Bites of My Life

Happy first day of summer! I made a huge bowl of this red lentil pasta salad yesterday. Pasta salad screams summer for me! My mom used to make this bow tie pasta salad to have in the fridge during the summer when my sisters and I were out of school. Nostalgia at it’s finest.

I’m coming off a truly superb weekend with newer and some older Dallas friends that has me so confident of my location. In the benediction from church yesterday, the pastor said “ You go nowhere by accident.” I know it’s been two years, but I still hear and feel this reminder often that I am where I am supposed to be.

-Summer means copious amounts of salads, smoothies, watermelon, ice cream, and anything cold. Made my Del Corazon salad for dinners this past week.
-Sungold watermelons! They taste the same as a normal watermelon but are more fun to eat because yellow!!
-Started Stephanie May Wilson’s new prayer journal last week. Already so encouraging.
-Happy hour at Jordan’s to kick off the weekend! She’s the best host in the biz.
-Ellie and I took ourselves out for a boozy belated and early birthday lunch. We were there for almost three hours and could have stayed longer! I love this friend so much!
-Because the natural progression after a sushi and martini dinner is a late-night chips, salsa, churros, and Modelo move.
-Got to break out my new hat twice over the weekend. I’m obsessed with the monogrammed bandanna.
-Got into too much trouble with this girl gang over the weekend. See you all in Vegas ;) !
-Trendy martini but make it decaf!

Annie

Bites of My Life

Happy two years in Dallas to me! Can you believe? I actually can. I feels like it’s been 5+. I mean that in a good way. I feel rooted and established in Dallas, something I really strived to feel after initially moving.

It’s also mid June already. How? It is summer, like summer summer. And the temperatures are to show for it. I felt like this weekend was a constant state of sweat, shower, sweat, shower, sweat, shower. I went on a walk with two newer friends that I adore, on Sunday. We stopped for ice coffee first, then walked the Katy Trail in Dallas. By the end of the walk we were 1. sweaty messes and 2. famished. We stopped for lunch and I think everyone in the restaurant thought we had just jumped in a pool! Dog days are here.

-One of my go-to dinners in the ole single girl recipe bag. Just a Trader Joe’s Turkey burger salad. Pretty crave worth in the summer.
-I’ve been in a routine of buying a rotisserie chicken at the store to start the week to have for meals. I decided to try my hand at making homemade bone broth with the leftover chicken carcass. It’s so easy to make, and it yielded about a week’s worth of broth that I sipped on mid-morning. Bone broth has some great health benefits, but it really just made me feel like I was doing something good and healthy for myself!
-700 printed photos later and my photo albums are now up to date to document the past two years.
-Ventured to work outside on Friday, and was quickly reminded that it’s officially the dead heat of the summer. I lasted about 10 minutes working in the 95 degree heat.
-Bestie Taylor drove down from OKC for a quick 24 hour trip. We had dinner at Encina in the bishop Arts district and had the most delicious “Mokonuts” cocktail.
-Ordered about every app on the menu at Encina. The vibes, the food, the drinks were all good.
-Our favorite visitor!
-Prettier the cheeseboard, the easier it is to play mah jongg…or so they say!
-Spent Saturday afternoon learning the game of Mah Jongg from one of my good friend’s moms. What was supposed to be a 2-4pm lesson turned into hours of playing the game, talking, eating copious amounts of chocolate-covered almonds, and just an overall great day.

Annie

Bites of My Life

We love a short week. We loooove a short week after a long weekend. Can we do it again this week?

I wish I was sleeping in for one more weekend day this morning. However, I will say that “summer” gives each week a more easy going feel. Even when things are busy, they still feel more relaxed. I love having more sunlight to get things done and/or just enjoy more of the day! Yesterday was intended to be a lazy day, but I did some yoga, got two two walks in, a grocery trip run, some meal prepping, ordered a ton of photos to be printed, vacuumed, did laundry, and also watched a lot of TV. I didn’t mean to be so productive, but it just kind of happened. The long days of summer is one of my favorite parts of the season.

