Pre-View July 4th Picnic

So Rachel and I have been planning this for a while.

Recently got a mini grill so we could have a picnic for July 4th wherever we wanted, and the proper heating source as well.


Our plan: to find a nice place outside in the shade and have a great picnic, but as things often do in the culinary adventures of Hopkins Crew, things go from fun and simple to fun and extravagant


the current menu, estimated for roughly 8 and several hours of cooking fun:

grilled corn with lime butter. butter mixed with lime juice and fresh zest, spread over corn, which is then rehusked and grilled on hot coals to allow the butter to absorb while the corn maintains its moisture.

simple vegetable skewers. cubed zucchini, whole white button mushrooms, red onion chunks, bell pepper pieces. olive oil, coarse sea salt, freshly cracked pepper. fired up on the grill on bamboo skewers.

grilled herb shrimp, ina garten style. peeled jumbo shrimp garnished with fresh parsley, basil, garlic, and shallots, in a lemon-mustard marinade. skewered and quickly grilled after marinating overnight.

for dessert... possibly grilled fruit (yeah, going with the grilled theme here, nice and slow, we have all day) fresh strawberries, peach halves, large, sweet summer fruits, carmelized under flame.

and sandra lee style cocktail time. if I can find good peaches or nectarines.. making a white sangria to put on ice.. yum. peach nectar, lots of fresh fruit, a bottle of white wine, Cointreau, and bubbly club soda, on ice, garnished with more fruit.


comments: still deciding whether or not having shrimp as the only protein will be enough. granted its mostly coxswains and their friends, the meat fiends won't necessarily be an issue, but perhaps some chicken skewers in a similar citrus marinade will help placate any that might show up.

mr. del monte

sometimes... dinner just isn't that complicated...

My Secluded Life version.052806-060506

So this has been what's been happening. My family came on the 28th. I got my birthday present! A Casio Exilim EX-Z850 camera, its really nice, so I've been taking a lot of pictures. I took my family around Baltimore: Federal Hill, Inner Harbor, Fells Pt., etc. Anyway, so we finished packing up, made a huge mess, it was interesting having my parents and my brother living under the same roof in my tiny apartments. But yeah, lots of packing. I didn't realize how much stuff there was. The same on the 29th. Early morning on the 30th, we got the UHaul, had it all packed by 10:30, and went straight to the new place. unloaded by 1. And it was amazing. And all was well for the time. Then on the 31st we went to Medieval Times for my birthday. It was really great, and mainly cause it was a big joke and there were like 500 middle schoolers behind us yelling and screaming about the knights. It was pretty ridiculous, but it was fun, and it was my first time back at the Arundel Mills Mall since.. well.. freshman year orientation. QUite a long time... And because I started this post so long ago, I don't remember what I was going to write anymore :P But whatever. I need to get on with newer things in life.. At some point we went up to Long Island to
visit some relatives, my second cousin from HK going to high school there..

And I can't figure out how to layout pictures.. I suck at this...

In Transition

Post Pending... with lots of pics!