Much needed family time.

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."  - Desmond Tutu

Well, my family certainly was a gift to me on Monday. My little cousin Beth invited me to a dinner at Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis with our other cousin Leah. Beth recently graduated from Le Courdon Bleu in Minneapolis and is a phenomenal chef at the Nordstrom's Cafe. She is truly talented and loves what she does - despite the crazy hours! Leah is a junior at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and has an exciting internship at General Mills this summer...can you tell I'm proud of them?!

We come from a HUGE family, my dad is one of 9...so we have many cousins, and barely know some of them. Beth and Leah both live so close to me but we never made concrete plans to see each other until this week, and it was so much fun and so good to see them, that I am hoping we can make it a regular thing.

So, back to our dinner experience. I had never been to Restaurant Alma but my friend Gina and her design company designed the interior of the place, and I've always wanted to go, so I jumped at the opportunity to come when Beth asked me. Beth's friend is a chef at Alma's and offered a complimentary meal for her and friends. Well, we took full advantage! Being from a family that doesn't always order unique dishes like rabbit, duck or mussels (unique in my mind!), we were all excited and slightly nervous to try new things. The restaurant manager gave us just about every single dish on the menu, we all tried everything! Leah had her first experience eating rabbit, and I tried duck for the first time. Definitely not a meat I will choose to order again, but an experience nonetheless.

Leah and her rabbit!

After a very large assortment of courses, and of course dessert, we were stuffed! I would definitely recommend Alma's again and am so thankful for the generosity of Beth's friend for taking us to such a great dinner! 


My darling cousins Leah and Beth at our dinner.