Bites of My Life

November omg. How did we get here? BUT it’s truly the best time of year. I love the Halloween kickoff to the holidays. I’m ready and here for them!

-Spark is open! Couldn’t have done it without my PIC!
-Extra extra read all about it. Our opening blew out my expectations and there was press to match. I’m feeling proud and excited for Spark’s little future.
-Spent one last morning in OKC, then hit the road to make it back to Dallas. Park Power Bowl, I miss you already.
-Fall flowers at my door after a successful opening :)
-Since I’ve lived in Dallas I’ve wanted to do The Old Monk’s pumpkin carving. For $15 you get a hollowed-out pumpkin, carving kit, and a pint of beer. Such a fun weeknight activity. My sugar skull on the right won my IG poll - weee!
-My crazy fall is settling down a little just in time for the holidays. I’m so excited to have some free time to just let plans fall together and not have everything be so structured. That is exactly what happened on Friday. The girls were in town and we threw together a chill evening in, with copious amounts of snacks and sweets.
-OGs know. I made THE verde turkey chili for Friday’s gathering and slurped down leftovers Saturday.
-First time trying Crisp & Green. It opened earlier this year in Dallas. Similar to sweetgreen for national folks and Cool Greens for my okies but errrrrr way better and cleaner than CG. I got their seasonal Chicken Casablanca and my sweet Morgs got the Squash Goals. I can’t wait to go back.
-A great little Halloween Sunday with Peter’s fam at a neighborhood block party and then off to watch the Cowboys game with friends.

Annie

The day after Halloween means one thing: Halloween Candy Compost Cookies
Save this cake for your Thanksgiving or fall pot-luck contribution: Caramel Butterscotch Cake

Bites of My Life

It finally feels like fall in my neck of the woods. Work is busy because we are opening a new restaurant!! I can’t think of what else to say and I don’t have time to think. That is all. Bye!!

-Part 1 of convincing Peter that curry is a diet staple complete. Eased him in with this easy crock-pot curry recipe I have on the blog.
-Pumpkins posing all cute all around the neighborhood I take my walks in.
-Tried the Tik Tok salmon & rice and can confirm the hype. Great way to use leftover salmon.
-Decaf almond milk latte delivery was just what I needed late Friday afternoon after a doozy of a work day.
-Tried a new to me pilates studio. I haven’t take a studio class in about a year and half. I miss reformer pilates!!
-Big time in Denton celebrating the Shorts!!
-Buncha plus ones!
-A stop in historic downtown Denton for post-wedding fuel before the drive back to OKC.
-Got to OKC for a week of work, but first some fall festival cuteness with my nieces.

Annie

Bites of My Life

One of my favorite weekends of the fall has come and gone. I’ve been going to the OU/Texas game far before I even went to school there. I love living in Dallas now and having loved ones and old friends come to my city for the big game. Just as fun to share with new Dallas friends too. The big weekend the past couple years have been a mixture of Rise Roundup, a tour through the Kipps Bay showhouse, lunch at S&D, dinner at Campisi’s, a night out with college friends, early morning gameday, and copious amounts of corny dogs and beer. The weekend just can’t be matched, but somehow gets better and better ever year. I linked a few OU/Texas bites from years past below.

2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013

-I’m not one for Monday night dinners out, but when a highly anticipated neighborhood spot sneakily opened, Peter and I jumped on a reservation.
-Said restaurant, is the little Sister to a fav Dallas spot, The Charles. One of the favorite things we ordered at Sister was the lobster burrata.
-Welcome oatmeal season, welcome.
-My restaurant Bic pen collection is coming right along. Matches are so 2019.
-Such a great night running into about every person I know in Dallas at Rise Roundup raising money for the Rise School of Dallas. Yellowstone fav, Ryan Bingham performed!
-They took about a month to arrive but my new slides finally came in. These Amazon copycats of the pricy Manolo Blahnik’s are just as good as I hoped. I did the brown kitten heels and the tan flats. A few blisters after the first wears, but they are worth it.
-Browsed around the Kipps Bay Showhouse with my mother on Friday morning. I love that they’ve brought this fundraiser to Dallas. It is still happening in the next couple of weeks if you are in the area!
-Nothing hits better than a 9:00 AM breakfast Fletcher’s corny dog and a wax beer at the Texas State Fair the morning of OU/Texas!
-2nd half team pulled through for an amazing win and day!!!

Annie

Bites of My Life

There is nothing better than a good fall weekend. The temperatures are still warm during the day, but it’s cooling off in the mornings in evenings in Dallas. Perfect for a walk in the neighborhood to get a decaf almond milk latte and scope out everyone’s pumpkin loot on their porches. Followed by an afternoon of college football and food to match. Last week and weekend were some of those really great fall-filled days.

Upcoming this weekend is one of my favorite fall weekends of the year, OU vs. Texas! Wishing everyone good fall days ahead and boomer sooner.

-Last week’s Weekday Rice Bowl made its way to TAB, did you see it?
-Kiwis and pears are my “it” fruits rn.
-Fresh off my trip to Vail and more importantly Mountain Standard, their insane pimento cheese with bacon jam was still high on my mind. Credit to Peter for opting we try making our own when I suggested buying some. We halved this recipe.
-Packed our bacon jam with Kuby’s pimento cheese and picnicked at the Dallas Arboretum for one of their Cool Thursday concerts.
-After talking about it for months, I finally made it to Il Bracco thanks to my trusty eating partner. Easily slid into my top 5 favorite restaurants in Dallas.
-Skip the last drink, order dessert instead. A trusty new motto that included some delish Italian cheesecake.
-Pigs in a blanket, never not a crowd favorite.
-Smash burgers on the flat top and a revolving door of friends watching football on Saturday, was a Saturday well spent.
-There is no pumpkin bread better than my family’s pumpkin bread, but I had high hopes for The Defined Dish’s grain-free recipe. I was surprisingly able to salvage it from this burnt top, but it was not my fave.

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