yet another lovely month! november was dominated by celebrations, which is never a bad thing in my book. i had the opportunity to celebrate three brides-to-be, with a bridal shower at my mom’s house for susan, noel and linda’s engagement in NYC [photos to come!], and a bachelorette party in austin for katlyn! and thanksgiving of course, plus a combined birthday celebration for both my parents and priscilla at thanksgiving. and at the very end, getting ready for christmas! i also took a couple work trips and had my big culinary school swedish dinner [again, photos to come]. all in all, november was really good.
{i helped my mom and a family friend throw a “fall in love” bridal shower for susan, who we’ve known for years and years through church. the spread turned out lovely!}
{…and it was delicious too! here we have bruschetta, herbed cheese ball, and vegetable pizza.}
{pumpkin fluff with apples, pears and ginger snaps, artichoke puffs, and pecan praline crunch.}
{mint brownies, pumpkin bars, and pecan tassies. best wishes to susan and jeff – we’re so happy for you!}
{on the left, the day that i get to pull out these little babies for winter is a good day. and on the right, breakfast: a maple brown sugar tart from culinary school.}
{elevator selfies and a night of good musica at dada in deep ellum with becca. we went to see jake paleschic, whom we’d met at kristen’s halloween party. he was so good! as a bonus, we got to see israel nash and matthew mcneal. such a fun night and such great artists.}
{good times with this one!}
{my favorite little.}
{is the fashion police going to come and get me if i wear this scarf every day?? i’ve had it for many years and still love it as much as i did when i first bought it.}
{me and my boy}
{lunch at the meddlesome moth. burrata with tomato garlic confit, olive oil, and crostini.}
{chicken noodle soup with homemade egg noodles!}
{on the left, a really really delicious breakfast that i had in the phoenix airport back in the summer that i found on my phone and wanted to post. because it was so good! and on the right, the funniest throwback ever of that moment when i met mike for the first time!! luckily i warmed up to him and we’ve been best buds ever since…}
{on the left, a few little goodies that i surprised my dear friend linda after her engagement to noel in NYC! and on the right, up to no good at anthropologie!} ;)
{on the left, another city, another hotel room. this time i was in the tiny town of plover, wisconsin, and when i arrived, it was snowing! [that wasn’t in the weather forecast… thankfully i had just bought new gloves!] and on the right, why i decided to eat sushi in the middle of wisconsin in winter, i don’t know. but it wasn’t bad!}
{plover in the early morning. and i saw a big, beautiful deer!}
{lunch at the tiny little central wisconsin airport was so fun! i had a spotted cow, which you can only get in wisconsin, cheese curds, and a smoked wisconsin brat with sauerkraut and spicy mayo. not healthy but worth it! it takes me back to my milwaukee days…}
{farmland wisconsin >> chicago}
{on my flight back from chicago, we were flying on a brand-new airbus 321 – we were only the second set of passengers to fly on it. and the BEST part – my pilot was our family friend that we’ve known since i was born! what are the chances?? and he let me drive!} ;)
{shiner was sitting on mike’s lap and i was petting him, and then he was slipping off and i caught him, and he just sat there with his paw over my shoulder and wouldn’t move. he cracks me up all the time.}
{foggy fall morning}
{the weekend before thanksgiving, katlyn had her bachelorette party in austin! i was the lucky girl who got her all to myself on the drive, and it was so fun to catch up. of course i couldn’t miss out on an opportunity to get starbucks with a cup for her that said “bride-to-be” on it! :) we also stopped in west for kolaches and came up with some pretty awesome wedding hashtags!! such a fun trip. on the right, we stayed at the hyatt downtown and this was the view from our hotel room. it was really nice because we could walk to 6th street!}
{i love that one of the girls had put up a bachelorette flag on her car!}
{the party began with lunch at easy tiger… that garlic sausage was some of the best i’ve ever had.}
{next, we did a tasting at the austin winery!}
{…and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. priscilla, the MOH, had made these adorable little cork wine charms with our initials!}
{love her!}
{the best part was getting to have the college roomies reunited! we always have so much fun together!}
{ready for 6th! it really was such a great group.}
{first, we had dinner at corner… those are my pork carnitas tacos with salsa verde, corner slaw, queso campesino, and pickled red onions. so good! and then we hit up the bars… i couldn’t believe it, but we paid for one drink the entire night. when you’re part of a bachelorette entourage, the bars give away free drinks like candy!}
{DG sisters for life!}
{so. much. fun. we’re so happy for you, katlyn and ryan!}
{shiner’s first walk in the park! he’s becoming such a good walker and is getting to do big boy things now!}
{…because i’ll never turn down a donut…}
{so this happened… we’re just a shiner kind of family. the parents got these shirts and shiner’s bandanna from the shiner beer run, a half marathon they did in shiner, tx. half czech, half german, half texan! thanks for the shirts, mom and dad!}
{silly boy}
{dinner at tillman’s roadhouse}
{on the left, mike’s chicken fried steak with buttermilk whippers, bacon braised green beans, and charred poblano gravy. on the right, my herb parisienne gnocchi with heirloom cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and chili pepper pesto.}
{on the left, dad’s char-grilled flat iron steak with wild mushrooms, chimichurri, and tobacco fried onions. on the right, loaded camper whippers with white cheddar, sour cream, bacon, and scallions, for the table.}
{nama had grilled texas quail with texas farms baby mixed greens, grilled asparagus, sunnyside egg, parmesan-reggiano, and verjus. mom had shrimp ‘n grits with lemon marinated prawns, pimento cheese grits, and candied cayenne. and then we also ordered mac & cheese with bacon, scallions, and aged white cheddar for the table. best meal ever. tillman’s, we will be back. once we fit into our pants again.}
{it was so hard to get rid of these pumpkins to make room for christmas! especially when all the trees still look like this…}
{i do love getting my christmas decorations up though.}
{the mantle is a work in progress.}
and now, christmastime, here we come!