domestic goddess

I threw Greg a party for his 36th birthday and it was a hit! As usual, I was running around red-faced and taking stuff out of the oven until the last minute, but I'm starting to find hostessing really fun even when it's hectic. I even managed to throw on a dress, heels and red lipstick while the food finished up. I'm a regular Betty Draper. Except not miserable. Well, and I had a lot of crunch-time help from my brother (Shout out to Dylan *high five*)

I didn't take any pics of the food so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say everything came out great. I did those spinach and artichoke stuffed mushrooms I wrote about awhile back plus I tried new idea I had for a savory tart. I simply cut some frozen puff pastry into rounds, scored and pricked them and all that jazz, and then covered them in a mixture of goat cheese, carmelized onions, herbs and parm. The fillings for the mushrooms and tarts were made the night before, as was some yummy hummus (secret: greek yogurt!) which I served with baby carrots for the healthy people that didn't want to eat obscene amounts of cheese. Oh yeah, and there was a cheese plate. CHEESE. I don't bake, so Greg picked up some amazing homemade oreos from Fluff Bake Bar at Revival Market. They are incredible - go get one at your earliest convenience.

Part of the fun of cooking is sharing it with people you love, so I guess this is where I should mention that I adore all of my friends, and I'm grateful for everyone that came, and those that couldn't make it. You are all very smart and funny and good-looking! Xoxoxo.

I really enjoy getting everyone together, so I'm really glad that Greg's love of hosting parties has rubbed off on me; it's one of the many good things about shacking up. It's been about 9 months now and I couldn't be happier that we're living together. Our house is really fun and cool, plus we just click when it comes to cohabitating. I think we've had one argument about it, and it was some hypothetical situation about what do to if someone wants to bring something home and the other person finds it legitimately scary and doesn't want to live with it. I can't remember how that debate shook out but I bet you can figure out who was on which side of that argument :)

Anyway, I guess I've been having a lot of warm fuzzy feelings lately. They're probably being exacerbated by this colder weather. I'm not quite ready for the holidays and all of the shopping and cooking it entails, but I am ready to bundle up at home and watch movies and drink wine. Ok I guess I kind of do that year round but it's different when it's cold out. It just is!