Tea with Cathy!

Guess who came to visit me on Sunday? Cathy from my My Little Kitchen was in NYC briefly and took the time and effort to navigate the subways and come uptown to share a cup of tea with me. It was my first time meeting a blogger face-to-face and that made it so exciting!
We chatted non-stop about food and our holiday plans and can I just say that she is the warmest and nicest person ever? Cathy is the person who inspired me to start blogging...I was reading her blog for a while and timidly participated in an event (IMBB:Beans) that she hosted by mailing her my entry. Her kind encouraging words finally helped me take the plunge and start "One Hot Stove" and for that, I will always thank her.
Cathy came bearing gifts (which was TOTALLY unnecessary of course):

The box of home-made candy was a fantastic treat: chocolate-covered nut brittle. With supreme self-restraint, I managed to eat the candy over three days instead of gobbling it up in an hour (It tasted like a better grown-up version of "Cadbury's nutties" that I loved as a kid). According to Cathy, it is very easy to make so now I have to wheedle the recipe out of her :)
The other awesome gift is "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies" which is such an appropriate gift coming from Cathy, because she is working her way through the whole book trying each and every recipe and getting it rated by a panel of cookie-connoisseurs. This is the perfect season for me to try some recipes from this book! Thanks Cathy, for being so thoughtful and coming all the way to meet me!