Hello there...

and thank you for visiting my blog. I have been threatening my friends and family with this blog for three years and I finally did it (yay me!). This is the portion where I awkwardly talk about myself. Feel free to skip this part and go straight to the recipes and cool stuff. Seriously. No? You are still reading this? Really?!? WHY?!?! Okay, well, you asked for narcissistic ramblings so here goes nothing...

My name is Caitlin. I live in Birmingham, AL. I am the third born of nine kids. Yup, you read that right. Nine. No, that is not a typo (though if you keep reading I am sure you can find plenty). I have five brothers and three sisters, all of whom are biologically 100% related to me. No, my parents weren't Catholic or Mormon, they were just plain crazy and wanted a bunch of kids. The family joke is that Mom wanted six and Dad wanted twelve so they compromised with nine. For real though, my Dad wanted twelve kids (WTF?!?!?). My two older siblings are married and have kids with their respective partners while my younger siblings are all unattached. There is a twenty year age gap between the oldest who is in his 40's and the youngest who is in his 20’s. I am hoping to eventually exploit my siblings' various talents and lovely faces on this blog but I have to get them to "agree to it" first (dramatic eye roll). But enough about my big, loud, unorthodox family, you are here to learn about me right? 

I lived in five states before I reached the sixth grade. Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan and Sweet Home Alabama. I briefly lived in Florida during my senior year of high school but those were dark days (just kidding Florida! You know I love you. #disneyfangirl). Having lived in so many places for such short periods of time I never really put down roots or felt like any place was Home. Then my older sister moved to a little city called Birmingham. I visited her and fell in love. It was like Goldie Locks trying out the Baby Bear's things. Not too small, not too big, not too hard, not soft, etc. Birmingham was just right. After attending the University of Alabama (obligatory Roll Tide) I moved myself straight to the Ham and have never looked back. 

I have two kitties, Bastet and Baby, and one child... I mean husband. His name is Joey. I like to pick on him and he very graciously only picks on me when I am being exceptionally irritating. I am lucky enough to be married to my best friend and partner in crime. He encourages me in my introverted hobbies and endeavors while keeping me from becoming a total hermit. No easy task but he carries it off with ease. Speaking of hobbies, I love cooking (obviously), party planning (duh), reading, climbing/bouldering, listening to Podcasts (#SSDGM) and watching British Crime Dramas on Netflix. 

Okay, I am tired of talking about myself, so I am going to go cook something yummy. Stay tuned for more about me in future posts.