8:11 August Highlights

Is anyone else alarmed and slightly confused that's somehow already MID-SEPTEMBER?? Yowzaaa. August was an eventful month. Chris and I both thoroughly celebrated our birthdays, I cut 9 inches off my hair, I got stranded in the Orlando airport, etc. Before last month isn't even 'last month' anymore, here are my 11 favorite things I did in August...

8:11-rosé toast for the final rose! #bachelorette

8:11-drinks by the pool with madre.

8:11-HAPPY BIRTHDAY@thechrisleroux!! Thanks for giving us an excuse to have a full-on southern FEAST to celebrate. Love youuuu. 💛💛💛

8:11 (on 8/11!!) -when youre supposed to be on a work trip on your bday but it gets cancelled last minute, you throw together a little party. 🙌🏻🎉🍾🎂

8:11- weekend getaway to Austin for C Gunn's wedding:

8:11-our first wedding to attend since our wedding! Congrats Nolan and C Gunn!

8:11- belated bday din with the Leroux/Jones crew.

8:11- #DFWRestaurantWeek has officially started! Bring on the delish food.
(More on that here). 

8:11-#DallasRestaurantWeek stop number 2:@dishprestonhollow. So good I can't even take my eyes off the food. 👍🏼👍🏼 

(More on that here). 

8:11-double date night at the Senders! 👫👫

8:11- #SteelMagnolias movie party at the @drafthouse...complete with armadillo cake for everyone! Ha.

Cheers to a solid birthday month. Can't wait to do it again next year. :) 

xoxo, 

Annie. 

Dallas Restaurant Week: Dish // Eddie V's

I'm a tad behind on my restaurant week reviews, so this post will be a 2-for-1 special. Whooooo good food!

Our second restaurant week stop was Dish in Preston Hollow which is walking distance from our place (on the rare occasion we aren't in a rush and it's really nice weather outside... so no, we didn't walk this time). 

The restaurant week menu had options for each of the 3 courses, so Chris and I chose all different options so we could could try 6 different things.

My favorite things we ordered - 

Salt & Pepper Calamari

In their words - A Southern twist on a classic starter, the Salt & Pepper Calamari is seasoned with spicy buffalo butter and tossed with corn wheels and sweet roasted peppers.

In my words - This was one of the best calamari dishes I've had in a long time. The seasonings and peppers made it extra flavorful. Def worthy of a repeat order. 

Jalepeno Mac & Cheese

This wasn't part of the restaurant week menu, but when there's mac & cheese on a menu, 9 times out of 10 I will order it. This was one of those times. It was delish but not the BEST mac & cheese I've ever had in my life. I wish it had been heavier on the jalepenos.  

Roasted Atlantic Salmon

In their words - Take a trip seaside this evening with our delicious Roasted Atlantic Salmon, served with avocado relish, sweet potato puree, Brussel petals, and jalapeño beurre blanc.

In my words - This was Chris's entree choice, and I had order envy because it was a fantastic flavor explosion and I wanted to eat all of it. 

Overall, I give Dish 👍👍 and will definitely be back (maybe even walking there, who knows). Food was delish, service was fast/great, cocktails were pretty and yummy, and they give you incredible warm fresh-baked cookies if you go for your birthday. (Yes, we are still saying we're celebrating our bday since technically we went there during our bday month. #NoShame). 

Next up - Eddie V's. Eddie V's is owned by the same restaurant group that owns my client LongHorn Steakhouse (Darden), so I've been wanting to try it for several months. I've heard that a dinner for 2 there can cost upwards of $300, so I knew the prix fix menu for restaurant week was our only shot of going there any time soon. #moneywise

The Dallas Eddie V's is in a weird location that makes it seem smaller and less fancy than it is. It's connected to my old gym (the Eqinox in Highland Park), so I always saw it and thought it was just a cafe or something within the gym. Whoops. 

Like Dish, the restaurant week menu had a few options for each course, so we divided and conquered to get 6 different things to try again. Our meals were good - beef tartare (thanks Central Market free 4th course!), crispy salt & pepper shrimp, Maine lobster bisque, swordfish steak, and filet mignon. The dessert I ordered though was legit one of the BEST things I've eaten all year. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

Banana Foster Butter Cake with Butter Pecan Ice Cream.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was sooooooooo good. Like melt-in-your-mouth rich sweet deliciousness. Even though a $300 Eddie V's dinner tab isn't in our regular budget, we will DEF be going back just to get this dessert. 😍😍😍

There's a few more days left of the extended restaurant week (it ends 9/4), so if you haven't gone yet - go! We've got one more on the schedule - Stampede66 this Sunday. Review coming soon! 

xoxo, 

Annie.

Top Ten Things I Learned My First Year of Marriage (by Kaylee)

Say hellooo to a new content series I'm starting on the ol' bloggy blog. Every month I'll have a guest author create a top ten list about any random topic they want... because a.) I love lists and b.) guest authors are fun. 

My brother married wonderful, funny, creative, expert-GIF-user Kaylee last August. She's the best sister-in-law in the world and I love her very much. In honor of their one year anniversary, I asked her to start the top ten list party with... 

The first year of our marriage was such an adventure for us with some pretty major life changes in addition to adjusting to being married and sharing a life together. It was a lot to handle! But looking back I realize that we learned a lot in the process. Here are the top 10 things I learned in my first year of marriage.

1.      There is no better feeling than waking up after your wedding and realizing that you are no longer planning a wedding. Even better? Getting to experience that relief your new husband. It’s a win-win situation.

