Bites of My Life

I scooted home last Monday for a week to work from OKC. We had a week-long event, a new menu launch and various meetings and planning to do. What I intended just to be a Monday and Tuesday trip had me not leaving until Friday. I hadn’t been in Oklahoma City in two months. I know that is not long at all, but for someone who essentially splits her time between there and Dallas, it was the longest I had gone since I moved. A busy week led into a fun weekend watching football and enjoying the cool fall weather all day Saturday with friends. It’s now officially freezing in Dallas and I have chili on deck for all future meals.

-Balloon artist for hire!! Kidding, but my boss and I felt the need to start our own balloon biz after whipping up several displays. It’s not party these days without balloons.
-Love being home and having co-workers IRL. Met up for coffee before work with my work besties Ash and Bailey!
-Goes to a real office for the first time in months, and wears a blazer to really lean into it.
-My work’s annual Jonestoberfest kicked off last week and I was so glad I was home to see it in action, and to model a bratwurst, and then get to eat it…
-I saw Serena make this Smokey Chicken Stew on her IG about a week ago and new it was on the list to make. I made it for my mom and dad while staying with them and it was a hit all around.
-Found a perfect replacement for my favorite slippers that are $24.
-Friday night after a busy week meant staying on the couch all night and watching my people on the Laguna Beach reunion. Do yourself a favor and tune in to see your faves back together.
-Football Saturday with fall temps called for a round of Katy Trail Ice House chili for the table. Legit all 6 of us ordered a cup. With an order of their famous cheese fries too of course!
-Made a batch of my favorite Halloween Candy Compost Cookies on Sunday and just had to take a moment to give Almond Joys the attention they don’t get but deserve.

Annie

How to Throw a You've Got Mail Themed Party

I’ve seen You’ve Got Mail approximately 101 times, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago while watching it for the 102nd time that the idea popped into my head to use the movie as the theme for a party. It was late at night, but I started rattling off notes in my phone so I wouldn’t forget my ideas the next morning. I called on my friend Mary who shares the same love for NY152 like I do, and we started planning. Her dog pictured above is named Brinkley if that tells you anything.

Up first, the invitation. We knew it had to be an email. It wouldn’t be a You’ve Got Mail party without an email in our guest’s inbox signifying they had mail. We had initially planned to host it at my apartment, but 1. it’s tiny and 2. in the midst of planning Mary had moved into the coziest new rent house that become the perfect space for our fall party.

Next, the food. We went the heavy hors d’oeuvres route with chips, dips, meats, cheeses, and New York’s signature, the black and white cookie. The only thing I made were the bacon wrapped dates. Just take a pitted date and stuff with goat cheese, wrap with 1/2 a piece of bacon and toothpick it closed. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bacon is cooked to your liking.

The theme played out in these few items: “at least it wasn’t the fish” goldfish and “that caviar is a garnish,” cowboy caviar and chips. Caviar taste on a Trader Joe’s budget was the name of the game. To end the night we served the black and white cookies with a “tall decaf cappuccino” aka decaf coffee with frothed milk. I picked up tall size cups from Starbucks to make it really feel like the movie, and then brewed a pot of decaf coffee and used my milk frother to froth up some nut milk.

For decor, we had to have a bouquet of sharpened pencils and daisies of course. Kathleen’s favorite flower. “Don’t you think daisies are the happiest flower?” I bought a few packs of these pre-sharpened pencils on Amazon, because do they even make pencil sharpeners anymore? The daisies and fall mums were from Trader Joe’s.

The mix of truffle potato chips, gold fish, and bacon-wrapped dates left me thinking “uhhh, where are my tic tacs??” A pack for each guest (that we forgot to pass out oops!) made for perfect party favors.

It turned out to be such a fun night with a really great mix of new and old friends. We had the movie and soundtrack playing through the night, encouraged everyone to come in their best Kathleen Kelly get up, and did trivia to test everyone’s knowledge. A link to my trivia and themed menu cards are linked below for you to download.

Do you recognize our outfits from specific scenes in the movie? A classic Kathleen turtleneck while ragging on Joe Fox about the caviar at the cocktail party was me, and pj’s with a trench coat full of tissues while sick in her apartment was Mary.

I hope this inspires you to host your own You’ve Got Mail party! If you do, be sure to tag me on Instagram in your party pics.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Don’t you just love Dallas in the fall? I sure do! If you are a weekly bites reader you may be able to read through this first summary paragraph and be able to catch wind how I’m feeling that week. Pictures, no matter how you shake it show off the good. However, this intro to my weekly post steers more into how I’m actually doing, than how I’m portraying it.

This is a long winded intro to express I’m doing great! I got off the phone with my oldest friend Anna yesterday recapping her recent engagement and just updating each other on life. And I felt so confident on the phone mentioning how well I have been doing. The end of the summer I was dragging. I was lonely. I was bored. I owe a lot to the season change for my mood boost as that is often a helpful adjustment I need, but fall has just been going swimmingly. Don’t you just love the fall?

-How many pictures of this meal can I take? Less than the number of times I actually eat it that’s for sure.
-I’m new to Further Food collagen, but I’m loving their products after receiving a gift package from this women-owned biz. The chocolate collagen frothed up with hot water or hot almond milk, make some seriously good hot chocolate. _annietucker gets you 5% off your order!
-Just a picture from our family shared an album of my niece with pop-tarts that lit up my whole week!
-Little did I know the extent of guacamole consumption that would happen this week, but the gauc with sweet potato chips at Doc B’s is hard to miss. The brussels sprout salad is another not-to-miss item!!
-PSA the new pecan flavored RX Bar is everything of the sort. Found at Sprouts!
-Guacamole made an appearance again on Friday as we cheered on my sweet friend’s dad in a “guac off” with the owner of one of all of our’s favorite tex mex spot.
-After seeing You’ve Got Mail 1,000 times, it hit me mid-movie, that I had to turn the movie into a theme party. I called on my fellow Nora Ephron aficionado and we threw the most fun fall party! A full recap is saved on my Instagram story highlights and I’m working on getting it put into a blog post as well.
-Kathleen Kellys/Shopgirls/Party Hosts.
-Party leftovers becoming Sunday snacks.

Annie

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