Bites of My Life

Bites, fun mail, home decor and weekend at home. February is short to begin with, but flying by. Off to see my sister in New York this weekend and I cannot wait!

-Clean out the fridge lunch full of fiber and healthy fats: cup-ish of black beans, 1/2 an avocado, grape tomatoes, non-dairy cheese and salsa!
-The temperature has not really gotten warmer, but back on a smoothie kick!
-Got the invite for Gray Malin’s meet-and-greet feat. his Mambo Taxi print at Mi Cocina last week. This picture doesn’t show off the print or the event, but more guac please!
-Happy little mail day with a belated Valentine from my bestie Maddie!
-Mail day part 2 with this book I can’t wait to read on the plane to New York this weekend.
-Always love getting my Bon Appetit magazine in the mail, but especially loved this issue.
-New end tables that I’m still not over. Check out their before and after in last week’s post.
-All the home talk last week, bedroom officially revamped.
-Got in town Friday and stayed in to cook for mom and dad. Made The Defined Dish’s Walnut Crusted Scallops with Butternut Squash Puree from her book with this Bibb Lettuce salad that is the new go to side salad.
-Four Graces now Core Pilates in Oklahoma City used to be one of my favorite studios. It was my gateway to my love of pilates. It’s new owner, new name and new studio decor is all perfect and loved getting to sneak in a class!
-Aunt Annie sleepover!!
-Cheers to Trinian and Carson!

Annie

Bedroom Revamped

Just a few changes here and there, but I’m so happy with the mini revamp of my bedroom. It’s kind of wild how a new pillow can update things in just the right way. Okay. I’m officially 45 years old.

Let’s refer back to my inspiration post for this revamp. I was in need of all new bedding after some weird staining from a facial oil I was using and looking to add a punch to break up all the white, cream and beige. I love a neutral look, but you’re only 26 and single once and can get away with pink velvet pillows, so we out here.

You may remember, or read, that I wanted to paint my bed frame black. I even took to Instagram polls for your advice. While I appreciate the feedback, I decided to keep it white.

My friend Kristin and I went back in forth in DMs talking about how it needed to stay white, despite our love for a black bed - ha!

The swirls and curls on the headboard seem too whimsical to be painted a mod black. Something I want down the road, but I think that means buying a new frame all together. And we are taking baby steps over here.

Also standard = rectangle and euro = square when it comes to shams. Please excuse me —>

Bed Frame
$19 Sheet Set
$23 Amazon Duvet (folded at end of bed, standard shams included)
Textured Coverlet
Piqué Euro Shams
Orange Velvet Pillow Covers
24x24 Down Inserts (always order a size large than your cover, these are heavy and really good quality)
Pink Velvet Lumbar Pillow Cover
12x24 Lumbar Pillow Insert (again, one size larger than the cover)
Gray Malin Print
Rug
Lamp (similar)

Annie

New End Tables

Disclosure I give all credit to my mom on this one. She scouted these side tables in our friend’s garage sale and knew she could do something great with them. They were originally in a single guy’s bedroom, hence the masculine dark brown finish.

My mom loves a project and has been inspired by one of our favorite design studios and Dallas. They take dressers, end tables, desks, and then update them with a coat of lacquer paint in either white or a range of colors.

I brought my mismatched white end tables from house to house to apartment over the past five years. They were from Home Goods and cute, very cute. But as my mom said, the symmetry of the new matching tables just “anchors” the room - LOL but true.

We used Benjamin Moore high gloss lacquer in Ice Blue. The hardware was then brushed up and they came out perfect. See below for our inspiration! *Let me add that these were professionally painted. When it comes to lacquer I wouldn’t trust either of us.

My living room:

End Tables - garage sale find, painted (similar: white and blue)
Lamps - originally from Home Goods (similar: spend and save)
Assouline Hamptons and Palm Beach books
Rug
Couch - old
Pillows - custom
Painting - by my dad!

Okay mom, what’s next?

Annie

Bites of My Life

Valentine’s Day is a holiday I’ve always loved. I have a playlist to prove it, and a handful of ancient posts on the holiday. Well, this year I wasn’t looking forward to it. With a little force, I switched my mindset, made some little Valentine’s to pass out to co-workers and friends, baked twice (always makes me feel better), listened to previously mentioned playlist over and over, invited some girls over for a little Galentine dinner and wine-drinking night, then spent the weekend bopping around Dallas with the OG valentine’s, mom and dad! Valentine’s day, you can stay.

