Our first Aussie visitor!

Well, Jeremy and I finally had our first visitor from across the seas! Ben arrived shortly after midnight on Monday (or should I say, Tuesday) and left us on Saturday. We had a great time showing him around, even though it was stinking hot and humid. Hopefully he had fun too - he did seem a little worn out from all the sightseeing we did!

Tuesday
- Jeremy and I both had to work, and I figured that Ben would probably just want to catch up on some shut-eye anyway, so he spent the day at our apartment.

Wednesday
We had a busy day Wednesday! We saw
- the White House (from the front, and the back)
- the Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- Reflecting Pool (which is what Jenny ran through to get to Forrest in "Forrest Gump")
- World War II Memorial (although they were doing maintenance, so the water was all drained)
- Korean War Memorial
- Museum of Natural History
Then it was home, where I made Ben a traditional turkey dinner. Well, we didn't cook a whole turkey, just a breast with the bone in. But it was still delicious!!

Thursday
Jeremy had Thursday off as well, so it was back into the city to see
- Arlington National Cemetery (my favorite place in the whole city), and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
- Iwo Jima Memorial (my favorite memorial in the city)
- ESPNZone for lunch and some drinks/games
- Georgetown, where we had some drinks that some old guy paid for (Ben and he became old friends) and some barbeque dinner at Old Glory

Friday
Jeremy worked a half day, so Ben and I had to fend for ourselves in the morning. It was back into the city for
- International Spy Museum
- Chipotle for lunch...mmmmm....Chipotle
- Air and Space Museum, where Jeremy met us
- Ben's first Major League Baseball game, Washington Nationals vs. the New York Mets

Saturday
Ben's flight was at 2:45pm, and after a few beers the night before we weren't up to doing too much. We went to
- Tysons Corner mall, so Ben could get a true taste of Americana
- Great Falls National park. **Fun bit of trivia - they constructed a channel with "locks" so that boats could make it down river without having to navigate the rocky rapids. Once they reached their destination, the boatmen would dismantle their boats, sell the lumber and then walk the 190 miles back home. Whoa!!

And that was it! Phew!! We certainly had a busy few days, but it was a lot of fun!

Here are the few photos I took...

Ben's visit

Yummy!

Jeremy and I have taken to making our own pasta sauces, instead of buying the bottled stuff from the store. We decided that it's better for us, and we don't particularly like the fact that one of the first ingredients listed on the store bought stuff is "corn syrup"...eewww. Anyway, I usually just make it with a big can of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers (capsicums for you Aussies), mushrooms and sometimes sausage (Aussies, that'd be Italian sausage, not regular sausages) and a splash of red wine. Tonight I decided to try a recipe out of the "Cooking Light" cookbook, and it turned out to be sooooooooo delicious I figured I would share the recipe with all you other wanna-be chefs!

Three-tomato sauce

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
4 Roma/plum tomatoes, diced
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in oil (I used closer to a 1/2 cup), drained and chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 box (13oz) of pasta

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. I used the oil from the sundried tomatoes for extra yum! Saute the onion for about 5 mins, or until opaque. Add the garlic, saute for about 1 minute. Add the sugar, salt, pepper, and all the tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium/medium-low and cook for about 20 mins, or until the liquid is almost all evaporated. Add a couple of tablespoons of the water from the cooking pasta (this is a trick I learned from watching many cooking shows - the starch in the water helps to "bind" everything together, and makes the sauce extra thick and yummy). Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce, add the fresh parsley and eat! Yummo!! The recipe also called for 1/4 cup of goat cheese to be mixed in at this stage, but we didn't have any and it was just as tasty. We served it with garlic bread and parmesan, and a glass of slightly chilled Shiraz.

What a GREAT dinner! Jeremy likes my other sauce better, because it gives him more sauce to dip his garlic bread in, but I loved this sauce because it was so much more authentic (and delicious). It's a myth that Italians eat their pasta with a lot of sauce...it's usually just enough to coat the pasta. I think that everyone should make their own pasta sauce...it's so much better for you, and it's just as good!!

And Jeremy wanted me to post the other recipe I made on Sunday, which was also absolutely delicious! We've done pretty well choosing recipes these past couple of days!

Turkey Cakes with Sweet Chilli Sauce

2 cups cooked chopped turkey (or chicken)
1 cup cooked basmati rice (yum!)
1/2 cup chopped water chesnuts
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 egg whites
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
ground black pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Mix everything together, form into six patties and cook on medium/medium-low in 1 tablespoon of oil until browned on both sides (about 5 mins per side). Serve with sweet chilli sauce. Mmmmm...tasty!

These were a big hit at our house...hopefully someone else will get some good use out of them too!