Herb Cooking Club

For this month's installment of cooking club, we celebrated the wonderful world of herbs! Yumi was our hostess for this delicious event. Nancy started us off with her famous apple thyme martinis. Cheers!



Summer made a little appetizer of prosciutto-wrapped feta and sage.



Valerie made Avgolemono, a chilled greek soup. It had lemon, rice and eggs, and was topped with a delicious heap of fresh dill!



I made spring rolls! They had basil, peaches, avocado and spinach.



I served them with a peanutty dipping sauce, and they paired BEAUTIFULLY with Yumi's delicious green papaya salad with cilantro!!



Nancy made a green bean and grape salad with rosemary, thyme and cilantro dressing. Herbalicious!



Summer made risotto with sage! She brought all the ingredients and made a fresh risotto on the spot.






It takes awhile to make, so we took turns keeping her company!



This was part of a taste test. She had made a batch the night before, and we were curious to see whether or not it was worth it to make it fresh. The answer was YES! While the leftover risotto was totally delicious, the fresh risotto was EXTRA creamy and amazing. I could have eaten a pound of each, though. So good!



Yumi also made red snapper with a cilantro chimichurri.



All together, now!



We played Apples to Apples while we made room for dessert.






Emily made rosemary watermelon sorbet! It was SO light and refreshing. Yum, yum, yum!



And finally, in the true spirit of herbs, Valerie brought us all giant bags of weed!



Haha, just kidding! That's catnip from her garden. Yumi's cat was going bonkers throughout the night trying to get at the stash. We all got a baggie to take home. Here is some footage of Charlie and Emma enjoying the treat. Things started off pleasantly, but then turned kind of vicious!

Hungry Charlie

I feel like I have to share this with the world because I think it is the cutest thing EVER. When Charlie is hungry, he always sits up on the very top step of the basement stairs, and peeks through the door, SO PATIENTLY waiting for some dinner. He's never demanding at all, he just quietly sits there, HOPING that we notice him and give him some food!! Meanwhile, Emma will be hunting us down and stomping all over the place, yapping and squawking until we feed her.



LOOOOOOOOOK AT him.



Seriously. Is that not the cutest thing ever? He is SO patient and sweet.

New Bedspread and Sock Stealer

We got a new bedspread! Here is Charlie modeling it.





Emma has always had a bad habit of stealing my socks and dragging them around. Here are a few of her latest hauls.

Blast from the Past: Baby Charlie and Emma

I found this folder of pictures of Charlie and Emma when they were little baby KITTENS. They are so little and CUTE. This first batch of pictures was from the first time I met them. My mom had informed me that the cutest kitten she had ever seen was up for adoption at the vet. I went to go check him out. She sure was right! Aw, little baby Charlie in a cage.



It turned out there were actually TWO kittens there. Emma, too!



Awww. Obviously I had to get both.



This picture kills me because I feel like Charlie is hoping with all of his might that I will adopt him.



The first time I ever picked him up!



LOOK AT HOW LITTLE HIS PINK NOSE IS!!!!!!!!



And here they are at home, peeking out of the windows!



So fuzzy in the window.



Charlie in the sink!



SO LITTLE IN THE SINK!



Little Emma!



Little BABY Charlie.





Eeeeeeee look how SMALL. And his marshmallows are so big because he hasn't grown into them yet!!!!



Man, I love that cat so much.





And finally, a bunch of cute pictures of them cuddling.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! We headed over to Mom and Dad's early for some holiday fun!! Look, there's Santa!



Brown rice and beans for breakfast. YUM!



Opening stockings!



YES!! Subway gift cards!



Kate got to be in charge of choosing and distributing gifts.



She was great at it!



Uncle Mark!



PRESENTS!!



Open it!



Kate got some bubble wrap for Christmas because she likes to pop it.



Mer got me a snake bracelet!



Kate got an umbrella. We had to teach her about not poking peoples' eyes out.



Distributing more presents!



A present for Grandpa!



Mer has a roll of the best wrapping paper on Earth. SANTA KITTIES.






We took an afternoon break so that Kate could have a nap. Mer and Pete gave me a ride home.



While I was at home, I took the opportunity to enjoy some kitty snuggle time.



Then it was back to Christmas Land! And this time there was a cheese platter!!



And champagne!



Happy little family.



Dad's cooking up some Christmas dinner!



YUM!



Kate LOVED the mashed potatoes. I think she had five helpings?! She kept saying "MORE MASHED POTATOES!"



Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday!