Bites of My Life

Unintentionally skipped a week of bites and barely noticed. It was suuuuch a good week and some change at home for Thanksgiving. Can’t wait to do it all again for Christmas. After having Covid over Thanksgiving last year, this year’s holiday was everything.

I’m back in Dallas for the next few weeks, and I know they are going to fly by. Work is always busy this time of year making the workdays quick, and socially things are stacking up. I’m trying to schedule in as many nights at home for cooking and watching holiday movies!

-So many snuggles and kisses and loving on baby Jack. The newest to our crew is cute as ever and growing so big and healthy. I loved his addition to Thanksgiving.
-Once arriving to OKC, a trip to Spark for lunch was an obvious decision.
-Gameday like it was 2014!!
-Pete in OKC! Peter came up on the front end of the trip for a short but really fun visit with the whoooooole fam.
-We’ve turned sporty! A Sunday afternoon pickleball game started off a little dicey, but once we all got the hang of it, it was a really fun day.
-OKC’s favorite drink turned cozy. Thanks to cousin Clay who’s working for Clubby, we got the Cashmere Sweater hookup.
-Almost every evening ended with a round or two of Mexican Train. Such a good game to play with family. It also doesn’t take too much concentration so it’s easy to play while multitasking watching Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and sipping some kind of cocktail or glass of wine.
-Proof of the turkey trot that killed me. We ran 2 miles, yes only 2 miles, but the wind that morning sent my allergies into a spiral that had me napping from all the Benedryl I took the majority of Thanksgiving.
-Look at that plate! So much color, so much yum.
-Rent the Runway head to toe pretty much every day, always. I couldn’t let these split flare jeans and oversized plaid coat go just yet.
-Leftover turkey cooked all day in a smokey tomato sauce for turkey tinga tacos. The best way we’ve ever used up leftover turkey. I used this recipe as a guide minus the corn.
-Claire, Mike, Jack and I headed back to Texas early Sunday morning. We all stopped in Dallas for lunch and a visit to my apartment before the Elmgreen’s kept on to Austin.

Annie

Bites of My Life

One week countdown to Thanksgiving, the best holiday of the year! Days feel full of events, and food, and holiday hooplah already and I am a OK with it.

-I love a stuffed sweet potato moment. I’ve been doing this since college. The amount of microwaved sweet potatoes with almond butter I ate in the sorority house is alarming.
-Roasted cauliflower sammy on house-made focaccia. Need I say more. This lunch from Georgie’s Butcher Shop was a stretch outside my usual salad lunch, but just what I needed.
-How gooooood is this bowtie pasta puffer I rented last week from RTR!
-Such a fun new spot in Downtown Dallas, National Anthem. It’s owned by the same guys from Neighborhood Services so you know it’s going to be good.
-Celebrated #NationalHappyHourDay at The Slate on Friday with a group effort board. We all contributed something to this 3-foot board.
-This goofy house in the M Streets has a rotating gigantic inflatable in their yard. I joked they are prepping for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
-Saturday morning walk with a breakfast taco reward!
-Black tie crew!
-Chelsea Handler crashing our Sunday night dinner. Yes I submitted to Deux Moi, brace yourself for the repost.

Annie

Soup bite: I quietly posted my Chicken & Right Rice Soup recipe last week. View the recipe here.

Bites of My Life

Make-up Thanksgiving was a success. After two weeks of quarantine I was able to safely go home and be with my family including my oldest sis and brother-in-law who were in town! It was just a really good few days at home. Cliche but true, when I say how thankful I am for my family. Over everything else.

-After two weeks of quarantine, I arrived in OKC just in time for family pizza night!
-Got in a walking rut, but I’m back on my routine. Upgraded my walks with 1lb. bala weights which is just enough added oomph.
-Was asked by my friends at Golden Ratio to come up with a Christmas coffee recipe for their social feed. I made one of my faves, Irish Coffee (visit the link for my circa 2014 recipe), but upgraded it with expensive dairy-free whipped cream and coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. ;)
-My favorite Thanksgiving contribution - my homemade pie crust.
-Hallie is the best cuddler in the whole world. You can’t help but hug and squeeze this girl when holding her.
-Mom’s Thanksgiving table is always one of my favorites!
-I branched out from the back of the Libby’s can on my pumpkin pie this year and it was a big winner.
-Some of the best sister time we’ve had in a while. I love these two and these little munchkins too!
-Friendship bracelets —> family bracelets. My quarantine bracelet making kit was a hit!

Annie

Bites of My Life

Hi, I had coronavirus over Thanksgiving, how was your holiday? Well, mine kind of sucked. I made it through and I don’t want to throw a pity party because I’m a big girl and it ended up being totally fine. But, coronavirus is the pits in every form and fashion. It’s not lost on me how lucky I was to have mild symptoms and I don’t want my experience to diminish the tragedy it has brought so many.

