Good morning friends! I hope you had a splendiferous weekend and are happy with the outcome of the Super Bowl. Frankly, I’m just impressed with myself for actually watching most of the game. See? Miracles can happen, folks. 😉 Before I jump into the weekend update (and my very first book club experience!), I need to first and foremost wish a big happy birthday to my Mama!

Thanks for being born so that you could subsequently give birth to me. Also, you know, ’cause you’re awesome.

So! Where to begin with this weekend. It was a-hustlin’ and a-bustlin’ with activity, that’s for sure! Friday night things got kicked off with the first ever DC Blogger Book Club. Claire had the marvelous idea to start up a book club so that we ladies could be fancy and intellectual and have yet another excuse to eat food, and I hosted the first one!

Claire & moi

The book that was chosen for our first sesh was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It was a very touching story given from the perspective of a dog, so naturally I was all about it.

Sarah, Ericka, and Jess in the book club circle.

I thought it was a great conversation book since there were several polarizing characters, and I just loved the opportunity to think critically about something for once!

Ericka & my roommate Erin

Jess and Carly

Rachel and Amy

And can we talk about the food for a second? I mean, it was bound to be awesome — we are primarily food bloggers, after all. But Cheezy Pete’s, I’m not sure I was quite prepared:

There was cake balls and s’mores cupcakes and cookies and chips and dips and… oy. It was awesome, needless to say.

Nom. Oh yeah, and there was wine too.

I think next time I will focus more on providing more wine since clearly we’ve got the food part in the bag, hehe. We already have our book for next month picked out: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. We’re still ironing out the details, but if you’re in the area and would like to join us for next time, let me know!

The rest of the weekend was, naturally, pretty much centered around last night’s Big Game. As if I hadn’t already eaten enough Friday night, there was a smorgasbord to dive into at the Super Bowl party I was at Sunday! Our contributions ended up being my mango guacamole (natch), and Cassie’s buffalo chicken bites (which were divine, even though I did a step wrong, haha).

Hoooooeeeee! Wednesday’s Weigh-in should be… interesting, given the extreme amounts of snackage that occurred, but maybe by then things will have evened out a little. And if not, oh well. It’s the Super Bowl, son!

Guff, what a post. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a doozy like this to put up! I hope that your weekends were as food- and fun-filled as my own. Are you celebrating a Giants win today, or mourning a Patriot loss?