Girls Cooking Class with Chef Fabio

If you have followed me for any length of time, you know that our favorite place to eat in California is Cafe Firenze, home of Fabio from Top Chef.  Foremost, it is just amazing and secondly it is literally one mile down the road from our house.  Convenient.

Fabio teaches cooking classes at the restaurant one Sunday each month, and a few of us girls thought it would be fun to partake!  So, we learned how to make a Thanksgiving meal -- roasted chicken (concept applied to any bird), pumpkin gnocchi, and cranberry and priscuitto risotto.  Amazing!!  We had such a great time...now just to finish our kitchen so I can get to cooking!  Here are some pictures from our class....

Thanksgiving...as promised!

I know I am behind!  It has turned out to be a hectic week?!?!  I'm not sure how quiet weeks always seem to end up that way! 

So, before I move on with more blogs, and pictures of Christmas at our house, I thought Thanksgiving pictures were past due!  Now, back to cooking and grocery shopping!  We are hosting game night with our community group tonight -- looking forward to it :)

Breck not too fond of snow!

Light snow in Kentucky!

Little family picture :)  haha

Attempt at a Christmas card picture for Todd's parents.....clearly not a good time of day to take pictures!

Whirlwind!

I am finally home after our "Tour of the South" aka Thanksgiving!  We spent a few nights in Charleston to celebrate our first anniversary!!  We had so much fun!  I still can't get over how fast the last year flew by!  Over Thanksgiving we kept talking about how this time last year we were honeymooning, eating Thanksgiving buffet at the Ritz in Maui, and Todd was excited to be going to the Maui invitational!  After Charleston, we proceeded to Atlanta for Thanksgiving with my family, and later in the week Kentucky to see Todd's family.  We drove back to Atlanta on early this week, and Todd flew out to Phoenix for work.  My parents drove back to Orlando with me yesterday, and the rainy, trafficky (spell check does not like this word - HA) drive was beyond miserable!  We got home late, and went to bed immediately!  To top it all off, all three of us are sick with sinus infections and junk!  So, while we were supposed to be playing until Todd gets back, instead we spent the morning at a doc-in-the-box and at the pharmacy.  We have been vegging, and watching movies all afternoon!  Thank goodness for Thanksgiving leftovers, and not having to cook!

I will post Thanksgiving pics later this week, but in the meantime enjoy the charm of Charleston!

Enjoying a night out!

Walking around the historic district

Park along the water - love the trees!

Anniversary dinner at the chef's table at Oak Place!  Wonderful time!

Creme brulee!  I hate the shadow on this pic, but decided not to continue shooting and embarrassing Todd!

Rooftop bar - view of the harbor!

Whew!!!!

After a weekend in Birmingham for Todd's Pharmacy School Reunion, I am so happy to be home and caught up on laundry...well, almost the last "batch" is drying!  Now, I have exactly one week before the Anniversary (yes anniversary...can you believe in 10 days it will have been a year!!)/Thanksgiving mayhem ensues to get the following 'to do' list done!

-Clean the house
-Host this month's ladies Bible study brunch (and finish my reading assignment, and make food)
-Host an adoption fundraiser for a friend (You can follow her story here: http://jenyspaghetti.blogspot.com/)
-Kid duty at church this Sunday (first day back in three weeks, and we are in kids!)
-Volunteer on Thursday for our local food bank
-Run errands which include:  grocery shopping, returning glasses to Pier 1, and buying some cute Thanksgiving fall napkins for this weekend's events
-Work on Todd's anniversary gift and then pray it gets here in time
-Make and write the next two weeks of tailgating recipes for http://www.fooddownsouth.com/
-Decorate for Christmas
-Continue Christmas shopping
-Make and order Christmas cards (harder than you think - I have been super indecisive this year)
-Etc, etc, etc