Dating in Dallas. Toulouse

Guys I am back with another post for my Dating in Dallas series! This week the hubs and I decided to check out a place I had been eyeballing for a while but never actually got around to trying. We all have those restaurants right? Like you notice it, think it’d be fun to give it a try and then forget about it the moment you’re asked the dreaded question… “where do we want to go to dinner?” is there any other question that deletes the contents of your brain that quickly? Really hoping its not just me who feels this way haha.

Well all that being said Dane and I finally decided to try out the adorable French Bistro Toulouse. Like any reputable bistro there is patio seating but since its Texas there is still air conditioning Hallelujah! The interior is definitely Parisian inspired without looking gimmicky, and they play soft French music in the background which I was a massive fan of. All in the all the ambience was very romantic without being intimidatingly upscale. So if you’re looking to knock the socks off of your date without having to worry about which fork to use this is the place. My scrunched faced cutie.

Like any date we started off with drinks, Dane got an old fashioned which according to him was good but nothing to write home about, I tried it but since I don’ t like whiskey my opinion means nothing. I ordered the Chanel No. 6 which was a nice light champagne cocktail that I’d 100% order again.

Then for a few small bites we ordered their Petite Gougere (cheese puffs with truffle oil) each bite was fluffy and beyond flavorful. The perfect balance of delicate texture and sinfully rich flavours.

You guys *contented sigh* Toulouse makes some of the best escargot I’ve ever had! I was honestly worried that I’d be disappointed. One of my favorite restaurants in Austin makes delish escargot and I was afraid toulouse would let me down…but they’ve actually dethroned my beloved Austin spot. Toulouse makes some of the most garlicky, decadent, and tender escargot this girl has ever had! If you’re weirded out by the idea of eating snails, don’t be. Please be adventurous and just give it a try, you will not regret it!

 The perfect ending to our meal of appetizers haha (you wanna try a little bit of everything am I right?) Beignets with cappucino pot de creme! If any desert could turn me into a non food sharer this would be it. I decided to be a good person and share but goodness me I could’ve polished this dish off myself. 10/10 perfect dessert!

Dane and I loved our experience at Toulouse and would definitely recommend you check it out, the ambience was romantic, the food delicious, and the waitstaff was super friendly but didn’t overwhelm by coming by every 5 minutes. Toulouse is the perfect little date spot for changing up the everyday pace of dinner and movie. Try something out of your food comfort zone, sip a cocktail, and pretend you’re in Paris with your gorgeous date!

Best Ever Egg Sandwich

Hello my loves I thought a might share a fun recipe with you all. I’d consider myself a foodie and I really love unique eats and fussy french dessert recipes and the like, but sometimes you just gotta step away from the frills and fuss. Some days you just don’t feel like tackling a 20 ingredient 3 hour recipe. Sometimes you just want something you can throw together and have it taste amazing, and in my opinion this sandwich fits the bill.

• Ingredients
• Eggs
• bread
• salt & pepper
• olive oil
• butter
• tomatillo salsa
• cheddar cheese
• garlic clove

I start out by prepping with the most important aspect of any sandwich, the bread! As you can see I was cooking for 3. Drizzle a little olive oil on one piece of bread, then on the opposite piece place your cheese. Now set aside while you cook your eggs.
I used to have the hardest time making a fried egg, it seemed absolutely impossible and I always ended up with a scrambled mess. Turns out I never had enough oil in my pan and I had the heat up way too high! So oil your pan with whatever you prefer butter, olive oil etc… my family and I love Kerrygold, and heat your pan to low. Now its time for the eggs! I understand that not everyone can afford to eat naturally or you just don’t buy into the crunchy mother earth image it brings to mind. But I can honestly say when it comes to eggs the more natural the better. Caged chickens who scarcely see the sun and eat a diet of nothing but corn produce some really gross eggs, in fact I used to think I didn’t like eggs because of that.But I have recently been converted to an egg eater when my family and I started buying eggs from Vital Farms.  What makes these eggs so delicious is that their hens are pasture raised, not to be confused with pasteurized, I actually saw another brand advertise pasteurized eggs and was rather confused…are they heating these eggs up? Is that what they’re saying? Vital Farm’s chickens are eating precisely what nature intended, as well as being provided with best dark leafy greens year round, so even during these upcoming fall and winter months you’re still guaranteed to have the most beautifully rich orange yolked eggs ever! Turns out I just wanted my eggs to taste like real eggs, I urge you to give this brand a try, they’re so good. Who knows you may be converted into an egg eater like me?

