Houseguest

One of my good friends from Texas is coming to visit for a little more than a week starting today - YAY! Had to post as I'm mega excited! I can't believe I've already been gone for 2 whole months, I've definitely been missing my girls back home. I wish everyone could come over to see jolly old England!

*We're off to Sicily for four nights next week so traveling posts to come!

Devon: A quaint country wedding

Ever heard of Little Torrington? I hadn't either! Above is a picture of the happy couple whose wedding we went to last weekend in the cutest (and smallest) village in the Devon countryside. The wedding was lovely and the reception, held down the road from the church on the bride's family land, was an absolute blast! Cheers to the newlyweds!

My very first cricket match

I must admit that I rarely pay attention to a cricket match when it's on "telly". Until a few weekends ago I would've just said it was a boring version of baseball (admittedly not my favorite US sport to watch) but that was before I saw my very first live game! The people, the weather (hello sun, finally!), the Pimm's cup, the picnic bits and bites, it all combined to make for a fantastic day despite the fact that we got a tad burned and England didn't play their best against South Africa. Oh well! I still had a blast :)

*Many thanks to Hel & Phils for a lovely weekend!

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!