This was a really fun trip :) I’m pretty sure there were hello kitty waffles the next morning! We’d just got off the plane and then went to target and a food shop and came back to have a BBQ. I think Nik actually fell asleep on the table 😂😂 we’d been up 18ish hours by then! 💗

Cindy has a way of getting us to achieve culinary feats we didn’t think possible! Last year we recreated the pastry swans we remembered from DeNoel’s pastry shop in St. Augustine. It was a multi-day process and worth every minute!

Would you believe that Cindy, Julie and I tempered chocolate? First and only time for me.

The following year, we got to go to the French Laundry with Cindy and Matt and my brother and sister-in-law. Cindy drove us all out to Napa, where we visited a winery before heading to the restaurant. It was an epic, glorious, unforgettable meal, and it included a huge truffle in a fancy box that we all got to admire before it was sprinkled all over our food. We’ve had a lot of amazing meals with Cindy and Matt, but I don’t think any of them could top the French Laundry.

In 2008, we took Cindy and Matt to the weirdest, most stressful tea shop in Brighton, the Tea Cosy, where everything is decorated with pictures of the Royal Family, you’re not allowed to use your mobile phone, and you’re not supposed to speak at a volume louder than the clink of a teaspoon against a cup. And Cindy tried (and failed) to sneakily give me bunny ears at Barcamp Brighton. Also in 2008, Jeremy and Matt dueled with balloon sword’s at Norm’s wedding, and two years later Cindy and I duelled as Iron Cindy and Boba Jess.

My wife Cathryn and I saw Cindy and Matt earlier this year, and have some fun photos to share. We poked around downtown and had a nice meal at Burgatory. Our visit was a lot of hanging out and good food.

Swans and birthday: Cindy and I grew up going to the same French pastry shop (DeNoels’) in St. Augustine, Florida, where they made they best cream-filled swans. We’ve often laughed about how we probably saw each other in there as kids but never realized it. In 2005 we finally went to the shop together for the first time - and ordered swans, of course. And when Jeremy and I visited Cindy and Matt in Pittsburgh in 2017, we spent a good two days following a recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook to recreate the swans.