Smooches and Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope your bellies and hearts are equally as full- it’s been a wonderful, wonderful day in these parts.

Xoxo

(Image via and my iPhone)

From empty to full in one trip to the grocery.

In related news, it turns out that a 20lb turkey feeds far more people than will be at my apartment for Thanksgiving. It just seemed like such a good price that it went in the cart without much thought. I guess the fridge won’t be the only full thing on Thanksgiving day…

Hip Hip Gin Gin nails this list but I have to make 2 edits: I take Kahlua in my hot chocolate and Chicago’s tree lighting is November 20.

But man, I love me a marching band and I am already plotting out how often I can wear my new Ralph Lauren tartan dress…

November love, indeed!

(Via)

The Magnificent Mile is lit, Mickey and Minnie and Santa rolled through and did their thing. As far as I’m concerned, the holidays are on!

Sidebar: because I care about you, go to Mama Milano’s immediately. I don’t know how we (you and me, we) have lived the last 12 years without that family’s salad or pizza but now that they’re back open in Old Town, I am probably going to be at one of their 6 tables every week.

Says the woman who just wrote a post about her cat. And scotch. And her inability to read the side of twinkle lights boxes.

Happy Friday, friends. Happy Friday.

(via @girlsofLP)

1. Today is Luna Bell’s 5th birthday.

2. We celebrated with a good brushing and the fancy wet cat food from Whole Foods.

3. LB got her Dad a bottle of good scotch for his birthday in 10ish days but since it’s been a mother-effing week, I am willing to bet she will choose to give it to him tonight when he gets home. Or before- you just don’t know, that cat is unpredictable.

4. What part of “twinkling” did I miss on the Christmas tree lights box? I strung some on the porch to get this holiday shit started and now I’m going to have a seizure.

5. R and I both have demanding, long hours jobs and then there’s regular life stuff, the awesome and the less than awesome. But this silly little cat can always be counted on to sleep on our pillows, roll & wait to be petted when we walk in the door, give us serious side-eye when her diet doesn’t entire consist of the Florentine Collection and generally yank us out of our people crap by just being funny.

Happy Birthday, LB!

Flipping through cookbooks tonight, trying to find something really unique to add to our Thanksgiving menu, I came across this recipe for cilantro ravioli with pumpkin filling. When I was in college, I thought it was quite the idea to make this to impress my boyfriend instead of, you know, lame boring traditional dishes. This was at the height of my strict vegetarianism and I was going to rock the socks off this holiday. Gosh, I was cool.

He, my mom and I spent hours making the dough, feeding it through the pasta maker repeatedly, pressing it around the filling, boiling it…all to get like 5 raviolis. Oh and on the menu the next day? Organic, gluten free pumpkin waffles. Seasonal? You bet. Tasty? We threw one against a tree in the backyard and I think it shattered.

Thus, this blast from the past of bad choices (the menu and the boyfriend) concludes my search for the unique factor in my Thanksgiving meal- let’s stick to the dishes (and people) that we love.

Unless someone has a recipe for a tofu replica of a pumpkin…in which case, I am totally in.

It’s November 15th, folks- release day for Beaujolais Nouveau! My Dad and I were texting about it by 7:30am, the guy on the radio said it’s good this year and the girls I am working with today are all a-buzz about the party they go to every year for the bottle opening celebration.

Wine and celebrating- this is my kind of opening day. Click here for Beaujolais events in Chicago!

Last year, like an idiot, I only bought one box of Trader Joe’s Vanilla Cinnamon tea. It’s my favorite tea in the world and seasonal so when it’s gone, it’s gone…or so the man working at TJ’s explained to me last year as I begged him to somehow, someway get me another box.

So this year, I became a part of the Vanilla Cinnamon tea problem and bought 10 boxes. In the aisle, on the phone with my Mom, asking her how many boxes she needs, who we can gift them to, I am sure I looked like a crazy person but guess whose going to be crying when this hot liquid gold sells out?

Rookies.

(Airport reading material)

Ryan and I were in Baltimore for quite the whirlwind weekend. We went to an amazingly fun wedding on Friday night and enjoyed a wonderful meal with two great friends on Saturday night with lots of other stuff in between, to the point where we had to get ready for each event in a car. If I hadn’t eaten 4 crab cakes in 48 hours, I’d be whistling a “I am too old for eyeliner by the dashboard light” tune. But my gawd, I LOVE crab cakes.

An overall enjoyable weekend, there is nothing like being home. I love home and 4 nights in 3 different hotel rooms makes me even more in love with our little space in this big(ish) city. Yesterday was about the catch-up, with work, laundry, emails, workouts (those crab cakes don’t burn themselves off) and Luna Bell cuddles. She was all up in my grill yesterday, could not be close enough. And since it is her birthday week, I suppose that is just fine.

Home for the holidays, really- LB’s kitty birthday, the Mag Mile Parade, Thanksgiving, Ry’s Birthday, then it’s all-out, Christmas game on. I love this time of year even more than I love crab cakes…

(Luna Bell supporting my to-do list)