National Catty Cowls Day

Wrap your cowls on three. Ready? 1...2...3!!!! If you own a cowl, wear it on Friday to celebrate our annual Fall Retreat. See you in Jackson playa!

Happy Birthday Farmer Faith!

TCK found their hands in the dirt for this birthday celebration. Farmer Faith happily gave us a tour of her stomping grounds and we helped her tend to her medicinal herb garden. The weeds in this place never stood a chance once we arrived. We hope you had the happiest birthday Faither and will love you until you compost!

Spa Night Prep

We had the ingenious idea to invigorate our spirits between the chaos of the holidays and the onset of Spring. Hence our first annual spa night, hosted by yours truly because I missed my calling as a full body technician.

We had nail polish in almost every color of the rainbow. I used Martha Stewart's recipe to make bath fizzies for the hand soaks.

Note: The first batch I made, I forgot to add the sugar, but they held together much better than the second batch which included the sugar. Just store in a jar, like so...

The fizzies that did hold together were given away as spa favors to recreate the experience at home.

Faith created our tablescape for the food:

I always feel better when Faith helps me get setup for an event. Entertaining guests is one of her fortes!

Now we just have to wait for the guests. ~Caesar

Retreat! - Section C

I think I am gonna start letting the pics do some of the talking for our trip. Our friends finally showed up by the way.

Tave and Mel with sunglasses headbands.

Jenn doing a dance...as usual.

yummy - snacky - lunchy

Mel prepping our craft. We should finish that sometime.

Old lady rocking.

Someone should keep an eye on her.

Aside from the lethal stares, check out our cute matching cowls. I know!

Not sure how you can be sad with two glasses of good wine.

Maybe she just needed her friend.

Ciao!!!

Retreat - Part Deux

Hello and welcome back to TCK Retreat 2011, Part Deux! Faith and I didn't make it too far down the road from the winery when we stopped to try Crown Valley Brewing.

I am not sure it was necessary, but we each ordered a sampler of beers and at this point had still eaten very little.

Wait, that's three samplers...I am pretty confident that is not all ours.

 Then again...maybe we should head to the cabin. I am starting to get pretty hungry.

Rothbrick Winery - complete with horse trails, two cabins, some ponds and wine! Sidebar - this place is highly recommended by all of us in the Kitchen and have already set our date to visit them next year. If you live in MO, check them out. Lorri and Steve are great hosts!

And the horses came right up to our windows the first night! Aren't they magnificent?

Faith had some trouble containing her excitement so we blew off some energy taking more pics and finding dinner.

This is gonna be, like, the longest set of vacation posts ever and we were only gone two days. I know, right?! We are so amazing.

Retreat! - Part Once

Happy New Year! How was your last year? If I must say, 2011 kind of got away from us here in the Kitchen. We still hung out for quality girl time, but sometimes seeing each other once a month was difficult to achieve. Never fear though, the 2012 planning meeting is in a couple of weeks so we can make our grandiose plans!

In the meantime though, let's retreat down memory lane, to a simpler time, in fair November, amidst the falling leaves and swirling winds. The whisper of future frost and delicious wine. A time when The Catty girls get out of Dodge for a weekend of ladie's night bliss. And I do mean bliss...

Sunrise on 11-12-2011, Jackson, MO

Faith and I got the roadtrip started this year first thing on Friday morning. Our motto for the weekend was "We can do whatever we want." So we did.

BFF wine and good times, 11-11-2011, Ste. Gen, MO

Our first stop was the Crown Valley winery in Ste. Genevieve. While sampling our wines we watched the bison roam in the field while the sun warmed up the breeze and we could forgo jackets.

Bison at Crown Valley winery, 11-11-2011, Ste. Gen, MO

Good conversation filled the first part of our morning as we paired the wine with camaraderie. We also ran into an old pal from the 80's.

We really wished all of our girls could have been with us. The weather and scenery was beautiful and we were kind of drunk by noon. That's a good thing on vacation. I think we were both grateful for the bonding time we were able to spend together though too. From what I understand, Mel and Jenn tightened their bonds on the car ride to the cabin the following morning.

Check back next Sunday for Part Deux as it seems we have some catching up to do! Mooches!!!

Catty Cuteness

Sometimes you just need to grab a BFF, a bearded photographer, some scarfs and make the face! Voila! Instant photo-cutes!

 
Anyone up for some TCK Glamour Shots? With some cool 80's hair and sequined blazers with shoulder pads?

RetroBlogging - Wing Ding 2011

Back in April, F-Bomb and her hubby decided to throw a party to honor an American favorite - the small and succulent chicken wing. Several tantalizing entries were prepared and not all just your typical HOT wings. There were chili wings, smoked apricot, sesame and FIRE to name a few.

Judges at the ready.....GO!

 There were also some snacks to help soothe the heat, compliment the flavors and satisfy the non-meat eaters at the event. The chili or bean soup or whatever it was, was amazing by the way.

While the votes were being counted the Dingers in attendance filled their gullets further with a chicken snack...

This loony rice krispie concoction was a hit and welcome follow up to the savory services of the day. What's that? Oh wait, the votes have been counted.

 And we have a winner-winner-chicken dinner! The "Chile Wangs" took home the prize. Gigantic bottles filled with ranch dressing and a vat of hot sauce. Woot!

Now, technically, this is not a TCK event. It was all Faith and Tim's, but it got me to thinking. Why doesn't the Catty Kitchen host an event? I mean, we would obviously be really good at it and how cute would it be? I know, right. New Year's kind of seems like a natural option for us, but I would love to be in attendance at any event we host. Mud-wrestling and slip-n-slide anyone?