-Outtakes from the long weekend! Who knew Katy Trail Ice House had such good lighting??
-Obsessed with my Sleeper look-a-like dress I got for my birthday. Purchased from this Etsy shop.
-Another birthday treat post-birthday showed up last week. I’ve been bullying my friend Anna who lives in DC to go to Tatte Bakery since I saw they opened. It looks like what my dreams are made of. Until I can go on my own, Anna sent me some goodies to tide me over. Inside was the most delicious homemade granola and candied nuts!
-Belated birthday lunch at Rise! Go for the souffle, stay for the Nicoise salad.
-Another birthday gift came in and is now sized and ready to wear! I really wanted a vintage pinky signet ring with my initials, but of course, I had something in my head that I couldn’t find or was upwards $1,000. Kathleen found this little guy on a new-to-me site called Italic. I’m so happy with it!
-The summer ice cream, froyo, custard, cold sweet treat craving is unmatched. Treated myself to Friday froyo and an early bedtime post-happy hour!
-Protein pancakes for Saturday morning!
-St. Paul and the Broken Bones!!! After missing them twice at The Jones, I was thriiiiiled to get the invite to a mini show they had in Dallas at the new Thompson hotel. This picture is not of St. Paul, but a great afternoon with them too :)
-Still perfecting my Cava order, and I think we may have hit it. One more test run then I’ll share with the class.

Annie

Bites of My Life

I hadn’t really baked in what felt like forever, and I was itching. I stocked up on butter and sugar and got a surge of creativity in the kitchen. The result were these Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts, Dark Chocolate, Orange, and Fig Blondies and an oldie but goodie recipe for Snickerdoodles. Baking is good for my soul and I’m glad I was reminded of that.

In addition to baking, there was a lot of dog time this past week. If you know me well you know I’m not a huuuuge dog person. I grew up with dogs, but have held strong on the fact that now is not the time to be tied down by the responsibility and cost. Like for a lot of people, once quarantine hit the idea of having a dog became exciting. I’ve had the idea on my mind since. I was around two of my good friends this weekend, one who just got the cutest puppy and the other who has the sweetest 4 year old golden. Granted these are two very well behaved pups, but they are really softening my thoughts around the whole thing…should I do it?

-Gone are the days that yard signs and balloon numbers are enough in Highland Park, TX. Full tree streamers and garland are now the musts when it comes to celebrating birthdays. So over the top, but honestly incredible.
-Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts, the first recipe of the week. Any other cardamom fans out there? It pairs so good with the blueberry and is great for this time of year.
-Some may remember I posted a round up of all of the Trader Joe’s bagged salad mixes. Well they have a few new mixes on the shelves, so I had to update my post with a new fave or two. Check it out here before you go to TJs next!
-Second recipe post of the week, these fig blondies. They took a few tries to get right, but they are worth it for the amount of blondies that filled my kitchen this week.
-Full on Rent the Runway look for a sassy Friday GNO! I’m wildly obsessed with this purse and ended up buying this little black strapless top! If you haven’t already checked it out, I share all of my RTR finds on my new insta account @confessionsofarentaholic.
-Saturday snickerdoodles! Underrated but always good. While often overlooked, who doesn’t love a snickerdoodle?
-Perfect Saturday night with lots of cheese, The Defined Dish watermelon cocktail, and puppy snuggles with little Chica!!
-Sunday was a rainy and moody day, so I treated myself to a lavender matcha from my favorite place and was surprised with the message “we love you!” on my cup sleeve. Just what I needed.
-Ended the weekend with pjs, pancakes and Brinkley on my lap while having a Nora Ephron movie marathon with a few friends. And yes Brinkley is named after Tom Hanks’ dog Brinkley in Nora’s movie You’ve Got Mail.

Annie

Bites of My Life

August, but howwwwww? That’s all I’ve got this morning. Happy monday, happy bites, happy August?…

-Tini Tuesday girls do Martini Monday for the new Hudson House opening. Their Blue and Gold martini is what made me fall in love with martinis!
-Breakfast tacos for lunch are cheap, filling, and too easy!
-Not pictured: chips and salsa for dinner, pictured: key lime pie for dessert. Friday night in style.
-Walked to the farmer’s market with friends Saturday morning and got a loot for the week!
-FIG SZN is here (but unfortunately these are just from TJs not the farmer’s market). I love to snack on figs whole, but this smoothie and these blondies are two fig faves!
-Just a great Saturday afternoon of live music and drinks with my Dallas college besties.
-Stayed in Saturday night to cook a summery meal, listen to my favorite playlist and discover that Lucky 7 is available to stream on IMDBtv. Anyone else used to love this made for TV movie?
-Woke up Sunday to begrudgingly workout. Things really turned around when I discovered a live Fleetwood Mac themed flow on Obe! They are replaying it tomorrow (Tuesday 8/4 at 9am)!
-Sunday snack board for lunch! One of my favorite ways to eat!

Annie