French Country Dinner... Bon Appetit!

On February 12th, just in time for Valentine's Day, Will and I hosted the second quarterly Cooking with Friends night. I don't know if that's what we actually call it, but that's what it is. We all make something that goes along with the theme, decided on by the hosts. We thought France and romance go together well (and I have an affinity for making filet mignon with Bernaise), so that was our choice. Oh, how we look forward to these dinners!




Here are a couple more shots of the table. I am very excited about my new table! I have been saving my very own money for this table (with a small contribution from my awesome husband), and here's the exciting part: it seats TEN to TWELVE very comfortably!!! This makes my heart very happy. Obviously, I don't have my drop-in leaves in here, and I haven't bought the chairs yet, but I am saving for those too and am on my way!



Since I got zero pictures of the food, I will not go into details about the menu. But trust me.... it was French, and it was FABULOUS. Every. Last. Bite. But, here are the friends - minus the Romans, away on vacation :( - and that is what this wonderful new tradition is really about anyways, right? FRIENDS. (And maybe just a little bit about food. ;))


Though the Romans could not join us, Carri (bless her heart!!!) still wanted to contribute to our dinner and bless us all with a delectable dessert! I know! What a sweetheart she is. She made Julia Childs' Chocolate Bombe. It was, indeed, the bomb!


Let's all look at that again! We're all pretty excited!


Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Yum! Thank you, sweet Carri! Until next time.........

Gone "fishing."

The kids went out to play, and a little while later I found these two "fishing" in our sad little creek. Our lack of rain this winter is evident, to say the least. But it hasn't stopped the kids from having fun in our own little nature reserve. It makes my heart really happy.




Have I mentioned I love living here? So do our dogs.

Cooking with special people!

I love cooking! Especially with special little people like my Sulli. The other night she brought her cherished stool (it was G.G.'s) out to the kitchen with me and gathered her own kitchen supplies. We made a great Italian dinner for our Friday night. How fun to spend times like this with my littlest punkin.


And this is So, a co-worker of Will's when he worked at ISS. We finally had her family over for dinner after talking about it for a year! Her husband, Marty, and son, Corey, had fun playing games with the kids while So taught me to make some authentic Chinese dishes for Will. (He loves Asian food, and I've never been that excited about it.) So brought all the fixin's (how awesome is that?!) and led me through instructions to make chow mein noodles, chicken stir fry, beef stir fry, and sauteed spinach... and let me just say I was actually excited about this Chinese food! It was delicious!!! I made chocolate cream pie for dessert and lemon bars for the kids. Best of all, we had a fun evening getting to know this family better.