Annie's Espresso Martini

Y’all, people in Dallas, TX love them a good espresso martini. I swear it’s the brandy ice of Texas. Like most things, I’ve jumped right on board. A late night at The Mansion for live music and an espresso martini is a recipe for a great night and a hangover - ha! However, here’s my caveat with espresso martinis, I can’t do caffeine. I can’t do caffeine in the morning - jitter sister, and I sure as heck can’t do caffeine around 10:00 o’clock at night.

So, enter Annie’s Espresso Martini! I use a decaf shot of espresso and the best coffee liqueur. Disclaimer, there is a little caffeine in the liqueur, but it’s fine, I’m fine. And now don’t at me for not garnishing with coffee beans, once you garnish with chocolate shavings you’ll never go back.

Annie’s Espresso Martini
yields 1 martini

Ingredients:
.75 ounce Tito’s Vodka
.75 ounce Patrón XO Cafe (coffee liqueur)*
1 decaf espresso shot, or 1 ounce of instant coffee*
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
coffee beans or chocolate shavings for garnish

Directions:
Run your martini glass under water and shake off any excess, then place in the freezer. This will help keep your martini extra cold. Pull your shot of espresso and let it cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Into your martini shaker add the vodka, coffee liqueur, and vanilla extract. Add in your cooled espresso shot and fill halfway up with ice. Shake until the shaker is freezing cold, about 12-15 seconds. Strain into a martini glass and top with 3 coffee beans or chocolate shavings. Cheers!

Bartenders notes:
*I prefer Patron’s coffee liqueur, it has a deep chocolate-like flavor that is crazy good. To avoid buying a huge bottle for one drink, you can often find them in mini airplane shot sizes at most big-box liquor stores. Kahlúa or any coffee liqueur will do.

*I prefer using decaf here because unless I’m drinking this martini at breakfast 😜I don’t need the caffeine. If you have an espresso machine at home great, if you don’t, you can order a single shot for cheap from Starbucks. Instant coffee also works great here since it’s typically very strong.

*.75 ounce is just shy of a small jigger if you have a double-sided jigger

Does anyone else follow the hilarious @espresso.martinis Instagram account? I give this a 10/10!

Annie

My Cocktail Shaker Kit (under $35)
My Martini Glasses (set of 4 under $15)

Shaved Cauliflower Salad

I had this salad at Americano last week and knew immediately I had to recreate it. My friend Jordan and I walked down to the restaurant at The Joule after meeting Serena Wolf at her book signing downtown. It only made since to have Jordan back over for dinner to test out my recreation.

Y’all. This salad is just great. Despite just being cauliflower it’s filling and satisfying. Would be killer with some salmon on it or as a side with barbecue or anything grilled. It’s heavy on the lemon which I personally love for the dead of winter (citrus is so good for you in cold months), but will be just as good this summer.

The key to the salad is the shaved cauliflower. You can use a mandolin, but if you know me, you know my experience with mandolins has not been pleasant…However it will work. I suggest using a food processor fitted with the slicing attachment. It makes this salad incredibly easing by just forcing the cauliflower florets through the food tube. To be honest I had actually never used the slicing attachment, until I made this. I’ve had my food processor for mmm 4 years now and had to take the protective sticker off the slicer. It has now ben christened and I plan to use it far more.

Shaved Cauliflower Salad adapted from Americano
yields 3-4 as a main or 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
3 cups white cauliflower florets (about one small head of cauliflower)
2 cups of purple cauliflower florets
2 cups of orange cauliflower florets
½ cup raw shelled pistachios
½ cup plump golden raisins
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1¼ salt, divided
¼ tsp. red chili flakes
1 tbsp. chopped chives, plus more for serving

Directions:
In a cereal sized bowl, pour hot water over golden raisins and let set aside to “plump" for 10-15 minutes. While the raisins are plumping, add pistachios and ¼ tsp. salt in a dry frying pan over medium heat. Toast your pistachios, stirring them around often for about 3-4 minutes, keeping a close eye on them as they can burn easily.

Thinly shave your cauliflower in your food processor with the slicing disk attached or on a mandolin. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and toss with lemon juice and 1 tbsp. of salt. Let sit for 5 minutes to marinate.

Drain your raisins. Into the cauliflower, stir in the olive oil, pistachios, plump raisins, chives and chili flakes. Garnish with extra chives and salt.

Best if made at least 30 minutes before serving so the flavors have time to come together. Will stay good in the fridge for up to 5 days.

TBH cauliflower is hard to measure. The recipe calls for 2-3 cups of florets that will then be shredded. Don’t stress, just eyeball what looks like about 2-3 cups and you can adjust seasonings as needed.

