Yep, you guessed it. That’s the fat cat that the title of this post is referring to. She’s one of our little cutie patooties – the Sneezer bear. I just like this picture a lot – I may have positioned her slightly… but once she was on her back, she stayed there (and, in fact, seemed quite comfortable). She was purring. I hope this makes you smile.

Needless to say, things have been busy the last couple of weeks. Last week, mom showed up in Chicago Thursday night, and I took the day off from work on Friday. We spent much of Friday morning bumming around the apartment, and then went into downtown for lunch. Have you ever been to the French Market in downtown Chicago? If not, it’s definitely worth checking out. If you like crepes, chocolates, pastry, and fresh veggies, it’s a pretty good little market nestled in the western portion of downtown. We picked up a box of chocolates from Canady Le Chocolatier (where I will soon be taking a chocolate making class!), grabbed a few entremets and a croissant from Vanille Patisserie, and selected some fresh bananas and oranges to bring home.

As for lunch… holy cow. We saw several people eating what appeared to be the most delicious pastrami sandwich I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Although there are several amazing food vendors in the French Market, it was an easy choice: Fumare Meats for a Montreal-style pastrami sandwich. I wish I could have taken a photo – the lighting just wasn’t doing it for me. But trust me people – this was some seriously delicious meat. The sandwich consisted of hand-sliced meat that was cured and naturally smoked, peppered and slow-cooked on the premises (which their website says they do daily). We got the end piece of the meat, and therefore got the nice crusty bits of peppery outside along with our moist and  falling apart “inner” meat. The meat itself is served on dark rye bread with a side of spicy mustard. The mustard has just the right amount of kick – you can feel it in the back of your nose 🙂 My mom and I split one sandwich, but we agreed that we each could have probably eaten a whole one.

So yes, delicious and super yummy. That’s really all I can say. I have now found my new favorite meat in Chicago (which says a lot, since this is a city that prides itself on it’s tasty meats). I can totally imagine myself stopping by there on my way home from work to pick up sandwiches for dinner. This is the best idea I’ve had all week. Plus, the man that owns the place (and slices the meat) is so completely charming – we only chatted with him briefly, but you can just tell when someone loves their craft and takes pleasure in putting a smile on people’s faces. Based on the website, it looks like he left the corporate world to follow this passion. All the more reason to love it!

So yes, after having the best sandwich ever, mom and I walked around downtown, browsed the bookstore, and then went home. We spent the rest of the weekend doing similar things – running some errands in the middle of the day, but otherwise relaxing in the apartment. It was a nice weekend, and makes me wish my mom lived closer so we could spend time visiting local yarn shops together, browsing books together at the public library, buying fun kitchen supplies for new adventures, shopping for vintage cookbooks…

It was a good weekend.