2.      That relieved feeling all comes crashing down when you return from your honeymoon and have to fit two grown adults + all their stuff + all the amazing wedding gifts into one house. YIKES. If I could do it all over again, I would do some Marie-Kondo level purging before Daniel moved in.

3.      Cooking for two people takes more food than you think. Honestly, I am still not good at this. We always seem to run out of food on Thursday.

4.      Related: two people = twice the mess. More laundry. More dishes. Send help. 

5.      Also related: It’s okay to ask for help. I knew this intuitively, but it was/is still hard­. But when Daniel and I split up the chores, it was revolutionizing. 

6.      Being married at Christmas is next-level happiness. It’s my favorite holiday with twice as much joy. Daniel, however, was not as excited about this one because it involved watching White Christmas multiple times. SORRY NOT SORRY.

7.      Marriage helped me appreciate the small moments, like me and Daniel drinking coffee together each morning. Because everything was so new, it was special. I hope that is a perspective that I can keep with me for the rest of our lives.   

8.      Marriage is about way more than “happily ever after.” I think God uses marriages to mold people, and I know I am way more aware of my own issues and tendencies after one year of marriage than I was before. It’s humbling, for sure. But it’s worth it.

9.      Your timeline is YOUR timeline. It’s easy to fall into the comparison trap about what your marriage should look like. I think each marriage has unique highs and lows, and it’s better to not use other marriages as a yardstick for where you should be or how you should feel.

10.  Marriage is a lot more fun and joyful than I thought it would be. I am a super independent person, which made me worried about how I would adjust to being married. Marriage can be hard, but I legitimately love spending time with Daniel. He makes me laugh like no other person does, and even on our worst days I am having more fun with him than I did without him. 

Dallas Restaurant Week: Bistro 31

Dallas Restaurant Week is here! 🙌🙌🙌 This wonderful time of year is when more than 125 delicious fancy schmancy restaurants offer special 3-course prix fix dinners. As if that weren't a sweet enough deal, if you spend $25 at Central Market (which is a regular occurrence in our house), you get a voucher for a *free* 4th course too. AND, just to sweeten the deal even more, 20% from each restaurant week meal purchased will be donated to the North Texas Food Bank. Basically, you should look at this list and make a reservation now. 

Pro Tip - "restaurant week" is a tad misleading because it's actually more like "restaurant 3+ weeks" for a lot of the participating restaurants. (I guess that just didn't have the same ring to it...) Chris and I love this opportunity to try new restaurants we haven't been to yet, so we're planning to go to a different one each week of 3+ week event (which I will review in full here. You're welcome. 😘) 

Our first restaurant to try was Bistro 31 - a "specialized modern twist on classic French, Italian and Spanish cuisine" in Highland Park Village.

Sidenote - all the pretty images are from Bistro 31's FB page, just FYI. 

First course: Red Beet Cured Pacific Salmon with Potato Latkes, Sour Crème, Paddlefish Caviar. 
This was our free 4th course (thanks Central Market!), and it was delish. I'm a BIG salmon fan, so I'm always down for a new salmon dish.

Second course: Grilled Vegetable Flatbread. Fresh, light, also delish.

Entree: Marinated Lamb Chops. They were good, but my fave part was the sauteed spinach, tomatoes, golden raisins, and pine nuts. 😋

Dessert: Almond Biscotti with Vanilla Gelato. My grandma's biscotti is better, but what can ya do? 

Here's the best part of all. Because they were so busy for restaurant week, we had to wait longer than usual for our entree. We didn't complain or anything - we could tell they were busy - but they were profusely apologetic and the general manager decided to comp our entire meal! We were like ...

Overall, it was great... good food, charming atmosphere, and even though service was slow they more than made up for with good service. Two thumbs up! 

xoxo, 

Annie. 

The Big 3-1

My birthday was last week and I can thankfully report that after last year's temporary dread and despair for my birthday, I'm back to loving it again.  

Chris's birthday is 2 days before mine, so we had a fun week of celebrating. I was supposed to be in Orlando for a big client meeting on my actual birthday. I had already made peace with this unfortunate fact, but much to my surprise my boss told me 24 hours before the trip that I didn't have to go anymore. I quickly remedied my no-plans-for-my-actual- birthday by booking a blow out at Drybar and throwing together an impromptu little party at the rooftop bar at the Alamo Drafthouse. It was a fun night of great views, drinks, birthday hugs, and Cards Against Humanity. 

One of my good college friends got married in Austin on 8/13, so we continued the celebrating with a weekend getaway to that fantastic city. Highlights include: seeing besties, the original UCHI (our fave restaurant), Bananarchy, and getting impromptu foot massages at a random day spa. 

I used to make #goals for myself on my birthday, and I think it's time I revisited that fun little habit. Here are things I want to do when I'm 31...

• Send more handwritten notes. 📬
• Watch the entire Gilmore Girls series before the new episodes on Netflix in November. (Currently on season 2, episode 8)
• Have friends over for dinner at least 2 times a month. 
• Blog at least a few times a month. 
• Read more books. 
• KonMari the shiz out of my life. 
• Actually be hydrated. (I currently do nottt drink enough water and live my life in a state of perpetual dehydration). 
• Continue to learn how to be the best wife I can be. #LerouxTimesTwo
• Volunteer at my church. 
• Wear more lip color. (This was my new year's resolution and it's been a good one, so I want to keep it uppp). 💄
• Enjoy this year to the fullest. 😄

Cheers to 31! 

(And BIG THANKS to everyone who helped me get through 30 and make it my most wonderful / life-changing year ever). 

xoxo, 

Annie.