Annie

My 6 Favorite Dallas Spots 3 Months In

Three months in Dallas? Hi? How? But also I feel like I’ve been here forever! I Three months seemed pivotal enough to document some of my favorite spots thus far. There are a couple repeats from this and this post that I wrote just one and two weeks in. Now three months later, many more places visited, still some of the same faves and still so many places to keep exploring.

Louie’s
If you live in Dallas, this probably wasn’t the first place you’d think would be on my list, but on the flipside, if you’ve been to Louie’s then you understand. Louie’s is a complete hole in the wall on Henderson known for their pizza and martinis. They are more than just a pizza place, with salmon, a burger, sandwiches, and a filet on the menu, but word from the wise don’t stray from the thin crust build-your-own pizza, big salads, meatballs and crab claws to start! As for the martini’s, they were so hyped up and I thought they would convert me, but even dirty I just can’t sip on gin and pretend like I like it. Louie’s has been on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, so I’ll just leave you with that. Post-September Whole 30, I’m coming for ya Louie’s!

Central Market
One of my favorite past times is wandering the aisles at a grocery store. No really. If I need to kill some time or if I’m bored, or if I should be doing a million other things, I’ll often find a reason to end up at the grocery store. I love to do my big shopping on Sundays, but about mid-week I need a pick-me-up and will go stroll down aisles to pick up a little something-something. This is a long way of saying now that Central Market is in my life, this grocery store meandering has heightened. I still love TJ’s, Whole Foods and Sprouts, but Central Market has s a m p l e s. And I mean samples. The bakery section is 100% my weakness and just gosh awful temptation while on Whole30 right now. They have bread of plenty to sample with this whipped butter that should just be sued it’s so good.

My Central Market faves are their fresh verde salsa, homemade tortillas, these crispbreads, the crazy selection of bulk bin items and winding through their maze of a produce section.

Bishop Arts District
Bishop Arts is tucked away west of downtown and coins the phrase “the most independent neighborhood.” It is quint and has this little mountain town feel to it, reminds me of Colorado. Cute shops (hi All Good Things), and new restaurants are popping up left and right. I got to go to Paradiso last night and everything about it from the design, to the menu to the atmosphere was on point. Some other BA faves and places on my list are Melt Ice Cream, Tribal All Day Cafe, Serve, Lucia, Eno’s Pizza, Coco’s, Botanist and Good Companions. If you have a free Saturday or Sunday, spend it wandering around Bishop Arts!

photo via Katy Trail

Katy Trail Ice House
I know Katy Trail is a little cliche Dallas, but it truly is my favorite spot in the city. I already wrote about it here! It’s great in the evening, its great during the day on the weekends, fun for watching games, great drinks (Summer Beer) and good food. It’s all outdoors, but you’ll see people in workout clothes just coming off running the Katy Trail, people with their dogs, people dressed up having come straight for work. It’s really great for any time of day or event.

Honor Bar
Another cliche Dallas spot that I’ve mentioned before, but it’s just flat out good. The vibes, the food, the experiences I’ve had there have all been great. It’s in this corner spot of Highland Park Village with a patio that expands out a bit. It’s always crowded, but for good reason. The ahi tuna, the macho salad and their version of a ranch water make me drool just thinking about them. Props to the Hillstone restaurant group for finding what they are good at and sticking to it. Being in restaurants makes you really appreciate how others do it.

Royal Blue Grocery
No one should be surprised that two grocery stores made it on this list. Royal Blue is the most charming little grocery and specialty food store, one location in Highland Park Village and one downtown. If you didn’t know, my end goal in life is to open something similar. Think Barefoot Contessa or the bakery Meryl Streep owns in It’s Complicated. Catch me in my 40s or 50s and hopefully that’s where you will find me.

Royal Blue is my current fix to fill my daydreams. Their groceries are wildly overpriced, well everything in there is, but since it’s not my everyday spot (unlike the yuppie Highland Park moms) I feel ok treating myself to a Royal Blue visit every once and a while. My recent Royal Blue crush is their turmeric latte. Just turmeric, ginger, cinnamon (hold the honey #whole30) and steamed almond milk! They also have a vegan cookie butter gelato that is, well, I think you can imagine how amazing it is.

Honorable Mentions: Oishii, The Pilates Barre, Sachet, Parkhouse, Up On Knox, Javier’s, Highland Park Presbyterian, Eatzi’s, and Terelli’s.

It’s been a stellar 3 months in Dally. Here’s to the next however many months. ILY big D!

Annie

Bites of My Life

I had the realization that I’m going to be away from Dallas the next four weekends. After a sheer panic I calmed down knowing it’s all for good reasons. This weekend is Maddie’s bachelorette, followed by Labor Day/first OU game, a wedding and a work event. I honestly just love my time in Dallas and don’t like the idea of being gone so much. Just when I thought summer was the busy season and ready for the structure of fall, the new season hit me with it’s craziness.

