The most amazing meal of my life

Last Wednesday Mr. C and I went to The Catbird Seat in Nashville for dinner with good friends. It took us a month to get reservations and we were pretty excited. Catbird Seat has a very cool concept: only 32 seats surround a U shaped kitchen and the chefs prepare the meal as you watch. The two co-chefs, Jeff Habiger and Erik Anderson, have pretty impressive resumes. It's such a unique restaurant and we loved how each plate was served and described by the chef himself. I felt like I was on Food Network.

It was amazing to watch them prepare each course. If you're a foodie this is your heaven.  And I forgot to mention it is a 10 course tasting menu with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink pairings. I opted for alcoholic (no surprise there) while Mr. C opted for non-alcoholic.

Let's get to the good stuff.

The menu:

Dinner begins and ends with versions of these little guys...

While they may look like oreos, at the start of the meal they are a porcini and parmesan concoction. At the end of the meal they are chocolate and peppermint. Interesting and yummy.

Below, chef's version of a bologna sandwich, an island creek oyster, and his take on a local favorite, hot chicken. Following that was salmon tartare (that word makes me laugh) with rhubarb and curry, then a cold potato soup with white caviar, garlic flowers, crispy potato, and dill (I ate it so fast it is the only plate I didn't get a picture of). Last was monkfish with sea urchin sauce and a bunch of other fancies. It melted in my mouth and was a favorite.

Next up, duck with lavender yogurt, morels, peas, and something I can't pronounce. Then came lamb with red pepper and raspberry (delicious together) and onion and potato. Last, scharfe maxx cheese (a cow's milk cheese from Switzerland) with caraway, rye, onion, and ham.  Thank heaven above they wrote this down for us (although I still had to google).

Finally time for desserts!! The first was a strawberry cornmeal crumb ice cream thingie, then an egg custard with maple, bacon, thyme, and salt, and my favorite, vanilla cake with pineapple something and bourbon beads. See that thing that looks like a marble? It is a teeny little shot of bourbon. How'd they do that?!

I wish I'd taken pictures of the drinks because they were phenomenal, both the non and alcoholic versions. Particularly memorable, a Prosecco drink with orange liqueur and lemon, a 2009 Evening Land Vineyards Chardonnay, and a 2009 Vin des Seigneurs Mayolet (must've been a good year).

Mr. C and I eat like this every night. Just kidding. There will be no Christmas presents for the children after this dinner.  It's true I could have had a Tory Burch handbag instead but it was an experience I'll never forget.  If you're a foodie and you're traveling to Nashville put Catbird Seat on your list:)

Sunday Snapshots

Sunday seemed like a good day to share this little message we stumbled upon on the beach.

Y'all, I lied. I said no more vacation shots but I couldn't resist. 

Quite exciting to see some dolphins playing. They literally swam back and forth for hours.

A critter on our fence....

Family feet...look how cute the wittle toes are:)

Five on Friday

Joining some favorite blogs for 5 on Friday today! Thanks Jennifer for the idea;)

ONE~ I was going through Instagram beach pics and sort of rediscovered this one -- it made me smile so big! I love C's little heart hands and my other C hugging his bear. Such an impromptu moment!

Some other fun pics (sorry, I just can't resist:)

Pirates...

This was kind of funny too...

Okay, promise I'm done!

TWO~ These chips from Costco are fantastic and addictive and with ingredients like kale and chia I'm convinced they are good for me. Mr. C thought they'd be gross but he's now a fan. Plus I love that it is becoming easier (at least for me) to find non-GMO snacks.

THREE~  I did a DIY monogram sign for C's room recently and I'm so happy with how it turned out! Going to share more about it soon.

FOUR~ Pulled out my Lululemon socks yesterday, flipped the cuff down, and saw some hidden inspiration.

How cute is that?

FIVE~  Speaking of running I've been in a bit of a slump but I'm making a comeback. Mr. C and I are running another half on June 22 (not for time this time) and then marathon training starts. EEK! Am I really doing this?

Hope y'all have a fun weekend!

Beach pics round 2

The beach is their happy place.

So happy it's hard not to dance at any given  moment.

I don't think they stopped smiling the whole time we were there. I'm thinking we should go back;)

Finally scored a family pic that I'm going to do a canvas of, yay!

We're silly.

Practicing panning...

My precious babies:)

Happy Tuesday friends!

