yumm

Before all of the deliciousness of Christmas and our Scandinavian New Year's dinner, we had some pretty epic treats with friends.

Taylor and Kali came to visit, which in and of itself was amazing. I had sent friends back home an email about a crazy good flight deal I had seen from MSP to Oakland. To our great excitement Taylor and Kali jumped on the opportunity to come out and see us!! Taylor had some vacation time he had to use up so he graced us with his presence for a little over a week :)

I think some people wonder if we ever get tired of having guests stay at our place. The honest to goodness trust is NO! We LOVE running 'Hotel Jones' and alway manage to find fun new things to do/try. Take for example our Dippin Dots experiment - I mean cooking project....

With some simple ingredients from the grocery and a little magic we made oh so yummy chocolate and strawberry ice cream. There was some debate over which flavor ruled but surprisingly strawberry won out in the end (a rare victory for strawberry, I thought!)

Taylor and Kali also got to spend some time with Paul, both in SF and up in wine country. They borrowed the car one day to take in the sights and tastes of Sonoma with Paul. Lucky ducks.

Kali headed back home after a long weekend and we continue to eat very, very well. See above & below: homemade pasta with mushrooms, fresh salad with kale chips and roasted brussel sprouts. I am seriously loving brussel sprouts right now - call me crazy.

We don't see Paul or Taylor often enough but when we do get together we sure to eat well and have a ton of fun.

p.s. is that not the prettiest little dining room Paul has?!