Bites of My Life

Last week was busy with fall work projects and ended with jam packed weekend full of friends and family in town to celebrate the big OU vs. Texas game, a family baby on the way, and more. Hope you all had a great weekend too!

-Snack plate = the best lunch in my opinion.
-A treat getting to do dinner at one of my best friends and her husband’s new house. She cooked an insane What’s Gaby Cookin’ meal for us.
-A VERY happy mail day with Ina Garten’s new book arrived after pre ordering it. Read it cover to cover with coffee out of my Barefoot Contessa mug.
-I love everything Emily Giffin writes, but her newest book The Lies That Bind, is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
-Mom and sis in town for the weekend to explore the inaugural Dallas location of the Kips Bay Show House.
-Just a small glimpse of the show house. It lived up to all of its hype.
-Post home tour ranch waters at José. Some of the best in Dallas!
-Celebrated the next Baby K on the way with my sort of sister-in-law!
-Suffered a mild heart attack in the process, but came out on top with the OU win over Texas!

Annie

Bites of My Life

Only three months left of 2020. Weren’t we just three month’s into 2020, like, yesterday? Oh ya, then a pandemic hit, life went numb for a while, life is weird still, but we are pushing through with less than 90 days until 2021. This year. This year. Oh Lordy this year.

Dramas aside, last week was a good little week. Busy with work, busy with friends, and just enough down time to binge the new Netflix show Emily in Paris. I’m trying to be Emily. Move to Paris, work in social media marketing, and fall in love with a hot chef. Yes please!!

-I was treated to a Defined Dish meal and gluten-free cinnamon cake from the sweetest mother-daughter duo I’ve gotten to meet in Dallas!
-Holiday Nutpods! It’s already becoming the most wonderful time of the year! _ANNIETUCKER for 15% your Nutpods order.
-Run don’t walk to Trader Joe’s asap for their new cassava grain-free chips! While you are there get the truffle potato chips too!
-Found this AHA apple ginger sparkling water at Target. Here for fall-flavored seltzer!
-Sweet Potato Hummus, the recipe is on the blog!
-Played production assistant with Mary and Hannah Saturday morning. Translation: Mary was getting headshots taken by the wonderful Hannah Vista Photo for her budding interior design career and I came along for moral support and to play pump-up jams aka The Parent Trap soundtrack.
-Emily in Paris, who else binged it this weekend? Eagerly awaiting season 2!
-My favorite Dallas house dawned with pumpkins.
-The Defined Dish enchilada soup on deck for this week.

Annie

Bites of My Life

I felt like a real working professional this week. I took a “business trip” (lol) home to OKC on Monday for work meetings, the opening of our 7th Oklahoma Fuzzy’s and to help with the launch of our new fall menu at The Jones Assembly. Got back in town late Wednesday and finished out the week with a pumpkin carve, the Maggie Rogers concert and quick 20 hour lake trip and now ready for a new week. A great week indeed!

-Best part of still working for The Social Order in OKC, is more excuses to get to see this little pup!
-Another Fuzzy’s under our belt! It’s always fun to help and see a new restaurant open. And to see guests genuinely so excited to see it open.
-The new fall menu at The Jones Assembly is not one to sleep on.
-After work walks are my favorite, especially when the weather is gorgeous and houses are starting to decorate for the holidays. I loved this little pumpkin stoop.
-My pumpkin has a bow on it. Are you surprised? Our resident hostess Olivia threw the most fun pumpkin carve.
-Take. A. Bite! My girl Bailey caught my name de plume in action while shooting for work this week.
-A very very spontaneous lake trip just an hour outside of Dallas. We caught sunset, sunrise and then were back on the road in to Dallas.
-Before packing up, a HUGE Sunday lake breakfast was aa must.
-QT with my girl Caroline! I love Dallas for bringing me Carol! We met for Pressed Freeze and the seasonal pumpkin flavor is all it’s cracked up to be.

Annie

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies

Pumpkin cookies let’s go. But not those cakey pumpkin cookies with the icing. I can’t with those. These are dense yet fluffy, soft and chewy, but crunchy with the addition of pecans.

With a light pumpkin taste, but a heavy spice flavor, these Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate cookies are everything I want in a “pumpkin cookie.”

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies
yields 30-32 cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips (you can substitute for chocolate chips, or seasonal pumpkin chips and cinnamon chips)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth. About 1 minute. Add in both sugars and beat on medium for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. On low, stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract until combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once the dough has almost come together, but still a little floury, add the pecans and white chocolate chips.

*I roughly chop my white chocolate chips (just like in my Perfect CCCs). It lends to a prettier, but more rustic looking cookie which I love.

Using a 1 ½ inch cookie scoop, form golf ball size balls of dough. Place them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Do not overcrowd the pans. I got 12 balls of dough on a pan, at most. Rough the cookies up a bit so they have pecans and white choclate peeking out. Add a few more of each to the top of the cookies if needed. Optional, sprinkle the top of each cookie with flaky Maldon salt.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, the key is to not over bake these! Shy on the underdone side.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Came back from Colorado with a cold, but kid of “took advantage” of the time to lay low and rest. I worked from home most days, drank copious amounts of tea, ate soup and kept my workouts very low maintenance, some days skipping them all together. I started to feel more myself just in time for the weekend and had a really great weekend in my city. Now the countdown is on until my apartment is full of my best friends and everyone is reunited in Dallas for OU/Texas!

-Monday meal prep after the bachelorette weekend. Kept things simple with Crock-Pot chicken and seasonal roasted veggies.
-Return of golden milk this week. Perfect for fall but also perfect for the cold I was battling last week.
-Last week’s recipe post including bulletproof coffee and a Whole30 recap.
-Woke up Saturday craving fried eggs. I normally cook scrambled at home, but two crispy eggs cooked in lots of ghee, really hit the spot.
-Being extra festive at the Farmer’s Market. The Dallas Farmer’s market is a favorite weekend activity for me.
-Harvest Pumpkin loaf from Central Market was obviously a must.
-Post-whole30 l i v i n g at my favorite restaurant in Dallas. Proof that I love this hole-in-the-wall seen in my 3 Months in D post!
-Leftovers repurposed for Sunday lunch. A sweet potatoes filled with Crock-Pot chicken and roasted carrots from my meal prep.
-Since it’s October and still in the 90’s I made my Pumpkin Green Smoothie into a bowl for dinner. Fall-ish but make it weather approp.

Annie