You know what warms my heart?  By now, I’m sure you know that it’s Eric and my crazy dogs. But my friends come right after that. And tantamount to that is getting to see old friends after a long absence. I always consider this a precious gift.  One of those precious gifts recently came in the form of seeing childhood friend, Maureen. Bestie John, Eric and I met up with Maureen at Park Tavern in Atlanta while she was visiting our city with Carly, the daughter of another of our classmates (honestly, where has the time gone?)

I picked Park Tavern for their view of Piedmont Park and the city. There really is no better view in town.

Our Beautiful Atlanta

Rain was forecasted for our dinner together, but all the tables are under umbrellas, so no worries. Eric and I arrived first, then John and then our guest of honor, Maureen, with sweet Carly.  We picked a table with the best view of the park and the skyline. Frankly, the food wasn’t really a consideration here. But we did have a few nice plates of hummus and wings.

My Darling, Eric

Hummus and Flatbread

John and Me

Maureen and Carly

Maureen and her siblings, Eileen & Kevin, are the most creative people I know. Maureen is the owner of a video production company, Eileen is an accomplished photographer and Kevin is not only a fantastic voice over talent, but also acts in high end productions in Washington, DC.  When Maureen, Eileen and I were in elementary school our playtime included our own filmmaking company, Rolling Ball Productions. We still laugh about it.

We had the most wonderful visit. Maureen has kept in touch with everyone and caught us up with all the news. I thought I was doing well to keep up with two friends from school and a few others on Facebook, but Maureen is astonishing in her ability to maintain all these friendships. We talked about friends I hadn’t thought of in years. It was the greatest reunion.

And Maureen seemed exactly like the same redheaded girl I knew from so many years ago. I mean, we were girl scouts together!

Maureen & John Recreate Their Homecoming Photo

Yup, Maureen and John were each other’s date for CHS homecoming.  I went with a group of girlfriends. Maureen, if you have the original picture, I bet John would love to see it! Me, too!

Three Childhood Friends

John, Maureen & I Ham It Up By Someone's Rolls Royce

Maureen, thanks so much for visiting!  Hope to see you, Eileen and Kevin all on Labor Day.

xoxo, Patti

I imagine many of you will be throwing parties this weekend for what is, for the most part, a national holiday – Super Bowl Sunday.

The commercials are the draw for me. But the game can be fun to watch, too. What’s the key thing for the day, though? Let’s say it together, shall we?  The FOOD, of course!

Your crew has already tried the wings, the take out pizza, the onion dip out of a container.  How about switching it up a bit this year? I am going to give you some recipes that will make you look like the star I know you are – and easy! Because no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen when the party is in the living room, right?

How about these beauties?

Super Bowls!

Aren’t they adorable? The recipe is from darling Paula over at Paula Does Pasta. So go on over to her site and give these a try. Doesn’t the photo just make you want to jump in?

Another easy dish (although it takes some planning) is to take a pork butt, put it in your crockpot with a bottle of Mojo sauce (or two, depending on the size of your butt…the pork butt, silly!), put it on high for about 3 hours and shred. Serve on tiny dinner rolls topped with cole slaw. This is crazy tasty and easy!

My Choice of Mojo Sauce

How about some Mexican Hummus? From over at My Kitchen Addiction – doesn’t that sound great? And healthy (shhhh…we won’t tell…)

A Nice, Healthy Nosh

And you are absolutely going to need a dessert – I love making cookies since you can walk around with them. Giant cookies. Don’t feel like baking? Pick them up at your favorite bakery – there is no shame in getting some help.

May the best commercial team win!

xoxo, Patti

I’ve shared Sugar Coma with you and the macaron class on Sunday.  My thought was, heck, the house is clean – lets give a Golden Globes party for our besties after all the guests from  the macaron class go home. Made sense to me. And we had missed giving our New Year’s Day pajama party because we were both ill…so lets make it a Golden Globes Pajama Party! Whoo Whee!

Plus, Shameeka had been so sweet to leave the cheese and fruit tray with me – how could I let that go to waste?  We had a bunch of frozen dim sum in the freezer, which Eric supplemented with the yummiest onion tarts from Trader Joes. See?  You don’t need to cook every single time. Frozen pot stickers and onions tarts popped right in the oven and onto our trays. Perfect! It also didn’t hurt that Rick and Denise brought a killer crawfish dip (it was so good, y’all), John and Danny brought delicious pita chips with hummus, spinach dip and salsa, Tracy contributed chips and onion dip and Dave and Sue brought some crazy yummy cookies.

With jammies on (ok, so I was really the only one truly in pajamas – but I had been so busy all weekend I didn’t care), plate in lap and beverage in hand we commenced our viewing and critiquing of every person that showed up on the screen (what is that thing on Drew Barrymore’s dress? how insane is Ricky Gervais? what is Mickey Rourke wearing?) Oh, it was fun. And perfectly chill.

Yummy Onion Tarts From Trader Joes

Dave's Cookies Before They Were Completely Devoured

Our Gang

Go on, mix it up and give a pajama party. I double dog dare you.

xoxo, Patti