Ten Years!!!

This weekend, Bobby & I celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary! Can you believe it? So, on Saturday, Dad & Laura came over to babysit Annaliese and we took Ethan over to Pop & Gigi's, and Bobby took me to dinner to a restaurant I have wanted to go to for years. It is called the Tasting Room at Lola. The eleven (yes.....ELEVEN) courses were so amazing and it was the perfect anniversary spot! It was the closest I'll ever be to being an "Iron Chef America" judge, so I thought I'd write my own review.....



Heidi & Bobby on our 10 year date night! I don't think we look ten years older, do you?



The Tasting Room at Lola
Upon entering the 1930's house that has been converted to a restaurant in Uptown Dallas, you are warmly greeted by the restaurant's owner, Van Roberts, who escorts you to your table. Unlike its presumed pretentious address, the restaurant is elegantly understated and the servers are down-to-earth. The white linen tablecloths and tan walls are the perfect backdrop to showcase both the original artwork on the walls painted by the owner, and the culinary works of art prepared by Chef David Uygur and Sous Chef Michael Marusak. It was evident that the restaurant, from the owner to the staff to the patrons, were all people that just really love good food.



Maine oyster with mignonette and fines herbes
Before we ate this first course, Bobby & I thought this might be our least favorite of the evening since we are not "oyster people". To our surprise, we loved it and this was one of our favorites. The mignonette sauce was incredible and the shallots and chives made it very fresh tasting. We are now oyster people assuming they can be prepared like this!


Pecos cantaloupe and crab salad with pickled onions
(I accidentally took a couple bites before taking this picture.) This salad was so light and refreshing. I might try to recreate this myself whenever I host a shower or brunch. The cantaloupe and crab go splendidly together. There was a cantaloupe infused sea salt that they finished the dish with that was out of this world! And the mint chiffonade added another incredible layer of flavor.



Chilled cucumber soup with creme fraiche, salmon belly and dill
(Again, I accidentally took a couple bites before taking the picture.) The chilled cucumber soup by itself tasted, well, like cucumber. But, when you marry the soup with the creme fraiche, the salmon tar tare and the brioche croutons....WOW!


Sockeye salmon with piquillos, brandade and olives
This was Bobby & my favorite dish of the night. The crispy skinned salmon was seasoned perfectly and was served over a salad of arugula and a piquillos pepper stuffed with a cod brandade. It was just delightful! The pepper had no heat to speak of and was more sweet than anything. The saltiness of the kalamata olives added another nice dimension to the dish.


Blackberry acid float
This was our "palette cleanser". This was a yummy, playful dish. It was rather simple, just blackberry juice mixed with club soda over a homemade vanilla ice cream.





Risotto with fennel and house-cured ham
I love a good risotto, and this dish did not disappoint. I loved how the licorice flavor from the fennel infused throughout the rice. In fact, if it is possible, I tasted more "fennel taste" in the rice than the actual roasted fennel piece on top (perhaps the roasting mellowed out the flavor a bit). The shaved aged Parmesan cheese on top was delicious, as was the house cured ham.




Texas quail and peaches with salsa verde and couscous
(I took a few bites before realizing I had not yet taken a picture.) This was probably the most mellow-flavored dish of the night and my least favorite. Although that is not to say I didn't like it - it was very good. I was hoping to get a little bit of heat from the salsa verde, but it was more sweet that hot. The peaches were a nice addition to the dish.






Lamb loin with succotash
This lamb was amazing! The seasoned crust was oh so good! It was tender, flavorful and cooked perfectly. The succotash and it's sauce gave the dish a "comfort food" feel that was most welcome. I told Bobby over this dish that I could substitute this dish for a good steak and he agreed. That is a huge compliment coming from two Texans who love a good steak!




Assortment of cheeses with crackers and onion/pistachio chutney
I love cheese, as most of you know, so this was a highlight of the evening for me. We had a blue cow's cheese from England, a brie-like goat's milk cheese from Sonoma County, CA, and a cheddar-like sheep's milk cheese from Oregon (sorry, I can't remember the exact cheese names). As amazing as the cheeses were, my favorite part of the dish was the onion/pistachio chutney. The onions were candy-like in a marmalade and then it was infused with hot mustard seeds. I finally had the heat I was hoping for at some point of the evening!




Lemon crema frita with almond crust and roasted plums
We were really running out of room at this point, but there is always room for dessert right? This was good, but I could have done without the fried crema frita at this point - it was just too heavy. The roasted plums with the lemon infused whipped cream and raw almonds would have been just right, so that is what I ate!




House-made shortbread cookies, candied orange peel and chocolates


The bite of homemade chocolate at the end of the meal was perfection. It was dark and velvety. The candied orange peel was divine and it made me inspired to try to make some at Christmas-time.

All in all, I highly recommend the tasting room at Lola. It was truly a night to remember!

Mommy & Me Brunch

Many of our friends have had babies in the last year.....there have been close to a dozen! It has been so fun to share in the excitement with everyone and to have friends going through the same "life stages" as us!

My friend, Christy, had the great idea to do a "Mommy & Me" brunch this past Saturday so we can get all the babies together and to celebrate this special time in all of our lives. Only about half of our friends with babies were able to make it, but it was such a fun time to visit with the mommies and have a photo opportunity with all the babies.


