands on some fo-sausages to use at hot dogs (thank you Linda McCartney), tossed together some mac n cheese and found a knock-off recipe for one of my favorite cakes from my beloved Whole Foods. Check out Chow Hound for the guesstimated recipe, I just used whipped cream for the layers but it tasted just as I remembered, delicious!

It's like I never even left...

back in the village

So, apparently I'm not such a good blogger. 

New goal: actually WRITE a post on my own blog. I've been back in England for approximately 30 days and have yet to write anything. I guess that's 'cause I've been busier than expected - good thing - but starting today, I will attempt to recount my visit thus far and start blogging! More to come.