Okay now that you’ve got your egg in your heated skillet (preferably cast iron) its time to season. Just a little salt and pepper is all you need. Speaking of salt I just recently discovered that the old brand of Kosher Salt my family and I had been using had trace amounts of cyanide in it. CYANIDE In our food!!! Needless to say that was remedied quickly by switching over to Real Salt. No cyanide just honest to goodness flavor.

I never want to come across as that judgmental crunchy hippie type, but I do want to encourage you to be an advocate for your health and research your food. Yes this does mean you might have to make sacrifices and stop using your favorite brands, and even buy more expensive alternatives, but I bet you’d rather pay it at the grocery store than the doctor’s office.Okay well after a while your egg will start looking like the picture above and now it is time to turn your oven onto broil, toast your bread, and flip that egg over! Cook to your desired yolk hardness. I like my yolk a little runny for this particular sandwich, it really adds a whole other level of flavor!After the cheese has melted and your bread is a golden brown take your toast out of the oven, and rub a clove of garlic on the oiled pieces of bread. Now finish off with a couple of spoonfuls of tomatillo salsa and you’re done! Voila! The Best Ever Egg Sandwich!

I really hope you all enjoyed this post and that you try the sandwich for yourself. If you do, be sure to let me know, how did you like it? Did you add your own spin on the recipe? What are some of your favorite easy go to dishes? I’d love to hear from you.

Happy Wednesday!

Pinterest Recipe Success!

Hey guys, so lately I’ve been wanting to incorporate more of my interests into my blog, don’t worry I will still be doing fashion posts, but I thought it might be fun to share more about my first real passion: FOOD! I’ve always had a real love for food. I enjoy eating, cooking, and even shopping for ingredient, well not always shopping for them, weekend grocery store trips are a special kind of hell. But most of the time I do enjoy perusing the grocery store looking at ingredients wondering how I could change them into something incredible, another fun place to peruse for food inspiration is Pinterest. However Pinterest has some notoriously bad recipes so you know you’re always making a bit of gamble when you choose to tackle one. But I am happy to report the Caramel Apple Hand Pies recipe is fantastic! I needed to bring something to a potluck, and me being the wannabe Martha Stewart I am opted for individual pies, because they look Martha impressive but theyre simple enough for even the most basic baker. 

Ingredients:

For the dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup cold sour cream

For the filling:
2 cups small diced (peeled) Granny Smith apples (Approx 3)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
8 store-bought soft caramels, roughly chopped
Egg wash (1 egg lightly whisked with 1 Tablespoon water)
Crystal sanding sugar (optional)

Start off by whisking all of your dry ingredients together, then cut in your butter, I usually prefer a pastry cutter but you can use a fork, whisk, or even your hands. Cut in the butter til your mixture resembles wet sand, then stir in your sour cream.

Once you’ve incorporated the sour cream turn dough out onto a well floured surface and knead til mixture comes together. If the dough is too sticky to handle you can always add a little more flour. 

After you’ve finished kneading your dough, roll it out to an 8″ x 10″ rectangle, fold into into thirds, turn dough 90 degrees and roll it out again into an 8″ x 10″ rectangle and fold into thirds. Wrap your dough into cling film (I didn’t have any so I used wax paper and foil) and let chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes while you prep your apple filling.
Peel your apples, if you’re one of those people fancy enough to peel an apple in a single winding strip congratulations I am overcome with jealousy at your skills haha. Once you’ve peeled your apples chop them into little cubes and place in a mixing bowl. As you can see my apple cubes are not as uniform as they ought to be…this is what happens when you need your knives sharpened. Then add your lemon, cinnamon, sugar, and flour to your apple filling.Stir thoroughly Preheat oven to 425 degreesRemove the dough from the fridge and roll it out to a 14″x 14″ square onto a well floured surface.Then cut out your desired shapes, I opted to 3″ hearts, cut out as many pieces as possible. Re-roll the scrap dough and repeat the cutting process. (you should have approximately 20 cut outs) Place 6 pieces of dough onto either a silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Unwrap your caramels and chop them into bits about the size of the apple pieces.Spoon your apple mixture into the middle of your dough leaving enough room for the border, then add a sprinkling of your chopped caramels. The original recipe also called for a sprinkling of large flake sea salt but I opted not to, its whatever you prefer. Then top your pies with a piece of dough. And crimp with a fork to ensure closure.Then brush each pie with the egg wash mixture and make three slits in your pies with a sharp knife.

