Tag: pizza

Thanksgiving

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Oh my goodness do I have so much to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is such a good time to enter the holiday season with a grateful heart. This was definitely one of my favorites yet in terms of getting to see so many of our loved ones in the span of just a few days. Being in the car was definitely worth it! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Colleyville, with my dad’s side visiting from Mississippi, then spent the weekend in Georgetown with Dan’s family, including a day trip to Waco to visit his extended family. Our holidays are never relaxing, but they are very full of all the best things 🙂

I hadn’t been home since the beginning of August and it felt SO good. My mom is a superhost and kept us all well-fed at a beautiful table. I also really cherish any time I get to spend with extended family since it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. I still can’t believe how big my cousin’s little girls are! They probably spent half their time cuddling up with Barley, which he greatly enjoyed. My grandparents also treated us to ICE at the Gaylord where we wrapped ourselves in parkas to endure the 17 degree temperature. The theme this year was Christmas Around the World and I thought it was really well done. It’s amazing the time that goes into the sculptures considering how impermanent they are. The Gaylord has the best Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen in one place. It’s pretty magical.

Then at Dan’s parent’s we finally got to meet our new niece!! Holding babies gives you a feeling that can’t be beat, and this baby was just the sweetest. She looked really cute in Dan’s arms too 😉 And Ellie & Robbie were so much fun- it’s awesome to see their little personalities. I’m looking forward to having Dan’s sisters back in Texas (I know his parents are loving it) and can’t wait to have them all visit soon in Houston! This weekend, Dan asked if I was sure I was ready for kids. I responded with, “Yes, one… not three.” In Waco, we built our own pizzas (Dan was really proud of his cheese stuffed crust) and spent time chatting next to the fire with all his family. It was lovely! Another thing to be grateful for- marrying into a wonderful family.

Now we can officially start celebrating Christmas! We picked up & decorated a tree last night 🙂

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Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

Pizza, Pizza

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Dan has a slight food obsession with pizza. It ranks close to beer, which really says something. So since we got married, we’ve started a superrr healthy tradition of Sunday night pizza. Usually from Pink’s Pizza. We even walk to get it on occasion. And have only had it delivered once… maybe twice. Which I hate to even admit because it is exactly 0.4 miles from our house. Yes, that was ZERO.4. Sometimes even that is too far, apparently, to pick it up yourself. Sad.

But sometimes! We make our own pizza and it’s really fun. We pick out our favorite toppings at an actual grocery store and bake our own (store bought) dough and everything. Just scrumptious. Dan has been researching how to make our own wood-fire pizza oven. I say there are other, higher priority, projects that beat that out. And our oven works just fine. We even use a fancy pizza stone (when we remember that it needs to be pre-heated) that my sisters gave Dan a few Christmas’ ago, which totally ups our pizza game.

And we all lived happily ever after in a pizza coma.

**Coincidentally, Tay posted a delicious looking home-made pizza on IG last night, about the same time I was typing this post. Besties think alike. And you can’t go wrong with pizza.

A Very Full-Bellied Weekend in NYC Part II

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SATURDAY

We managed to get up a litttle bit earlier. Definitely needed my coffee so I had “coffee that doesn’t suck” as we made our way south to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a fairly long walk from Kim’s all the way to Brooklyn, but the weather was so amazing, it felt like I was in heaven. And walking across the bridge is pretty awesome, even when crowded with fellow tourists. It’s such an iconic structure and when you look behind you as you cross, all of Manhattan is splayed out before you.

   

Once we got across, we grabbed a pizza from Juliana’s and headed down to the park under the bridge to have a picnic. Green grass + blue skies + views + pizza = oh yes. We walked along the coast (is it called that?) to get to the subway and they had soccer fields and basketball courts out on top of the piers. I can only imagine getting to play on that as a kid. The subway stops are a little farther apart in Brooklyn so we got to see some really cute neighborhoods as we walked, which I loved. Every time I’m in NYC, I pick another place I’d like to live and I think Dan and I decided on Brooklyn this trip. I wish we could have spent so much more time exploring.

   

  
Next stop was Brooklyn Brewery, because we can’t go anywhere without a brewery visit these days. The line was long and our throats were parched, but once we were inside with a cold one, all was right again. The tour here was also one of the best we’ve been on, with a lot of insight into the founders and why they started brewing, as well as their link to Brooklyn. I can only hear about how beer is made so many times. It was also interesting that the branding is by the same guy who did “I heart NY”.  Oh, and apparently NYC wins water quality awards? Drink from the tap people. I also found an IPA I liked!!! Hallelujah, my beer palate is finally developing. It was the Gold IPA and is only served at the brewery, so that’s a bummer. After the brewery, we grabbed a bite at Spritzenhaus, which was rocking. Great hot dogs and a huge beer selection.

