Bites of My Life

Literally only have food to show for last week. Are we surprised, no? But I promise I did more than eat. Seem appropriate since November is the eating month of all months. T-8 days until my favorite holiday!

-Shared my Mother Earth bowl at-home hack on Instagram last week!
-Has anyone else bought the corn on the cob popcorn from Trader Joe’s? It’s just popcorn, but the fact that it pops off the cob is just too fun.
-It has been coooold in Dallas. Once the weather changes my tastebuds instantly crave oatmeal. I legit only eat it in the winter.
-Mom came down for a quick two-day trip! We had THE most amazing meal at Gemma. Highly recommend. The dried fig and gouda biscuits and baked oysters were unreal.
-Eggs, coffee and the Today Show with mom at my apartment, followed by a walk on the Katy Trail was the best little morning.
-We got zero pictures together while she was here, but I give you yet another photo of the food we ate. We split the California Turkey sandwich at Bird Bakery and I requested some of their GF crackers. I don’t know why but they are so good!
-Drove to Fort Worth Saturday morning to see two of my best friends who were in town for a wedding. We ended up at Austin City Taco and the Migas taco was phenom.
-New art to brighten up my little white apartment.
-Wabi House is the best ramen in town! I went Friday and had a little bit of broth and noodles leftover. I beefed up the leftovers with a soft boiled egg, mushrooms and corn!

Annie

Thanksgiving bites: If you are planning your menu this week let me point out my Homemade Pie Crust I swear by! If pie isn’t your thing or too daunting to make, these Pecan Pie Bars are perfect! And it’s not Thanksgiving morning at our house without a piece of Breakfast Casserole and Pumpkin Bread while the Macy’s parade is on!

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

Full in more ways than one. Thankful for so much delicious food over the past few days, thankful for a few days off, thankful for the joy this time of year brings, and thankful for QT with my family and good friends.

-Work Thanksgiving was a success! Fun afternoon getting our employees out of the restaurants and having our managers cook lunch for them. My sweet potatoes were on point, but apparently no one likes sweet potatoes but me…
-New traditions getting instilled and I love it. Sis and sister’s soon to be sis-in-law/our good friend Chloe and I all got together Wednesday to have a pie baking party.
-The Best Breakfast Casserole and our Tucker Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition of OJ with raspberries is how we started our turkey day. Not pictured: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
-Our family does Thanksgiving as a late lunch around 2pm, so appetizers are v important.
-Chloe, our stand-in brunette sister, missed you Claire!
-The fruits of our pie baking labor. There may still be leftovers in the fridge, but 5 pies seemed necessary at the time. Chocolate, cherry, pecan, pumpkin and apple!
-L E F T O V E R S (with some celery on the side to try to be healthy. Don’t be fooled though, this was only 1 of 3 servings of leftovers).
-Take a bite of my 1am nachos. I did a poor job documenting my Friday and Saturday nights, but they involved some really good friends and really good times. Hence the late night nachos ;)
-My beautiful Gaga went to heaven Sunday morning. She instilled my love for dressing up and costumes and helped my sisters and I develop the best imagination. I hope I have half her beauty at her age, and her fashion sense!

Annie

Bite of encouragement: There has been an influx of bad news being spread in my little community. Deaths, illness, cancer, you name it. However, there is something about this time of year that puts it all in perspective. This time of year also lends to extra time with family and friends when you need them most.

Bites of My Life

“Now it’s your turn to say Happy Thanksgiving back.”

“Happy, Thanksgiving, back.”

anyone?

Thanksgiving week is here and I’m giddy. After a weekend of no plans (hallelujah), I’m feeling recharged and ready for the holiday week. We are having a big all-restaurant group Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow and made 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes yesterday to contribute. Hoping the first half of the week goes by quick, so we can skip to the big day!

-Almond Nog > Regular Nog, especially this brand. Packaging on point too.
-Trying to step away from gray and black everyday this time of year, this hot pink sweater is helping!
-Tuesday started off stressful and uneasy. Did my best to take initiative of the day and opted out of going int the office (thankful I have this luxury, I know it’s rare) and working from a cute coffee shop instead. My stress levels have been a bit all over the place lately, but I’m working on managing them. I knew going into my office wouldn’t help, so I chose to work in a peaceful surrounding and with my favorite drink.
-Pie and dressing transporting to Friendsgiving in style. This piece from Scout is one of my favorites. I use mine all the time and I’ve gifted it 3 times!
-I used this recipe for the pie and this one for the dressing, would recommend both.
-Friendsgiving was a raging success. Bonus points to all my friends after tasting their cooking abilities.
-Oklahoma City people, OSO on Paseo is o so delicious! Order the taco salad.
-Welcome Sur la Table, welcome. Kathleen and I, bought our mom a cooking class for her birthday and I literally can’t wait.
-If you like peppermint bark you MUST go but this peppermint bark popcorn from Trader Joe’s ASAP.

Annie

Breakfast bite: Did you miss last week’s recipe post? It’s the perfect thing to make for your family to eat on for breakfast over the holiday. I am!

Bites of My Life

Thankful for my family, my friends, my job, my home, health, experiences, opportunities, the list goes on. 

-A Very Jones Thanksgiving took place on Monday for lunch. Our chef team and managers all contributed dishes (pumpkin bread a la me!). I loved this retro honey glazed ham our chefs came up with!
-Thankful for these adorable cookies and thankful for my incredible work family. Monday celebrations continued from lunch into dinner. 
-Topped up with my favorite, as you all know, a brandy ice. Mentioned last week too!
-Cozied up in a house all to myself with Bon Appetit and Scandal on DVR.
-Monumental night hosting Willie Nelson at The Jones Assembly. 
-Singing along with my momma! "You were always on my mind."
-7:30am wake up call to get the pies going. 
-ThankFULL.
-No pies left behind.
-Post turkey, ham, dressing and pie detox.
-Detox smoothie followed by a plate of leftovers. 
-Holidays with a baby around really are the best. 

Annie

Annie