Top your pies with a sprinkling of sugar and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving and your done!Everyone who had one of these pies loved em myself included, the crust was so delightfully flaky but not dry and sweet apple and caramel filling just knocks it out of the park so they’re a definite repeat. I would also like to experiment with different fillings or perhaps even pair them with ice cream! The possibilities are endless really. If you give em a try let me know how you like em! Happy Baking everyone!

 

P.S. I had a bit of apple mixture left over and used it to top pancakes and oatmeal and both pairings were a big hit with my family, so if you end up with extra apples too you might also want to give these pairings a try.

It’s Snack Time!

Hi all! So for today’s post I thought I might share my favorite snack recipe. The recipe is for hummus 🙂 I am telling you this may very well be the best snack on earth. So here is your recipe, which I developed, *bragging raise the roof hands and eyebrows* hahaha.

1 16oz can of Garbanzo beans (the amount varies between brands so just your average size can)

2 crushed and peeled cloves of garlic

2 Tablespoons of olive oil

4 Tablespoons of Tahini (this can be found just about anywhere nowadays typically near the peanut butter)

The juice of one large lemon

two pinches of salt (more or less depending on your taste)

put all of your ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth, like peanut butter.

And there you have it, a healthy simple snack, serve with toasted pita or as a dip for veggies 🙂 Happy Saturday.

 

I’m Thankful it’s over!

So Thanksgiving has come and gone, hooray! I’m all for holidays don’t get me wrong, but its seems to be more and more work every year. People’s expectations are outlandish! My eldest brother had the nerve to say I had abandoned my duty of cooking the pecan pie because I only made pumpkin this year! REALLY REALLY? I made the turkey so he can shut up! Haha this of course was just a bit of harmless teasing between siblings, but I’m talking about the rest of the people out there…you know who you are, you people who run over small children with your shopping carts so you can be done shopping first, you people who seem to challenge anyone around you to a shopping cart death match! or even you people who are so stressed you punch out the giant turkey display and scream QUIT TAUNTING ME! I KNOW I’M NOT READY! This too is a slight exaggeration but you get my point, I think everyone needs to take a chill pill and realize that the holiday is about being thankful not about being a perfect cook, stepford wife, or holiday magic maker. So that’s why I’m thankful it’s over (of course I still have to survive the Christmas shoppers aka The Possesed haha). So here are some pictures of our holiday feast, that we girls braved the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving in order to make. Hope you enjoy!

Our gorgeous table that little sister did up!

The yams!

The dressing.

The greenbean casserole that my ungrateful brother made 😉

The Osage hominy relish

Cranberry sauce

Whole cranberry relish

The perfect pumpkin pie 😉

The hideous pie my ungrateful brother made 😉 no his pie was awesome!

And to close this post with my perfect turkey 🙂

Turkey!!!

I’m sure I will end up doing a full post about our Thanksgiving feast this year, but since I’m fighting off some serious tryptophan right now I will share the picture of what I made this year…The turkey! I must say it turned out beautifully! Happy Thanksgiving!

Dragon Fruit

So us girls (mom, sister, and myself) were curious to try dragon fruit, while we were doing our grocery shopping we saw that it was a lot cheaper than it normally is (call us frugal but spending close to ten dollars on fruit is downright silly) so with it being waaaay cheaper we bought one and took it home! Let me tell you it may be one of the prettiest fruits I have ever seen and one of the most disappointing tastes I have ever experienced! With something so beautiful you expect an equally beautiful taste, well it tasted something like a mix of parsnip, radish, and kiwi. I mean it’s not the worst thing I have ever had (hijiki is the worst! boy now that was gross) but I was really disappointed. But its pretty so here ya go!

More food!

The other day I made some baked tilapia (garlic, lemon, and parsley), sautéed asparagus, and brown rice. I loved it and would like to share some pictures. I don’t know what it is about food I just love the way it photographs! hope you enjoy.

 

Indian Tacos!

 So as some of you may or may not know I am of Cherokee descent, I am mostly English but I feel more Cherokee than anything, I didn’t start learning about my heritage until a few years ago, and I have been in love with the culture ever since! One thing all cultures have in common no matter where they originate is their own unique food! And let me tell you I looooove Native American food so good! My mom was wonderful enough to make some indian tacos, it consists of frybread, pinto beans, hominy relish (sounds a little out there but my word it is amazing!), ground buffalo, lettuce, tomatoes, and yogurt (takes the place of what is normally sour cream). It was so delicious!