A very special lady turned 21 on Saturday!

Please meet Nora, my Development Associate ~ Intern ~ Millennial Culture Coach ~ Recipe Namer ~ Cooking Class Assistant and Trivia Buff ~ Occasional Taste-Tester ~ All-Around Favorite College Student.

And yes, that is how I recommend she document the last year of her life on her resume.

I have hinted about Nora, but we have never discussed her in depth, and now seems like a good time to do so! Get ready Nora, we are going to discuss you in depth

Last summer, I realized that there were a lot of blog tasks that I could probably outsource. I love {almost} all parts of blogging, but I have this pesky day job and life outside of work that take up, oh, pretty much all of my time. I knew that I needed to spend my limited free time focused on cooking and creating original content – both writing and photography. Nora handles “other duties as assigned,” such as setting up social media, ex post e-organizing a trail of random notes and documents I have left in my path, assuring me I don’t sound old, researching various trends and ideas, and most importantly “taking a note” whenever I muse “Nora! Take a note!” Her ever-present notebook has saved me more than a few times already.

This is Nora and me after she took quite-a-few-notes at the dry run before my first cooking class. I probably owe her a new pen from the amount of ink she used, “taking notes.” {And I swear she is drinking Pellegrino out of a wine glass, as I rudely had to have the dry run two weeks before her 21st.}

Sometimes I ask Nora to do specific things, and sometimes, usually, she just knows what to do without me asking, and we are on the same page. I get nervous when I ask her if she will work with me for a few more months, and am SO happy when she agrees. It has been so fun to go from just hanging out in my apartment with Nora talking about food and being convinced to start an Instagram account (“Do I really need it? It’s just so many things.” “Yes. You need it.”), to working through my first cooking class, to the future projects we have in store for you.

Quite honestly, I don’t know what Nora could have been wishing for in the below picture, because I already made her that S’Mores Pie. There’s not much else to want, if you ask me. And if you ask Nora’s friend Blair, “It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” {Recipe some time in the future – it’s kind of a process to make, but Nora is worth it!}

Nora! Take a note! Happy Birthday. I can’t wait for our next project!

Birthday Photo Credits: Nora’s friend Sammy. {I promise I was not at a 21st birthday party. A girl can dream though!}