As I said, I was lucky to have mild symptoms and besides the first two days, I operated at almost full commission the majority of my quarantine. However, being alone on Thanksgiving day (my favorite holiday) is something I wish for no one, and hope to never have to experience again. There was a comfort knowing the majority of America was in a strange situation as well for this holiday. Getting off Instagram for the day really helped too. I’m also thankful for a family who equally loves Thanksgiving as much as I do and decided from day one that we would postpone our big meal until I could be there. So I’m not sure if you heard, but Thanksgiving is December 5th this year, and this past week, well that was just a Thursday.

Below are only a few snapshots of my quarantine. There were tears, laughs, and all the feels over the past two weeks. My apartment is now my second skin, and while I love it I hope to never spend this amount of time alone inside of it ever again ;).

-First Dallas book club in the books (this was before any known symptoms of C-19).
-I didn’t get a bites of my life post out last week, but Bytes 0.2 went up!
-A cozy hot bath set up in an attempt to heal the symptoms that started to come on over two weeks ago.
-Scene from my car waiting for my test results: blanket, breakfast, and a good book to help wait it out. If you know me well, you probably know about my purple sick blanket. I’ve had it since high school graduation and I cling to it anytime I get sick (from a hangover or a virus).
-Within an hour of my positive result, I had chicken noodle soup arriving on my doorstep from one of my best friends. #thankfulgratefulblessed
-Panic ordered a friendship bracelet making kit and made a list of shows to watch and activities to do with the looming two weeks of quarantine ahead of me. Luckily my work was extremely busy leading up to Thanksgiving which kept my mind and days busy and quickly helped pass the time.
-A quarantine pick-me-up came in the form of flowers from the Rent the Runway ambassador team! They sent these beautiful flowers for me getting several referrals over the past couple of months.
-Insta Cart and Favor became incredibly useful during quarantine. I’m wildly thankful for modern technology allowing me to order groceries and some of my favorite meals delivered right to my front door. However, after ordering one of my favorite salads, I quickly realized this was the moment I lost my taste and smell. I kept obsessively over salting it because it was “bland.” Joke was on me.
-A weird but successful quarantine activity resulted in making homemade coconut yogurt. It was incredibly simple and I was shocked at how well it worked. Here is the recipe I used.
-It is simply NOT Thanksgiving, without a viewing of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I relished in my situation and drank my coffee and ate my breakfast in bed, while I watched the parade all morning.
-A very comforting breakfast that I savored as my taste started to come back over the past weekend. Details: 1/2 baked sweet potato, 1/2 of a banana, a spoonful of my homemade coconut yogurt, lots of pumpkin pie spice, a drizzle of almond butter, and chia seeds.
-Bring on the festive coffee in a festive mug. I bought these last year and they spark immense joy.

Annie

Byte Bites 0.2

Byte bites volume two is here. You can read volume one here. These posts are a collection of web links, recipes, ideas, and inspirations of things I’m currently taking a bite of.

BYTE BITES 0.2

What does your Thanksgiving look like this year? Are you able to meet up with close family or staying home and going virtual? My fam is postponing Thanksgiving a week, so my Thursday plan is to eat pumpkin-themed food all day, still get dressed for the day (I rented this and these), and have a marathon viewing of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Thanksgiving episode of Gilmore Girls, You’ve Got Mail, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Is this your first year cooking for various reasons? Gaby has a master guide you can sign up for on her site right now and Jessica has a great list of non-traditional Thanksgiving meal ideas (cacio e pepe pie).

If you are in charge of bringing a Thanksgiving dessert, my Pecan Pie Bars are always a hit. And it’s not Thanksgiving morning without the Best Breakfast Casserole and Pumpkin Bread.

In other pecan news, the new pecan flavor of RxBars is everything.

These holiday recipes have me drooling!! Brown Butter Stuffed Acorn Squash, Whipped Goat Cheese with Crispy Bacon and Dates, and this Spiced Apple Cider Cocktail or Mocktail.

How Does Ina Do It? I’m not entirely sure, I just know I want to be her more and more every day.

Have you started holiday shopping yet? I went from having no idea what I was getting anyone, to going online shop happy this week, checking a few people off my list. In addition, everyone in my circle is getting one of these this year.

Cup of Jo creates my favorite gift guides year after year. A few other gift ideas from my friends who are far more on top of it than me suggested the Pura Scent Diffuser, Our Place pan, Ember Mug, and a Whoop bracelet.

On my wish list this year: a Weezie robe, new silverware (any suggestions or recs?), and a weighted blanket!

Christmas pajamas are a big tradition in my world. I have my eyes on a few styles, but waiting to see if a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal arises and pushes me to order a pair. Pjs I’m watching: Roller Rabbit, Lake, Honeydew Intimates, and Katie Kime’s Dallas Toile (she also has New Orleans, New York, Nashville, Fort Worth, Marfa, and Austin).

I know everyone is wigging out on The Crown and The Undoing, but I’m over here binging Dawson’s Creek living out my love for late 90s/early 2000s teenage TV dramas. I was too young when it first came out and I’m truly living for this binge 22 years later.

Happy weekend everyone! If you need me I’ll be testing a Thanksgiving dessert recipe and making friendship bracelets.

Annie