Factory Fan

I ordered this JCrew Factory necklace while at the beach and it's my new favorite! The dark stones are a deep blue. On sale now;)

Beach pics (part 1 of many:)

Hey friends! Popping in to share some beach pictures. We had a wonderful vacation! This is the third year we've rented the same little house in Miramar.  We have a routine that works for us: hit the beach at 9:30 with toys, drinks, and lots of yums, have lunch, then head to the pool after lunch for more fun.  In the evenings we drive into Seaside/Seagrove and have dinner and treats. Our favorite spot is George's in Alys Beach (Riffault Sancerre, yes please!), but we also love Great Southern Cafe, Pickles burgers, and Seagrove Market Cafe among so many others. I mean, anything there is great, you can't go wrong!

I was excited to actually use my camera again because I had a looong dry spell. I'm feeling inspired again though and I've really missed it.

These vacations to the Gulf are the highlight of my year. So blessed to have this time with all 3 of my boys:) Here come the pictures...

I not so secretly love this picture with my babies.

I take silhouette shots every year, I need to dig the old ones out and compare them! The boys are getting so tall.

The boys LOVE these angry bird kites. One ended up on someone's balcony, OOPS.

Have a great weekend!

Life lately and what I'm ready for

Hey strangers! Life has been busy lately, no slowing down! School is ending and we've had teacher gifts to buy, programs to attend, and parties to wrap up. Plus, I've been doing some fun things with friends that I'd love to share.  I'm just so behind I don't know where to start!

Birthdays...I have a ton of pictures to edit. My boys are officially 4 and 6! I've been wiping a lot of tears lately and I know the world is tired of me saying this, but they grow toooo fast. Ah, my babies:)

I obviously need to do posts just on the birthdays, but until then, this will have to do! They had great birthdays this year surrounded by lots of friends. Very special. Touched my heart to see all the smiles.

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Opportunities... A friend invited me to a taping of a new bible study series Beth Moore is writing. I wasn't allowed to take pictures but it was fun to be part of her audience and see her in action. Wow! She's such a charismatic speaker! And can I just say how pretty she is.

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I'll share one snippet that resonated with me from the taping I went to: Sometimes to get us into something new God brings us someone new. The study inspires renewal and is on Thessalonians. It also touched on how renewal often comes from unexpected places.  It brought to my attention something I'm aware of in my own life but need to be better about: I often pray out of habit.  And when I do that I realize that I'm not even thinking about the words I'm saying. This is also something I work on with the boys -- not repeating the same prayers (although we do do that at night time), but consciously thinking about what we're saying when we pray.

This was a personal message I took away and perhaps you'll take away something different if you do the study. And I only saw one segment -- there were lots more to go! But it was so inspiring and I can't wait to do the study when it's out. If you're interested here's her link. It won't be out till next May but you can at least get sneak peek from her blog!

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Switching gears in a major way, some friends and I went to a very different kind of taping the very next night  for CMA Music Fest. The festival is in June here in Nashville (will air in September) and they pre-taped Darius Rucker, Kacey Musgraves, and Jason Aldean.  We were there for Kacey, who is adorable and very talented and so young I could be her mother. (My 2 other friends stayed to see Jason but Patti and I were starving and left to eat!)

We watched her sound check (and her performance of course) and I had no idea the amount of work that goes into a song. The band worked on their instruments with the sound crew making changes (louder steel guitar please, turn this down, turn this up, thumbs up!) Lighting people worked on lighting. Camera people shouted about angles and told the crowd (us!) where to be and what to do (don't sing if you don't know the lyrics! act like you're having a ball! dance if you can! don't dance if you have no rhythm!) Then Kacey came out, picked up her guitar, and started practice. Oh and we were right against the stage!! Look for us in September, I'll give you a heads up!! Here's the song:

The song has a cool rhythm and I loved watching everyone work. There's a person for everything. Someone even came out and changed her shoes for her, removed her flats as she stood there at the mic and slipped stilettos onto her feet. Then the makeup artist came to touch her up. More singing, more lights, more singing, more makeup.  They taped 5 full segments of the song to edit. I know every word to Blowin' Smoke now. The life of a rising star, wow!

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And now (as I exhale),  it is time for a road trip.....

that ends here......

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Yep, it'll soon be beach time. Could not come at a better time;)

If y'all are still here, thanks for reading;) Happy weekend!!!