-One of my oldest posts got a facelift! This Homemade Oreo recipe can be found here.
-My favorite leggings that are borderline obnoxious. Especially since I wear them every other day.
-Valentine crafting helping get me in the spirit!
-We had a friendly little chocolate chip cookie competition at my co-working space on Thursday. I wasn’t nervous until I tried everyone else's cookies. Some seriously good contenders, but my Perfect CCCs prevailed and won the popular vote!
-I’ve posted about these CALM gummies before, but I’ve been having some seriously good sleep taking 2 before bed. I can legit feel my body go into a relaxed state about 5 minutes after taking them. I also keep a few in my purse and pop 1 during the day when I get stressed or anxious.
-Spotted: Vday flowers at Foxtrot by local mom and daughter floral shop, Flower Gals Co.
-A last-minute Galentine dinner meant one thing, heart. shaped. cheese.
-Parents arrived in town Saturday with my cutie new end tables in tow. More on these this week!
-Ditched the original lunch plan and headed to my (our) favorite place. It’s never not amazing.
-Mid-day stop at the new Virgin Hotel. The style, the vibe, the furniture, it is all everything.
-Not a Dallas food tour without a stop at my #1. We will forgive them for being out of meatballs and crab claws because, well, just look at that pizza.
-After church brunch at Hudson House before sending them north on I-35. Love you mom and dad!

Annie

Work from home bite: Read this for tips on how to get out there!

Homemade Oreos

I originally published this post in April 2013. It was my second post in the history of Take A Bite. Nostalgia! This recipe was originally not my own. I first saw them on my favorite blogger’s site back in the day and she too was sharing them from another blogger I used to love. Along with updated blog copy and photos, I also updated the recipe making them even more quintessential to the classic Oreo flavor. Enjoy!

My cousin Clay loves these Homemade Oreos. Like brings them up about every other time he is with our family. For good reason, they are great. We were altogether about a month ago and they came up in conversation. I hadn’t made them in forever, and I’ve been loving updating old TAB archive recipes (see here and here so far), so this was a must on the “to bake” list.

Switching gears a little, but does anyone else watch Bon Appetit’s YouTube series Gourmet Makes? Being the food freak that I am, I fall asleep to Claire Saffitz episodes remaking nostalgic junk food dishes. Her episode on Oreos was one of the first few episodes she filmed, but still one of my favorites. Long story short, but I felt like Claire Saffitz for a second while I re-made these! Maybe I should be calling them Gourmet Oreos?

Homemade Oreos
yields 40 sandwich cookies

Wafer Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened 
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. salt*
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (you can use Hershey’s Extra Dark cocoa to resemble the dark color of a true Oreo wafer, but regular dutch process cocoa works great)
½ tsp. baking soda

Filling Ingredients:
¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature,
¼ cup shortening, room temperature*
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Wafer Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and baking soda and set aside.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream softened butter, sugar and salt on high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape the sides down and then beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough is combined.

Turn the dough onto a clean surface. Divide into two and form flat discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. To roll out the dough, take one disc of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper (the dough can be rolled out on a lightly floured surface, but the parchment prevents any additional flour from altering the color/appearance of the dark cookies). Roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment to ¼-inch thickness.

Using a 1½ inch round cookie cutter, cut out each wafer. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet leaving only ½ inch between each (they don’t spread much). Repeat until all dough has been used. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

Filling Directions:
In an electric mixer, beat the room-temperature butter and shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

Assembly:
Using a pastry bag full of filling or a dinner knife, add a dollop of filling to one cookie. Top with another cookie and lightly squeeze together. 

Serve with a glass of milk and enjoy. 

Notes:
*When it comes to salt: Oreos cookies are not that sweet when you think about them. It’s the filing that makes them sweet. Don’t be alarmed by the low amount of sugar and a high amount of salt. It’s the balance you need to make the perfect bittersweet cookie to stand up to the filling. 

*When it comes to shortening: you can easily use ½ cup unsalted butter instead of the butter/shortening combo. However, I think the shortening really gives you that nostalgic Oreo cream flavor.

My favorite part of these updated posts are sharing the original photography. Let’s all just take a moment to observe the Instagram filters being used here. I think these were maybe Amaro or Lof? What a time to be alive.

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I couldn’t help but make a pink cream-filled version! I cut a little heart out of a few “tops” so more pink was revealed. Xoxo!

Annie