 

      

Then it was time to head back into Manhattan for a show!! We had bought discounted tickets at TKTS that morning for Matilda and I couldn’t wait. It was SO GOOD. The kids in the show were so talented. The girl who played Matilda was only 8! We saw her on the street afterwards, walking with her parents 🙂 Too cute. It followed the movie fairly well, but obviously  not everything translates between a movie and the stage. It was also a musical, and that part was fantastic. We loved Miss Trunchbull the most- they actually cast a man and dressed him up like a woman and he was hilarious. So perfect because Miss Trunchbull is supposed to manly to begin with. We stopped by a low key bar, Tom & Jerry’s, while we waited for Kim, and then had another late dinner at Blue Ribbon’s Fried Chicken :/ It’s prettty embarrassing how much we ate over the weekend.

6th row!


    

SUNDAY

More good food- we brunched at Sarabeth’s Tribeca, which is just about the prettiest place ever. From the giant fresh flowers to the white everything, I loved it all. And the food was good too 🙂 To work it off, we rented bikes and did the loop around Central Park, which is about 7 miles. I love seeing all the nature in the middle of such a big city. The blooms were beautiful!


Ellie would have loved this 🙂

              

So sad to leave. Already dreaming of going back. I heart NY.

A Lazy Weekend

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So I recovered from my foul mood and we ended up having a really nice weekend here in Houston. We didn’t get out of bed until noon on Saturday OR Sunday. Such bums. We really took advantage of the whole free weekend thing, though in the least productive way possible.

To make up for missing out on NYC, we did a dinner and a movie date night on Friday. Went over to Collina’s near the house (BYOB!! with only a $2 corking fee!!) and ate pizza. Which it seems like we are eating a lot of lately. Our waistlines are surely thanking us. We had it last night too… HA. But we were near Pizza L’Vino and I couldn’t resist because it’s my favorite in Houston, even if Pink’s is my go-to. I clearly need to do a post on pizza. Afterwards, we saw Kingsman at Sundance, which we both really enjoyed. Kind of a more humorous James Bond. Typically, I’m not a huge action movie fan because I feel like the “action” parts are too long/boring. The scenes in Kingsman were just right. After the movie, we walked over to notsuoH (Houston spelled backwards) and met up with Katie & Josh. Really laid back, dive-y, bar with good music and friendly bartenders.

Try Coyam!! It was really, really great.

I feel like we need a bikini lady lamp.

After we finally got up on Saturday, we drove out to Katy to check out No Label Brewing Co. The brewery is in an old rice silo with a huge outdoor area and it was packed! They get down to business in the burbs. Lots of kids running around and people hanging out in lawn chairs. A lot of the beers have clever names- my favorite was the Black Wit-O (no surprise there). Dan chatted up the head brewer and is going to join him for a brew day on Friday! Bright and early at 6 AM 🙂 I’m really excited for him to get the opportunity to see the brew process on a larger system.

This little boy LOVED Bar. He kept telling anyone who passed, “Don’t worry- he’s friendly!” and hugging him a lot. Barley was so great with him 😀

And then… MORE BEER. And some food. We are so predictable. A couple at the brewery had told us about World of Beers (also in Katy… the suburbs have some really good things going on) so we went to check it out. Giant selection! I’m pretty sure I could have gotten anything I wanted. But I picked the Belgian flight because I’m adventurous like that.

We also had our first crawfish of the season with some friends at Woodrow’s Heights. 4 whole pounds of hard work and sticky fingers. Sidenote: Woodrow’s is not the same as Little Woodrow’s.

I swear, Barley got more attention on Saturday than ever before. Which really says something. He is such a doll and I’m so proud of how well behaved he is.

We are all on drugsss, ya! (It’s a song, mom. Didn’t really happen.)

Sunday: Shipley’s donuts & kolaches, house/yard work (Dan wore a floor length heavy duty rain coat to mow because it was pouring all day and mowing was desperately needed), church, and pizza.

I was getting really impatient with this line. Why did it take so long for DONUTS? Also, yes, my sticker is expired. Don’t worry, a new one is in the mail.