Spices and herbs oh my (and a note to the cat)

This weekend was one that we so needed. The BF and I did nothing related to shopping for major purposes. Instead we hosted an appetizer party! Saturday after getting our breakfast at the newly discovered-down-the-street-local-coffee house we went to get groceries and then went home. We cleaned, unpacked, cooked, watched TV and then hung out with my friend PK and his wife. It was so much fun to catch up with them and it was nice to have people come to our place and love it as much as we do. We are not fully unpacked and the office is a mess but our living room looks great and when our kitchen is clean it looks beautiful!

The BF remarked how we should have people over more often because it forces us to clean and get organized. He is so right. His friends stopped by last night to peek at the condo and in 5 minutes from the "we are parking the car now" call we made the bed, picked a few things and had a moment to breath before the buzzer rang.

I also had a "date" on Sunday with the BF. He remarked recent that we don't go out on dates anymore. He is right, we got out to eat to actually eat but we haven't had a date in a while. So we went to a cooking class that was focused on your taste and how flavor can change. So we tasted salts like kosher salt, sea salt, iodized salt, we tried a range of vinegars and oils. We tasted fresh herbs and reconfirmed my dislike of Rosemary. I learned so much and we had such a great time. Of course afterwards we were itching to cook and add spices to our house so off we went to The Spice House. We bought nutmeg, vanilla sugar, grand Marsala, saffron among a few others. Yum! Then we wandered around Evanston and headed home where the BF made and grilled ribs while I fell asleep on the sofa!

Oh that reminds me....memo to the cat....the leather sofa is not for jumping, climbing, pawing , clawing or sitting. You have two cat beds, you have our bed , you have the window ledge all of which make perfect perching opportunities. I am going to have a freak out if there are more claw holes. This is the reason why I hesitated getting the leather couch....we have not even finished paying for it. So get off of it now!