-First visit to Flower Child and I’m hooked. Mother Earth bowl because it’s what you do.
-Cheers to two full months in Dallas and having these friends to eat my way through the city with. We went to the hot new Te Deseo on Tuesday. We loved it, but pro-tip: sit in the bar or courtyard if you can.
-3-Bean salad packed with vegan protein was prepped for lunches last week and is coming to the blog tomorrow!
-Pressed Juicery had it’s grand opening last week and I shamelessly waited in line at 7AM to claim my free item. I have bought their juices before (which are great), but had never tried a “freeze” until now. Being that the ingredients are so minimal I didn’t even feel weird eating it for breakfast. It 100% lives up to the hype.
-I had big plans to make this for dinners last week. After busy work days I had zero energy to even boil water so a big salad using the pasta’s ingredients did the job.
-Working on my matcha guide for Dallas. I’ve heard great things about Drip, but there matcha didn’t stand up…
-I was co-maid of honor for both of my sisters, but being maid of honor for one of my best friends is really special. Maddie was in Dallas this weekend to wedding dress shop and invited me along. I feel incredibly honored to have been part of the process. Seeing her firsthand in the dress (she said yes!!!) is something I’ll never forget. It’s a stunner. Celebratory sparklers at lunch to honor the day!
-Followed by rounds and rounds of ranch waters with her dress shopping squad.
-My contribution to Hatch Chili “fam” dinner. A group of some new friends here in Dallas got together Sunday night to cook up as many Central Market Hatch Chili items as we could. There were hatch chili tortilla chips with hatch chili guac and hatch chili sausage for appetizers, hatch chili burgers with hatch chili pepper jack, hatch chili marinated beer can chicken, my hatch chili corn succotash and broccolini grilled with hatch chilis. Finished off with cheesecake…no hatch chilis involved there.

Annie

The 5 Best Places I Went My Second Week In Dallas

Sassetta
Sassetta has been high on my list since getting to Dallas, so I was excited to cross it off so early into my time here. I went with three girls who I have met through various walks of life, but have now all come to fit together in a unique way. Everything from the aesthetic, to the menus, to the plates, to the food is designed perfectly.

Almost all of us started with the Aperol spritz which paired great with the dry-aged meatballs and whipped ricotta, tuna crudo with strawberries, pistachios and mint, and the fritto misto. We then shared the mushroom salad, bolognese and peach & prosciutto pizza.

E Bar
E Bar was by far the most suggested restaurant when I polled instagram last week for what to add to my list of Dallas restaurants. I didn’t waist time to go see what all the fuss was about. It’s located closer to Lakewood in East Dallas and is a little gem of a tex mex place.

Did I love my limey beer? Duh! Did I love my fajitas, rice and beans? Yes. Did I love the salsa? You bet! Do I wish the chips were different? You bet ;) It was good, but I’m slightly lost on the obsession…

Foxtrot Delivery Market
Foxtrot is a “choice goods” store that offers groceries, gifts, coffee, wine, a place to work or a place to drink. They opened their first brick and mortar outside of the Chicago area in Uptown Dallas on Tuesday and they about broke instagram with the amount of organic buzz spreading about them. While they have a store front they specialize in delivery promising to get from their store to your door in less than an hour.

I met my friend Shelby there on opening day late afternoon. They were offering free cafe drinks and had a frosé happy hour going on. To avoid being up all night on caffeine I went with this kombucha (which I loved) and Shelby got the CBD Lychee Slushy.

Title Boxing Club
I’m trying about every workout in Dallas before committing to anything. I’m also booking any free class or program I can. I’ve been doing two weeks free with Class Pass which led me to Title boxing. I was very hesitant rolling into class at 6am in fear that it would be full of ripped guys with hidden black belts. Luckily I was wrong. The class was small about half girls half guys. It’s been four days and I can still barely lift my arms. The class is only 45 minutes, and goes by fast but is such a great workout. I will be back, especially since they trick you into having to buy $10 wrist wraps.

The Slate
If you didn’t know, but you probably did, but if you didn’t, now you know that I am still working for The Social Order. They gave me a promotion (whaaaa!!) and the option to work remote from Dallas. To make sure I stayed focused and didn’t go stir crazy in my apartment I have reserved a desk at The Slate.

The Slate is a newer co-working space in the Design District started by two sisters (who I deeply love already). It’s a space for businesses, entrepreneurs and small companies to come set up shop. They are equipped with conference rooms, kitchen, event space, a shop, podcast room, sound stage, offices and desks for days. I’ve only been here four days and have already met so many amazing people doing the coolest things. This photo is of the entryway of the space, but it’s my favorite part! The whole place is decorated perfectly.

Half of my third week will be spent in DC for the 4th of July, but I can’t wait to hit some more Dallas spots this weekend before off to truly my favorite city!

Annie