November--Thanksgiving!

Im very thankful for many things this year--our sweet Lord, Andrew, health, family, loving friends, a job, a new dog, our house...and many other things! This was our first holiday in our new house so it was a fun opportunity to host a turkey feast. Which is exactly what we did--host a feast! We had so much food and so much fun. I took off a few days from work to cook and I got a little Martha Stewart bug in me.

I got the Martha bug last weekend when I decided to make this wreath.

I had seen her make it on one of her shows on saturday morning using real cranberries. I thought I could make the bead one but Michael's disappointed me with not having the beads and some other necessary items for the wreath. So I spent my saturday doing it with real cranberries...

The beginning stage....

The final product

It was definitely a much longer time consuming project than I thought but its pretty and was a festive touch to thanksgiving.

I also got a little festive with ty....oh so handsome Christmas Ty!

Tuesday - Thursday I cooked and cooked and cooked some more! We had a plentiful spread of great food: onion/tomato tart, veggies/hummus, corn bread dressing, corn souflee, mashed potatoes, green bean almondine, Tom the turkey, another stuffing from sadie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pecan pie. All so delicious! It was fun to cook and spend the days with Ty. I had my week "to-do list" which helped me to be organized...thanks to Annie (annies eats blog) for the idea! Loved her thanksgiving breakdown.

Dining room

Yummy onion/tomato tart Kellie and I learned to make at the Sur La Table cooking class.

So delicious. First time to make home made pastry dough...wasnt as bad of a disaster as i thought it would be.

Our first turkey!

The Turkey Carver

"Tom the turkey" was so yum.

I named him bc we got a little personal over the days while he was brining. I had to make sure he knew he had to be moist and delicious for a turkey feast. He listened and performed well.

Thanks Tom!

Cooking away!

Ty loves being in the kitchen while we cook away. He loved all his special treats over thanksgiving. He makes an appearance in every picture...love him! He has been so much fun!

The spread! mmm mmm mmmm!

We hope yall had a very merry and happy thanksgiving too!! We cant wait to go home for Christmas and see everyone at home. We have decided to spend Christmas eve/day up in KY with tyler, my sister, and the kids since its so much fun to see their fun faces on Christmas morning! Happy Thanksgiving from Dallas!!!

November-A Progressive Dinner

At Ocean Prime for Dessert

A few weekends ago, Andrew and I celebrated my bday with a fun dinner. Andrew had made reservations at an excellent restaurant (Fix Sixy by wolfgang puck) that I had wanted to go to (have had apps and drinks there but never dinner). I requested this place about a month in advance so he made reservations. The week of my bday I didnt feel like going there so we cancelled. Where to go?? I had no idea...I had heard of this new asian place but also another steak/seafood place I wanted to do. Whats a girl to do with so many good places to eat?!?! When we left the house we had still not decided. Im definitely the person who looks at a menu online before we go so I know what Im getting and what kind of food the place has. Well...Te'ian has no menu online (for a good reason!). The other place was Ocean Prime...you are bound to have a good dinner there. So we started off at Capital Grill for a drink. I was trying to make Andrew decide on where we were going to eat. After much discussion and indecisiveness...he said, well you love asian so lets go asian! So we did indeed. We had no reservations so I was hoping that would be ok. Well....we certainly didnt need reservations. There were probably only about 3 tables filled in the place. We sat down, looked at the menu...now im looking for the good sushi but its no where to be found. They have a very interesting menu...one thats really hard to understand and read. I felt terrible for choosing this place and immediately wanted to leave bc well...what are we going to end up eating? I was starving and wanting a great meal. So then the waiter tries to tell us how to read the menu and some specials. She ends of ordering for us bc we have No idea what to order. She did a fairly good job. The appetizers were the much preferred meals....over the main entree we split. Anyways, we left feeling not so satisfied. So what do we decide?? We went straight to Ocean Prime (which is where we should have gone in the first place). We get a drink, sit down at a table and tell our waiter our story. Andrew gets lobster bisque and I get an amazing dessert. The waiter ends up bringing out a bday drink....their signature martini, berries and bubbles. Delicious. Champagne + strawberries + martini'sk type drink + dry ice = berries and bubbles. It was great. The dessert was even better. And the lobster bisque was delicious. Needless to say, our next fun dinner out will be at Ocean Prime. And I will forever let Andrew decide where to eat (bc at Te'ian he said that he really wanted to go to Ocean Prime but decided on Te'ain for me bc of my asian love!).

Berries and Bubbles