This post is sponsored by La Crema. Find my favorite pesto recipe on their blog today!

Hello from Charlotte! I've had such a nice week catching up with friends and hanging out in one of my favorite cities, but today I'm on the La Crema blog sharing one of my all-time favorite recipes--my mom's pesto. She's been making it for years and it is still one of the best things I've ever eaten. She would always bring me little frozen containers of it in college--I can still remember them, small and rectangular with rounded corners. Friends from home still remember my mom's pesto--it really is that good!

Pasta is such an easy thing to make (and so is pesto, actually), but I would always feel so grown-up in my college kitchen; salting the water and setting out plates for a family-style dinner in our slightly ugly University-furnished apartment dining area. I'd defrost a little container of sauce and toss it into the hot spaghetti, top it with more cheese, and voila! Dinner was served.

Rob meets us in Charlotte tomorrow and this weekend we're off to Richmond to meet up with my mom, my brother, and my best friend Tina. We don't have very many plans other than to hang out and cook, which is always on the docket whenever we're together. I love the way food brings people together--it's one of the simplest things but one of the best, don't you think? Cooking has always been such a huge part of my life and it means the world to me that I've been able to share it with the people I love the most (and partner with La Crema once again to share another favorite recipe).

I love nothing more than being in the kitchen with family and friends, whipping up something delicious and enjoying a glass of wine. It's always so nice being back on the east coast and visiting my brother and/or mom because we always do just that.

Wishing you a happy and safe Labor Day weekend, friends! Hope it's full of food and fun.

My mom has been in town for a few days and today Sophie and I are flying back to Roanoke with her before continuing on to Charlotte for almost a week! Rob will meet us in North Carolina and then we’re all meeting back up in Richmond to spend some time with my brother and a couple of my best friends.

I’m really excited to take her on some adventures and see some friends! I’ve never traveled with Sophie “alone” before—I’ll pretty much be with friends or family the whole time—but it already feels weird to think about her not seeing Rob every day. I feel so ridiculously lucky to have wound up with this little tight-knit family of mine.

Wish me luck! The last time we took her on a cross-country flight she was cutting two teeth, so I’m hoping for a happier day of travel this time. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! 

I've finally gotten back into the habit of reading every night before I go to bed and it's been so nice--I'm definitely way too addicted to my phone so I always try to set it aside a few times a day (especially when Sophie is awake). Making time to read is such an important thing to me, so I like to have a working list of titles that I'm currently working on or plan to read next.

Here's what that looks like right now:

• Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking: I've had my eye on this book for a long time (I listened to the author on an episode of the Bon Appétit podcast a while ago and loved her). It's kind of a cookbook but it's also just a book about cooking, which I love. And the illustrations are so good. I love sitting down with it and a cup of coffee every morning for a few minutes.
• What to Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom to Her Daughter: This is on my list but I don't know if I'll be able to get through it. It looks beautiful but sad. I tend to love that kind of stuff but since having Sophie I've kind of stayed away from anything that might make me even more emotional than I already am.
• Things Are What You Make of Them: Life Advice for Creatives: I started following Adam J. Kurtz on Instagram recently and I just love him. Can't wait to read this.
• Amateur Hour: Motherhood in Essays and Swear Words: Really digging novels and essays about motherhood these days, and this one has been recommended by a few people who are almost always reading something good. 
• The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Child More Control Over Their Lives: A friend just recommended this to me and said she is really loving it. I tend to be an anxious and somewhat control freak-y person, so I really like the idea of being conscious of how that could affect a kid and their own anxiety/development.
• Educated: A Memoir: Another highly recommended book (and if it involves a cult then I'm definitely going to read it).

What are you reading these days?

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