Summer time means Sweet Corn!

Finding and creating good food in England:

Corn on the Grill

2     Ears of Corn on the cob

½    stick of butter

2T   Parmesan Cheese

        pinch of salt and pepper

¼ t  basil

¼ t  oregano

1      clove of crushed garlic or ½ t of garlic powder

Let the butter come to room temperature, it should be soft.  Combine all ingredients.  Take ears of corn and pull back the husk and remove the silk but do not remove the husk.  Smear the butter mixture on the corn.  You will have leftover butter use it while eating!  Place corn in husk on grill for 30 minutes on med/low turning every 10 minutes or so until tender!

This corn turned out awesome!  The corn itself wasn’t the sweetest corn; maybe corn in the UK isn’t as sweet as the stuff in the USA.

From MaryLand to EngLand

   Last week Eric’s training’s took him to Hanover, Maryland.  I decided to tag along since it wasn’t too far and there was a huge mall there…haha.  We got into town on Sunday night and ate some whole crab for dinner.  They were very messy and tasted great.  Everyday while Eric went off to train, I shopped, caught up on some reading, and found a Jimmy Johns!  P.S.  I love JJ’s and haven’t eaten at one since before I moved out here to VA.  There are none within a 30 mile radius, so sad :( .  

   On Tuesday night we took a short trip into Baltimore, MD.  We ate within the Inner Harbor at an Irish Pub.  The food was ok, and the harbor is not as exciting as I thought it would be… a little dirty in fact.  Oh well, because after dinner I was trying to figure out if anything famous was in Baltimore and then of course my Food Network expertise kicked into gear and I remembered that “Ace of Cakes” was filmed there at there cake shop called “Charm City Cakes”.  So we ventured out to find the shop!  When we finally found it, in the worst part of Baltimore I tell you, we got out of the car took the picture and then it started to rain/hail!  But, being a food network junkie I was very excited to get this picture! 

   Wednesday morning I headed back to Manassas.  Eric came home on friday,   My parents were headed to town on Saturday, so I had to clean and get ready for them.  They got in on Saturday at noon, we did lunch, and hung out in the afternoon.  This was all before Eric had to leave for England that night.  Lame!  Mom, Dad, and myself headed up to New Jersey to see Pastor Dave (who married us) and Ann.  It was so nice to see his new church, very traditional.  I think that has a lot to do with being the oldest Presbyterian Church in the country...maybe?

   After church we went back to their house and had a wonderful lunch prepared by Ann.  Pastor Dave is a big history buff and living in Morristown, NJ there are endless opportunities of having a history lesson.  So, we got a guided tour of the town by Dave with some historic landmarks pointed out on the way.  It was so great seeing them.

  Durning the week with my parents we went to Thomas Jefferson's house, very nice.  Tasted and bought many wines at a winery.  Of course, mom and I had to shop, and since we live so close, we spent a day in DC.  In DC we visited some more Smithsonian's.  Also, we walked to Georgetown, which is a long walk just to get some cupcakes from "Georgetown Cupcakes".  Im sure if you watch TLC you have heard of "DC Cupcakes".  So we had to go to see how good they were.  I had a peanut butter chocolate one, it wasn't too bad, not worth waiting in line for over an hour.  We were lucky because we only waited 15 minutes.  They said on the weekends the line gets crazy long! 

  Well that's about all for now....

San Diego

     Leslie flew in on Friday the 4th to spend a long weekend with Eric and myself.  On Saturday we took her to D.C.  From the Metro to the Holocaust Museum, which was by far extraordinary, it was a very long, informational, and sad walk through the museum.  Being a history major I knew a lot about the Holocaust, but I learned so much more.  After spending 3 hours there we decided to eat some street cart hotdogs, and pretzels.

     After our nutritional lunch, we walked from the Washington Monument, to the White House, up the street to the Lincoln Memorial, and last but not least Arlington Cemetery.  Wow did my legs hurt!  I don't know how far we walked but we were all ready for our Metro ride to the Pentagon.  For those of you who haven't been to the 9/11 memorial it is so worth seeing.  It is right outside from where the plane hit the building.  You can actually see where they had to rebuild the south side of the Pentagon.  Each person in the plane and in the building who died is remembered in a "wing like fountain".  They go in age order from youngest to oldest.  The wings facing the building are for the people in the plane and the wings facing away from the Pentagon are for the people who were in the building that died.  I would show a picture, but you cannot take pictures at the Pentagon.  It is a really neat and peaceful place to remember those whose lives were lost that day.
     On Sunday, Eric then of course had to leave for San Diego for some training.  Sounds so terrible, 75 degree weather, unlike the crazy rain storms we have been getting out this way.  So since he went out there, Les and I went shopping!  I took her to Fair Oaks Mall, which is about as big as Woodfield.  We spent the day having fun trying on clothes, looking at crazy gadgets, and attempting to get my computer fixed.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday Les had to go back home, so we didn't get much more in.  We loved seeing her and want her to come back soon!
     Eric will be home Saturday morning, I don't think he is looking forward to coming back to the cold weather on the east coast.  I hope he misses me enough to come home :)

A week in WI

   We just learned that we will be moving to Europe this summer , sometime between May and July.  Eric is so excited, I on the other hand am very nervous and am just loving the fact that I will be even farther away from my family.  We will be there for 3 years.  Luckily the wedding hoopla will be over when we arrive.  But, the 2012 Summer Olympics will be going on when we are living there, which is awesome.  I was disappointed when the Olympics didn't get the 2016 bid in Chicago, but now I get to see them in London.
   Living 600 miles from Winnebago has been fun.  Eric and I enjoy exploring DC we visited some Smithsonian's, got to see many of the monuments.  Walking down the streets of DC reminds me so much of walking down the streets of Chicago, maybe not as big or tall, but just as much big city fun.  We were looking to get food and of course Eric didn't want to plan on going to any restaurant, so we walked around and around city blocks till we ended up back where we started and when to a place call Capitol City Pub, "we like those kind of places" Eric says.  Eric can have his variety of beer and I get to choose from more than just wings and pizza.
   Eric thought it would be fun to snowboard while living out here in Virginia.  The truth is it doesn't snow much here and it is about 15-20 degrees warmer.  So, there is not much time to actually snowboard.  We managed to go 3 times.  All the resorts are about 2 hours away, which are hard to find because on your way there you are looking for snow and there isn't any, only when you get there do you see a little bit of snow on each run.  It is quite hysterical.

   There is a lot of training for Eric before we move this summer, and this week Eric is in WI.  I don't really know what he is doing, some sort of generator work.  I hope he is enjoying the cold weather it is 70 here today!