I pretty much ate my way through Savannah. And it was delish! I know people think Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons, is overrated, but I think it was probably the second best meal I have had in my life (the first being at Iron Chef Michael Symon’s restaurant, Lola, in Cleveland…of all places).

Here are some pictures from dinner at Paula’s place and one from Uncle Bubba’s for good measure.

Best meal I have had in a while.

I treated my parents to an extended DFW/KRLD Restaurant Week dinner at The Place at Perry’s tonight. I had high expectations since my experience at Stephan Pyles last weekend was not so good (Long story short, it did not live up to my expectations, I tweeted about it and then heard from two people there, including the general manager. I am waiting to hear back from him about going back for another meal. We’ll see…).

Tonight I had:

• Wedge salad with blue cheese, grape tomatoes and bacon
• Mac & Cheese
• Coffee-rubbed filet with blueberry chipotle sauce
• Green beans
• Banana rolls (basically fried bananas with ice cream)
• A few glasses of Malbec

This was the best meal I have had in a while. And I had a great time with my parents too. Kudos to The Place at Perry’s for an awesome restaurant week experience. Happy Saturday night!

A day off.

I have the day off from work tomorrow. My first real day off, meaning not Memorial Day or 4th of July, in three months. I’m looking forward to sleeping in, hitting up the new H&M at the mall, going to the gym and maybe getting a pedicure. And tomorrow night, I have restaurant week reservations at Stephan Pyles.

This is shaping up to be a nice start to the weekend.

Dinner tonight: Homemade pizza with pesto, chicken, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

I can’t stop cooking!

I have been craving meatloaf for over a week now and decided to give in and make some for dinner tonight. I don’t think I have ever made meatloaf in my life so we’ll see how this comes out. I made two smaller meatloaves instead of a bunch of mini ones like the recipe calls for. I think I will freeze the second one, unless it is really good and I eat it all. Accompanying the meatloaf, roasted asparagus and sweet potatoes. And maybe a glass of wine or two.

PS - I made these and added raisins to the dough. They are amazing. Skinny Taste’s recipes are pretty darn good. I am huge fan.

It’s gonna be a GOOD weekend!

• - Friday: Half day at work! Kicked off the weekend by visiting Baby Hudson and my friends Makenzie and Chris (See previous post). Tonight, I am staying in, catching up on some missed TV shows, making a grocery list and sleeping.
• - Saturday: Grocery shopping. Maybe yoga. Cleaning. Shopping for a birthday gift for my grandma and possibly the Michael Kors bag I’ve been eying. Dinner at Bolsa and seeing Lovefool - The Quintessential 90’s Cover Band at HOB Dallas.
• - Sunday: Heading to my parents house for a visit and birthday dinner with my grandma. She’s 88!
• - Monday: Making a trip to Maydelle, TX…which looks like it is in the middle of nowhere…to visit Lenora before she embarks on her journey. I see picture taking, pottery making and board games in my future and I am sooo looking forward to it!
• - Tuesday: Vacation day! Driving home and relaxing.

The last time I was in New York, I ate dinner with a client and colleagues at L’artusi. The food was good, not the best, but definitely good. We all shared some entrees so that we could try a little bit of everything and one really stood out.

Pasta with brussel sprouts, more specifically, pizzoccheri with brussels sprouts, fontina and sage. It was pretty darn amazing. It was baked in an individual dish and had that almost burnt cheese layer covering the entire thing.

I am on a mission to recreate this dish. I am not sure I will be able to find pizzoccheri and brussel sprouts have been rather expensive lately, but I will try to make this, or at least something close to it, because I have been thinking about it since I had it back in early November.

Quick Las Vegas Recap

• Experienced my first Las Vegas buffet at Wynn. Delicious, but I needed to prepare better for it. I ate too much during the day and wasn’t as hungry as I could have been.
• Gambled with $50 on a $5 Blackjack table. Played for two hours, drank $1 Michelob Lights and met some interesting people. After the last two times in Las Vegas, Casino Royale is my favorite place to gamble.
• Fabulous dinners at Botero (Encore), Blossom (Aria) and LAVO (Palazzo).
• Spent Friday shopping and sight seeing during the day and went to dinner, dancing and gambling Friday night until 6am. That was my latest night out in Las Vegas in all of the last five years since I started traveling there.

Good times.

Tonight’s dinner.

A culinary adventure through NYC.

I spent a few days in New York City last week. Traveling back to the East Coast makes me miss the fast-paced life. It also makes me to want to eat all the foods I love that we don’t have or that don’t compare in Dallas.

I arrived in NYC on Thursday night and after checking into my hotel, unpacking a few things and turning on my computer, I fired up Google Maps to find the nearest Chinese takeout restaurant. A trip to China Regency in Midtown, two eggrolls and some chicken with broccoli later, I was stuffed and happy.

Friday morning I headed down to Tribeca to attend a TV commercial shoot for my client. I skipped breakfast and downed a super strong latte that gave me the jitters. For lunch, a whole crew of us went to Bubby’s Pie Company. Someone in our party mentioned, Bubby’s is a see-and-be-scene kid of place. Does it really matter? As long as the food is good, who cares who eats there. Our waiter brought us biscuits with butter and strawberry jam to start. I ordered tomato bisque with garlic croutons and half a caesar salad. To drink, I had their homemade ginger beer, which was delicious and refreshing and helped calm my stomach from the coffee earlier that morning.

After work wrapped up, I met my friend John, his girlfriend Kate and their friend Camille for dinner at David Chang’s (noted Korean-American chef) Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village. After going to Korea last year and not being a huge fan of the food, I was a little skeptical, but I went in with an open mind. We started with drinks (OB Korean beer) and some apple kimchi, which was nothing like the kimchi I had in Korea. It was good! Then we shared some pork buns, which were fabulous. The pork was a little fatty for my taste, but the flavor was amazing. And dipped in a little hot sauce…so good. For dinner, I had hanger steak with cauliflower and romesco sauce. The spices on the steak were outstanding, although it was a little undercooked for me. Even though I am from Texas, I order my steak medium, not medium rare. Dipping it in the romesco suace, which I love, made up for it though. Camille ordered pork sausage, Chinese broccoli and rice cakes, which I had to try. I probably should have ordered it as my entree because it was so tasty. Overall, everything was a little salty and I could immediately feel my fingers and feet swelling from the sodium, but it was truly a culinary experience.

To top off dinner, as if we didn’t eat enough, we headed right next door to Momofuku Milk Bar, in which I was amazed by the sweet concoctions on the menu. I opted for Candy Bar Pie - chocolate crust, caramel, peanut butter nougat and pretzels. Heaven. I also sampled the Crack Pie and Compost Cookie, both equally delicious.

The night continued with drinks at St. Andrews and House of Brews (where I ran into someone from NJ, who grew up in the town next to mine and dated someone I knew in high school..small world) and on my way back to my hotel, I stopped at Famous Original Ray’s Pizza and ordered a slice of plain. I don’t care if it wasn’t the real original famous Ray’s, but it was NY pizza and it was fabulous.

I woke up early on Saturday to buy a baker’s dozen bagels from Bagel & Bean to bring back to Texas. Everyone recommended I go to H&H, but again, I think any NYC bagels are good compared to Texas bagels. I ate lucky bagel number 13 with a latte in my hotel room before packing up the bagels in my suitcase and heading to the airport.

(Note: Click on the restaurant name and person’s name for a link to their Web site)