Crista with Graham, LaShai with Jada, Christy with Matthew and Kim with Hudson


All the babies.....(L to R) Jada, Graham, Hudson, Matthew & Annaliese

Four Months Old

Sweet Annaliese is Four Months Old already! Where has the time gone? I took her for her 4-month check up and vaccinations last Wednesday and here are her updated measurements:

25" Long (75th percentile)

16 1/2" Head Circumference (75th percentile)

11 lbs. 7 oz. (10-25th percentile)

She is long and skinny! Doctor says everything looks great. She is getting very strong and using her legs to "stand" and is sitting with the assistance of pillows. Also, her two bottom teeth have just started to break through! We also have the "okay" from the doctor to start giving her baby food, so I'm sure we'll have some fun pictures of that to post in the next couple of weeks!

Big News of the Week

This past weekend, we bought Bobby a new cowboy hat as a belated birthday present (Bobby is a true Texan!). He makes a good-lookin' cowboy!

And now Ethan is a cowboy in the making......He'll make a good-lookin' cowboy too!

Ethan loves to hold his sister! He is very protective of her already! This past weekend Bobby's sister Holly came over and said, "Oh she is just too cute! I'm going to eat her up!" To which Ethan replied, "NO! Don't eat her! Be gentle with her!"

Daddy and his kids.... (Look at the way Ethan looks at his daddy! He just adores him!)

Mommy and her kids......

The BIG news of the last couple of weeks is that Ethan is now potty-trained!!! Yay! He's doing so good with it. We are very proud! He loves his big boy underpants....we have all sorts - Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder and Elmo!

We went over to Gigi's house yesterday for a visit and lunch. Annaliese was "talking" up a storm!

Mommy & Annaliese

Our precious sweetie!

Happy Birthday Bobby!

Bobby is a wonderful husband, father, son & friend! We were so happy to celebrate him last weekend on his birthday! You're looking better with every year, Baby!

It seems that birthdays last on average ten days around our house, and Bobby's is no exception. He had celebrations with his dad & grandma last Friday night, Chocolate Chip cookies made with love by Ethan on Saturday, lunch with Mom, Dale & Kyle on Sunday, homemade spaghetti & meatball dinner by yours truly with his Mom, step-dad & Julie on Sunday night and B-B-Q with Dad on Wednesday night. Whew! I'm all partied out!

Overdue Post

I can't believe how behind I am in my posting! So sorry to keep you waiting! :-) I'm warning you now....this will be a long one so we can get caught up!

I finally received my camera in the mail. It was very frustrating waiting for it. I could track it through UPS and they said it was held up in Dallas for three days due to "inclement weather". Let me tell you, Dallas is not far from here and all it was during that time was sunny & hot! So, unless heat is "inclement weather" there should have been no delay! Oh well! At least it is here and so far I'm happy with it. I'm still figuring out a few of the settings, so bear with me.....you'll see some of my "action" shots were not on the right setting.

Last weekend we went to Claire's 4th birthday party. For those of you that don't know, this is THE Claire that Ethan is crazy about (the one he pretends he is playing with at our house all the time, the one he prays for every day and the one said was his best friend until Annaliese came along)! She had her party at one of those bounce house playrooms and Ethan had a blast!

Birthday girl Claire with Ethan hiding behind the big pole. He suddenly became shy!

Ethan made it down the big slide! Weeee!

What fun!!! What a kid!!!

All of the kids

Allison & Ethan (Look how sweaty Ethan is! He played HARD!)

I'm singing on our worship team again after my "maternity leave". It is so good to be back! I'm going to be singing every other weekend. If you ever are at home and want to watch our church services live, you can go to: gatewaypeople.tv Our service times are Saturdays at 4:30, 5:45 and 7:30 and Sundays at 9:00, 10:45 and 12:30 (all times CST).

Now, here are some pics of our blue-eyed beauty:

I love that smile!

Sweetie


Hi!

Lastly, here is a short video of Annaliese "talking".....

More Quotes

Since I am cameraless and have no pictures to share, I thought another posting with Ethan's recent quotes might be fun! (I have ordered a new camera and it should arrive tomorrow- Yay!)

Ethan was doing somersaults and I told him that he was doing really good somersaults. He said, "Thanks! Now, I'm going to do somerpeppers!".

In the car this week I asked Ethan what he wanted to get Daddy for his birthday. He thought about it for a minute and then he said, "I want to give Daddy some new worms. Some of Daddy's worms died and he needs new ones." (Bobby has an organic garden in the backyard and uses worms apparently.) Oh how a three-year-old mind works! I thought it was pretty funny!

Bobby went in to Ethan's room and found Ethan knocking the books off his bookshelf. Bobby asked him what on earth he was doing and Ethan told him, "Come on in, it's a party!".

Ethan's favorite movie right now is Toy Story, so he's been saying a lot of lines from the movie. One of the lines he says that cracks us up is, "My name is Ethan. I come in peace."

And now a couple quotes that aren't funny, but warm our hearts and make us feel like we're doing some of this parenting thing right......
"I have a boo-boo. Let's pray, Jesus will heal me."
"Oh Mommy, this is good spinach! You are a good cooker!"