Ryan's Homebrews

Ryan has decided that brewing beer will be one of his newest hobbies. Scratch that it seems to have turned into one of our newest hobbies as bottling takes more than two hands. Luckily it's something he's good at so it's kind of fun to watch them experiment. He really seems to enjoy it and although I'm pregnant I have had a sip or two of his concoctions and they're pretty good. He's also had family and friends over to test out his brews and they all seem to really enjoy them. He keeps telling me he thinks we're saving money on beer this way, but I really don't care because he has fun doing it. I can't wait until the baby is born so I can really enjoy a pint of his most recent brew!

Taste of Dallas 2011

A quick rundown of all of the foods Ryan and I sampled at the 2011 Taste of Dallas:

• Beef and Lamb Gyro
• Green Chile Pork Taco
• BBQ Brisket
• Ceviche
• MGD 64 with Lemonade
• Blue Moon Summer Seasonal
• Hot Dog
• Iced Tea
• Gelato (Ryan - Salted Carmel, Char - Carrot Cake)
• Yakult Probiotic Drink
• Pineapple Mango Smoothie
• BBQ Pork Rib
• Smores Cupcake
• Drinks (Ryan - Water, Char - Diet Coke)

A successful journey through the various food options, if I do say so myself. The best things? Torchy's Tacos (Green Chile Pork Taco) and Meringue Bakery (Smores Cupcake). The worst thing? MGD 64 with Lemonade. It was absolutely disgusting.

I can't wait for next year's TOD!

30 Day Challenge: Day 30

Challenge: Anything you want to post about
This was a fun month of posts. I enjoyed the challenge, although some days were a little juvenile. I looked forward to coming home each day and not having to think about what to write. I loved that a prompt was waiting for me, and I even liked most of them. I wonder what will happen in April when I don't have the challenge going on? I better start doing some exciting things with my life!

A Great Day Spent with Friends

So Ryan and I started off the day having lunch with my favoritist roommate of all time, Kelsey+1 and her husband Adam.  I am calling her Kelsey+1 now since she just announced she is pregnant!  I cannot wait for little baby Casburn to arrive.  OTB was great as I got to eat my favorite Southwest Chicken Tacos and I got to see Kelsey, whom I haven't seen in way too long.  Both her and her husband are doing well, so that is always good to hear.  Seems like everyone is in baby mode!

Next up was meeting Mike, Amanda and Henry at the 2011 Texas Pinball Festival.  I wasn't too sure about this event, but Mike and Amanda went together last year, and insisted it was awesome.  They were right! For a $15 entry fee you could go and play as many of the machines as you liked for as long as you liked.  It was pretty rad, and yes, rad is the right word as they were blaring 80s music the entire time.  Anyway, it was all a little much for Henry, so we just stayed around an hour before heading to BJs.

Here are a couple of pics from the Festival:

Lucky for us it was porch weather, so we all hung out on the patio, drank beers (except Henry, of course) and had a couple of small plates.  Mike and Amanda had Crispy Artichokes and Ryan and I had Ahi Tuna Bites.  Yum!  After a couple of hours of hanging out, Amanda and Henry decided to head back to Southlake to spend time with Amanda's sister for the rest of the day.  This meant that Mike, Ryan and I could head back to the Pinball Festival!  We ended up playing a lot of the machines on 3 player.  Mike won most every time, Ryan was usually the runner up and I won a couple of the games.  After a couple more hours of playing, it was time for dinner.

Here is a pic of Henry and Ryan at BJs:

By 9pm we had arrived at Johnny B's Burgers and Shakes in Southlake.  I wasn't too keen on heading in to this place and the prices seemed a little steep, but the burgers were to die for!  Thin patties with perfectly melted cheese, lettuce, onions and thousand island dressing.  The homemade fries weren't too bad either.  I would for sure go back there!

We dropped Mike back off at Amanda's sister's house at around 9:30pm and called it a day.  And what a day it was!  I can't wait to see all our friends again soon!

Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend marked Ryan and my's one year anniversary. We had a great weekend planned of fun and relaxation. It started with heading to stay at the hotel where we spent our first night as husband and wife, the Hilton Southlake. After getting ready at the hotel, we headed out to dinner at Tower Club Dallas, located in Downtown Dallas in Thanksgiving Tower. We had an amazing seven course meal, complete with drinks. Baked dates, cheese and chive popovers and bread and lavash for both of us. Ryan then had beef Carpaccio, clam chowder and halibut. I had a crab cake, salad and beef tenderloin. We then shared creme brulee and berries with champagne. Needless to say we were too stuffed to have our wedding cake that night or to share the bottle of Dom Perignon we had brought. We had our wedding cake top layer the next morning, but we will save the Dom for another special occasion. The next day we went to see the newly released Harry Potter movie at the Harkins Theatre. We had a really great time celebrating together. Here's to year two!

Taste of Dallas 2010

So two weeks ago, I was surfing around the internet and found out that Taste of Dallas was coming up. Me, Ryan and my parents decided to go. It was so much fun! The shuttles from the parking lot were timed perfectly, the food was cheep but great, and there was a lot to see and do! This was the first time that TOD was held at Fair Park and it seems to be a great location for it. While it was crowded, the lines were never too long and you weren't bumping into people, which was nice. I ended up eating a variety of things from BBQ Deviled Eggs to PecanCarmel & Seasalt Gellato. The best thing that I had overall though was lamb and beef gyro. It was awesome! Anyway, we have all decided that we are going to become "Taste Of" groupies and go to anything that starts with the words "Taste Of".