I been bakin'

For a dinner with two girl friends (and your men!) you used to see much more of.  And then again to bring to work because they were just that good.
Smitten Kitchen's cranberry bars.  From her cookbook!

For your lovely co-workers.  Because you like test new recipes on them.  Shutterbean's cookies and cream peppermint bark and snickerdoodle blondies because they're your fave.

For Christmas Eve dinner with your parents.  Because your mom will think it's special.  And, Ina!
Vanilla semi-fredo with raspberry sauce.  From Make it Ahead.

To take to Hillie's because you and Lauren used to have dinner together every month before L moved to Colorado. Smitten's raspberry buttermilk cake.

As gifts for your father's family because your mom commissioned them from you.
Marshmallows! The recipe is perfect and impressive.

Salted caramels wrapped in pieces of parchment to look like candy.

A special chocolate bark.

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!!

That little minx turned 1 year old!
I remember when she was brand new.
We celebrated at Molly and Ryan's!
It's been an awesome year watching her grow up.
Watching my sister as a mom has been pretty cool, too.
Happy Birthday, bebe!  You are my favorite!

Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving... success!  Now just counting down until Christmas.  But first, a recap.  Kind of like a timeline!

Thanksgiving Eve
Mr. Louisville and Squirt come for a visit!
We walk to Bar Louie for a drink and a snack then across the bridge for a Cyclones game at US Bank with 40 of my friends.
After the game (and a few dollar beers) we walk back to Newport and head to the Southgate House Revival for a little live music.
We were home by 11am for an early morning.

Thanksgiving
We wake up early for the Thanksgiving Day Race in Cincinnati.  It was a chilly morning but we finish the 10k (6.2 miles) in an hour and 5 minutes.  Not too shabby!
After the race we tidy up for my family's annual Thanksgiving lunch at Orchid's.
Oysters!  Crab!  Prime rib!  Cheese!  Desserts!
Naps.

Friday after Thanksgiving
I head to Louisville!
We meet up with Betas at the Beer Depot for drinks and dinner.  Special visitors Sean and Ellie are in town! Yay!

Saturday
Mr. L and I have another early morning.
We bike to Check's Cafe for chili and grilled cheese.
After our nosh we bike to the Stadium for the Louisville vs. Kentucky football game.

Good grief, the game was back and forth but Louisville pulled out the win.  Fine with me as we'll be seeing them on the basketball court later this month.
Finally, it's a holiday weekend get together at Shenanigan's in lieu of Mr. Louisville's annual cocktail party.
Shew, what a weekend!

Thanksgiving down, Christmas to go!

Double Feature

At Swanksgiving we were playing Truth and Dare.  TRUTH! "When was the last time you stole?"  Everyone kind of scoffed and the guy whose turn it was blew it off saying something about stealing someone's heart.  Lame.

I stole last month!

For the third time in my life, I bought a ticket to see a movie.  Then, thanks to my iPhone, I was able to find a moving playing right after that I wanted to see.  I moseyed in nonchalantly in time to catch the last preview before the second movie started.  It made for a long, lazy day at the theater but I'm not complaining!  This was my favorite double feature to date because the theater recently moved its soda machines so they are self serve.  So, after I left the first flick, Birdman, I filled up my ICEE and headed to the second, Interstellar!

The first time I ever did the Double Feature ditty was in high school.  I was 15... My friend, Mara, and I went to the movies often!  We paid to see Miss Congeniality. Cute movie!  After that we discussed quickly that we wanted to see another and bought tickets for What Women Want.  We weren't bad enough to sneak in!

My second Double Feature was in 2012.  First up, Perks of Being a Wallflower followed by Fruitvale Station. 

Have you ever attempted a Double Feature?  I highly recommend it!

Swanksgiving

On Saturday my friends, Katie and Lyle, hosted Swanksgiving!  A spin on a Friendsgiving where a bunch of friends get dressed up and eat and drink! 

Gimme dat turkey!

I offered to bring a few appetizers since the Thanksgiving staples were taken care of.  They included a turkey (of course!), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, mac & cheese (with avocado and basil), crescent rolls, brussels sprouts salad and sweet potatoes.  A feast!  I've already emailed Katie to rave about her brussels sprouts salad and beg for the recipe.

Anyway, for appetizers I made a jalapeno-cranberry cream cheese dip which I thought was good, not great.  But the real show stopper was the amazing artichoke-olive spread I made.  It was a huge hit and I'll definitely be making it again.  I've said it before but Smitten Kitchen never lets me down!

To wash everything down I brought a few bottles of wine.  I also made a big batch of Cranberry-Ginger Cosmos to share.

3 parts vodka
2 parts cranberry juice
1 part lime juice
1 part Cointreau (or triple sec)
4 large pieces of ginger

I muddled the ginger a bit and poured the rest of the ingredients in my carafe, then viola! 

The evening was a huge success!

Happy Birthday, Eli!!

My little brother turns 28 today.  We've joked about getting past our 27th years which were both wild for us and he's finally made it.  He moved to California earlier this year and I miss him!  

Happy birthday, Eli! 28 will be your best year yet!!

At Sidebar a few years back.

Christmas 2013

Molly's wedding in 2012.

Grandparents

These photos of my parents with their first grandchild melt my heart.