Anniversary dinner

Saturday night, Mr. D and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary at Annisa. The head chef, Anita Lo, was on Top Chef masters. The meal was delicious; a lot of the menu was seafood, so we stuck to that for the most part. My appetizer was soup dumplings with seared foie gras on top. Soup dumplings are one of the most amazing inventions ever. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are dumplings that have soup broth inside of them, so when you bite into them the yummy broth explodes into your mouth - soo good.

The only problem was the air conditioning in the restaurant. I can understand that sometimes the a/c might not work that well, but when you see the he'd waiter take off his jacket, and that it was cooler outside than it was inside, you would think they might open the door.

After dinner we went to the Rusty Knot, which is a tiki bar that Mr. D has been wanting to try. He warned me that it was a bit of a dive bar, but a) I didn't mind if I was overdressed and b) NYC dive bars would usually still not qualify as a dive bar in Texas. The bar was pretty tiny and crowded, but fun - decorated like someones basement might be if they wanted a Hawaiian theme in the 60's. The Rusty Knot is also a drink - kind of a slushy mojito, but with the mind blended, so you don't get the big leaves.

Sent from my iPhone

Why I Like Being Married

Since the beginning of July, Mr. D has been on a special rotation in his department that has the reputations for being understaffed, which means the attorneys work longer hours. For the past two weeks, we have been suffering with the longer hours (not too long, but long enough where I have had to eat by myself more nights than not). So, for the most part I've been cooking for myself, which has led me to realize that I am a lazy cook. For the most part, I had pasta w/ leftover pork and whatever veggies I threw in from our CSA box. Super creative, right. I guess I just didn't feel like making a dinner that was more "presentable" since Mr. D wasn't home to eat it, too. If I wasn't eating with someone all the time, would I even bother cooking "nice" meals?

Best Husband Ever

My husband is the best ever. Our anniversary is this Monday (I have jury duty - boo), but we actually exchanged gifts in June, when we purchased new iPhones for each other. Last week, I reminded him that we didn't need to give each other gifts, we had our phones and we are planning to go to a nice dinner on Saturday to celebrate. Mr. D agreed. Until he "forgot" and ordered a present over the weekend.

When the package from Amazon arrived, I thought it contained some picture frames I had ordered to redo the wall behind the couch. Open the box, and ta-daaaa it was a Kitchen-Aid ice cream maker attachment!! Initially I thought my in-laws had sent us an anniversary, then I called Mr. D. and he told me I shouldn't have opened it, because it was my anniversary present. Umm, how was I supposed to know?

Anyway, this was an especially sweet gift, as I had put it on my birthday list, but wasn't lucky enough to get it. He may have also purchased it, since he watched Alton Brown make hazelnut ice cream on Good Eats (Mr. D loooooooves hazelnut, hazelnut anything). Methinks this weekend will include some making of the ice cream...